Re: Fwd: Install Report from a Linux newbie - some comments
eric brown <ericdebianlists@yahoo.com> writes:
> --- eric brown <ericdebianlists@yahoo.com> wrote:
> > Date: Sun, 16 Nov 2003 09:06:21 -0800 (PST)
> > From: eric brown <ericdebianlists@yahoo.com>
> > Subject: Install Report from a Linux newbie - some
> > comments
> > To: debian-user@lists.debian.org
> >
> > Hello,
> >
> > I tough of posting my Linux experience as a complete
> > Linux & Unix newbie that chose Debian to start
> > playing
> > with linux. (out of laziness and pure ignorance - I
> > wanted to do a net install instead of waiting for
> > entire cds iso to download and had no clue that
> > Debian
> > was an "hard distro")
> >
> > First the installers: tried the new one and the old
> > one.
> >
> > My first try: sarge & new installer
> >
> > The new one is real simple to use but it scared the
> > hell out of me: after installing x the only thing my
> > sceen could display was: "warning sync error will
> > shut
> > down in 5 sec"
Once you rebootet the very first time from the Debian-Installer the
installer is basically done. Some config (the base-config package)
will be done when you first boot up the real system but thats already
part of the real system. After that your just maintaining your debian
system (even if that means installing additional software). There is
no change there between the old and new installer.
Why am I saying that? Well, whatever problems you experience after
booting the real system are not realy "our" problems as "debian-boot"
ML and we can't do much about it. The individual package causing the
problem is to blame there. In your case you should file a bug against
the XFree packages
> > But, after rebooting, magic, tadam!, I was welcomed
> > by
> > KDM! still didn't figure out what happened.
but, seeing this, thats probably pointless. Without any idea what went
wrong or the ability to reproduce it the bug can hardly be fixed.
> > I managed to got everything net installed by configuring pppoeconf
> > right at the very beginning (and played for the first time with
> > apt, wget and lynx). After choosing a rather random selection
> > containing gnome and KDE with taskel, I never managed to get my
> > dsl connection to work again (yes I was loggin as root, rebooted
> > etc...)!!! After intense googling with my powerbook (I was
Thats very strange. Iirc kde has some software to manage your dialup
connections. Maybe that interfered with your previous setup. Maybe you
now have to tell kde to go online / offline instead of the usualy
pon/poff way.
> > installing linux on an old Aptiva desktop) I found some bug report
> > on debian mentionning a somehow similar problem with the new
> > installer and needing hacking in many .conf files that seemed
> > obsolete... And went through too many cryptic howtos. I almost
> > quit linux at that point... I had enough!
> >
> > Untill I found an excellent document in French:
> > "Formation Linux" (this NEEDS translation)
> > http://www.via.ecp.fr/~alexis/formation-linux/. That
> > was way more detailed on how to install Woody and
> > get
> > some real things done (Play cds, burn, configure and
> > optimize X etc...)
> > I still haven't found any document matching it in
> > english.
There is plenty:
Going to www.debian.org and following the books link under
Documentation gives:
http://www.debian.de/doc/books
> > That is what is missing from Debian. An interest in
> > producing documentation aimed at getting things done
> > and not about knowing all the possible ways to
> > configure everything. Also the too many "use your
> > brain to solve your problems" answers to newbies
> > post
> > I ran accross surfing many newsgroups are
> > inacceptable, if Debian is to become anything more
> > than a geek toy.
> >
> > Anyway, I decided to give Linux (for me at that
> > point
> > Linux and Debian were synonyms) a second chance
> > following carefully every steps from "Formation
> > linux."
> >
> > Installing Woody the old way:
> >
> > Actually I found installing the old way was simpler
> > because now I had proper documentation and new what
> > I
> > was doing. I managed to get everything (almost) to
> > work the way I wanted.
> >
> > After a week of Woody I easily upgraded to Sid.
> > (following again the clear instructions from
> > "formation Linux") I can now use my usb wheel mouse,
> > print to my usb printer, surf web, play movies, rip
> > mp3, get e-mail, burn cds, process my tex documents
> > with Kile, run open office, run Matlab (I own the
> > full
> > product copy - but now consider mooving to python
> > numeric) etc... Life is good!!!. Sincere thanks to
> > the Debian community.
> >
> > Problems I still have to solve:
> >
> > Get pon dsl-provider to work for users:
> >
> > (still have to login has root everytime) and
> > continue
> > it to work evenafter I unplugged the ethernet cable
> > for more than 5 minutes...
pppd is setuid root to get access to the secret files. To avoid any
random user on the system to use it (and bring up some expensive
connection) its no executable by anyone.
-rwsr-xr-- 1 root dip 219K Aug 27 15:51 /usr/sbin/pppd*
All you have to do is add the user to the group dip and he can use
pon/poff. The same applies to access to the soundcard (group audio)
and many other things.
To get the dsl to reconnect whenever it dies you can tell pppd to be
presistent and to try for an unlimited number of errors. In theory
that should keep you online forever, in praxis there have been report
that it sometimes fails. A realy save way is to get init to restart
dsl whenever it stops. Add the following to your inittab if you want that:
9:23:respawn:/usr/sbin/pppd nodetach call dsl-provider >>/var/log/dsl 2>&1
(man inittab for what that does)
> > What package to get?:
> >
> > From a newbie perspective the debian choice can be overwhelming.
> > I still didn't find a better way than apt-cache search to get
> > packages that probably do what I want to do. I normaly guess what
> > is appropriate but I would really appreciate a place where you can
> > see: want to do this : this is the best tool.
As do many others. But by the time anyone has the knowledge of whats
there they usualy have lost the need and will to write it. Your
welcome to write something.
> > Finally I would just like to say that are truly enjoy the freedom
> > Debian-linux now gives me: I somehow fell that I emerged from the
> > MS matrix and now live in the free world. I think that if the
> > Debian community put more efforts in documenting more with a
> > DOTHIS than a HOWTO approach would help getting more people into
> > Zion.
> >
> > That's it, thanks for reading
Welcome to Zion Neo, lead us. :)
MfG
Goswin
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