Re: Initial thoughts about Debian 2.1 (and I need some help!)
On Sat, 31 Jul 1999, Salman Ahmed wrote:
> (2) If I download a bunch of .deb files myself to a dir on my HD,
> how can I install them using a combination of dselect/apt ?
1. You'll need the dpkg-dev package.
2. Create an override file. "man dpkg-scanpackages" for more info.
3. Steal a Release file from somewhere. Modify it if you'd like.
4. "dpkg-scanpackages . override.filename > Packages" in the dir with the
debs.
5. Add a line to your sources.list something like this:
deb file:/usr/local/debs /
(assuming the deb files were in /usr/local/debs)
> (3) I noticed that when I was running apt-get from a virtual
> console (to upgrade to XF86-3.3.3.1), during the download the
> other virtual consoles were 'locked' out. I couldn't switch over to
> any of the other remaining 5 VCs. Is there a reason for this ?
> Can this be fixed ? The moment that apt-get returned me to the
> shell prompt I was able to switch to other VCs.
i've never encountered this before... i have no trouble changing VCs when
apt-get is running.
> (6) Because of (5) I removed the line
>
> "deb http://ftp.netgod.net/debian x/"
>
> and instead added the line
>
> "deb http://ftp.netgod.net/debian unstable main contrib non-free"
>
> to /etc/apt/soureces.list and then I tried to get the xsever-svga-3.3.3.1-2
> and ended up upgrading to glibc-2.1 and a whole bunch of other
> newer packages.
That's because you were hitting the potato sources.
> Is there anyway to backup these .debs which were downloaded to
> my HD so that if I reinstall Debian 2.1, I don't have to download all
> these .debs all over again (which BTW took over 2 1/2 hours over my
> 56k modem connection) ? I have a couple of old 540Mb HDs which I
> use for backing up downloaded files prior to OS reinstallations.
If they're still in /var/cache/apt/archives/, just back them up as usual.
Otherwise, you're out of luck.
> (7) How can I get my SoundBlaster PCI128 sound card configured ?
> Do I have to recompile the kernel for that ? Also, how do I setup/install
> the ALSA drivers for this card (I had to use ALSA to get this sound card
> to work with RedHat 5.2).
Yes, you have to recompils the kernel. Read the information in the
Documentation directory of the kernel sources for any relavent
information.
IIRC, there's an alsa package available. In the package selection screen
of dselect, type "/alsa" to search. Use \ to find further matches.
> (9) I'd like to to upgrade to WindowMaker-0.60. What is the best/
> recommended way of doing that ?
Well, you could upgrade to potato (if you haven't already undone so from
(6)). Or, you could compile from sources for your slink system.
The easiest way to compile from source is to get a recent version (0.3.11
would be good), then add a deb-src line you your sources.list. Make
sure you have the dpkg-dev package, as well as any necessary -dev
packages for required libraries. Then, "apt-get --compile source wmaker"
> (10) It seems that I am booting up in 8bit color mode because the icons
> in WindowMaker look quite bad. How do I change this so that I start
> up in 16bit or 32bit mode ?
Somewhere in xf86config/XF86Setup there's an option to select the
preferred color depth. Otherwise, in the Section Screen for your current
video driver, add a "DefaultColorDepth ##" line, where ## is the depth you
want by default. Or, IIRC, you can just rearrande the SubSection Displays
so the one you want is first.
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