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Re: your mail

Hello Valerie,

On Wed, Apr 08, 1998 at 10:47:31PM +0200, Valerie CAYOL wrote:
> I have been desperatly trying to install linux debian
> on my pc. I am using a CD provided by the magazine dream,
> and so far I have performed the basic installation.
> Severall problems have appeared :
> 1- in the section of the configuration called Configure device driver I was
> not able to find the internet card I am using.
> This card is compatible Ne 2000, at irq = 11 and io = \0xFF80. But
> specifying these values caused the installation to fail,
> so I did not give any devide driver and of course the network connection
> does not work. Does anyone know what I can do about that ?

I'm not sure what you have done. Normally, you don't need additional modules
or device driver for NE2000 cards. Just use the network-configuration to
specify the IP adress you want to use, the IP adress of your gateway, etc.
The network card should be autodetected, try to verify at boot time or with
the "dmesg" command.

> 2- I don't unsderstand how dpkg works and how to start it.
> It is supposed to be simple so I really think I missed something. When
> writing simply dpkg I get a simple help.

dpkg -i <.deb-file>

will install a debian package if dependencies are satisfied.

dpkg -r <package-name>

will remove it.

Note that there are *many,many* more options, but the two above will get you
started. You can even issue more than one package at a time or use
wildcards. dselect is ok for beginners.

> 3- Instead of using dpkg, I tried to use dselect to install x11, and then I
> was asked many questions I did not know the answer of : mouse devise,
> monitor resolution and frequency,
> etc ... 
> Is there a way to restart this installation ?

Yes, you can use "xf86config" for the text interface. There is even a
graphic interface if you install xserver-vga16. Just install and answer "y"
to the configure question.

> Is there a way to know what questions will be asked in advance
> in order to avoid leaving blank answers ?

If you use the graphical interface, you can switch to whatever option screen
you want. if you use the text interface, you have to re-run the program and
answer all questions again.

> Can't all this be done automatically as it is the case for
> windows, for instance ?

It could be done in the following cases:

1) All vendors would release specifications for their hardware, so that
auto-detectioncould be implemented properly and safe.
2) Enough people would work on a safe implementation of auto-detection.

I'm sure 2) wouldn't be a problem if 1) would be fullfilled, but see below.

Note that Windows does not do it automagically all the time. Most of the
time, you will use the provided driver diskette, and then you have no
problem. Linux supports a lot of different hardware, and it does
differentiate graphic cards by chip-sets.

BUT, there is a program that can help you, it is called SuperProbe and will
check for your graphic card. Please read the SuperProbe man page before
using it ("man SuperProbe"). Using it can hang the machine, as the Windows
auto detection can. When I issue SuperProbe, I get a lot of text and then:

WARNING - THIS SOFTWARE COULD HANG YOUR MACHINE.
          READ THE SuperProbe.1 MANUAL PAGE BEFORE
          RUNNING THIS PROGRAM.

          INTERRUPT WITHIN FIVE SECONDS TO ABORT!


First video: Super-VGA
        Chipset: S3 Trio64 (Port Probed)
        Memory:  2048 Kbytes
        RAMDAC:  Generic 8-bit pseudo-color DAC
                 (with 6-bit wide lookup tables (or in 6-bit mode))

Which is quite correct for my Hercules Terminator 64 (Trio64-864 chip).
YMMV.

You can use this information in the xf86 configuration.#

Please consult your monitor data sheet for horizontal and vertical refresh
rates. They are important, and you shouldn't use refresh rates that are far
beynd the limit (they could damage your monitor, although it happen seldom.
Modern multisync monitors are quite safe).
 
> Thank you for your help,
> I know theses are many questions,

You will have more, and you are welcome to ask your questions here.

Waiting is,
Marcus


-- 
"Rhubarb is no Egyptian god."        Debian GNU/Linux        finger brinkmd@ 
Marcus Brinkmann                   http://www.debian.org    master.debian.org
Marcus.Brinkmann@ruhr-uni-bochum.de                        for public  PGP Key
http://homepage.ruhr-uni-bochum.de/Marcus.Brinkmann/       PGP Key ID 36E7CD09


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