The Thrill of Debian Gnu/Linux
Yes, you too can experience the thrill of installing and upgrading the
Debian distro!
You'll impress your neighbors with your buff pinky muscles, built after
hours of banging the living bejeesus out of the enter key to accept the
default configurations for a plethora of programs you never use or asked
to install! You're provided with about 5 base configurations -- which
give you a machine with 40 mb. of packages, 120 mb. of packages, or 400+
mb. of packages! The essence of flexibility! Of course, you *could*
choose "custom"...go right ahead...
You'll ohh and ahhh as apt-get fails on package name lengths that are
too long!
You'll quiver as apt-get begins returning "E: pre depends" messages!
You'll dance as gdmconfig refuses to save a custom append line, forcing
you to edit /etc/gpm.conf by hand!
You'll writhe as gdmconfig tries to test your mouse and locks up the
keyboard!
You'll telnet in from other machines repeatedly to kill gdmtest!
You'll install xf86setup and find the actual command name is XF86Setup!
Of course, when you install xf86config, the name is xf86config (this is
an xfree thing, I know).
You'll visit the debian.org site approximately 3,596,391 times finding
out what package provides a command you need...since apt-get doesn't
have "what-provides" or query options.
Sigh. I know it's good stuff, but the initial and post-installation
configuration details are mind-numbing. Somehow, someway, people need to
be able to pick from more base installs, and there needs to be a higher
quality post-installation configuration system.
I'm almost there, but this is heinous. Maybe after installing SVGA16
XF86Setup will start working right. Main problem now is that when I log
in through gdm/helix gnome, there is no wm started -- just a gray
stipple and a single button 2 menu. sawfish is installed and configured,
but not launching I guess. Any help is appreciated.
---
John
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