Looking for trouble.
There doesn't seem to be a special group for Debian Newbies, so I hope
y'all don't mind me bringing up some questions here. I did a lot of reading
on Linux and Debian, but I now have a copy of Debian 2.1 and am trying to
get a system up.
Background: Dutch, teacher, location: Taiwan, 32, shortwave DXer.
System1: Pentium 200MMX, 64 MB RAM, 3.2+6.1 GB HD, S3 Trio64, Soundblaster
AWE64.
System2: Twinhead Slimnote 486-33, 8 MB RAM, 305 MB HD, VGA monochrome
monitor.
What I did sofar: Installed Debian 2.1 with base system on the Twinhead,
with 9 floppies.
Aim: Connect a parallel port CD-ROM (Shuttle EPIA) and install the rest of
the system.
Remarks: I cleaned the HD and reformatted it as one partition (305 MB).
However, Debian 2.1 installation couldn't get cfdisk going and thus I used
the second console to manually partition and set the swap.
Questions:
1) What is an easy way to go to the previous directory, e.g. I am in
/usr/bin and want to go to /usr?
2) With the base system installed I can't open man pages, that is, when
typing "man ls" for example, the system returns with "command not found."
In /bin and /sbin I also can't see any man-binary. There are man pages
stored, but in .gz format. Is it normal that the man command is not
installed? How to open/read .gz files.
3) I tried to create some scripts, very simple ones, but they refuse to
run, or the system says "command not found." Example:
#! /bin/bash
#
echo The time and date is..
date
Saved as "telltime," then mode changed with chmod -v u+x telltime. With cat
I can still see the contents of the file as plain text. Is this normal?
As said, when executing "telltime" the system returns "command not found."
I know that you have to watch the path, but even when I put this script in
/ or /bin it still won't run, while installed commands like "date" do run
from almost every directory. What do I do wrong?
4) Any hints to where to find some in dept Debian specific FAQs? I know
there is a lot around, and believe me I've been reading, but most
tutorials/FAQs assume that the system is running smoothly and hardly deal
with problem solving.
Thanks for the help.
Hans
I was riding on the e-train
I was whistling to the rhythm
I was thinking 'bout my livin'
I was feeling pretty fine....I asked the time....
.........Got a poke in the eye.
(Sheryl Crow, The Globe Sessions)
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