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Re: My own comments re: debian 3.0 powerpc release



On Sat, Apr 13, 2002 at 07:12:41PM +0200, Lars D. Nood?n wrote:
> Hi, 
> 
> What kind of info about the install process would be most useful for me 
> to take notes on?
> 
> Here are my comments and a question so far.
> 
> Comments:
> 
> After looking through reams (?) of web pages and FAQs on and off for two
> weeks, I've recently got Debian to boot on a G4 and used the Woody beta
> minimal install CD to do it (whichever version was current on 11 Apr).  
> Finding the right image to download was part of my difficulty.  
> 
> The OS 9 based install worked great until it came time to down doing the
> net part of the install, then it couldn't find the network card.  The info
> from the back of the case and different parts of the Macintosh Control
> Panel menu said only ethernet, not which type.

Normally the ethernet support for Apple machines is built into the kernel,
so you don't have to pick a specific driver. This confused me at the beginning
too. The problem is, not _all_ are, and any particular machine might have an
aftermarket card in the PCI slot, etc.

Could you suggest a change to the install manual (link in my .sig) which
could make this more clear? (Assuming the cd based install worked and your
ethernet card works in Linux now). 

> The part of the initial configuration where one chooses the mouse did not 
> allow canceling or undoing a choice and it was not clear (to me) which 
> driver was for the USB optical mouse.  I kept choosing the wrong ones and 
> gave up quickly.  (I don't use the mouse anyway.)

I'm not sure where this is. Was it asking for paths like /dev/input/mice, or 
devices like PS/2, or something else?

> Anyway, though other docs were good, the most useful document for me was:
> 
> 	http://www.xiph.org/~jack/ibook/instnotes.html
> 

This is nice, but has some misinformation. I'll take a look to see if there
are some things that might be included in the official manual.

> The web pages for the Debian sites are attractive, but go in circles.  
> Being task oriented, I would like to see more clearly where to go to get
> install documention (targeted to peope new to debian), how to install and
> where to get packages.

The web pages are set to be updated to a new design when woody is released. 
It would probably be very helpful if you could post to debian-www with 
specific examples of the 'circles' you mention, so they can be sure the new 
version addresses those problems. And your recommendations on how to make
it clearer where the Installation Instructions are. (There's a link on the
main home page, did you miss it?) 

> Question:
> 
> Please try to forgive the nebie questions but *how* do I install things
> like apache and *where* can I find good collections of binary packages for
> the powerpc, preferably in Europe / Scandinavia?  I think I have the hang
> of dpkg Many tell me that apt-get is the easy way to install things, but
> so far it fails when it comes to dependencies.

I've never heard of apt-get failing to install a needed dependency. Do you have
specifics? For apache, just type

apt-get install apache

The nicest way, I think, to see what packages are available and choose them 
for installation is aptitude. Use 

apt-get install aptitude

to install it. 

-- 
*------v--------- Installing Debian GNU/Linux 3.0 --------v------*
|      <http://www.debian.org/releases/woody/installmanual>      |
|   debian-imac (potato): <http://debian-imac.sourceforge.net>   |
|            Chris Tillman        tillman@voicetrak.com          |
|                   May the Source be with you                   |
*----------------------------------------------------------------*


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