Re: Installation Questions

[Carl Fink]

On Wed, Jul 06, 2005 at 09:47:30PM -0500, Kent West wrote:
> Rapp, Chad M wrote:
> 
> >I have to quick questions, I have limited experience on UNIX machines and I 
> >am looking to setup a dual-boot system on my home PC with Debian 
> >Linux/Windows XP.
> >
> >1- Do you know of any freeware/shareware utilities that I can partition
> >my disk with.  fdisk and fips are both shutout by XP.
>  
> [snip] ... There's been a lot of work on reverse-engineering NTFS, with
> quite a bit of success, but not enough to make it safe for a
> non-Microsoft-approved partitioning tool. parted _might_ do the job
> nowadays, but last time I checked, it didn't. I think you'll either have
> to go with a commercial tool, like Partition Magic, or backup XP, and
> manually resize the partition and restore/reinstall XP. An easier way
> would be to use another hard drive for the Linux side.

Um, wrong.  I just did this a couple of days ago with ntfsresize, which is
on the Etch install image.  It worked beautifully.

Mind you, I definitely suggest backing up first.
-- 
Carl Fink [EMAIL PROTECTED]
If you attempt to fix something that isn't broken, it will be.
-Bruce Tognazzini


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Re: Installation Questions

[Kent West]

Rapp, Chad M wrote:

>I have to quick questions, I have limited experience on UNIX machines and I am 
>looking to setup a dual-boot system on my home PC with Debian Linux/Windows XP.
>
>1- Do you know of any freeware/shareware utilities that I can partition my 
>disk with.  fdisk and fips are both shutout by XP.
>  
>
This is almost certainly because your XP partition is NTFS, the details
of which Microsoft keeps secret. There's been a lot of work on
reverse-engineering NTFS, with quite a bit of success, but not enough to
make it safe for a non-Microsoft-approved partitioning tool. parted
_might_ do the job nowadays, but last time I checked, it didn't. I think
you'll either have to go with a commercial tool, like Partition Magic,
or backup XP, and manually resize the partition and restore/reinstall
XP. An easier way would be to use another hard drive for the Linux side.

>2- I am looking to do a network install but the only access I currently have 
>to the internet is a WLAN.  Is there a way to download/install a package that 
>will allow me to configure my WLAN on Debian and if so what package/utilities 
>will I need.
>  
>
If you have a well-supported WLAN card, you should have no worries, the
netinstall CD should have what you need. If you have a not-supported
WLAN card (or poorly supported card), good luck, Buddy; you'll need it.

-- 
Kent


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Installation Questions

[Rapp, Chad M]

I have to quick questions, I have limited experience on UNIX machines and I am 
looking to setup a dual-boot system on my home PC with Debian Linux/Windows XP.

1- Do you know of any freeware/shareware utilities that I can partition my disk 
with.  fdisk and fips are both shutout by XP.

2- I am looking to do a network install but the only access I currently have to 
the internet is a WLAN.  Is there a way to download/install a package that will 
allow me to configure my WLAN on Debian and if so what package/utilities will I 
need.

Thanks,
Chad

Re: minimal installation questions

[Stefan O'Rear]

On Sun, Sep 19, 2004 at 01:42:13PM -0500, Pepper Orlando wrote:
> Thank you for the suggestions, I will give it a try again this evening.
> 
> I may still need some help fighting the dependancy issues. When I tired to 
> remove some of the base packages (exim, etc) I ran into the same sort of 
> problems that Michael did when trying to remove gcc-3.3-base.
> 
> My goal is to get just enough installed to run Mozilla (without AA fonts, 
> actually, not enough horsepower for that) and blackbox. I'm hoping that I 
> can get it to fit into 128 MB. 64 would be a fun challenge, though.
> 
> Later on I will try to battle a minimal perl install so I can run some of 
> my favorite scripts and Perl/Tk apps. I have a felling it will be probably 
> a still bigger challenge! :)

"Depends" is very relative.

Rather than futz with apt, try:

1. Install mimimal system w/ mozilla-browser, xserver-xfree86,
   xfonts-misc, and deps.

2. Remove stuff with dpkg --remove --force-all until mozilla breaks.

3. Rebuild system with only those packages you truly need. (Essential
   really means essential for a shell system...)

4. Zap dpkg, apt, tar, gzip, etc. These must be zapped using rm though.

You could also try a direct install, like (fix instructions):

dpkg --root=/kiosk --install libc6.deb
dpkg --root=/kiosk --install xserver-xfree86.deb
etc...

You need to fix deps yourself, but with only mozilla-browser,
xserver-xfree86, and xfonts-base, the only deps should be a few
libraries.

If you can take it, might I suggest lynx/links/elinks + zgv?

No X = fewer deps.

You could even make /sbin/init a link to links (without the bloat that
is sysvinit, you need to)

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Re: minimal installation questions

[Andrea Vettorello]

On Sun, 19 Sep 2004 13:42:13 -0500, Pepper Orlando
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> Thank you for the suggestions, I will give it a try again this evening.
> 
> I may still need some help fighting the dependancy issues. When I tired to
> remove some of the base packages (exim, etc) I ran into the same sort of
> problems that Michael did when trying to remove gcc-3.3-base.
> 

masqmail can be used to substitute exim

> My goal is to get just enough installed to run Mozilla (without AA fonts,
> actually, not enough horsepower for that) and blackbox. I'm hoping that I
> can get it to fit into 128 MB. 64 would be a fun challenge, though.
> 
> Later on I will try to battle a minimal perl install so I can run some of my
> favorite scripts and Perl/Tk apps. I have a felling it will be probably a
> still bigger challenge! :)
> 

I've not followed the discussion, anyway i can give a couple of tips.
IMHO you should look at the embedded distros, they battle everyday
with the code bloat =) and perhaps you probably can use the cloop
(compressed device) like it's done with the live CD distros.


Andrea

P.S. http://www.damnsmalllinux.org it's a live Debian based CD and has
a lot of packages stuffed in 50 Mb...


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Re: minimal installation questions

[Pepper Orlando]

Thank you for the suggestions, I will give it a try again this evening.
I may still need some help fighting the dependancy issues. When I tired to 
remove some of the base packages (exim, etc) I ran into the same sort of 
problems that Michael did when trying to remove gcc-3.3-base.

My goal is to get just enough installed to run Mozilla (without AA fonts, 
actually, not enough horsepower for that) and blackbox. I'm hoping that I 
can get it to fit into 128 MB. 64 would be a fun challenge, though.

Later on I will try to battle a minimal perl install so I can run some of my 
favorite scripts and Perl/Tk apps. I have a felling it will be probably a 
still bigger challenge! :)

Thanks!
_
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Re: minimal installation questions

[Silvan]

> 1024x768, it seems to be fast enough). Even doing just this seems to take
> up about 235 MB according to df -h. I'm guessing there's far more installed
> than I really need.
>
> Thanks in advance for any help with this matter.

In spite of the rant you just got about how ultra-minimal the basic net 
install install is, it's probably not ultra-minimal enough.

I've got a box that's just the net install plus X plus enough other bits to 
run JACK and qjackctl (QT program) and it weighs in at 450 MB.

If I were trying to get it down, I'd start trying to get rid of these packages 
I've weeded out here.  Some of them will be dependencied up to the point 
where they can't easily be removed, suredly, but this is where I would start.  
(Your mileage will vary slightly, obviously.)

You probably don't care about getting mail from the kernel on this box, so you 
don't need an MTA (if you can get by without one; I'm not quite sure) so you 
coudl get rid of exim4.  You can probably live without power management 
stuff, so dump acpid.  You don't need sound (right?) so you don't need ALSA 
or the ALSA kernel modules (for 2.4 kernels) or any of the ogg vorbis, MP3, 
audio codec whatnots.  You damn sure don't need a compiler (*).  You don't 
need CD ripping/burning/ejecting stuff, so you can scrap cdparanoia, eject, 
cdrecord and friends.  If you configure the hardware by hand, you don't need 
hotplug (unless you have USB stuff on the box) or discover (boot time 
hardware detector/configurator).  You don't need both mawk and gawk, both 
nano and vim, both lilo and grub.  Pick one.  You don't need more than one 
kernel.  You don't need PCMCIA stuff, or modules.  If you're not on dialup or 
DSL, you can dump all the ppp* garbage completely.  You can probably get rid 
of the locales pacakge, since you only need C.  You won't much care about the 
logs, and might even keep them on a volatile disk, so get rid of logrotate.  
You don't need tasksel of dselect unless their removal would fundamentally 
break apt.  You don't need to run xfs.

That might get you there.  I'm not actually going to remove all that stuff 
from my box, but that's about what's on it that I would dump if I were 
looking to squeeze it waaay down.

(*) Maybe I don't have a compiler after all.  There's a gcc-3.3-base package 
that's deeply entrenched:

box2:~# apt-get remove gcc-3.3-base
[snippy]
You are about to do something potentially harmful
To continue type in the phrase 'Yes, do as I say!'

Whee.  I guess I need that, huh?  (Wants to take down apt, initscripts, and 
the kitchen sink, but it would save me 158 MB to get rid of all that 
stuff.  :)

-- 
Michael McIntyre     Silvan <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Linux fanatic, and certified Geek;  registered Linux user #243621
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http://rosegarden.sourceforge.net/tutorial/


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Re: minimal installation questions

[Joris Huizer]

Pepper Orlando wrote:
Hi, I'm new to Debian, I'm coming from the bloated world of RedHat. 
Basiclly, I'm interested in using debian to run a very basic web surfing 
machine. I would like to use a fanless VIA EPIA motherboard and keep a 
very minimal install of Debian on a CompactFlash card interfaced via an 
IDE-to-CF adapter.

I would like to know if it's even possible to make a very minimal Debian 
+ XFree86 + Mozilla install. If it is, then how do I go about removing 
certain unneeded packages that are installed by default? Right now my 
test machine is running a base install of Sarge (I quit out of the 
package chooser after the installer installed just the basics) plus 
enough packages to make XFree86 and Mozilla work (I am using the generic 
VESA driver for 1024x768, it seems to be fast enough). Even doing just 
this seems to take up about 235 MB according to df -h. I'm guessing 
there's far more installed than I really need.

Thanks in advance for any help with this matter.
_
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After doing a minimal install, do *not* run tasksel or anything; 
instead, install aptitude ( `apt-get install aptitude` )

Find in the man page of aptitude how to configure it only to install 
packages that are required as dependence for packages you need; It says,

  -R, --without-recommends
  Do not treat recommendations as dependencies when 
installing new
  packages  (this  overrides  settings  in 
/etc/apt/apt.conf  and
  ~/.aptitude/config).

  This corresponds to the  configuration  option 
Aptitude::Recom-
  mends-Important

I have no experience in changing stuff in /etc/apt/apt.conf though
run `aptitude` and mark all in 'libs', 'oldlibs' and `interpreters` by 
selecting that section (under 'installed') and hitting shift-M
Then do the installation of X; there is a package called 
x-window-system-core ; install that, mozilla-browser, mozilla-psm, 
mozilla-xft (for nice fonts!) and mozilla-mailnews (if you also want to 
mail using mozilla), and your favorite window manager (say, windowmaker 
or fluxbox, do *not* install gnome or kde those are HUGE) , you can 
select them in the aptitude program, search by hitting /

That should be about it (I think)
HTH,
Joris
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Re: minimal installation questions

[Kevin Mark]

On Sat, Sep 18, 2004 at 08:42:40PM -0500, Pepper Orlando wrote:
> Hi, I'm new to Debian, I'm coming from the bloated world of RedHat. 
> Basiclly, I'm interested in using debian to run a very basic web surfing 
> machine. I would like to use a fanless VIA EPIA motherboard and keep a very 
> minimal install of Debian on a CompactFlash card interfaced via an 
> IDE-to-CF adapter.
> 
> I would like to know if it's even possible to make a very minimal Debian + 
> XFree86 + Mozilla install. If it is, then how do I go about removing 
> certain unneeded packages that are installed by default? Right now my test 
> machine is running a base install of Sarge (I quit out of the package 
> chooser after the installer installed just the basics) plus enough packages 
> to make XFree86 and Mozilla work (I am using the generic VESA driver for 
> 1024x768, it seems to be fast enough). Even doing just this seems to take 
> up about 235 MB according to df -h. I'm guessing there's far more installed 
> than I really need.
> 
> Thanks in advance for any help with this matter.
Hi Pepper,
pebble linux may be of SOME help. its made to run on a CF card but its
not setup to run X but its debian based.
-Kev
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(oo)
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   ~~   ~~
"Have you mooed today?"...


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Re: minimal installation questions

[Paul E Condon]

On Sat, Sep 18, 2004 at 08:42:40PM -0500, Pepper Orlando wrote:
> Hi, I'm new to Debian, I'm coming from the bloated world of RedHat. 
> Basiclly, I'm interested in using debian to run a very basic web surfing 
> machine. I would like to use a fanless VIA EPIA motherboard and keep a very 
> minimal install of Debian on a CompactFlash card interfaced via an 
> IDE-to-CF adapter.
> 
> I would like to know if it's even possible to make a very minimal Debian + 
> XFree86 + Mozilla install. If it is, then how do I go about removing 
> certain unneeded packages that are installed by default? Right now my test 
> machine is running a base install of Sarge (I quit out of the package 
> chooser after the installer installed just the basics) plus enough packages 
> to make XFree86 and Mozilla work (I am using the generic VESA driver for 
> 1024x768, it seems to be fast enough). Even doing just this seems to take 
> up about 235 MB according to df -h. I'm guessing there's far more installed 
> than I really need.
> 
> Thanks in advance for any help with this matter.
> 

In Debian, it is possible to install a system that boots, and 
runs the system clock, and does hardly anything more. This is
less even than you ask for. X, by itself, is bloat in the eyes
of some Debianers. 

The new netinstall Debian is about as small as you get for a Unix-like
system. It has just enough stuff to be able to download Debian
packages over the internet and install them. Each package has well
documented requirements for other packages. The APT system allows you
to check at each step what you will get if you choose to install a
package. Nothing is ever installed, except that it is necessary for a
successful installation of something that you are asking for.  Never
do you get stuff that seems like a good idea to the maintainer of the
package. Those good ideas are listed as "recommends" or "suggests". If
you find a case where you can get a package to work correctly without
one of the packages that the maintainer says are required, that is a
reportable bug in the package. 

You may be able to do without some required packages if you are 
willing to forego some of the standard functionality of a package.
Or you may find a different packages that are advertised as a project
to be a 'light weight' version of foo, or a foo without bloat.

There are a lot of possibilities for this kind of thing in Debian,
and plenty of documentation to help to get it working. 
 
-- 
Paul E Condon   
[EMAIL PROTECTED]


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minimal installation questions

[Pepper Orlando]

Hi, I'm new to Debian, I'm coming from the bloated world of RedHat. 
Basiclly, I'm interested in using debian to run a very basic web surfing 
machine. I would like to use a fanless VIA EPIA motherboard and keep a very 
minimal install of Debian on a CompactFlash card interfaced via an IDE-to-CF 
adapter.

I would like to know if it's even possible to make a very minimal Debian + 
XFree86 + Mozilla install. If it is, then how do I go about removing certain 
unneeded packages that are installed by default? Right now my test machine 
is running a base install of Sarge (I quit out of the package chooser after 
the installer installed just the basics) plus enough packages to make 
XFree86 and Mozilla work (I am using the generic VESA driver for 1024x768, 
it seems to be fast enough). Even doing just this seems to take up about 235 
MB according to df -h. I'm guessing there's far more installed than I really 
need.

Thanks in advance for any help with this matter.
_
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Re: Debian Installation Questions...

[Alexis Huxley]

> 1) I have already downloaded debian from one the mirror site listed on
> debian.org website (complete folder on windows appears as 1.16GB with
> 2836 files). I want to know is this correct approximate size for
> debian installable files.
> 2) If above is not correct can some-one guide me where i can correct
> files.

Absolutely the easiest way is to download the CD images as
single files, burn to CD and install from there. Then you
can be certain you have everything you need. Take a look at
http://www.debian.org/CD/http-ftp/ for info.

> 3) How can i install debian on External HDD and boot from that drive
> instead of WinXP.

Attaching the disk and installing Debian on to it are straighforward;
just make sure that you are installing to the *new* HDD and not
the old one! :-))) Easiest to identify which is which by examining
the partition tables through the Debian installer, or flipping to
a second virtual terminal (ALT-F2) and running 'fdisk /dev/hda' or
'fdisk /dev/hdb' and just displaying the partition table.

The slight problem arises from that the computer will always attempt to
boot the *first* harddisk (whichever *it* decides is the first). This
means that the MBR (master boot record) of that first hard disk must
contain the instructions "ask the user if they want to boot the MS
windows OS from *this* hard disk, or Debian from the other one." There
are two standard programs that will read a configuration file and
write such a question-asking MBR. They are LILO and GRUB. Both are
included in Debian.

Beware that normally what happens is that such an MBR gets written to
the first HDD that will *only* boot the Linux disk. This can cause a
bit of panic when you think that the other OS has disappeared! But in
fact it is simply that you are not being offered the chance to boot
it although it is still there. A bit of editing of the config files
and rewriting of the MBR will fix this.

If possible, see if you can get someone who knows about these things
to help you in person.

> 4) Can i use external HDD with my laptop also when i want to use Linux
> through laptop.

You mean you want to disconnect the HDD from the desktop machine,
and connect it to the laptop? No idea if possible, but beware of the
loaded drivers not being right for the laptop's hardware.

What I would suggest instead is that you make yourself a small home
network (a hub, two twisted-pair cables, and network interfaces in
both machines is all that is needed), and on the laptop you install
Putty, or Cygwin (including their SSH) - you could even use the
default Telnet application that is part of MS Windows, and then you
just use one of these to go across your home network and access the
Debian box that way.

Alexis


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Debian Installation Questions...

[users]

Hello,

I m preety new to Linux and having some problems installing properly,
Hopefully some in the group can help me out or suggest simple
solution.

Here is the scenario --

My currect system configuration is 80GB internal HDD (Primary), I have
WinXP already installed on my this HDD. I bought a new internal 160gb
HDD and an enclosure to make is USB2.0 external HDD. When i connect
it USB port, system recognizes it fine ( I havent formatted this disk
yet.)

Now problem is --

I want to install Debian on this external HDD, so that i can use this
with my laptop also as and when required.

Question is --

1) I have already downloaded debian from one the mirror site listed on
debian.org website (complete folder on windows appears as 1.16GB with
2836 files). I want to know is this correct approximate size for
debian installable files.
2) If above is not correct can some-one guide me where i can correct
files.
3) How can i install debian on External HDD and boot from that drive
instead of WinXP.
4) Can i use external HDD with my laptop also when i want to use Linux
through laptop.

Any suggestion/help/advice will be highly appreciated.

Thanx in advance for all ur valuable help.

-sam

Message posted via www.linuxforums.org
.


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Re: Installation Questions

[Roberto Sanchez]

Martin Kuball wrote:
Hi!

I'm planing to install Debian on my desktop machine which already has a 
running Linux. But not Debian which I came to like recently because I use it 
on my laptop.

So here is the question. Is it possible with the debian installer to skip 
some of the tasks? Especially formatting the partitions and installing a new 
kernel? Which means I want to keep my LILO settings and everything in /boot 
and /lib/modules.

Thanks,

Martin


Your best bet is the chroot install.  Google for it.
I have installed Debian over a couple of dozen RH
boxes using that technique.
-Roberto


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Re: Installation Questions

[Monique Y. Herman]

On 2004-02-29, Martin Kuball penned:
> Hi!
>
> I'm planing to install Debian on my desktop machine which already has
> a running Linux. But not Debian which I came to like recently because
> I use it on my laptop.
>
> So here is the question. Is it possible with the debian installer to
> skip some of the tasks? Especially formatting the partitions and
> installing a new kernel? Which means I want to keep my LILO settings
> and everything in /boot and /lib/modules.
>

Not sure about the kernel bit, but you can choose not to run lilo or
reformat partitions.  I'd imagine that you could move /lib/modules to
/lib/modules.orig, and that way, if it tries to overwrite them, you can
just move 'em back.

-- 
monique


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Installation Questions

[Martin Kuball]

Hi!

I'm planing to install Debian on my desktop machine which already has a 
running Linux. But not Debian which I came to like recently because I use it 
on my laptop.

So here is the question. Is it possible with the debian installer to skip 
some of the tasks? Especially formatting the partitions and installing a new 
kernel? Which means I want to keep my LILO settings and everything in /boot 
and /lib/modules.

Thanks,

Martin


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Installation questions

[Michael D. Crawford]

I am thinking of installing Woody on a Pentium II box.  I have
previously installed PowerPC debian on a Mac, originally potato but then
I moved it to sid.

I would like to make the installation on the Pentium II easier than the
Mac was for me, and faster, by using my other machines in some way.  I
also have a Slackware Pentium III machine.  The Mac doesn't have much
disk space, but the Pentium III machine has quite a bit.  I also have a
CD burner that will work on all my machines (I use mostly SCSI devices
because it makes it easier to mix and match on all the machines).

The Mac is set up as a IP Masquerading gateway to the net. 
Unfortunately, it is not a fast connection.  I use a 56k modem.

So my question is, how can I make use of my other machines to make the
installation on the pentium II easier?  I could boot off of floppies and
then download the works off of the debian.org server during
installation, but this is slow and error prone.  I had lots of trouble
installing my Mac over the internet.

The two ideas I have are to serve the base package from one of my other
Linux boxes via NFS or FTP, or to burn it into a CD.  What would be
really great is if I could make a bootable CD that would hold the
ramdisk image and the base package.  It would be nice to download the
woody ISO and use that, but it would take me three days to FTP it (I
actually did that for Slackware 8!  I was astounded I could keep FTP
going for three days and have it actually work!).

What would be the best options for me?

It might also be nice to download a lot of the packages onto my
slackware box, and serve them via NFS to the Pentium II machine, so once
I do the install, it could install right away.  But getting all the
packages downloaded correctly would be a drag.

I don't anticipate that I will install a lot of software on the pentium
II, at least not right away, I mostly want to use it as a fileserver and
would even find it useful without X for a while.

Any advice is appreciated.

Thanks,

Mike
-- 
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GoingWare Inc. - Expert Software Development and Consulting
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 Tilting at Windmills for a Better Tomorrow.

Re: ~New~ installation questions

[David Wright]

Quoting C-Cose Masters ([EMAIL PROTECTED]):

> I'm about to re-install Stormix Hail after several unsuccessful attempts to
> install and upgrade the Rain version. I've also invested in VMware, so I will 
> be
> completely formatting my HD, and installing W98 as a Guest OS through VM. As
> this will be my ?teenth attempt at installing debian, I'd like to get some
> advice from all the gurus out there.

Not me :)

> 1.I have a 20G HD that I plan to partition into several logical drives, in
> order to minimize data loss should things not go well. I know that it's wise 
> to
> have separate partitions, but don't know what sizes I should use for the
> following, or in which order they should be listed in fstab (I may as well 
> take
> care of load order while partitioning):
> 
> /

must be first. I find that 64MB gives me enough space and inodes
(with the four below hived off).

> /home
> /usr
> /temp
> /var

It's /tmp, BTW. It really does depend on what you're going to use the
machine for. Actually I usually combine home, tmp and var into one
partition (but I don't have users fighting for disk space), which
means I can get away without an extended partition. /usr is separate
as it's readonly.

> Note: the docs for VMware inform me that W98 will be loaded to the /usr
> directory for the user from which it is installed.

I don't understand that. In any case, I would try to keep W98 separate
from the rest of your software as W has to keep writing things,
doesn't it?

> 2.I've also had ~serious~ trouble getting my mouse to work in through 
> Debian
> (though that may be related to corrupt installs in the past). I'd like some
> advice on if/which display manager I should load (xdm, kdm, gdm ...). I've
> noticed that the majority of instruction for activating whell-mice assume
> activity through gdm.

I didn't know that was important. I think you've got to be careful if
you want gpm running as well as a mouse in X. you may need to trawl
the discussions in debian-user. I use the -R msc option in gpm and
gpmdata/MouseSystems in X with no problems.

> 3.I've also ~never~ gotten my printer (HP820) to work in linux. I'd like
> some pointers on the best install and filter options and/or would it be better
> to simply allow printing to be done through VM's samba app's?

That's a winprinter so you may have trouble there: limited support
for PPA printing.

> 4.Lastly, for now, I'd like some opinions of gui sign-ins vs. "startx" for
> logging in.

I've never bothered with a display manager except when I had a machine
with an Avance graphics card that was a pain to switch back to VCs
(corrupted the font). In particular I would avoid them until you've
got X, mice, etc. completely sorted.

Cheers,

-- 
Email:  [EMAIL PROTECTED]   Tel: +44 1908 653 739  Fax: +44 1908 655 151
Snail:  David Wright, Earth Science Dept., Milton Keynes, England, MK7 6AA
Disclaimer:   These addresses are only for reaching me, and do not signify
official stationery. Views expressed here are either my own or plagiarised.

Re: [Fwd: ~New~ installation questions]

[David B . Harris]

To quote C-Cose Masters <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>,
# I'm about to re-install Stormix Hail after several unsuccessful
attempts to
# install and upgrade the Rain version. I've also invested in VMware, so
I will be
# completely formatting my HD, and installing W98 as a Guest OS through
VM. As
# this will be my ?teenth attempt at installing debian, I'd like to get
some
# advice from all the gurus out there.

I'm only speaking for myself, and not for everyone here.

But this is debian-user. You're using a Storm Linux, a commercial
distribution. Don't you think you should contact your vendor for
support?

David Barclay Harris, Clan Barclay
Aut agere, aut mori. (Either action, or death.)

[Fwd: ~New~ installation questions]

[C-Cose Masters]

--- Begin Message ---
Greetings,

I'm about to re-install Stormix Hail after several unsuccessful attempts to
install and upgrade the Rain version. I've also invested in VMware, so I will be
completely formatting my HD, and installing W98 as a Guest OS through VM. As
this will be my ?teenth attempt at installing debian, I'd like to get some
advice from all the gurus out there.

1.I have a 20G HD that I plan to partition into several logical drives, in
order to minimize data loss should things not go well. I know that it's wise to
have separate partitions, but don't know what sizes I should use for the
following, or in which order they should be listed in fstab (I may as well take
care of load order while partitioning):

/
/home
/usr
/temp
/var

Note: the docs for VMware inform me that W98 will be loaded to the /usr
directory for the user from which it is installed. I've decided to set aside a
fat32 partition for ease of access to data for W98 programs; I figure a max of
5G should do it. Comments?

2.I've also had ~serious~ trouble getting my mouse to work in through Debian
(though that may be related to corrupt installs in the past). I'd like some
advice on if/which display manager I should load (xdm, kdm, gdm ...). I've
noticed that the majority of instruction for activating whell-mice assume
activity through gdm.

3.I've also ~never~ gotten my printer (HP820) to work in linux. I'd like
some pointers on the best install and filter options and/or would it be better
to simply allow printing to be done through VM's samba app's?

4.Lastly, for now, I'd like some opinions of gui sign-ins vs. "startx" for
logging in.

TIA

C. Masters

p.s. I've been trying to get my system debianized since late november of last
year, so you can appreciate my desire to ~finally~ do this the right way.

Thanks again.


--- End Message ---

Re: Newbie installation questions

[John Carline]

David Jenkins wrote:

> Hi all!



>
> 1. I need to keep Windows98 on the primary 12 Gbyte hard drive, and would 
> like to boot Debian from a floppy.  (That way, the rest of the family won't 
> even know Linux is on our machine, until I get everything working properly.)  
> I created a boot floppy during installation, and when I boot the system with 
> it in the floppy drive, Debian does indeed come up, but it takes a very long 
> time.  Is it possible to set up the boot floppy so that the system does boot 
> from it, but once it does, transfers to the Linux kernal on the hard drive 
> (/dev/hdb1)?  Is that a sensible question?
>



The boot floppy that's made during the installation is exceptionally slow. If 
you really want a boot floppy and not the normal lilo, you can make one when 
you compile your first kernel. Instead of making lilo with a "make zlilo" you 
can make a boot disk with "make zdisk (or bzdisk if your kernel is big)" That 
boot floppy will be significantly quicker than the installation disk.

John


--

Powered by the Penguin

Re: Newbie installation questions

[Viktor Rosenfeld]

Hi David,

1: How about installing LILO with a real short boot delay (say 2 seconds
or something) and Win98 as the default OS?  Your family won't even know
it's there.  :)  Or another option: Boot Debian using Loadlin.

2: Run dselect (as root) and install the packages "man-db" (the actual
man program) and "manpages" (man pages for system use and
administration).  You can also install "manpages-dev" (for development)
or "manpages-{de,es,fr,it,jp,ko}" (translated versions).

3: Put the following line in the file /etc/fstab:
> /dev/hda1   /mnt/win98msdos  defaults  00
This will mount /dev/hda1 on system start up, without checking it for
errors.  BTW, are you sure it's a FAT32 partition?  I wasn't aware of
the fact that Linux can read FAT32.  And if it's not a FAT32 partition,
you might want to substitute "msdos" with "vfat", so you can have those
long filenames.  See "man fstab" for more info.

4: To shut down Linux properly issue (as root)
> shutdown -r now
or
> shutdown -h now
at the console or in an xterm.  On a stock Debian 2.1 installation you
can also press CTRL-ALT-DEL (sounds familiar, eh? :) at the console as
any user, which will execute "shutdown -r now" automatically.

5: Dunno.  libXmu.so.6 is a symbolic link to libXmu.so.6.0 on my system
in /usr/X11R6/lib.  Maybe that link is missing (which indicates more
trouble, though) or XFree isn't set up properly at all.  Try installing
the XFree86 version which comes with slink (3.3.5, if I'm not mistaken)
and see if the problem persists.

MfG Viktor
-- 
Viktor Rosenfeld
E-Mail: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
HertzSCHLAG:http://www.informatik.hu-berlin.de/~rosenfel/hs/

Re: Newbie installation questions

[Viktor Rosenfeld]

Eric Hagglund wrote:

> You can mount your fat partition at startup by
> inserting the text above into two files in the /etc
> directory. These are respectively mtab and fstab.

You should only edit the /etc/fstab file.  /etc/mtab is maintained by
the mount program and (normally) contains a list of the partitions
currently mounted.  This list is printed when mount is issued without
any options.  See "man mount" for more information.

MfG Viktor
-- 
Viktor Rosenfeld
E-Mail: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
HertzSCHLAG:http://www.informatik.hu-berlin.de/~rosenfel/hs/

Re: Newbie installation questions

[kmself]

On Sun, Apr 23, 2000 at 10:22:46PM +, David Jenkins wrote:
> Hi all!
> 
> 1. I need to keep Windows98 on the primary 12 Gbyte hard drive, and
> would like to boot Debian from a floppy.  (That way, the rest of the
> family won't even know Linux is on our machine, until I get everything
> working properly.)  I created a boot floppy during installation, and when
> I boot the system with it in the floppy drive, Debian does indeed come up,
> but it takes a very long time.  Is it possible to set up the boot floppy
> so that the system does boot from it, but once it does, transfers to the
> Linux kernal on the hard drive (/dev/hdb1)?  Is that a sensible question?

Adding to the existing responses -- the speed of booting from a floppy
depends on what you're pulling off of the floppy disk itself.  If your
boot kernel is *on* the floppy, there's going to be a significant lag
while you pull ~1MB of data from disk.  Floppies are slow.

What you want to do is configure a floppy disk to provide *just* the
boot record information -- essentiall, read 512 bytes (rather than 1
MB), which point to your root partition and boot kernel, which are on
disk.  See the LILO and BootDisk documentation (try
http://www.linuxdoc.org/HOWTO/) for more information.

> 3. How can I mount my Win98 FAT32 partition on startup?  It mounts fine
> after Linux boots up if I enter the command "mount -t msdos /dev/hda1
> /mnt/win98".

You want to add this partition to your master filesystem partition
table, /etc/fstab.  

/dev/hda1   /mnt/dosvfat defaults 0 2

One post advised you to add an entry to /etc/mtab, the mounted partitions
table.  THIS IS INCORRECT.  /etc/mtab is updated automatically by your
system as you mount and unmount partitions.  While you won't hurt
anything by modifying it, you generally don't want to do so directly.
You can restore it to the proper state by running

cat /proc/mounts > /etc/mtab

Some people advise linking /etc/mtab to /proc/mounts.  I've found this
creates problems in certain instances, most of which you probably won't
encounter.  In particular, mounting and unmounting loopback filesystems
doesn't free device files.

> 5. I've installed release 4.0 of XFree86, and run xf86config.  When I
> enter "startx", I get the message "xinit: error in loading shared
> libraries.  libXmu.so.6: cannot open shared object file: no such file
> or directory".  I can "find" libXmu.so.6 in directory /usr/X11R6/lib.
> How do I tell the system where this file is located?

Look at /etc/ld.so.conf.  It should probably contain a line for
/etc/X11/lib.  If it doesn't, add this line and run "ldconfig".  

man (8) ldconfig 
man (8) ld.so.conf 

for more information.  "ld.so" is the dynamic linker/loader, which
provides management of the equivalent of DLL files under Linux.
ld.so.conf sets the library search path.  You can also specify the
environment variable $LD_LIBRARY_PATH, though this is usually done in
wrapper scripts for specific applications with unusual library
requirements.  Avoids library conflicts, though.

> I know this is basic stuff, and I'd be very grateful for any & all help
> getting myself going.

No problem.  Some of these are fairly basic, some not.  If you don't
have yourself copies of _Linux in a Nutshell_ and _Running Linux_, both
from O'Reilly, I'd strongly recommend them.  For a deeper understanding
(though some outdated information) on Unix, try Kernighan and Pike's
_The UNIX Programming Environment_, from Prentice Hall.

And I was a newbie once myself  Still am, in areas.

-- 
Karsten M. Selfhttp:/www.netcom.com/~kmself
What part of "Gestalt" don't you understand?
http://gestalt-system.sourceforge.net/
GPG fingerprint: F932 8B25 5FDD 2528 D595  DC61 3847 889F 55F2 B9B0


pgpCsPqpq7ug2.pgp
Description: PGP signature

Re: Newbie installation questions

[Eric G . Miller]

On Sun, Apr 23, 2000 at 04:07:26PM -0700, Eric Hagglund wrote:
>   Is
> > it possible to set up the boot floppy so that the system does boot
> > from it, but once it does, transfers to the Linux kernal on the hard
> > drive (/dev/hdb1)?  Is that a sensible question?
> Sure! As soon as the floppy goes to the LILO prompt, you have a couple
> of seconds in which to pass boot options. This is where you need to
> type the parameters for the kernel you need to boot (see the
> Installation HOW TO which should be in your machine on usr/doc/HOWTO;
> I'd love to give you the details on how this is done, but I've never
> done this myself and you asked a bunch of other questions to which I
> do have more exact answers)

Once you get man-db installed, read the man page on LILO for how to
install it one /dev/hda and give you the option to boot windows off of
/dev/hda1 or Linux off of /dev/hdb1.  Booting off a floppy is a little
slowing than booting off of the hard drive.

> > 2. My installation does not recognize the Linux "man" command.  How
> > can I install it, and the man pages for system commands?
> 
> The presence or absence of man commands should be determined by the
> options you choose for documentation at the time of the install. Are
> you getting "no man page exists for (command) or are you getting
> "command not found". If the former, check dselect for the desired
> documention. If the latter, you probably need to retrace your steps in
> installing the software.

Install man-db.

> > 3. How can I mount my Win98 FAT32 partition on startup?  It mounts
> > fine after Linux boots up if I enter the command "mount -t msdos
> > /dev/hda1 /mnt/win98".
> You can mount your fat partition at startup by inserting the text
> above into two files in the /etc directory. These are respectively
> mtab and fstab.  Again, the instructions for this can be accessed from
> the  HOWTOs that should be present on your hard drive under
> usr/doc/HOWTO or, assuming that you were able to get a standard
> install with X Windows, you should also be able to get to this by
> clicking on your start menu - applications - tools - Debian On Line
> Help or, try http://www.linux.org/help/ldp/howto/howto.html

Don't bother editing /etc/mtab.  It'll just get clobbered the next time
you reboot or if you (u)mount something like /dev/fd0.

You'll probably want to mount a win98 partition with vfat, not msdos.
I guess you have a newer kernel that understands fat32...

> > 4. When I boot Linux, I get a message about hdb1, the Linux hard
> > drive on my system, not having been cleanly unmounted.  How do I
> > shut down Linux so that the Linux partition is cleanly unmounted?
> If you are in X, pull up an xterm session by clicking on the picture
> of the monitor. If you want to safely shut down your system type :
> 
> shutdown now -h
> 
> This will shut down and halt your system.

also, halt or poweroff do the same thing (on Linux).  You'll need a
kernel with APM support to actually get the machine to turn off.

> If you want to reboot to Windows type: 
> 
> shutdown now -r

aka reboot

> This will shut down linux and reboot your system. It's very important
> that you properly shutdown your machine properly. This is one area
> where Linux and Windows differ greatly. If files are left open before
> Linux has a chance to write them to disk, they can be corrupted. If
> this happens to a crucial system files or the partition table, you
> could be looking at a major problem.

> > 5. I've installed release 4.0 of XFree86, and run xf86config.  When
> > I enter "startx", I get the message "xinit: error in loading shared
> > libraries.  libXmu.so.6: cannot open shared object file: no such
> > file or directory".  I can "find" libXmu.so.6 in directory
> > /usr/X11R6/lib.  How do I tell the system where this file is
> > located?
> 
> I'm not sure how to fix this problem and will defer to those more
> knowlegable on the fix (you probably need to edit inittab to run
> startx by default or something); but a workaround in the short run
> would be to try starting X by typing xdm at the command prompt.  You
> will need to be logged in as root to do this, but it will take you to
> a graphical login where you can use your own (safer) user id. You
> might also have wdm, which I prefer because there are more options
> available. 
>  

Since XFree86 4.0 isn't packaged yet, I assume you picked it up from
Xfree website.  You should install all software that isn't part of
Debian in either /usr/local or /opt (or /home for testing). Running
ldconfig might fix that problem.  You should follow the instructions for
INSTALL with the tarball.  I would humbly suggest you not use 4.0 yet
unless you really need it (for support of a particular card).  And,
you'll need to give us a few more details about how you installed 4.0.

-- 
¶ One·should·only·use·the·ASCII·character­set·when·compos­

» ing·email·messages.


Re: Newbie installation questions

[Robert Mognet]

Hello,

On Sun, Apr 23, 2000 at 10:22:46PM +, David Jenkins wrote:
> Hi all!
> 
> I just successfully installed Debian 2.1 on a separate 2 Gbyte hard drive on 
> my Intel PC.  The installation process went quite smoothly, especially for 
> me, a Linux-newbie.  Kudos to the Debian team for an excellent release!  
> Whoever has worked on this has done an excellent job.  The price was pretty 
> good too--$12 from Linux Systems Labs for 4 CD's (2 source code and 2 
> binaries).
> 
> I do have several questions I'd appreciate some help with:
> 
> 1. I need to keep Windows98 on the primary 12 Gbyte hard drive, and would 
> like to boot Debian from a floppy.  (That way, the rest of the family won't 
> even know Linux is on our machine, until I get everything working properly.)  
> I created a boot floppy during installation, and when I boot the system with 
> it in the floppy drive, Debian does indeed come up, but it takes a very long 
> time.  Is it possible to set up the boot floppy so that the system does boot 
> from it, but once it does, transfers to the Linux kernal on the hard drive 
> (/dev/hdb1)?  Is that a sensible question?

After taking care of question 2 try the following:

Read
man lilo.conf
man lilo
See
/usr/doc/lilo


> 
> 2. My installation does not recognize the Linux "man" command.  How can I 
> install it, and the man pages for system commands?

To install the "man-db" package, look in the "doc" sections in dselect.
There is also a package called "manpages" which has man pages for the Linux
system in gereral.
Application specific man pages are installed when you install the "*.deb"
packages.  

> 
> 3. How can I mount my Win98 FAT32 partition on startup?  It mounts fine after 
> Linux boots up if I enter the command "mount -t msdos /dev/hda1 /mnt/win98".
> 

Read 
man fstab
See file
/etc/fstab

> 4. When I boot Linux, I get a message about hdb1, the Linux hard drive on my 
> system, not having been cleanly unmounted.  How do I shut down Linux so that 
> the Linux partition is cleanly unmounted?

You need to stop the system properly so file system can be sync'd and running
programs terminated cleanly.
Commands for halt and reboot are:

shutdown -h 0   (halt system now)

shutdown -r 0   (reboot system now)

Read
man shutdown

> 
> 5. I've installed release 4.0 of XFree86, and run xf86config.  When I enter 
> "startx", I get the message "xinit: error in loading shared libraries.  
> libXmu.so.6: cannot open shared object file: no such file or directory".  I 
> can "find" libXmu.so.6 in directory /usr/X11R6/lib.  How do I tell the system 
> where this file is located?

Not sure about this, sorry.

Regards,

Robert

> 
> I know this is basic stuff, and I'd be very grateful for any & all help 
> getting myself going.
> 
> David Jenkins
> [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> 
> 
> -- 
> Unsubscribe?  mail -s unsubscribe [EMAIL PROTECTED] < /dev/null
> 
> 

Re: Newbie installation questions

[Eric Hagglund]

  Is
> it possible to set up the boot floppy so that the
> system does boot from it, but once it does,
> transfers to the Linux kernal on the hard drive
> (/dev/hdb1)?  Is that a sensible question?
Sure! As soon as the floppy goes to the LILO prompt,
you have a couple of seconds in which to pass boot
options. This is where you need to type the parameters
for the kernel you need to boot (see the Installation
HOW TO which should be in your machine on
usr/doc/HOWTO; I'd love to give you the details on how
this is done, but I've never done this myself and you
asked a bunch of other questions to which I do have
more exact answers)
> 2. My installation does not recognize the Linux
> "man" command.  How can I install it, and the man
> pages for system commands?

The presence or absence of man commands should be
determined by the options you choose for documentation
at the time of the install. Are you getting "no man
page exists for (command) or are you getting "command
not found". If the former, check dselect for the
desired documention. If the latter, you probably need
to retrace your steps in installing the software.

> 3. How can I mount my Win98 FAT32 partition on
> startup?  It mounts fine after Linux boots up if I
> enter the command "mount -t msdos /dev/hda1
> /mnt/win98".
You can mount your fat partition at startup by
inserting the text above into two files in the /etc
directory. These are respectively mtab and fstab.
Again, the instructions for this can be accessed from
the  HOWTOs that should be present on your hard drive
under usr/doc/HOWTO or, assuming that you were able to
get a standard install with X Windows, you should also
be able to get to this by clicking on your start menu
- applications - tools - Debian On Line Help or, try
http://www.linux.org/help/ldp/howto/howto.html
> 4. When I boot Linux, I get a message about hdb1,
> the Linux hard drive on my system, not having been
> cleanly unmounted.  How do I shut down Linux so that
> the Linux partition is cleanly unmounted?
If you are in X, pull up an xterm session by clicking
on the picture of the monitor. If you want to safely
shut down your system type :

shutdown now -h

This will shut down and halt your system.

If you want to reboot to Windows type: 

shutdown now -r

This will shut down linux and reboot your system. It's
very important that you properly shutdown your machine
properly. This is one area where Linux and Windows
differ greatly. If files are left open before Linux
has a chance to write them to disk, they can be
corrupted. If this happens to a crucial system files
or the partition table, you could be looking at a
major problem.
> 5. I've installed release 4.0 of XFree86, and run
> xf86config.  When I enter "startx", I get the
> message "xinit: error in loading shared libraries. 
> libXmu.so.6: cannot open shared object file: no such
> file or directory".  I can "find" libXmu.so.6 in
> directory /usr/X11R6/lib.  How do I tell the system
> where this file is located?

I'm not sure how to fix this problem and will defer to
those more knowlegable on the fix (you probably need
to edit inittab to run startx by default or
something); but a workaround in the short run would be
to try starting X by typing xdm at the command prompt.
You will need to be logged in as root to do this, but
it will take you to a graphical login where you can
use your own (safer) user id. You might also have wdm,
which I prefer because there are more options
available. 
 
Hope this helps. 

__
Do You Yahoo!?
Send online invitations with Yahoo! Invites.
http://invites.yahoo.com

Newbie installation questions

[David Jenkins]

Hi all!

I just successfully installed Debian 2.1 on a separate 2 Gbyte hard drive on my 
Intel PC.  The installation process went quite smoothly, especially for me, a 
Linux-newbie.  Kudos to the Debian team for an excellent release!  Whoever has 
worked on this has done an excellent job.  The price was pretty good too--$12 
from Linux Systems Labs for 4 CD's (2 source code and 2 binaries).

I do have several questions I'd appreciate some help with:

1. I need to keep Windows98 on the primary 12 Gbyte hard drive, and would like 
to boot Debian from a floppy.  (That way, the rest of the family won't even 
know Linux is on our machine, until I get everything working properly.)  I 
created a boot floppy during installation, and when I boot the system with it 
in the floppy drive, Debian does indeed come up, but it takes a very long time. 
 Is it possible to set up the boot floppy so that the system does boot from it, 
but once it does, transfers to the Linux kernal on the hard drive (/dev/hdb1)?  
Is that a sensible question?

2. My installation does not recognize the Linux "man" command.  How can I 
install it, and the man pages for system commands?

3. How can I mount my Win98 FAT32 partition on startup?  It mounts fine after 
Linux boots up if I enter the command "mount -t msdos /dev/hda1 /mnt/win98".

4. When I boot Linux, I get a message about hdb1, the Linux hard drive on my 
system, not having been cleanly unmounted.  How do I shut down Linux so that 
the Linux partition is cleanly unmounted?

5. I've installed release 4.0 of XFree86, and run xf86config.  When I enter 
"startx", I get the message "xinit: error in loading shared libraries.  
libXmu.so.6: cannot open shared object file: no such file or directory".  I can 
"find" libXmu.so.6 in directory /usr/X11R6/lib.  How do I tell the system where 
this file is located?

I know this is basic stuff, and I'd be very grateful for any & all help getting 
myself going.

David Jenkins
[EMAIL PROTECTED]

debian installation questions

[Joshua Jacobs]

Hi-

I'm attempting to install debian for the first time (i'm a long time redhat 
user who recently got fucked over with some crackers and wants to try a real 
distro) and I was having a bunch of questions.  I've searched the faqs and 
online docs but to no avail, any assistance you could offer me would be much 
appreciated.

I'm trying to install debian over the network (as I have a fast connection 
here at school), but I'm having problems because the system isn't loading the 
device driver for my ethernet card (3com 3c590) and I don't know the correct 
way to do so.  I assume that i need to use the drivers disks to insert the 
correct modules for my ethernet card, but I couldn't find any info in the 
installation how-to as to how to do this (it simply skimmed over it).  Can 
anyone point me to some more specific info on doing an NFS install of the base 
debian system?

Also, I would like to install the latest release possible (potato, i can deal 
with the fact that its "frozen" and not "stable), so i was using the potato 
instllation disks that i found on ftp.debian.org... is this the best way to 
get the most recent software (or would i be better off intalling slink and 
then upgrading to potato?)?

I'm not subscribed to the list, so if you could cc my reply to my email 
address, [EMAIL PROTECTED], it would be much appreciated

Thanks alot.

-Josh Jacobs

--
Josh Jacobs
[EMAIL PROTECTED]

Re: [Fwd: Installation questions from a newcomer]

[Andrew Ivanov]

Ok, basicly you go to the www.debian.org
and follow a link to installation guide.
There you will be given hte instructions on how to install, and have links
to the files you need.
HTH,
 Andrew




Never include a comment that will help | Andrew Ivanov
someone else understand your code. | [EMAIL PROTECTED]
If they understand it, they don't  | ICQ: 12402354
need you.  |

[Fwd: Installation questions from a newcomer]

[Daniel Kahraman]

--- Begin Message ---
Hello All:

I have a system running on Windows 98, with 2 separate physical hard
drives. I don't have a DOS partition but I have a DOS directory.

1) How do I install the Linux OS?
2)Where do I go to get the files?
3) What files do I get?

For question #3 the files are supposed to be resc1440.bin, drv1440.bin,
bas2_0.tgz,
root.bin,linux,install.bat,loadlin.exe

I have not found a site or directory where these files reside.

Dan




T



--- End Message ---

Re: Debian Hamm Installation Questions

[Pann McCuaig]

On Wed, Oct 21, 1998 at 05:01:34AM +, Kevin Grant wrote:
> 
> I'm a non-unix person installing Debian on a PC (there
> will only be one user) for the first time, and have a

I'm sure you'll get several responses, but you may want to look at
the URL in my sig. It details (my own) step-by-step debian hamm
installation, and speaks to several of your questions. In particular it
offers a selection of packages to install for a basic workstation, and
shows you how to use `apt' to avoid the `dselect' quagmire.

> 1. My bios (Award 4.51pg if I'm reading the version info
> right) supports LBA.  The motherboard (Tyan Trinity AT)
> and hd (Quantum 3.2G) manuals seem to indicate that this
> will allow the system to access partitions larger than
> 1024 cylinders at boot time.  Does this sound correct?

If you're doing a linux-only installation then there should be no
problem. If you're not, then you probably want to have all your bootable
partitions within the first 1024 cylinders.

I wouldn't recommend doing any more partitioning than you absolutely
have to until you come up to speed and can make an educated decision
as to what partitioning scheme makes sense for your system. There is
definitely no "one right way."

> 2. When it comes time to install device drivers I hit
 [snip!]
> ignore it.  I do not get a page of information.  I get one

Sigh. This is an ongoing problem and there is no cure until you get
to the point where you want to compile your own kernel. In the kernel
makefile is a `help' option for each module that gives an adequate
description. For now, install as few modules as you need to get up and
running. Once the system is running it's a relatively easy task to
install additional modules.

> two drivers: PS/2 mouse (psaux.o) and XT hard drive (xd.o)
> I get the following error message: "Device or resource busy".

You almost surely do not need XT hard drive. The drive you described
above certainly doesn't qualify. Do you have a PS/2 mouse? If not, don't
install the module. If yes, then it sounds like you've got a hardware
conflict of some sort.

> whatever command line parameters I think should be provided

Hit  in every case. The only module that I've ever installed in a
base install that _requires_ command line parameters is the NE2000 NIC,
and it's very explicit about telling you that.

> 3. Dselect.  Powerful program.  Steep learning curve.

Yeah, avoid it like the plague. See my web page for instructions on
using `apt'.

Luck,
Pann
-- 
 What's All the Buzz About Linux? 

 http://www.rdrop.com/users/pann/

Re: Debian Hamm Installation Questions

[M.C. Vernon]

> 4. I decided to install the packages selected anyway,
> just to see what that part of the process is like.  This
> bit took a long time, with many interruptions to ask me
> questions that I couldn't comprehend.  Like "What
> priority should I give this package?".  The help seemed
> to indicate that this means something like "You click on
> a gif file, and the highest priority package associated
> with files of type gif is the one that this will activate".
> But I suspect that this is not what the help means.  And
> if it is then how do I select a priority when, being
> ignorant of the relative merits of the packages being
> loaded, I have no way to know what priorities I want?

Generally, these 'priority' sections provide a default, which is probably
OK to select, unless you have a good reason for ignoring the default.
Select the default just by pressing return.
 

Matthew

-- 
Elen sila lumenn' omentielvo

Steward of the Cambridge Tolkien Society
Selwyn College Computer Support
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http://www.cam.ac.uk/CambUniv/Societies/tolkien/
http://pick.sel.cam.ac.uk/

Debian Hamm Installation Questions

[Kenneth Scharf]

The questions:

>1. My bios (Award 4.51pg if I'm reading the version >info
>right) supports LBA.  The motherboard (Tyan Trinity >AT)
>and hd (Quantum 3.2G) manuals seem to indicate that >this
>will allow the system to access partitions larger than
>1024 cylinders at boot time.  Does this sound correct?
>If so, then shouldn't I be able to use a bootable
>partition of greater than 1024 cyls? 
Older computers could not boot from partitions that were larger than
1024 cylinders.  Atleast the boot loader and software being loaded had
to reside within the first 1024 cylinders of a partition.  LILO is
loaded by the bios and resides in the MBR of the disk, or the boot
sector of the bootable partition.  Assuming that your linux partition
STARTS within the first 1024 cylinders you can make the partition ANY
size.  Some people will make two partitions (p1 = swap, p2 = linux /),
others might make a separate partition for /boot, keeping it small to
overcome the 1024 limit.  You bios allows LBA so you should have no
problems at all with partition size.  Make a swap partition as
partition #1, size of 16-128MB depending on your ram size (say twice
as much swap as ram).  Make partition #2 the rest of the disk.  This
will work without head scratching (My computer has partition #1 for
windows 95, #2 for linux swap, #3 for linux /, as I needed dual boot. 
Install windows first, but only partion the first partition using
windows fdisk leaving the lions share of the disk for linux.  My 5.4GB
drive has a 1g windows partition, 128M swap, and the rest is linux /. 
YMMV)


_
DO YOU YAHOO!?
Get your free @yahoo.com address at http://mail.yahoo.com

Debian Hamm Installation Questions

[Kevin Grant]

I'm a non-unix person installing Debian on a PC (there
will only be one user) for the first time, and have a
collection of installation related questions.  Perhaps
someone here can help.  I've already run through the
entire installation process once, but during the
process I had to make arbitrary decisions based on
total ignorance.  I'm sure things didn't turn out the
way I wanted them.  My approach here is to re-install
(many times if necessary) until I understand the whole
process.

The questions:

1. My bios (Award 4.51pg if I'm reading the version info
right) supports LBA.  The motherboard (Tyan Trinity AT)
and hd (Quantum 3.2G) manuals seem to indicate that this
will allow the system to access partitions larger than
1024 cylinders at boot time.  Does this sound correct?
If so, then shouldn't I be able to use a bootable
partition of greater than 1024 cyls?  I was thinking in
terms of having one swap partition and one linux partition
for everything else.  Alternatively, if I should use a <1024
cylinder bootable partition in spite of this, then how
big should I make it?  Which elements of Debian, exactly,
should I put in it?  How do I tell the install program
which partition to put each part of the package into?
Remember that I'm a non-unix person.  I cannot make sense
of answers like "put /dev/xxx/yyy/ in the boot partition"
without a lot of work.  Not unless the install package is,
at some point, going to ask me something like "choose
from the following partitions which one you want me to
put /dev/xxx/yyy/ into" so that I can follow such
instructions blindly.  Then it seems that the kernal will
have to be told where each bit of the system is, although
I assume that the install package does this bit of
configuration automatically as stuff is installed in various
partitions.

2. When it comes time to install device drivers I hit
problems.  First, the system tells me that if I highlight
any driver and press return I will see a page telling me
about the driver and giving me the option to install or
ignore it.  I do not get a page of information.  I get one
line that, for the generic cd-rom driver tells me something
like "this is the generic cd-rom driver".  This doesn't
help much.  Is there more information about the drivers
that I should be able to access at this point and I just
don't know how?  Second, when I try to load the following
two drivers: PS/2 mouse (psaux.o) and XT hard drive (xd.o)
I get the following error message: "Device or resource busy".
So I can't seem to load them.  Presumably I will need a
driver for my hard drive if the OS is to be able to access
it.  How do I load these drivers?  Third, when I try to
install the drivers I get a screen asking me to give it
whatever command line parameters I think should be provided
to the drivers when they are activated.  In order to answer
this I need a description of what parameters are allowed
for each driver, what they mean, etc...  Where do I find
all this info?

3. Dselect.  Powerful program.  Steep learning curve.
Problem.  I would like to use dselect to custom install
packages.  I activate the select option and get a list of
packages to select from.  No problems so far.  Part of the
list was of packages that were listed as "no longer
available".  I want back to the main menu and used the
update option to get a list of all of the packages avilable
on the main Debian cd-rom (figured I'd hit the contrib
cd-rom after I finished with the main one).  The new list
really didn't seem to be related at all to the old one.
Weird, but I started selecting packages from the new list
anyway.  Got stuck.  Managed to find my way back to the
main menu.  Determined to go back to where I got stuck
I choose the select option again.  This time I get a new
list of packages entirely different from either of the
previous two lists I'd seen.  Conclusion:  I'm missing
something fundamental about dselect.  I can't seem to get
a consistent list of all of the packages that I have to
choose from on the main cd-rom.
 
4. I decided to install the packages selected anyway,
just to see what that part of the process is like.  This
bit took a long time, with many interruptions to ask me
questions that I couldn't comprehend.  Like "What
priority should I give this package?".  The help seemed
to indicate that this means something like "You click on
a gif file, and the highest priority package associated
with files of type gif is the one that this will activate".
But I suspect that this is not what the help means.  And
if it is then how do I select a priority when, being
ignorant of the relative merits of the packages being
loaded, I have no way to know what priorities I want?


With luck solutions to these issues should be enough
for me to make a second shot at a much better installation.
For the record I have looked at the faqs and installation
guides (printed out at least 400 pages of various Debian
and Linux install info off the net before hand, 'cause I
didn't think I'd be ab

RE: X Windows: Installation questions

[Christian Lavoie]

> > My relevant system specs are:
> >
> > Logitech FirstMouse 3buttons
>
> Logitech mice rule ;)

There is something else? =)

>
> > S3 ViRGE 325 PCI video card
> > Canopus Pure3D 3Dfx accelerator 3D card
> > Azura JEN0B00 monitor
> >
> > Here are my questions:
> >
> > 1) Running xf86config, How can I find what to answer to the
> RAMDAC question?
>
> Um do you NEED to?
> Generally I leave that one unanswered (answer Q I believe)

I don't know if I need to, so I asked anyway. And yes, the answer's Q.

> > 3) After goign through the entire xf86config process, (and
> givin no answer
> > to the RAMDAC question), the config file is broken, and the
> xserver does not
> > recognize the line "Viewport0 0". What does that line mean,
> and what is
> > the problem?
>
> can you do this...

Nice trick... Is there something like DOS's >prn to send to the printer in
Debian?

> startx 2> err
> This will log the errors into a new file "err"...then post the contents
> of it so we can see the error?
> the relevant lines from the XF86Config file woul dbe apreciated
> also.
>

Both files are disponible at the following addresses (for a *whopping* 30k):

http://free.prohosting.com/~themoose/ERR
http://free.prohosting.com/~themoose/XF86CONF

Sorry, I should have done that the fisrt time.


> > 4) What X client is favorable, I mean, is there one in
> particular gaining
> > attention and support, or is it just personnal taste?
>
> I am not sure what you are asking? Man progrmas could be considered
> "X Clients" in fact... every program which uses X is an "X Client"
> (since the screen itself is the "Server").
>
> What specifically do you have in mind when you say X Client?

What would be the most like the Windows' Shell. (Or LiteStep. See following
question)

> Can you elaborate?

Sure, see previous comment. =)


> > 5) Since I'm using Litestep (http://www.litestep.net) in Win95, I'll
> > probably be using AfterStep in Xwindows, Where can I find the
> wharfs/*.app
> > things?


Christian Lavoie
[EMAIL PROTECTED]

Re: X Windows: Installation questions

[Stephen J. Carpenter]

On Thu, Oct 08, 1998 at 09:47:35AM -0400, Christian Lavoie wrote:
> I've just started initiating myself to Linux, and I have a few questions
> installing the XWindows system.
> 
> My relevant system specs are:
> 
> Logitech FirstMouse 3buttons

Logitech mice rule ;)

> S3 ViRGE 325 PCI video card
> Canopus Pure3D 3Dfx accelerator 3D card
> Azura JEN0B00 monitor
> 
> Here are my questions:
> 
> 1) Running xf86config, How can I find what to answer to the RAMDAC question?

Um do you NEED to? 
Generally I leave that one unanswered (answer Q I believe)

> 2) Looking through the packages site, I found that the SVGA server is
> favored over the S3V server, Why?

NFI I use the S3V serverI have heard of SVGA being better even for the 
ViRGE cards...never tried tho.

> 3) After goign through the entire xf86config process, (and givin no answer
> to the RAMDAC question), the config file is broken, and the xserver does not
> recognize the line "Viewport0 0". What does that line mean, and what is
> the problem?

can you do this...
startx 2> err 
This will log the errors into a new file "err"...then post the contents
of it so we can see the error?
the relevant lines from the XF86Config file woul dbe apreciated
also.

> 4) What X client is favorable, I mean, is there one in particular gaining
> attention and support, or is it just personnal taste?

I am not sure what you are asking? Man progrmas could be considered 
"X Clients" in fact... every program which uses X is an "X Client" 
(since the screen itself is the "Server"). 

What specifically do you have in mind when you say X Client?
Can you elaborate?

> 5) Since I'm using Litestep (http://www.litestep.net) in Win95, I'll
> probably be using AfterStep in Xwindows, Where can I find the wharfs/*.app
> things?

Sounds like a plan. I tend to prefer FVWM2 and tkdesk (tho...I am starting
to use Gnome now instead of tkdesk...). COurse...I do most things in
text mode anyways...

-Steve

-- 
/* -- Stephen Carpenter <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> --- <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> 
*/
E-mail "Bumper Stickers":
"A FREE America or a Drug-Free America: You can't have both!"
"honk if you Love Linux"

X Windows: Installation questions

[Christian Lavoie]

I've just started initiating myself to Linux, and I have a few questions
installing the XWindows system.

My relevant system specs are:

Logitech FirstMouse 3buttons
S3 ViRGE 325 PCI video card
Canopus Pure3D 3Dfx accelerator 3D card
Azura JEN0B00 monitor

Here are my questions:

1) Running xf86config, How can I find what to answer to the RAMDAC question?

2) Looking through the packages site, I found that the SVGA server is
favored over the S3V server, Why?

3) After goign through the entire xf86config process, (and givin no answer
to the RAMDAC question), the config file is broken, and the xserver does not
recognize the line "Viewport0 0". What does that line mean, and what is
the problem?

4) What X client is favorable, I mean, is there one in particular gaining
attention and support, or is it just personnal taste?

5) Since I'm using Litestep (http://www.litestep.net) in Win95, I'll
probably be using AfterStep in Xwindows, Where can I find the wharfs/*.app
things?

Yours Truly,
Christian Lavoie
UIN: 947212
E-Mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]

Re: block device name (Easier installation questions?)

[Peter S Galbraith]

Patrick Dahiroc wrote:

>the following screen asked for the CD and
> the block device name.  I have no idea what this means.  The system
> recognized my CD during the reboot as hdd 655A ATAPI IDE.  What do I
> have to type in as my block device name?

Jean Pierre LeJacq wrote:
 
> I believe this refers to the filename in /dev.  For ATAPI IDE CDs, you
> might try /dev/hdc.

And since Patrick said it was recognised as hdd, he should try /dev/hdd

That this was posted would trigger a change in the Debian installation.
We need to be sure that we don't require too much Unix know-how to
initially install.  I don't remember being asked this question when I
installed, but being a Linux user since 1992 or so, I would not have
noticed. 

I do remember that the Debian 1.3 installation asked me a series of
questions about where to find `stable' and so forth.  Having never
installed Debian before, I didn't really know what to answer.  I was
also annoyed that it didn't bother to check the root directory of the
CD (which I had just pointed out to me), and then say something like:

 I found the directory /stable on the CD.  
 Is this what I should use for stable packages?  [Y/n]

Just my two cents.
--
Peter Galbraith, research scientist <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Maurice-Lamontagne Institute, Department of Fisheries and Oceans Canada
P.O. Box 1000, Mont-Joli Qc, G5H 3Z4 Canada  418-775-0852 - FAX 418-775-0546


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Postgres95 installation questions.

[Johann Spies]

When I tried to install postres95 I received the following error messages:

mkdir: cannot make directory `/var/lib/postgres95/base': Permission
denied 
mkdir: cannot make directory `/var/lib/postgres95/base/template1': 
No such file or directory
initdb: could not create template database initdb: cleaning up.


I then created /var/lib/postgres95/base/ and
/var/lib/postgres95/base/template1 manually and changed the ownership
and access to postgres.  That did not solve the problem. initdb would
still not succeed.  How should I proceed from here?

Second question: How do I use the login "postgres' which was created
in my /etc/passwd file by the installation-process?  I cannot log in
as "postgres" because I do not have the password.


createuser must be run by postgres if I understand it correctly.


Help will be appreciated.

Johann.
-

[EMAIL PROTECTED]

Windsorlaan 19
Pietermaritzburg
3201
Suid Afrika (South Africa)
Tel. Nr. 0331-46-1310


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Re: Newbie X-WIndows Installation questions

[Nathan L. Cutler]

> "Miller" == Eamiller  <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes:

Miller> I am brand new to the Linux operating system, and have
Miller> been trying to install XFree86 on my system.  My first
Miller> question is, should I get 3.2 from Xfree86.org, or is
Miller> there a specific Debian package that I can use?  Next, do
Miller> I download the aout files, or the elf files?  I have tried
Miller> both with no success.  When I undo all of the required
Miller> files I get various errors when I try to run XF86Setup.
Miller> Anything from missing library files to a missing card
Miller> file.  I really need more detailed info then XFree86 gives
Miller> me.  Do I untar the files in the root directory, or the
Miller> /usr/X11R6 directory that I create myself.  Right now I am
Miller> totally lost, and desperately seeking help.

I would recommend getting a full Debian distribution (1.2 is the current
stable one).  Then, run 'dselect' to choose which packages you want on
your system.  If 'dselect' has found the distribution correctly, it
will offer you a rich variety of packages to choose from.  There's a
whole section for X11.  As a minimum, you'll need xbase, xfntbase, and
an X server or two (xserver-vga16 and one for your particular video
card).  That should allow you to get X running, then you can install
more X packages as you see fit.

If you're a newbie, don't worry too much about which version of X
you're getting.  Get whichever version comes with the particular
distribution you are installing.  Most likely it will be 3.1.2 -- so
be it.  It's a tried and true X system and you're much less likely to
have problems with it than if you get the newest version at any cost.
Also, many many more people can help you with 3.1.2 than with 3.2,
since 3.2 is extremely new.  Let the experts get used to it first, and
then do what they do.

Hope this helps.  If it doesn't, feel free to send me a personal mail.

-- 
Nathan L. Cutler
Linux Enthusiast
http://www.cise.ufl.edu/~nlc


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Newbie X-WIndows Installation questions

[Eamiller]

I am brand new to the Linux operating system, and have been trying to install
XFree86 on my system.  My first question is, should I get 3.2 from
Xfree86.org, or is there a specific Debian package that I can use?  Next, do
I download the aout files, or the elf files?  I have tried both with no
success.  When I undo all of the required files I get various errors when I
try to run XF86Setup.  Anything from missing library files to a missing card
file.  I really need more detailed info then XFree86 gives me.  Do I untar
the files in the root directory, or the /usr/X11R6 directory that I create
myself.  Right now I am totally lost, and desperately seeking help.

Thanks,
Eric


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