Re: Simple little basic config questions

[brownh@hartford-hwp.com (Haines Brown)]

> I echo Colin's thought. Forget about "su" and use "sudo". It takes an 
> extra 5 keystrokes per command, but it "just works", and in my opinion 
> is better than forgetting you're root and doing something you don't want 
> to do.
> 
> apt-get install sudo
> visudo, add yourself a line similar to what's already there
> sudo command_to_be_run_as_root

Thanks, Kent, I'll follow your advice. But that brings up my next
elementary question: getting packages.

I ran # netselect-apt woody in the /etc/apt directory, and as a result
built a /etc/apt/sources list that had a US and a non-US site
uncommented. OK, so next I run (ignore line breaks):

  # apt-get install sudo
  Reading Package Lists... Done
  Building Dependency Tree... Done
  W: Couldn't stat source package list http://ftp.br.debian.org
  woody/main Packages
  (/var/lib/apt/lists/ftp.br.debian.org_debian_dists_woody_main_binary-i386_Packages)
     - stat (2 No such file or directory) 
  ... [same for three directories in each of the two source sites
       listed in sources list]
  W: You may want to run apt-get update to correct these problems
  E: Couldn't find package sudo

Well, running apt-get update just gives me exactly the same thing as
above. I added the following http subsection to /etc/apt.conf to enable
internet sources:

Acquire
{
  Retries "0";
  // I added this next subsection:
  http 
  {
    Proxy "http://127.0.0.1:3128";;
    Proxy::http.us.debian.org "DIRECT";  // Specific per-host setting
    Timeout "120";
    Pipeline-Depth "5";
    
    // Cache Control. Note these do not work with Squid 2.0.2
    No-Cache "false";
    Max-Age "86400";     // 1 Day age on index files
    No-Store "false";    // Prevent the cache from storing archives    
  };
};

// Things that effect the APT dselect method
DSelect 
{
  Clean "auto";   // always|auto|prompt|never
};

Haines