What documentation and what order

["David A. Rogers" <darogers@xnet.com>]

I've used Unix and other Linuxes for some time now, but I am just starting to
use Debian.  What documents should I read and in which order to get up do
speed on how Debian does things?  Would it be better to read a book?  If so,
which one?

I particular, I am interested in:
- Setting up X.
- Setting up mail (end user not server) i.e. I have an ISP that stores my mail
  and forwards it.
- Recompiling the kernel
- Setting up sound (either OSS or ALSA)
- Debian tips and tricks - I found out about alternatives on this list.  Cool
  idea.
- Debian uses a lot of indirection.  Ex. The contents of /etc/modules/ALSA
  gets plunked into modules.conf after update-modules is run.  Where is stuff
  like this documented?


Some things I've run into already.

Both the alsa source and kernel source were installed as packed files.  Why
didn't apt-get unpack them for me?

I finally figured out where the were.  How was I supposed to know where
apt-get put them?

Under Mandrake, the standard module drivers for the Crystal sound cards have a
really annoying click every time a sound is played.  Is this true for Debian?

I've been trying to get ALSA set up.  From searching the web, it looked like
pervious kernels had matching alsa-modules-(kernel version number) packages.
alsa-cache search doesn't find one for 2.2.17 (potato).  It looks like I've
got to build them.  Why the change?

Thanks,
dar

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