Re: starting up

[Kent West <westk@acu.edu>]

Stephen Cradock wrote:

> Hi all - I am trying to get Debian Linux working as an alternative to 
> Windows XP. Uo to a point everything works fine - starting from floppy 
> images and basedeb and drivers.tgz I can get linux 2.2.0 running.
>
> The problem is getting X11 going - my Intel 82845G video chipset is 
> not recognized, and the i810 driver in the Deb 3.0 package doesn't 
> know what to do. Setting video driver="vesa" works to launch XFree86, 
> but after login (as root or as a user) the X session crashes during 
> 'initializing peripherals'.
>
> Knoppix, with linux 2.4 and XFree86 4.3, works fine, but it's limited 
> by not using a permanent linux partition and persistent files.
>
> The i810 driver from Knoppix doesn't work with Deb 3.0, of course....
>
> My question is, would it be better to start from Deb 3.0 and replace 
> the i810 driver, or to start from Knoppix, install it on my Linux 
> partition and begin rebuilding that without the need to run from CD?
>
> Any helpful hints? Am I asking the right questions?
If you're willing to go with Knoppix, then that means you have not 
particular hankering to stay with stable. In that case, I'd suggest you 
just upgrade your current system.

1) Modify "/etc/apt/sources.list". Assuming you have three lines in here 
referring to http/ftp and stable, copy all but the security line and put 
these copies above the stable lines. Then modify the "stable" in these 
copied lines to point to "unstable". The resulting file should look 
something like:

> westk[@westkent.acu.edu]:/home/westk:> cat /etc/apt/sources.list
> #deb copy:///cdrom/ sarge main
>
> #deb cdrom:[Debian GNU/Linux testing _Sarge_ - Official NetInst 
> Snapshot i386 Binary-1 (20040103)]/ unstable contrib main
> deb ftp://ftp.us.debian.org/debian unstable main contrib non-free
> deb ftp://non-us.debian.org/debian-non-US unstable/non-US main contrib 
> non-free
> deb ftp://ftp.us.debian.org/debian stable main contrib non-free
> deb ftp://non-us.debian.org/debian-non-US stable/non-US main contrib 
> non-free
> deb http://security.debian.org/ stable/updates main contrib


2) Run "apt-get update".

3) Run "apt-get dist-upgrade".

Then upgrade your kernel.

4) apt-cache search kernel-image-2.[4 or 6, whichever you prefer; I'd go 
with 6]

5) Find an appropriate image for your architecture and install it, 
similar to:
"apt-get install kernel-image-2.6.6-2-686"

6) When prompted, shell over to another terminal and edit 
"/etc/lilo.conf" to make sure it has the "initrd=/initrd.img" line, like so:

> image=/vmlinuz
>         label=Linux
>         initrd=/initrd.img

Then shell back to the installation of the kernel and tell it to proceed.

7) Reboot

8) Run "dpkg-reconfigure xserver-xfree86" and reset your video settings 
as necessary.

9) "startx"

10) You're (hopefully) done.

With a fast network connection, you're looking at an hour or so of time, 
unless you've already installed tons of software.

--
Kent