Debian Hamm Installation Questions
I'm a non-unix person installing Debian on a PC (there
will only be one user) for the first time, and have a
collection of installation related questions. Perhaps
someone here can help. I've already run through the
entire installation process once, but during the
process I had to make arbitrary decisions based on
total ignorance. I'm sure things didn't turn out the
way I wanted them. My approach here is to re-install
(many times if necessary) until I understand the whole
process.
The questions:
1. My bios (Award 4.51pg if I'm reading the version info
right) supports LBA. The motherboard (Tyan Trinity AT)
and hd (Quantum 3.2G) manuals seem to indicate that this
will allow the system to access partitions larger than
1024 cylinders at boot time. Does this sound correct?
If so, then shouldn't I be able to use a bootable
partition of greater than 1024 cyls? I was thinking in
terms of having one swap partition and one linux partition
for everything else. Alternatively, if I should use a <1024
cylinder bootable partition in spite of this, then how
big should I make it? Which elements of Debian, exactly,
should I put in it? How do I tell the install program
which partition to put each part of the package into?
Remember that I'm a non-unix person. I cannot make sense
of answers like "put /dev/xxx/yyy/ in the boot partition"
without a lot of work. Not unless the install package is,
at some point, going to ask me something like "choose
from the following partitions which one you want me to
put /dev/xxx/yyy/ into" so that I can follow such
instructions blindly. Then it seems that the kernal will
have to be told where each bit of the system is, although
I assume that the install package does this bit of
configuration automatically as stuff is installed in various
partitions.
2. When it comes time to install device drivers I hit
problems. First, the system tells me that if I highlight
any driver and press return I will see a page telling me
about the driver and giving me the option to install or
ignore it. I do not get a page of information. I get one
line that, for the generic cd-rom driver tells me something
like "this is the generic cd-rom driver". This doesn't
help much. Is there more information about the drivers
that I should be able to access at this point and I just
don't know how? Second, when I try to load the following
two drivers: PS/2 mouse (psaux.o) and XT hard drive (xd.o)
I get the following error message: "Device or resource busy".
So I can't seem to load them. Presumably I will need a
driver for my hard drive if the OS is to be able to access
it. How do I load these drivers? Third, when I try to
install the drivers I get a screen asking me to give it
whatever command line parameters I think should be provided
to the drivers when they are activated. In order to answer
this I need a description of what parameters are allowed
for each driver, what they mean, etc... Where do I find
all this info?
3. Dselect. Powerful program. Steep learning curve.
Problem. I would like to use dselect to custom install
packages. I activate the select option and get a list of
packages to select from. No problems so far. Part of the
list was of packages that were listed as "no longer
available". I want back to the main menu and used the
update option to get a list of all of the packages avilable
on the main Debian cd-rom (figured I'd hit the contrib
cd-rom after I finished with the main one). The new list
really didn't seem to be related at all to the old one.
Weird, but I started selecting packages from the new list
anyway. Got stuck. Managed to find my way back to the
main menu. Determined to go back to where I got stuck
I choose the select option again. This time I get a new
list of packages entirely different from either of the
previous two lists I'd seen. Conclusion: I'm missing
something fundamental about dselect. I can't seem to get
a consistent list of all of the packages that I have to
choose from on the main cd-rom.
4. I decided to install the packages selected anyway,
just to see what that part of the process is like. This
bit took a long time, with many interruptions to ask me
questions that I couldn't comprehend. Like "What
priority should I give this package?". The help seemed
to indicate that this means something like "You click on
a gif file, and the highest priority package associated
with files of type gif is the one that this will activate".
But I suspect that this is not what the help means. And
if it is then how do I select a priority when, being
ignorant of the relative merits of the packages being
loaded, I have no way to know what priorities I want?
With luck solutions to these issues should be enough
for me to make a second shot at a much better installation.
For the record I have looked at the faqs and installation
guides (printed out at least 400 pages of various Debian
and Linux install info off the net before hand, 'cause I
didn't think I'd be able to access them on-line during
installation) as well as a couble of Linux books from the
local library. I can't seem to find the answers I'm
looking for in any of them.
Thanks,
Kevin
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