Re: Debian 5 - was Re: Query abouut root account
On Wed, 25 Jul 2012, Joel Rees wrote:
On 7/23/12, Bret Busby <bret@busby.net> wrote:
[...]
One of the reasons that I wanted to be able to log in as root, is to
perform an update on that system.
The system is running Firestarter on Debian 5.
However, another problem has arisen, that indicates that that system
apparently cannot be updated, and has to stay as it is, without having
been updated for about a year or so, which is unfortunate for a
firewall computer.
I've had fun with openBSD, and their firewall is pretty good. Have you
looked at that?
(Sorry if that's not an appropriate suggestion.)
Actually...
From research that I had previously done, the simplest option (for me,
being a fairly simple kind of person) appeared to be PC-BSD
(http://www.pcbsd.org/). PC-BSD 8.x had only a KDE GUI (from memory),
and I am, a GNOME GUI user (from memory, one of the aspects of KDE, is
that it is supposed to be much more resource-demanding, but I could be
wrong). So, I waited until PC-BSD 9 was released, which came with a
GNOME GUI (not sure, now, but I think a user could choose which GUI, in
the installation procedure, in PC-BSD 9). So, after a bit of messing
around, I installed PC-BSD 9 on the HP/Compa NX-5000. But, it does not
seem to include a "multi-boot loader" (? - not sure whether that is the
correct name for the utility), such as GRUB, and, when I rebooted, the
installation, while it still exists, could not be found by the installed
GRUB (installed with Debian 6). I had queried this problem, on both
this mailing list, and, the PC-BSD equivalent mailing list, but got
nowhere, so gave up on it. So, now, on that little laptop, I have (as
previously mentioned in this thread) Debian 5 and Debian 6, and, an
invisible (as GRUB can't see it) installation of PC-BSD 9. PC-BSD 9,
whilst having been designed to be a workstation implementation of BSD,
has now, I believe, released in a version able to be installed as a
server. But, as I can not resolve the GRUB issue, I am not confident in
attempting further installation of BSD. And, from what I had read, and
the research that I had done, PC-BSD was supposed to be the simplest
version of BSD, to install and operate. So, BSD is all too difficult for
me. Just out of interest, the first UNIX or UNIX equivalent, that I have
used, was BSD 4.2, running on a VAX 11-785, in about 1979 or
thereabouts, I believe; before GUI's.
I have a Samsung MFP printer thing; a CLX-3185FW, and I had been able to
use it with a Debian 5 system that I had been using. Then, the Debian 5
system went awry (a separate system from the firewall system), and
became apparently unusable.
So, I installed Debian 6 on another computer (this computer), and have
been using that on this system, for the past few or several months.
But I was unable to install the drivers for the printer, on the Debian 6
workstation.
I have now been advised by Samsung, that the CLX-3185FW works with
Debian 3.x through 5.x, but does not work with Debian.
In many cases with CUPS, you can find a printer that is similar and
use the drivers/printer descriptors for that one instead. That's what
I'm doing with an EPSON all-in-one that I bought nearly ten years ago.
(Again, apologies if that's something you've already looked at.)
From memory, a similar printer driver does not exist in
CUPS.
[...]
--
Joel Rees
--
Bret Busby
Armadale
West Australia
..............
"So once you do know what the question actually is,
you'll know what the answer means."
- Deep Thought,
Chapter 28 of Book 1 of
"The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy:
A Trilogy In Four Parts",
written by Douglas Adams,
published by Pan Books, 1992
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