[SLUG] Debian Specific Questions

[Gavin Baker]

On Mon, 2002-10-28 at 14:51, Adams, Jamie wrote:
> Well, I have finally managed to succesfully install Debian 3.0. The
> installation was far from straight forward, though I think I can put this
> down to my unfamiliarity with the package handling system. The graphics card
> was a nightmare to set up, I have'nt even attempted the sound card yet.

The installer isn't as friendly as some distro's, i agree. The next
debian stable release will use the new installer which will make it much
simpler.

For anyone that is interested in installing woody, but is put off by the
installer, http://archive.progeny.com/progeny/pgi/ contains a woody
install cd which uses (the much more friendly) "Progeny Graphical
Installer".

It's a bit of a shame that most of the woody reviews i've seen, seem to
concentrate on the installer so much. It seems none of them actually use
debian... just install it.

Do you know what kernel module your sound card needs? (lspci and
google.com/linux is the easiest and quickest way to find this out).

If you do know, then just run "modconf" and select the module.

You will have to add the user to the audio group if you want him to be
able to use it. "adduser bob audio", then get bob to log out and back in
again. ("id" will show what groups you are part of)

[ cat /dev/urandom > /dev/dsp is a good way to test that sound is
working ]

> I have a couple of questions which I was unable to find an answer to after a
> quick search through google. I thought I would ask here before having a
> detailed look.
> 
> 1.	So far the Apt system seems very good, though I am not very familiar
> with it yet. I get a bit confused between the apt-get and dpkg commands.
> Anyway, I digress.. Is there a way to manage source installations
> (.tar.gz's) with the apt system? I dont think you could with RPM, but having
> the reportedly excellent apt system has made me a bit paranoid about having
> these src files lying around mucking up dependancies. Can they be installed
> with apt or dpkg? or maybe even turned into debs somehow?

The most important command is "apt-get moo" ;)

I started answering these questions, but then remembered the apt-howto,
which does a much better job than i could. "apt-get install
apt-howto-en" and point your browser at
/usr/share/doc/Debian/apt-howto/index.en.html.

Everything you asked about is explained well in that howto.

I don't know whether it mentions this, but if you get upstream source
(ie, source directly from somewhere like mplayerhq.hu instead of from a
source deb), and the source contains a debian/ directory. You can build
a .deb with "fakeroot debian/rules binary". The source debs are simpler
because you can tell apt to also get the build dependancies.


> 2.	Debian, for some reason or another does not colour the file names
> and directories in the console, all the previous distributions I have tried
> do this automatically. I find it quite hard to live without :) I seem to
> remember this being mentioned in a previous posting but I cant find it.

vim ~/.bashrc, uncomment the alias ls='ls --color=auto' line.

When you create a new user, files from /etc/skel/* are copied to the new
home directory of the user. /etc/skel contains a .bashrc and a
.bash_profile. So to enable colour for all new users just uncomment that
line in /etc/skel/.bashrc also.


> 3.	(Gavin specific) When you logged in to your system you had a nice
> big red ascii debian logo. Where can I get this from?

apt-get install linuxlogo

> 4.	Does anyone know where I can get the Microsoft core web fonts from
> now? I tried installing the msttcorefonts deb package, it tries to fetch
> them from the microsoft server, but they are no longer there.

Microsoft removed them a couple of weeks ago. Grab em from
http://corefonts.sourceforge.net/ and just tell the msttcorefonts
debhelper dialogue where they are.

> Fingers crossed this should be my last install for quite a while!
:)

Let me know if theres anything else. Debian can be frustrating if your
used to the redhat/mandrake way (until you get used to it).

Regards,
Gav