Re: Towards an instructive minimalist intall of Openbox
On Sun, 10 Aug 2014, Richard Owlett wrote:
> My goal: understand Debian from a fairly low level on up
> Environment: a laptop dedicated exclusively as a learning environment
> Resources: complete DVD sets for Squeeze and Wheezy (totally
> isolated from internet ;)
>
> History:
> When initially moving from Windows to Debian, installed Squeeze
> with Gnome2. A generally satisfactory experience though standard
> install had programs I would never use and was missing essential
> programs. I was tweaking it when I obtained Wheezy.
>
> Gnome3 is an ugly non-starter. Investigating relative merits of
> DE's led to understanding difference between a DE and a WM (thank
> you to list for educational posts).
>
> What should I be reading to understand:
> 1. what would be minimal set of programs to install?
> 2. what scripts get run after a cold or warm boot?
> (I've discovered I know less about that than I thought I did.)
I've already done what you want (and a little more) with this system.
It runs Wheezy 64-bit and Openbox with LXpanel. Nothing much more.
It'll work without LXpanel, if need be. The differences are: it's a
production system; it's networked; and it's not a laptop.
I kept detailed notes of every step and everything installed. Below is
an outline of the install with notes and references. I used a
NetInstall disk, but it will work with a DVD. Since you son't want
networking, just select NO when the installer asks if you want to set
it up. You'll have to manually add the rest of the DVDs to apt's
sources lists.
I'm posting to the list instead of privately sending it to you, so
others can comment or correct errors.
Enjoy.
B
============================ BEGIN ================================
I. INSTALL BASIC TERMINAL SYSTEM
A. Wheezy NetInstall CD (32 or 64-bit)
1. Do Standard Install (Expert Install not necessary)
a. Partition Drive(s) as you prefer
b. Set up Root & at least one User account
c. Enable Repositories & choose a mirror
2. System Task Selection
a. Pick 'Base System', at least
b. Do NOT select 'Desktop Environment'
(We want a terminal only system to start)
c. Pick 'Laptop', if installing on a laptop
d. Others? Depends on what you want.
B. Reboot (Remember to remove Install CD :-) )
1. Should be a terminal with a "login" prompt
2. Login in as normal user -- verify all is working
3. Become root: su - [ENTER]; enter root password
4. All the following below is done as root.
NOTE: sudo won't work. It's not set up.
II. EDIT REPOSITORY LIST
A. In a root terminal: 'nano /etc/apt/sources.list'
1. Comment out the Install CD -- no longer needed
2. Append "contrib" & "non-free" (without quotes) to other repos.
3. Comment out Source Repos. You don't need them.
4. CTL+W to save; CTL+X to quit nano
5. 'apt-get update', then 'apt-get upgrade'
III. INSTALL X
A. Quick & Dirty, but bloated: 'apt-get install xorg'
B. Lean & Mean: 'apt-get install xserver-xorg-core xinit'
C. Reboot. Login as regular user.
D. Type 'startx'
X startup text will flash by in terminal. If you don't get an error, X is running. Screen will be black without a cursor, IIRC. CTL-ALT-BACKSPACE to quit X and return to terminal. If you did get an error, you'll be returned to the terminal automatically. Check dmesg and logs for errors. Troubleshoot.
IV. INSTALL OPENBOX, ET AL
A. Become root
B. 'apt-get install openbox obmenu menu xterm' (or other X terminal)
C. Reboot. Login with your regular username
D. Type 'startx' Screen will be black as before but with a cursor
E. Right click mouse
Does a floating menu appear? Yes? Click 'Terminal Emulator'
Does the terminal appear? Does it accept commands?
F. Open obconfig & configure Openbox to your liking
AT THIS POINT THE BASIC SYSTEM AND GUI ARE INSTALLED, AND READY TO USE. OF COURSE, YOU HAVE NO APPS OR SOUND OR PRINTING, ETC.
V. INSTALL SOUND
A. Become root
B. 'apt-get install alsa-base alsa-utils alsamixergui libasound2-plugins pulseaudio pavucontrol paprefs paman pulseaudio-module-x11'
C. Configure
VI. PRINTERS AND PRINTING
A. 'apt-get install cups' should do it
VII. INSTALL USEFUL SYSTEM FILES
A. udev, the HAL replacement.
Udev can do a lot of things other than automounting removeable devices, but you have to write "rules" to do it which is what I did. And what a bitch it was. However, after doing all that I came across udisks and udisks-glue which do the same thing without rules. So, install
B. udisks & udisks-glue, too
VIII. USEFUL UTILITIES
LXPanel -- Gives a menu, launcher, pager, applets, etc.
dosfstools, ntfs-3g
curl, bzip2
ufw -- Uncomplicated Firewall, frontend for iptables
ntp (Network Time Protocol daemon), ntp-doc
feh (See Note 3)
IX. INSTALL APPS -- Whatever you want.
REFERENCES
http://linux-sxs.org/
http://www.linux-tutorial.info/index.php
http://www.debian-administration.org/articles/410
https://wiki.debian.org/Openbox
https://wiki.gentoo.org/wiki/Openbox/HOWTO
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Openbox
http://urukrama.wordpress.com/openbox-guide/
http://openbox.org/wiki/Help:Contents
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/PulseAudio
http://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/Software/PulseAudio/Documentation/User/PerfectSetup/
https://wiki.debian.org/ALSA
http://www.linux.com/news/hardware/peripherals/180950-udev
http://www.linuxformat.co.uk/wiki/index.php/Connect_your_devices_with_udev
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Udev
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Udev#Automounting_UDisks_Wrappers
https://soosck.wordpress.com/2011/01/19/improved-udev-rule-arch-linux/
http://sysadmincorner.wordpress.com/2012/04/05/writing-custom-udev-rules/
http://reactivated.net/writing_udev_rules.html
http://shallowsky.com/blog/linux/udev-cardreaders-update.html
http://blog.fpmurphy.com/2011/08/introduction-to-udisks.html
https://wiki.debian.org/tasksel
NOTES
1. Reboot after each section, and install as little as possible at a time. Then, if there is a problem, troubleshooting it will be easier.
2. After the basic system is installed, check and record Dependencies, Recommends, and Suggests before saying "Yes" to the file(s) being installed. You may come across things you want to install, or files that may "break" or "conflict" with something already installed.
3. To put a nice jpeg background image on the screen, install feh, a commandline file viewer, that can load a background image on startup. Follow the instructions to have Openbox run it when it starts.
4. By default, networking is "wire" only unless you chose the 'Laptop' task, then you should have wireless as well after the basic install completes.
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