On Thu, 2002-12-26 at 20:46, Hal Vaughan wrote: > I finally got Debian to install -- the packages that could not install were > all in Tasksel's "desktop" selection. > > When selecting modules to load, I selected ATI Radeon for DRM, and selected > ATI Radeon (I can't remember if it said ATI Radeon or just Radeon) for the > video card. I've tried installing by using Framebuffers and not using them > in X. I was trying to install w/ a resolution of 1152x8?? (can't remember), > which I've done with this computer and monitor before, but when I had > problems, I changed and used only resolutions of 800x600 and less. > > Debian installs okay, and after the install, if I run X Windows, I get a blank > screen. The monitor, which can detect a video signal, seems to be switching > on and off -- like it has a signal, then doesn't. Control-Alt-Backspace does > not do anything I can see. After repeatedly pressing Control-Alt-F2, I > finally got to my second console (the first was the one I ran StartX in) and > was able to do a ps -ax. I ended up just killing X. I wanted to try an app > that I've seen open it's own screen, so I did apt-get install tuxracer and > ran that. I've got a blank screen and can't seem to get back to a console > with control-alt-Fx. > > I've tried searching the archives, but for some reason the search system is > NOT responding (usually I find it slow, but tonight I'm not getting > anything). > > So it boils down to 3 questions: > > 1) What program can I run from the command line to configure/reconfigure X? XF86Setup (in the xf86setup package, which should be a standard part of installing X11.) > 2) Has anyone had a similar problem and know what I need? Do I need the GATOS > drivers for ATI? When I was looking at going with an ATI TV Tuner, I looked at GATOS, and in the end, I didn't see any particular benefit of it over xawtv, motv, mplayer or zapping (kwintv doesn't want to work, and some reports are that development has been abandoned.) I run Hauppage hardware, as the ATI card never did come through to my supplier, so I didn't get to tell whether there was anything particularly better about GATOS. > 3) Can anyone at all tell me what's going on, or at least tell me what M to > RTFM? M="Manualae" - the many, many sources of documentation that have developed through the years for Linux in general and Debian in particular. The Linux Documentation Project's HOWTOs, the man pages and info files, lists.debian.org and its archives, Google searches for web postings on how to make things work. There are even collections of information committed to dead trees. > > Thanks! > > > Hal > > (Is it true that once a Linux user finally gets over the install hurdle, they > find Debian the best distro out there? Is it worth all this when I can get > the same system up and running w/ Mandrake but still have to face RPM hell?) Debian only requires the one *install*, but once it is on the box, it is very solid, and it has various significant strengths: 1) It is on more cpu platforms than most, if not all, other distributions - major or minor. 2) Apt - nobody does anything like it. Once you install the system on a box, Apt will take you to an up-to-date platform - as up-to-date as you are willing to be. No need to get new installation cds to move from 7.0 to 7.1 to 7.2 to ... when the new release comes along and is issued as stable, an apt-get dist-upgrade will bring you up to the latest official release. 3) If stable is not current enough, testing is usually virtually flawless and not that far from the latest release of most software (except during a freeze prior to a stable release) and unstable is usually nearly as solid. 4) Sheer library of applications - having dealt with other distributions for various clients, the breadth of applications in the Debian pools available to be apt-gotten is totally amazing. Yes, there may be occasional frustrations about something not being there or as up-to-date as it is on some other systems (such as KDE being a *bit* delayed,) but for a volunteer project, to have so much more than pretty well any commercial distribution available right away is, quite simply, stunning. -- Mark L. Kahnt, FLMI/M, ALHC, HIA, AIAA, ACS, MHP ML Kahnt New Markets Consulting Tel: (613) 531-8684 / (613) 539-0935 Email: kahnt@hosehead.dyndns.org
Attachment:
signature.asc
Description: This is a digitally signed message part