[Sussex] debian and stuff

[John D.]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Steve Dobson" <SDobson at manh.com>
To: <sussex at mailman.lug.org.uk>
Sent: Wednesday, June 18, 2003 5:16 PM
Subject: RE: [Sussex] debian and stuff


<snip>
> The current stable version of Debian is 3.0 (code name "woody").
<snip>

Ok, so it'll be debian "woody" then.

<snip>
> Debian, as a volunteer developed OS, is best supported by
> the net.  You do a minimal install and then pull packages
> from the net.  As such it can be installed from two floppies.
> If you want CDs (or DVDs) then the ISO images are available
> on the web site (www.debian.org).  I recommend just pulling
> the first CD image and going for the network install - the
> instruction are all on the website.  Also check the SLUG
> archives as I've posted basic instructions there in the past.
<snip>

If I download from the net, then it would be as CD's. Then the part about
network install's is where the linux "dark magic" (no harry potter pun's
intended) comes in. Presumably, the however many CD's a full version would
come to (presuming 3), I don't really know what packages I should go for if
I went for the 1st CD approach. I mean, I know that there is probably loads
of stuff in my mandrake install that I don't need/use, but with my nugget
level knowledge, it concerns me that I would leave something out, or even
not know what I need, and my nugget level causes me unbelievable stress,
hence I just put everything in and take it from there, notwithstanding, that
when I installed the mandrake, I just told it to put all the "user" stuff in
and not the developer and server stuff.

<snip>
> ext3, reiserfs, etc are journalled filesystems.  Journal recovery
> is quicker after a machine crash than a fsck which is why (with
> disk getting very big) journalled filesystems are becoming common.
> The basic idea is that all updates to the file system are first
> written to a journal file before being written to the main file-
> system.  Each journalled filesystem has it supporters.
<snip>

An fsck??? Also then I would use the same ext2 as I have used for the
mandrake??

<snip>
> The one big thing to remember is that what ever filesystem you
> are using on your root partion much be compiled into the kernel
> (it cannot be a module!!!!!)
<snip>

Sorry, that's a bit over my head, I have heard of the differences between
main kernel things and modules, but what that would mean is another mystery
to me.

<snip>
> ext3 is an extension of ext2, and it is easy to upgrade from one
> to the other; no reinstall!  First check that your kernel supports
> ext3 ("cat /proc/filesystems" will list the file systems supported
> by the kernel; and "lsmod" lists the modules loaded - if ext3 is
> one of them then do not upgrade your root (/) filesystem).  Next
> run the command "tune2fs -j <dev>" to create the journal file.
> Then edit /etc/fstab and change the ext2 to ext3 for the device
> you have just changed.  Finally try to "umount" and then "mount"
> that filesystem, if you can't "umount" then rebooting is easiest.
<snip>

Whoosh - again, over my head

<snip>
> If you have install everything under one partion (as Geoff does)
> then upgrading to ext3 is an all or nothing approach.  If you have
> split the disk up into different partions (/, /usr, /home, ...)
> like I have then just pick one and try it out on that first.
</snipping>

I currently have everything in one partition, and although I have heard that
putting everything in different partitions is a good idea, I haven't the
foggiest idea how I would do that.

I am presuming that as I have my hard disc partitioned up as 44gig for
window$, and 70 gig for my mandrake, then I would shrink the windows (after
all 44 gigs is probably a bit much for a plain desktop system), then
reallocate the space and format as ext2, maybe the 1 gig I mentioned before
as swap, then seperate the 70 (or whatever) gig's for ext2 into 2 bits, one
for my mandrake and one for the debian.

Would that sound sensible?????

regards

John D:-|

p.s. Geoff, I thought that debian baiting had been outlawed alongside dog
and cock fighting:-)