Re: making a new kernel

[ronin2@bellatlantic.net]

First, welcome to Debian!

I was in your shoes about a year and a half ago, and for a while it's pretty uncomfortable.

There is a *tremendous* amount of documentation available for Debian, but that doesn't help you unless you know how/where to find it.

I recommend Steve Hunger's book "The Debian GNU/Linux Bible". It's a couple of years old, but most of the book is still helpful.

Next, get aptitude. That's "apt-get update" followed by "apt-get install aptitude". Aptitude is a package browser with a more friendly interface than dselect.

Open aptitude and browse the "Not Installed Packages" "Doc" section. (Use the "+" key to show which packages you'd like to install.) Get as much documentation as you can stand, but be sure to get "dwww". It creates a local www site on which you can browse the many kinds of help available. (It will require and install Apache, but configured without network access so it's not a security problem.)

Another good package is "newbiedoc", which is just what it sounds like.

Some people are pretty impatient with newbie questions, and that's a shame -- we were all newbies once. I hope you don't let that run you away from the best Linux.

Good luck.

Kevin

On 26 Feb 2003 23:36:29 -0500
Bret Comstock Waldow <bwaldow@alum.mit.edu> wrote:

> Hi,
> 
> Your point is well taken, but consider I've never had to do this before
> with any Linux kernel I've built, so I have some history to suggest the
> approach I took was valid, and the deviance unusual.
> 
> I was also concerned that this was evidence that something hadn't been
> chosen, or accomplished properly, in the install process (I'm new to
> Debian - never got it to work before) or there might have been a
> conceptual problem (mine) with the structure of names.
> 
> There's a tremendous flood of info out there just on the aspects of a
> system that's working perfectly - add in possible errors, omissions, or
> mis-configurations, and the places to consider rise geometrically.  I
> have no way of knowing what they might be yet, except for experience
> with other distros to date.  I was hoping I could just get a quick nudge
> in the direction to look.
> 
> With the quick, short answers people gave, I was able to fix the problem
> quickly, and that is helpful for beginners - we need a working system to
> learn about, otherwise the task is too daunting to proceed.
> 
> I have been using Red Hat most recently, and this is my main system -
> all my mail, business, etc. goes through here.  Not having it working
> isn't bearable for very long.  Now I'm trying to get support for syncing
> my Clie PDA.  I can tolerate not having that working for a bit longer
> than mail, but it's a make or break issue - this isn't just hobby stuff
> for me.
> 
> I have re-installed Debian (twice today) because I was leery about my
> choices.  I find it helpful to do this anyway, as it familiarizes me
> with the process, and that has paid off when I've had to reconstruct a
> system, or migrate to another version or distro.
> 
> Again, your point is well taken, and helpful.  Although I've never
> needed it before, I'll take to reading the kernel docs.  I'll get there
> - but there's a lot of "there" to get to with Linux.
> 
> Much of what I've written here isn't in response to you particularly,
> just taking the opportunity to mention my viewpoint on the list.
> 
> Cheers,
> Bret
> 
> On Wed, 2003-02-26 at 14:16, Jaume Guasch wrote:
> > others answered correctly, but did you read the description for
> > kernel-source-2.4.20 ? 
> > 
> > in dselect, aptitude, apt-cache, web page, whatever:
> > http://packages.debian.org/kernel-source-2.4.20 
> > 
> > "You may configure the kernel to your setup by typing "make config" and
> > following instructions, but you could get ncursesX.X-dev and tkX.X-dev
> > and try "make menuconfig" for a jazzier, and easier to use
> > interface. Also, please read the detailed documentation in the file
> > /usr/share/doc/kernel-source-2.4.20/README.headers.gz." 
> > 
> > So just reading the description of the package puts you in the correct
> > way... 
> > 
> > Is NOT that you have to dig on documentation to find it.
> 
> 
> 
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