YEAH BITCH!!! .....kind of (debian install)****and now on to the problem i gotta fix and you gotta help me with :D

[Barnaby W. Füi]

alright, this was a doozy. i am still shaken.

keep in mind here i AM a newbie so cut me a little slack

alright, i installed debian last night. started off easy enough, booted off cd, config'ed everything, wasn't too sure about my sound card drivers or nic drivers but it seemed to be going ok, i got to the part where you reboot, i rebooted, and then it asks you to install packages. theres "simple" (install groups of packages), and "expert" (select individual packages), i figured i'd install individual packages, i dont want any extra crap on there i wont use. so i get into dselect and i'm basically totally lost. i probably could have figured it out with time but like a moron, i decided to install when i should have been going to bed so i was in a hurry (big mistake...). so i finally get out of dselect, and i have no packages installed. nothing. not even man. there are now some big problems: it didnt ask me to add my windows partition to the boot list, and it didnt set up my network connection. so i'm pretty screwed, stuck in a neutered linux with little time, and i was like "screw it, i'll just repair win2k and boot back to that and ask for help later on". so i search for my win2k disc. never found it. (still havent). FUXORR!!!! then i was like "hey, i have a redhat install disc" so i installed redhat over my neutered debian. basically i just did this so i could boot into windows. i finish installing redhat (just sped through it, didnt really install much of anything), and reboot,

"LI"

WTF!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

so i just lowered my head and went to bed.

TODAY:

got home from work eager to tackle this beast (on 4 hours of sleep no less), so i reinstalled debian, but this time i selected the "basic" option, to install groups of programs. so i selected the stuff i wanted, it installed, but xf86 couldnt detect my video card (geforce2mx), and xf86 didnt install properly (error 111 i believe), so i skipped it and installed the rest of the stuff. so now i'm sitting at a prompt with a computer that still only boots to linux (i have a g/f that uses this computer too, mind you), i cant get online even with lynx cus my connection is not set up. so i figured now that i have some stuff installed, i can edit lilo.conf and be done with at least that. but hey, no pico. only vi. i have never used vi except once where i couldnt figure out how to get out of it and it left me frightened after that. so i did a man vi, and somewhere in there it had some starter hints, and that got me going. so i edited lilo.conf, and debian put ALOT of comments in that sucker so it was a bit hard to feel organized. but finally i added my windows partition and got it working, ran lilo and rebooted and voila, i can get back in windows again!

whew.

now i just gotta fix my video card, xf86, my connection, possibly my sound card, and figure out how to use apt-get (which will be easy now that i can get on the 'net again), and go to town on that sucka

oh yeah and install PICO

for the love of god what exactly is the point of making text editing that complex??????

 

[n0cmonkey]

Want simplicity? Use vi

Im in the middle of an install of Debian right now. Not too hard... yet

 

[n0cmonkey]

Debian does not seem to like me network wise. Ill have to read man route to figure out how to add a default route (you think it would remember this stuff from the INSTALLATION I just went through), not to mention figure out how to get it to install the network interface on boot. :/

Oh, and it apparently cannot access a name server (hopefully this is because the stupid thing cant get a default route added) :/

 

[Barnaby W. Füi]

i've never had to set up network stuff outside of an install so it will have to wait till the laziness passes.

 

[n0cmonkey]

<< i've never had to set up network stuff outside of an install so it will have to wait till the laziness passes. >>



Wasnt laziness this time. Well not totally

I got the network setup. Now Im trying to recompile a kernel and it is giving me trouble. Ugh

Ahh well. Time to browse dselect and see if I can find anything dealing with curses that I didnt install :/

 

[n0cmonkey]

Ok, got the new(er) kernel installed. Ill stick with 2.2 for right now. I got the network up, which wasnt hard when I read the docs.
dselect seems pretty nice so far. Im impressed. I really am. One of these days I may even consider Debian worth using as a desktop instead of just a testing machine, but for now, ports kicks the butt of dselect (my opnion of course)

 

[Barnaby W. Füi]

i got dselect figured out good now, i have xf86 installed and did xf86config but startx still yeilds me that error 111. also i dont have drivers installed for my vid card which i'm sure is the problem.

i'm guessing my nic drivers are built into the kernel (linksys) cus they were not on the list when i installed, but they are really common. my sound card, well who knows....its a santa cruz so its a cirrus chip and that was not in the install, there were a few turtle beach cards listed but they were not mine so i did not install them....who knows

i got linuxconf installed and am gonna tinker w/ that and see if i can get online here.

(oh god not lynx....)

 

[n0cmonkey]

linksys cards use the tulip driver. Thats the kind of card I have. Everything is working fine for me now. Just took some time and patience (and sobering up to Debian install was probably a bad idea)

 

[sciencewhiz]

<< oh yeah and install PICO

for the love of god what exactly is the point of making text editing that complex?????? >>


try ae. It seems very much like PICO to me and is the other editor installed with the base, besides vi.

 

[smp]

apt-get install nano


nano is (afaicantell) exactly the same as pico. Pico is not GNU so it's not part of debian and it's a bitch to install on debian, well, not really, but it is for me. There is a NHF on how to get pico and pine onto a debian system. There are no binaries for debian and there is no source, because it's not gnu.. or at least, that's how I know it.
Yeah, the simple install is the way to do it. After that you have to configure apt and just grab everything else you need with apt.
Way to go on choosing Debian though, debian is good.

 

[Nothinman]

i got linuxconf installed and am gonna tinker w/ that and see if i can get online here.

ditch linuxconf, it's designed for RedHat-like systems and I don't think it support's Debians /etc/network/interfaces file which is how Debian configures network interfaces.

so i get into dselect and i'm basically totally lost. i probably could have figured it out with time but like a moron

Or if you read the docs like I suggested =) I probably use less than 6 keys in dselect when I use it, it's not really that hard.

 

[pedrog]

Debian has a tool for building a new kernel. It automagically creates a dpkg of your kernel so that you can install and manage it like other debian packages.

You can find it in dselect by searching for kernel-package

 

[Barnaby W. Füi]

yeah dselect is pretty easy i was just mostly overwhelmed by the size of the list of everything and i am used to the keybindings now.

so how do i set up my connection? i tried linuxconf, entered all my regular info and still no go, and i guess that makes sense considering what you said, nothinman. i really am not able to do much w/o being able to use my connection.

also, i downloaded the nvidia drivers, followed the readme, untarred them, then on the first "make install" i got an error that the compiler does not match the compiler used to compile the kernel, and i think i need to set the env. variable "CC" to something, i tried export CC=gcc and it still gave me same error on make install.

 

[Nothinman]

man interfaces

Or just look in /etc/network/interfaces, it used to have examples commented out. If your connection is DHCP make sure you have a dhcp client installed, pump or dhclient.

 

[Barnaby W. Füi]

no dhcp, so i just edit interfaces?

is it fairly straightforward?

(i dont want to reboot just to be lost in something and not get anything done)

 

[Nothinman]

is it fairly straightforward?

I thought so, but if you got the man pages installed it'll have one and mine was documented in the file.

 

[Barnaby W. Füi]

ok cool

yeah, this time around i have MAN installed

 

[n0cmonkey]

<< Or if you read the docs like I suggested =) I probably use less than 6 keys in dselect when I use it, it's not really that hard. >>



Docs? We dont need no stinking docs! Actually, I skimmed over the help that comes up when I enter dselect. I have the basics down (scroll till I find something I want and hit +) so Im happy for now.



<< Debian has a tool for building a new kernel. It automagically creates a dpkg of your kernel so that you can install and manage it like other debian packages. >>



I like compiling things. I like the pretty letters and numbers scrolling my screen. But kernel compilation is one of the few things I REALLY dont mind doing on my own. Its not tough, and I got it to work (using conf instead of menuconf) so Im set. Im still using a 2.2 kernel though, so Ill look into 2.4 kernels, or upgrading to unstable and then trying it.



<< yeah dselect is pretty easy i was just mostly overwhelmed by the size of the list of everything... >>



Ditto. OpenBSD's ports collection is smaller than dselect's list. FreeBSD may be able to contend (but fall short Im sure). Looks good so far though. I am definitely impressed, and happy that I had to do more work than I would with the install than I even had to do with slackware (I had a couple problems on the install, mostly lilo, but they worked eventually without too much frustration).

 

[Barnaby W. Füi]

<< I have the basics down (scroll till I find something I want and hit +) so Im happy for now. >>


basically same for me. x escapes to previous screen, space and enter here and there, i got it down good now, oh and the / search is great

now you gotta help me w/ my driver prob!!!!!!!!!

 

[Nothinman]

Actually, I skimmed over the help that comes up when I enter dselect. I have the basics down (scroll till I find something I want and hit +) so Im happy for now.

That too. And FYI, / to search, _ to purge (remove and delete config files), - to remove (leaves config files). Sure there's more, but those are probably the most commonly used. Also `apt-cache search search-string` is usefull, it searches more than just the package name.

I like compiling things. I like the pretty letters and numbers scrolling my screen. But kernel compilation is one of the few things I REALLY dont mind doing on my own. Its not tough, and I got it to work (using conf instead of menuconf) so Im set. Im still using a 2.2 kernel though, so Ill look into 2.4 kernels, or upgrading to unstable and then trying it.

He means make-kpgk, it compiles the kernel from source (not sure which config it uses because I don't use it) and creates a .deb which installs the kernel, System.map and edits lilo.conf. I've never used it, but I've heard people swear by it.

Oh and you probably just need libncurses5-dev if you want to use menuconfig.

 

[n0cmonkey]

<< Actually, I skimmed over the help that comes up when I enter dselect. I have the basics down (scroll till I find something I want and hit +) so Im happy for now.

That too. And FYI, / to search, _ to purge (remove and delete config files), - to remove (leaves config files). Sure there's more, but those are probably the most commonly used. Also `apt-cache search search-string` is usefull, it searches more than just the package name. >>



/ for search is pretty standard, so I figured that one out, and - for removing was right near the + for adding explanation so I caught that. But thanks for some of the others.



<< I like compiling things. I like the pretty letters and numbers scrolling my screen. But kernel compilation is one of the few things I REALLY dont mind doing on my own. Its not tough, and I got it to work (using conf instead of menuconf) so Im set. Im still using a 2.2 kernel though, so Ill look into 2.4 kernels, or upgrading to unstable and then trying it.

He means make-kpgk, it compiles the kernel from source (not sure which config it uses because I don't use it) and creates a .deb which installs the kernel, System.map and edits lilo.conf. I've never used it, but I've heard people swear by it.

Oh and you probably just need libncurses5-dev if you want to use menuconfig. >>



I went through looking for curses stuff that I had not installed and I didnt see any (but there are too many things to go through there well at 5:30am). config is fine, I just prefer menuconfig. When I go for a 2.4 kernel Ill probably look for ncurses. Thanks.

 

[n0cmonkey]

Of course apache isnt working. Oh well. Time to look for a new httpd server. Or maybe just some sleep. Maybe Im just tired of working at this stupid thing. Who knows.

 

[StuckMojo]

hmm..i was all hot to try debian......but after reading this im thinking i'll stay with my nice redhat

what the hell kind of distro wont let you install pine and pico for god's sake?

[edit] not that i use pico....but pine is the bomb [/edit]

 

[StuckMojo]

from the pine homepage:

* Source code and documentation for building the latest versions of Unix Pine, Pico and Pilot: /pine/pine.tar.z
(This source code can be compiled for a variety of platforms. See Pine: Available Ports.)

that wont build on debian?

 

[Nothinman]

what the hell kind of distro wont let you install pine and pico for god's sake?

pine doesn't use a FSF approved license so it's not eligable to be in the default distribution, it may be in the non-free section and I'm sure it'll compile but I wouldn't know as I use vi.