Re: Newbie's experience Installing Debian
Check http://www.debian.org/distrib/vendors
I crashed my disk repartitioning it for Debian Linux so I don't have all the
details, but I believe I paid $19.95 plus shipping. I ordered online and the
order fulfillment was provided by Brandon Carter, 714-505-8915, Loki
Entertainment Software, 250 El Camino Real, Tustin, CA 92780. They shipped
by FedEx. The price included a single very comprehensive CD plus "Learning
Debian GNU/Linux" by McCarty, published by O'Reilly
Those resources, a lot of pointers from this list, HOWTO files (web and CD)
brought it all together
David
----- Original Message -----
From: Darrington, John <john.darrington@mitswa.com.au>
To: <debian-user@lists.debian.org>
Sent: Sunday, February 13, 2000 9:39 PM
Subject: Newbie's experience Installing Debian
>
> OK, so after 5 years of playing with slackware and Red Hat, I decide that
my
> next OS will be Debian --- I've seen the web page, and like the philosophy
> and want to get started. The usenet reports that Debian is so difficult
to
> install can't all be true can they? Unfortunately I've found they are.
>
> Not knowing much about Debian I look on the web site for advice. I find
> this:
> `It is recommended that first time installers buy the CD set as the
> installation is more straightforward. Many of the vendors sell the
> distribution for less than US$5 plus shipping (check their web page to see
> if they ship internationally). '
> Fine I think US$5 == AUD8 plus let's say $10 for postage, I should be able
> to get going for $18. Well I don't want to wait weeks for a shipment from
> the US, so I phone my local software shop and ask them if they stock
Debian
> 2.1 . Yes, they have a 2 CD set for $25. Great says I . I don't really
> mind paying an extra $7. The shop's got to make an honest profit, and I
> don't have to wait. So I take home the 2 CDs, and one by one I put them
in
> my machine, and switch on. neither CD will boot. So I mount the CD and
> take a look at them. After a while I figure that I've bought the source
> CDs not the binarys. I have a look at the front and sure enough in tiny
> writing I see that it does include the word `source'. Damn I say.
Perhaps
> it was my fault. I shouldn't have rushed in. Perhaps I need to be a
> little more patient. I should have read up about it first.
> I take another look at the Debian Web Site. I see that the words
`Official'
> are reserved for the set that the Debian team produce so I decide that I
> ought to be getting these. I phone around my home town, but no-one has a
> set of Debian CDs with the word `official' on the cover. Indeed the guy on
> the phone seems to think I'm a bit wierd for insisting on this. After
about
> an hour of acute embarrassement I give up and have another look at the
> Debian web site.
> There's a list of recommened books which come with CDs. That's what I
> really need thinks I. So I phone around the technical bookshops and low
and
> behold one of them has a product that I think will get me going:
> Debian GNU/Linux: Guide to Installation and Usage
> Author: John Goerzen and Ossama Othman
> Publisher: New Riders Publishing
> CD Included: one CD
>
> It's recommended on the web site and the title encourages me to think that
> it should be easy to use. So, for $40 I buy this book. Take it home,
read
> through the first couple of chapters and am much more confident. I bung
the
> disk into the drive, and switch on. Hooray! it boots. A kernel runs and
a
> pretty menu of options appears. So, I step thought setting the colour,
> selecting a keyboard, partitioning the disk . I set up a filesystem and
> swap file everything appears to be fine. Then I come to the Install bit.
> I choose to install off the CD (seems sensible to me). I see the
following
> message:
> "Choose Debian archive path. Please choose the path inside the CD-ROM
where
> the Debian archive resides"
> and the default appears to be /debian. I choose the default, not having
any
> other information. Then comes:
> "Pleae select the directory containing the file resc1440tecra.bin"
> This stumps me. How the hell should I know where that is? Being a
> resourcefull character I back out of the menu wait until the CD is
> unmounted, and place it in another machine and search for this file. It's
> located at /debian/boot So back into the install procedure I go, enter
> /debian/boot at the appropriate place. It seems to be denying the
> existence of this file. --- but wait it's actually wanting the location of
a
> file with a similar name "drv1440tecra.bin".
> I don't know where that is? I see there is an option `list' which
> automatically detects it so I try that. Apparently it's not there. Back
to
> my other machine, and do a "find" . Sure enough it's not there. What do
I
> do now? I press <F1> like the start up screen told me. nothing happens.
I
> turn to the book. No hints. I spend the next 2 hours rebooting and trying
> every possible path though the menu. including mounting the CD manually
and
> pointing the install process to the archives. It still wants this
> non-existent file.
> It's time to conclude that perhaps my hardware has some funny
configuration
> which this CD doesn't support. So, I borrow a machine and try again.
Exactly
> the same symptoms.
>
> So after 2 days and $65 I have not managed to get even a login prompt.
For
> that price I could have got RedHat 6.1.
> It's quite a demoralising experience. Are these problems common in Debian
> installation or is it just me ??
>
>
>
>
> --
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