Thanks Guys: Looks like a serious operator malfunction on my part. My first time with an internet install. In the past, I had a CD with the whole distribution on it.
First, Sorry. I did not wish to infer that Debian itself is brain-dead. I meant the minimal installation that I myself created with almost no applications installed is brain dead. I wrongly assumed that once installation was complete, I would easily find a package manager that would finish downloading all packages that I need. I spend most of my life on Windows, but prefer to use Open Source software that runs everywhere. Firefox and Thunderbird do have copyrighted stuff, however, Iceweasel did not have a Windows installation, otherwise I would be using it on Windows. Looks like the only solution is to blow things out and try again from scratch. Sorry if I broke web-protocol. I do not know what the protocol is here. Thanks to all for the feedback. Keith. On Fri, Jul 2, 2010 at 9:03 AM, Alan Chandler <a...@chandlerfamily.org.uk> wrote: > On 02/07/10 08:46, Andrei Popescu wrote: >> >> [Please reply to debian-user only. If you are not subscribed please ask >> for CCs] >> >> (full quote for context) >> >> On Vi, 02 iul 10, 00:49:53, Keith Mitchell wrote: >>> >>> I decided to build a Linux box instead of emulating Linux using >>> VM-Ware under Windows. I heard Debian was the way to go. I have >>> created Red-Hat and Ubuntu Linux boxes in the past with no problems. >>> >>> This, my very first Debian installation, and it has been a total >>> nightmare! I created a dual-boot installation on my ancient Gateway >>> dual-processor workstation as I used to have in the past. This time it >>> is XP and Debian. I reassigned one full 70-GB SCSI drive previously >>> formatted with an XP NTFS file system to Linux plus another 5-GB of >>> swap-space on another physical SCSI drive (for performance). This I >>> know is OK. > > What network connection do you have? > >>> >>> I then followed the instructions on the web-site for installing Debian >>> with internet connectivity. >> >> Did the network setup step during the installation work? >> >>> The web instructions said burn a minimal CD, and download what you >>> need from the internet. >>> >>> 1. I downloaded the .iso file, and burnt a bootable-CD (not DVD). >>> 2. I used that CD and installed Debian. I now have a minimal and >>> totally brain-dead Linux installation. > > I don't know what you mean by "brain-dead". Does it connect to the > internet? > > Can you look in /etc/apt/sources.list and tell us what is there. There was > a question during installation about selecting network mirrors, and it > should have written the info into this file. > > >> >> It very much depends on the answer to the question above. If your >> connection worked during install you probably didn't select any "task" >> (like "Desktop"). If your connection didn't work if couldn't have >> downloaded all the needed packages and you might need DVD1 to get a >> decent install. >> > > To be a bit clearer. There is a process during install to select some > standard configurations - if you did this you should have a lot of what is > missing. If you didn't - no matter - you can select additional packages > later. If your /etc/apt/sources.list file is sensible then you just run > > aptitude > > Once this is running - you can then search for packages by typing '/' > followed by a pattern (normally just the name or partial name of a package > you are searching for). Aptitude should pick up and find the next entry > that matches as you are typing. Hit Enter to finish the search and then 'n' > to just to the next entry matching the search. > > To install the ENTIRE gnome desktop for instance you just select 'gnome'. It > then picks up all the dependencies and installs it for you (there is a much > more normal subset called gnome-desktop-environment and I think there may > even by a minimal) > > >>> 3. There is no gcc compiler. There is no Firefox web browser. > > Firefox is called Iceweasel in Debian because of licencing issues. Both > would have been installed in a normal standard install if you had a network > connection. > >>> 4. I went back to the Debian web-site for instructions on how to >>> proceed from here. There were no instructions for how to proceed from >>> here. Even MinGW on Windows has a minimal Linux working set. How do I >>> download a file working-set without requesting each file one by one? >>> 5. Right now it seems my only option is using Gatesware Windows to >>> download an Ubuntu distribution, a distribution that does work, use >>> the .iso file to create a CD or DVD, and blow away the Debian crap >>> that does not work. > > Once you have even a minimal installation (which should not normally be the > case) you can easily work from there. No need to download anymore CD or DVD > files provided the machine is connected to the internet. It is only when it > is not that you have to rely on these other things. > >>> >>> Any suggestions before I blow Debian away? > > Two > > 1) Ask for help on this list > 2) Calm down and don't start with the assumption that Debian is brain dead. > Normally it isn't. > > -- > Alan Chandler > http://www.chandlerfamily.org.uk > > -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? 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