Re: First impressions on installing Debian 1.3 (and an idea!)
First, let me thank all those that responded to my `impressions' post.
I'll reply to this one, and leave it at that.
> (I thought Debian's installation asked whether you were really sure about
> running mke2fs,
It does, it does. Just a case of initial culture shock.
> > - I assume that the list of installed packages is in some file. Is it
> > possible to transfer this file to another PC to instruct Debian to
> > install the same pacakges? I often install on several PCs and this
> > would be a nice feature.
>
> first:~ $ dpkg --get-selections > selections
> other:~ # dpkg --set-selections < selections
This is a very nice feature indeed.
An idea about `menu':
I think the a frustrating thing with Linux is finding out what's
available. I think what would attract people to Linux is *showing* them
all that's available.
If actual `commands' available in packges were documented somewhere
(maybe they are), it would be possible to build a window-manager menu
where installed commands would be listed (like `menu' does) but also
include `available but not installed' comamnds. The menu entries could
be shaded or have a different colour, and instead of running the command,
selecting the menu entry would pop up a description along with the
name of the package that held it (it could even optionally install it!).
Maybe making a menu entry for each package (instead of commands) would
be good enough, or even better if a package hold dozens of realted commands.
I don't know if Debian provides enough info to do this in /var/lib/dpkg.
My perl or awk skills may be up to the task of extracting the required
info to build the menu. What's missing is an X tool to display the
package description from a file (or a part extracted from a file). I
don't do windows...
Thoughts? Is this a good idea?
Another question: There are many upgrades to make to use a 2.1.X kernels.
Are there Debian packages to do these upgrades?
(I have an IDE/ATAPI PD-CD; I need 2.1.X if I ever want
to see the PD side working.)
--
Peter Galbraith, research scientist <galbraith@mixing.qc.dfo.ca>
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
--
TO UNSUBSCRIBE FROM THIS MAILING LIST: e-mail the word "unsubscribe" to
debian-user-request@lists.debian.org . Trouble?
e-mail to templin@bucknell.edu .
Reply to: