[Date Prev][Date Next] [Thread Prev][Thread Next] [Date Index] [Thread Index]

Re: Not a query, but an observation.



DonDashGuitar wrote:
Boot method:  Net install.  I've done four of them so far.

Image version: 31R2i386netinst

Date:  The last was today (6-18) and the others over the last week or so.

1.    IBM, Aptiva, 266 MHz, AMD-K6tm with 128 MB RAM
2.    Dell, OptiPlex G1, 333 MHz, Intel, Celeron, 192 MB RAM
3.    Generic (white box), 500 MHz, P3, 192 MB RAM
4.    Generic (white box) 500 MHz, P3, 256 MB RAM

These computers have either a 4.0 or 4.3 GB hard drive with two partitions,
swap and hda1

Output of lspci and lspci -n:    I don't understand this question.
Once booted into Debian, you can run "lspci" to get a listing of the known PCI-type devices.

Comments/Problems:

Three of them booted into Gnome after installation and one booted into KDE.
Why is that?
I have no clue. I generally don't install extras during the initial installation, but finish the bare install and then install only what I want afterwards. However, if I recall correctly, during the "big" install you're asked which login manager (kdm, gdm, etc) you want to use, and I suspect that if you chose KDM on the last install, it would default to starting KDE, where GDM would default to starting Gnome. But that's just a guess.

Each of these computers was able to operate with a screen resolution of 1024
by 768 with DSL installed (or, for that matter, with their original Windows
operating systems).  The first three will now do no better than 800 by 600
and the fourth is 640 by 480.   All were installed and tested using the same
17" monitor.  Additionally, none of them seem to have any sound.
I'll agree that setting up Debian, particularly X and sound, is often more difficult than with other distros. On the other hand, as is often pointed out, for any particular box, you generally only install Debian once, and then upgrade forever.

In addition, and this is important, Debian runs on a lot more architectures than the other distros do. Thus, the installer can't be customized as easily to detect x86 hardware as is done on other x86-only distros without adding some cross-platform complexity.

Now that you have the basics up and running, you can reconfigure your X settings with the command "dpkg-reconfigure xserver-xorg" (probably - some assumptions made on my part). Also, new users likely need to be added to the "audio" group in order for sound to work for them. "adduser dondashguitar audio" followed by a logout/login may solve your sound issues.

<Description of the install, in prose, and any thoughts, comments and ideas
you had during the initial install.>

I was astonished and pleased that a pure Debian install has such an
incredible amount of software.  I am frustrated and disappointed that while
there's a wealth of documentation it is so incredibly difficult to find any
specific information.   Before I finally resolved a problem with the bios
recognizing the CD drive on one of these units I decided to try using a boot
floppy.  I learned how to create the boot floppy from documentation I found
on the RedHat site (I am highly skilled in the use of google) and learned by
inference, from the available files, that it takes three floppies (instead
of one), and spent most of a frustrating hour learning that Windows XP will
not (repeat not) create a floppy from a file named "cd-drivers.img", nor
will XP create a floppy if the file is renamed "cddrivers.img" but it
created the file with no problems if it was named "cddr.img" and, happily
enough, the Linux installer wasn't picky about the name assigned to the
third floppy..
I don't reckon I've ever tried to burn a CD image from within Windows. I very much despise all things Microsoft (yes, it's a religious/philosophical bias, not a practical one), so I don't have that much experience with the burning tools in XP.

Why is the oldest and most respected Linux distro so incredibly difficult to
install?
See above.
Using these four computers I've experimented with live CDs and in some
cases, installed versions of Beatrix, caos, DSL, DSL-N, elive, feather,
Kanotix, Knoppix, Kubuntu, PCLinuxOS, Puppy, Slax, STX, Ubuntu,
Vectorlinux, and Xubuntu.  Insofar as I can recall, all of these were less
complicated to install than Debian;
I believe all of these are restricted to x86 hardware, also. A smaller range of hardware to support makes it easier to produce an easier installation routine.

This is an
amazing distro.  Having seen it, I don't know how I could even consider
using anything else.
I'm glad you like it. I am a Debian fanatic; other Linux distros just don't do it for me.

--
Kent



Reply to: