Re: Newbie Debian user (cross post)

On 2006-05-18, Walterius <invalid@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Jimchip,

Etch installed without a hitch. I am happily Debian-ing. I got the Gnome
desktop and the 2.6 kernel by default, btw.

Hooray!

I did some preliminary setup (things like desktop background), but have not
yet begun installing packages.

You might want to check out (maybe download first, if necessary) the
Synaptics package....it is overall a very good "apt-get" Gui front end. It
does have a few bugs but they are minor...if it quits, just call it up
again...no harm, no foul.

When you get to installing KDE then start with etch and if you have problems
(you may not) then just add sid to the sources.list (don't replace the etch,
just add sid as a second package source.) The few problems with KDE I know
of depend on particular packages and the fact that etch isn't "full" yet.
(Sid is still in the process of being debugged into etch and a few KDE
gizmos are still unresolved.) If Sid is in your sources.list then don't do
an apt-get upgrade! Just use Synaptics to help you resolve individual
package dependencies.

I like the new version. I spotted one bug: System Log worked once, then
stopped, but you were right: etch is thoroughly usable.

It's pretty good. I had to get too far into unstable (Sid) for my own
comfort zone due to some "newer hardware" issues but I've been sitting with
etch for almost a month and I think that the next Debian stable release
(~Dec. 2006, maybe) will be impressive.

I couldn't find "Install more apps," so I'll use Synaptic.

OK, I sorta reply to messages as I read them :)

Jimchip, infinite thanks. I couldn't possibly have done it without you. I
was half an inch from giving up.

Aw shucks... :)

Once things are working then I don't usually dwell on the past but many
Debian developers realized that their "stable" releases were a little too
old, too fast. In your case, I think Sarge was too old a kernel and Xserver
for what you have.

It may be possible (I'm pretty sure they are trying hard) to have the
"rock-solid" stable that's also more current without sacrificing any of the
qualities that "stable" has. The current approach for some developers (that
I agree with) seems to be to to get to the "upstream" more quickly and
really hump it to move from "experimental" to Sid. At, least that's what the
X-StrikeForce did and it is working well for me (though the XStrikeForce
maybe didn't get to have enough sleep for about a week, awhile ago:)
http://wiki.debian.org/XStrikeForce

I remain a newbie, so I will have more questions, if it's OK with you. But
not one every five minutes, and not difficult technical ones. In fact I have
one now: how do I install KDE so I can play with it too?

I can't speak for anyone else but, IMO, most linux contributors to USENET
are more than happy to help out with the details of a new install..."under
the hood" there is so much that's similar and with many of the packages we
[TINW] share, there can be little difference among linux distros after the
install and upgrade methodology is disposed of.

The Debian linux mail-lists are a great source of information but you might
not want to directly subscribe to the mail-lists right away due to
the volume...they are mirrored to USENET although one can't reply via USENET
(read-only).

Walterius
Smiling in Fort Lauderdale

--
Some time ago, with a lot of help, I got a Slackware 0.9 kernel running on
my then, kickass, 486DX4 120. Luckily, my wife knew enough about computers
to be suitiably impressed when I showed her the root prompt, #.
.

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