Re: new to debian have questions
On Tue, Jun 19, 2001 at 04:23:23AM -0700, abram olson wrote:
> 1. I prefer my machine to boot to a command prompt
> not to boot into X. Its set up to be using gdm.
> Where do I change this? Can someone point me to a
> good explanation of how debian boot scripts are
> organized? Which init level is multi-user without X?
> In mandrake its 3 but that is halt in bsd if I'm
> remembering correctly so.....
Debian does not put extra meaning into runlevels, like some other
distributions do. This means that you keep the freedom to give runlevels
a different interpretation on say, a workstation, a firewall or any
other system that can be in different operative states.
In debian, if you don't want X11, don't install it. It's not installed
by default. This may seem strange when you want to install your friend's
desktop, but it is less strange when you want to install a client's
new firewall.
> 2. apt-get. wow. how cool is that? Now, if my
> machine only had internet access. I'm downloading all
> the packages I want to use that weren't on the cd on
> my friends dialup and then moving them to my machine.
> How can I set up apt-get to use a local directory (in
> addition to the cd's)? or do I have to dpkg -i all of
> em? To complicate matters I prefer to build from
> source. I've got source of a whole slew of programs I
> want to install and I can't make use of them ;-) I
> feel dumb.
Apt-get is generally much cooler when run as a dselect method. It will
save you many pains if you take 30 minutes to learn the principles behind
dselect and its slightly weird key assignments (it's still much easier
to learn than vi).
People who tell you to use apt-get directly are generally ill-informed.
If you do not understand what dselect does for you, that means that
you have to do it yourself if you don't use dselect. Unfortunately,
it seems that many people do not understand what dselect is supposed
to do. Using only apt-get instead of dselect is a major step back in
appreciation of debian technological sophistication. Again, many of
the fierce proponents of apt-get only are plain misguided. Don't let
them misguide you too.
If you find dselect hard and the manpage vague, there is a proposed new
manual page available at:
http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-0107/msg00641.html
You can use dselect (and apt-get) to use local packages. What you must
do, is to maintain your own packages repository, just like the main
debian repository is maintained. It means putting new packages in the
right directory and pruning older version when newer version appear.
Most important is to create a Packages file for your local repository,
using dpkg-scanpackages. IIRC it is in the dpkg-dev package.
When you have created a local mirror, just add a line for it to
/etc/apt/sources.list and fire up dselect and do an update.
If a few packages does not warrant the work of maintaining your own
archive in your assesment, then you have to use plain dpkg. Be sure
to read its manpage thoroughly. Generally, "dpkg -iGEB" is preferable
over plain "dpkg -i" and you can use "dpkg -iGEB a.deb b.deb" if the
packages a and b have cross-dependencies.
> 3. Any idea why mouse wheel works for most everything
> except quake3? That made a beginner of me again too.
No. If I play these games too much, I start doing it in my sleep as well.
That scares me a lot.
Cheers,
Joost
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