Pointers after Login paragraph [doc-Patch]
I'd like to add a few pointers about documentation that's been installed on
the new system after the user has completed the installation. A few pointers
like these would have made a big difference to me when I first installed
Debian, having hardly ever used Unix/Linux before. I wasn't aware that all
this documentation had been installed on my system from the beginning, until
several months went by.
Index: boot-new.sgml
===================================================================
RCS file: /cvs/debian-boot/boot-floppies/documentation/en/boot-new.sgml,v
retrieving revision 1.5
diff -u -r1.5 boot-new.sgml
--- boot-new.sgml 2001/10/02 06:40:42 1.5
+++ boot-new.sgml 2001/10/08 05:29:16
@@ -503,12 +503,16 @@
see more information on that task. This will show you an extended
description and the list of packages which will be installed for that
task.
+ <p>
+Once you've selected your tasks, select ``Finish''. At this point,
+<prgn>apt-get</prgn> will install the packages you've selected. Note, if you
+did not select any tasks at all, any standard, important, or required
+priority packages that are not yet present on your system will be installed.
+This functionality is the same as running <tt>tasksel -s</tt>,
+and currently involves a download of about 37M of archives. You will be
+shown the number of packages to be installed, and how many kilobytes of
+packages, if any, need to be downloaded.
<p>
-Once you've selected your tasks, select ``Finish''. At this point,
-<prgn>apt-get</prgn> will install the packages you've selected. You
-will be shown the number of packages to be installed, and how many
-kilobytes of packages, if any, need to be downloaded.
- <p>
Of the &num-of-distrib-pkgs; packages available in Debian, only a small
minority are covered by tasks offered in the Task Installer.
To see information on more packages, either use <tt>apt-cache search
@@ -534,6 +538,41 @@
After you've installed packages, you'll be presented with the login
prompt. Log in using the personal login and password you
selected. Your system is now ready to use.
+ <p>
+If you are a new user, you may want to explore the documentation which is
+already installed on your system as you start to use it. There are currently several
+documentation systems; work is proceeding on integrating the different types of
+documentation. Here are a few starting points.
+ <p>
+Documentation accompanying programs you have installed is in
+<file>/usr/share/doc/</file>, under a subdirectory named after the program.
+For example, the APT User's Guide for using apt to install other programs on
+your system, is located in
+<file>/usr/share/doc/apt/guide.html/index.html</file>.
+ <p>
+In addition, there are some special folders within the
+<file>/usr/share/doc/</file> hierarchy. Linux HOWTOs are installed in .gz
+format, in <file>/usr/share/doc/HOWTO/en-txt/</file> and
+<file>/usr/share/doc/HOWTO/en-txt/mini/</file>. The
+<file>/usr/share/doc/HTML/index.html</file> contains browsable indexes of
+documentation installed by dhelp.
+ <p>
+One easy way to view these documents is to <tt>cd /usr/share/doc/</tt>, and
+type <tt>lynx</tt> followed by a space and a dot (the
+dot stands for the current directory).
+ <p>
+You can also type <tt>info (command)</tt> or <tt>man (command)</tt> to see
+documentation on most commands available at the command prompt. Typing
+<tt>help</tt> will display help on shell commands. And typing a command
+followed by <tt>--help</tt> will usually display a short summary of the
+command's usage. If a command's results scroll past the top of the screen,
+type <tt>| more</tt> after the command to cause the results to pause after
+each screenful. To see a list of all commands available which begin with a
+certain letter, type the letter and then two tabs.
+ <p>
+For a more complete introduction to Debian and GNU/Linux, see
+<file>/usr/share/doc/debian-guide/html/noframes/index.html</file>.
+
<!-- Keep this comment at the end of the file
*----------------------------------------------------------------*
| .''`. | Debian GNU/Linux: <http://www.debian.org> |
| : :' : | debian-imac: <http://debian-imac.sourceforge.net> |
| `. `'` | Chris Tillman tillman@azstarnet.com |
| `- | May the Source be with you |
*----------------------------------------------------------------*
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