Re: debian installation
Julian Taylor wrote:
> Debian, admittedly, is one of the most primitive Linux
> installations I've ever used. Among the problems are
> the fact that no matter what you tell it during
> installation about your intended configuration, it
> sets everything up not to work. You'll find the same
> problem with ppp which is most likely set up to deny
> all access and printing which is most likely not set
> up at all.
I would have to disagree with this. Yes, the installation
is texed based.... but the install menu is well layed out,
understandable, and it works if you take the time to work
your way through it. I have had PPP up and running with
no more than a 'pppconfig' and adding myself to the
dialout group so that I didn't have to su myself to run
pon/poff. Printing sets up well and easilly with
magicfilter and lprng... assuming you installed the
kernel paralell drivers.
I have installed Debian with Ethernernet networking with
similar ease.
> You have to read each of the HOWTO's and manually
> configure each thing. This can sometimes be difficult
> because different flavors of Linux make subtle changes
> to the base so some of the HOWTO's don't apply any
> more (Caldera and yp fer instance). Since I still
> haven't managed to fully configure my Debian system,
> all I know is that the HOWTO isn't always enough. I
> grabbed my XF86Config from Slackware Linux and it
> worked OK. I'll be glad to send you a copy of it as
> a start.
While for many custom configurations reading the HOWTOs
are a must, I have yet to install a debian package and
not have it up and running with atleast a base configuration
right 'out of the box,' so to speak. Some things(eg. SAMBA)
need an edit of the .conf file to tell it what services
you want to serve, but these are nicely documented by the
pre/post installation scripts. And while, yes, the
file structures are different, a simple 'find' or
'locate' can easily find the files.
As to X... X is definately the most complex thing to install
on ANY linux system... I have had several instances where
XF86Setup would not work, but xf86config set X up just fine
without any problems. Admittedly you need to know quite a bit
more about your Graphics Card and Monitor than you do under
other OSes, but it is definately possible.
Also, unless you have _identical_ hardware configurations,
sharing XR86Config files is a bad idea... the XFree86 FAQ
has tales of several BadThings(tm) that can happen by doing
this... as the XF86Config file is specific to each videocard/
monitor combination.
> If this becomes too frustrating, install Slackware or
> Caldera Linux. They have some problems too, but after
> installation, they're configured to work.
So is Debian. :>
--Evan
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