[KLUG Members] debian install

[Jamie McCarthy]

codejnki@earthlink.net (Patrick Stockton) writes:

> I've decided to give Debian a try after upgrading to Slackware 8.0
> and running in to some compatability problems.

Welcome to the club :)

> Yesterday I downloaded from FTP the latest stable package sets and
> was going to attempt an installation today.  The idea is that I'll
> just create a boot floppy and install from a second partition. 
> Don't hae a CD-Burner other wise I'd do it the ISO way.

I've got a set of 2.2r3 CDs with Reiser built into the kernel, if
you want to give Reiser a try.  My plain-ordinary 2.2r3 CDs are
sitting on top of my server in another city right now or I'd offer
those...

> Anybody have any expierance doing it this way?  Tips, suggestions,
> things to watch out for would be greatly appreciated.

My general advice is to install as little as possible in the "first
pass," be it from CD, FTP, or whatever.  Just set up a bare-bones
system.  The really nice thing about Debian is that it's soooo easy
to install new packages.  Want to play around with grip?  As root,
"apt-get install grip" does all the work for you -- downloads the
package and any other packages it needs that you don't already have
installed, checks for conflicts, installs them all, and does it all
in the right order.

My other general advice is the same with any new distro.  There will
be many new things.  Take it slow and take notes for what steps you
take and any install-decisions you're unsure about whether they're
correct.  You will probably need or want to go back and reinstall
later, and if you have a pencil-and-paper trail of breadcrumbs for
where you've been, you'll know better where you might want to go
next time!  Assume that you'll be installing several times, possibly
many times.  Since you'll be wiping those partitions anyway, it
can't hurt to wipe them 3 or 5 or 10 times for 3 or 5 or 10 installs,
and you'll gain experience in the process.

It also helps if you have another computer handy to search
www.google.com/linux and groups.google.com for people who've had
the same questions as you'll have.

Here are part of my written notes for my last Debian install -- the
Reiser I mentioned, onto an HP laptop:

* All partitions Reiser (not "notail") except /boot
* Chose to configure pcmcia, chose i82365.  "An error occurred
  while trying to load and configure the pcmcia modules."
  Ditto when retry with tcic.  Why?
* It thinks my eth0 is a pcmcia device.  Why?
* Chose MD5 and shadow passwords.
* "It seems your system doesn't need pcmcia.  It was installed
  with the rest of the kernel, but can be removed now.  Shall I
  remove the pcmcia packages?"  Default yes, I said no.
* C++ Dev, C Dev, Debug, Devel Common, GNOME Apps/Desktop/Net,
  Laptop, Newbie Help, Omnibook 6000, X both
* X fonts in 75/100 fpi.  Add rxvt.  Add enlightenment/sawmill.
  PS/2 mouse.  1024x768 70 Hz, random guesses at video card.
  Reset touchpad at boot, --tapmode=0.
* apt-get install:  xserver-mach64, ntpdate, nfs-common, ssh,
  lsof-2.2, hdparm, kernel-headers-2.4.5, kernel-source-2.4.5
  (after which ln -s /usr/src/kernel-source* /usr/src/linux),
  cdparanoia, grip, ncftpget, wget, libexpat, libexpat1-dev

Oh, and a friend just pointed out, a very useful tool for Debian is
aptitude ("apt-get install aptitude").  It provides a (not very
good, but passable) text full-screen interface to your list of
available packages and which ones are installed, and lets you see in
red, white and green which ones are installed, broken, etc.  So you
can see, "oh, if I want to install this game, it will need libxyz,
which conflicts with my already-installed libzyx..." which is pretty
useful.
--
 Jamie McCarthy
 jamie@mccarthy.vg