On Sun, Dec 05, 1999 at 02:08:08PM +0100, Svante Signell wrote:
>
> Personally I think you should separate installation from configuration
> into different parts. The configuration could be made mandatory, but
> not until you have a bootable base system (HD and floppy) up and
> running.
Actually, i believe the inital installation does this. However, it
usually goes straight into downloading non-essential packages becuase
the base system is rather sparse (e.g. no manpages).
Once the system is installed (something you'll hopefully only need to do
once ;) it's rather convenient that installing a package automatically
configures it to make it usable.
> Also some kind of tree structure for configuring the different tools
> could be usable, the most important parts are configured first, and so
> on.
Define "important". At any rate, remember that any libraries required
must be configured before the packages that depend on them, perl must be
configured before packages that ust it in the {pre,post}inst scripts,
and so on.
> In order to speed up the installation many of the configuration
> questions were answered with not-so-well-thought-out-answers by
> me.
With potato and debconf, i believe you could just do "dpkg-reconfigure
<packagename>" and it's let you reconfigure. But i've never had
opportunity to try it, does this work?
With slink, you'll still have to edit config files (and you can with
potato too).
> So, which tools to use/files to change for configuring:
Any of my answers may be incomplete, or slightly incorrect due to my
using potato. No need to reply direct to me to correct then, just to the
list.
> 1. Kernel modules
modconf
Edit /etc/modutils/*, /etc/conf.modules (modules.conf in potato),
/etc/modules
> 2. Daemons
Some have configure commands, for example 'eximconfig'.
Edit files in /etc, dpkg -L <packagename> can give you a hint as to which
Possibly edit /etc/inetd.conf, /etc/init.d/<packagename>
Read manpages for more.
> 3. Networking
Big topic. Tons of files in /etc to edit. Ask a specific question to the
list to get a spscific answer, or chech the archives.
> 4. Sound
i _think_ you'll have to recompile the kernel to get sound support (at
least, you used to have to. i haven't used the Debian kernel debs for a
long time). With an isa pnp card, you'll probably need isapnptools and
to compile the sound support as modules. Check the archives, ask more
specific questions.
> 5. X windows
XF86Setup, xf86config, edit /etc/X11/XF86Config
Edit more files in /etc/X11/
Ask more specific questions or check the archives.
> 6. Window managers
Edit /etc/X11/window-managers
Edit ~/.xsession if you'd like (not necessary to even have this file)
Depends on the particular window manager for more. Some have
configuration commands (e.g. wmakerconf).
> 7. Printers
Depends on your printer, if you use magicfilter, apsfilter, or neither,
and what you want changed. In general, /etc/printcap is a good one to
edit (if you know how). "magicfilterconfig" if you use magicfilter.
"paperconfig" or edit /etc/paper* if you have them.
> 8. ppp/modem
pppconfig! Then edit /etc/ppp/* and /etc/chatscripts/* to suit if
necessary. Or you could try wvdial (with wvdialconf).
> 9. Mail
Depends on your MTA (sendmail, exim, etc), your MUA (mutt, pine, etc),
and your MDA (fetchmail, etc). You'll have to ask more specific
questions. Check the list archives for more.
> 10. User accounts
/etc/skel/*, adduser, userdel. Maybe others.
> 11. File systems/external drives
/etc/fstab. Recompile kernel if it doesn't have the filesystem type or
drive drivers you need.
> 12. Runlevel dependant scripts, ...
Edit /etc/init.d/*
update-rc.d
> 13. What did I forget ...
In general, reading manpages, HOWTOs, the list archives, and looking in
/etc is a good place to start.
> PS.
> - I really like the apt-get upgrade utility. dpkg is OK. dselect on the
> other hand is not very user friendly.
Maybe i'm just strange, but i like dselect. apt-get and dpkg are very
useful as well, of course. i didn't like capt too much, but maybe it's
been improved since then. i don't like gnome-apt because i want a
console-based tool. Haven't yet tried aptitude.
> - My questions sent to this list have been so far answered with very
> informative and competent answers. Thank you very much.
You're welcome! i hope this message continues the trend.
--
finger for GPG public key.
29 Nov 1999 - new email address added to gpg key
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