Re: Help needed setting up Debian

From: Michael Janis (mjanis_at_chem.ucla.edu)
Date: 08/20/04

  • Next message: Eric Gaumer: "Re: ./configure pb or faulty configure.in?"
    To: debian-user@lists.debian.org
    Date: Thu, 19 Aug 2004 15:23:04 -0700
    
    

    Hi Glenn,

    If you are using the sarge installer CD, it should bring you to several
    options for package selection after rebooting (part of the base-config
    dialog). If you choose tasksel, one option is to install a task (such
    as desktop environment) which will then download a variety of packages,
    such as XFree86, GDM, etc. Simply pressing enter or space bar next to
    each task will allow you to select these tasks.

    However, if you are past the install stage (I presume you are) then
    don't despair! There are a number of ways of installing packages and
    tasks in debian, which has an excellent package management system. I
    suggest using aptitude, which can be launched with '# aptitude' (note
    that to install you'll have to switch to root). Information on aptitude
    is extensive (for example:
    http://www.debian.org/doc/manuals/reference/ch-package.en.html) and best
    of all it's easy to use, solves dependencies automatically for you, and
    can handle recommended suggested packages automatically for you as
    well. It's graphical, and you can select packages simply by pressing
    '+' next to the package (or task - note that there are tasks at the
    bottom of the list, including a desktop environment). After you press
    '+' next to your desired packages or tasks, pressing 'g' will take you
    to a confirmation page listing which packages (dependencies, recommended
    packages to accompany your package selection) aptitude will install.
    Pressing 'g' again will proceed with package installation. If you get
    stuck, or can't remember the keys, simply pressing F10 will take you to
    the drop-down menus, which can be navigated using the arrow keys.

    Several useful keys are the '^' key, which will take you to the head
    subject of a particular expanded package list, '-' which will remove a
    package, and '=' which will disallow aptitude from installing /
    upgrading a package.

    aptitude uses the same sources file (/etc/apt/sources.list) that apt
    uses. If you desire contrib, non-free, etc. packages you can simply add
    a source listing to this simple text file. Take a look at the
    sources.list file; it's easy to interpret.

    Hope this helps, and welcome to Debian! I am a recent convert from RH9
    and, like me, I think you'll find that using Debian makes linux fun
    again!

    Yours,

    Michael Janis
    UCLA graduate student, bioinformatics

    On Thu, 2004-08-19 at 14:34, Glenn Keenan wrote:
    > I am a complete newbie to Debian and just installed it using sarge.
    > Install went fine, machine rebooted without a problem, continued
    > install over network via http and then got to the package
    > installation. Here is my problem. I canĒt figure out how to actually
    > select the package I want (desktop environment). IĒve tried all the
    > keys and only the arrow keys and the enter key seem to do anything, so
    > I canĒt select a package. Can someone tell me what IĒm doing wrong?
    > Thanks for the help.
    >
    >

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  • Next message: Eric Gaumer: "Re: ./configure pb or faulty configure.in?"

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