I have used Debian before, but had to resort to user friendlier Linices. I now have a new installation of the latest stable. I am determined to get it to work as I want it. Insert a DVD, it should play. Sound should work without problems.

Anybody with any tips links about things to download. I have an ASUS Laptop X50GL, nvidia GeForce 9200 M card, 4 GB RAM.

A program that could pick up on wireless networks would be good as I don't yet have internet in my flat.

Hello,

If you have the full Debian 5 DVD then you'll have all you need at hand. Almost everything will work out of the box and that what doesn't can be set up to do so very fast (with a little help from LQ ).

About your last 'request':
Although programs like wicd 'pick-up' wireless networks in your environment I don't believe you are referring to those kind of programs but to programs that help you 'gain' access to the found networks since, as you stated, you don't have internet in your flat.

That would be considered hacking and help to perform these actions will not be offered at LinuxQuestions as far as I know. You can read the rules here.

Kind regards,

Eric

After I install a fresh copy of Debian, I will find the latest Ubuntu guide and add things I would need or want, such as the link below.

http://ubuntuguide.org/wiki/Ubuntu:Feisty

I did a net-install.

Various things do not work. Could you help me with them? Starting simply with networking.
I have a static network address here in the library. Ending in .67. I am connected right now, to write this. If I go to the symbol of two monitors on the upper task bar, a left click should show me a list of possible net connections. It shows nothing. In fact, a left click shows: No network devices have been found.
A right click shows a check box 'enable networking'
connection information, (light grey because there is no network, it says)
check box 'edit wireless connections
about nm-applet 0.6.6

Can we get this working properly? I have an nvidia ethernet thingy.

When you did your install did you install wicd or gnome-network-manager?
there are many tools available in the repos

just do

or just use synaptic

Well I just assumed gnome network manager was there. I will check it. The nm applet wouldnt be there without the nm, would it?

But problem NO.2 I have Debian installed on a 320 GB external hd, sdb1,1
The cable has two usb plugs running onto the same cable. I inadvertently plugged the wrong one in. Nothing would start. I thought something had gone wrong, so I put the install CD in. Ran rescue mode. I reinstalled grub. Now I can only boot if the external hd is plugged in. Otherwise I get error 21, whatever that is.

I have run update grub from Debian on hd1,1.
I have run update grub from Ubuntu on hd0,6
I have set groot to hd0,0. I have manually checked menu.lst. Everything is as it should be, as far as I can tell. But without the exthd , no boot.

Any tips?

I have network manager installed. I re-installed it, but it still says, 'no network devices have been found'

Hello,

Try with wicd:
It will remove network-manager if I'm not mistaking.

Kind regards,

Eric

Wicd is, in my opinion, a far better network manager then the default manager (n-m, the symbol of two monitors). Start off installing Wicd. And yes, installing Wicd will indeed delete the default n-m network manager. No problem there.

Wicd will allow you to 'see' available networks IF your card is configured. Whether you can access these will be determined by the security or lack of these networks. Hacking one is not the info you'll get here. Not a nice thing to do. But I'm sure you can dig it up some how.

Then you'll have to determine what internet card your laptop has. That will help in getting your wireless up. In most cases a driver or firmware for this card will need to be installed.

From a terminal type: lspci That should bring up a list of your hardware. Determine what kind of wireless card you have, version, model, etc, and come back.

Try installing Sidux. Its fast and uses the latest packages from the Debian repo's. I have a 1.7 gig install, very lightweight, and has performed very quickly and has no problems configuring the network. They have a tool called Ceni. Here's the link http://manual.sidux.com/en/internet-...#netcardconfig

Your wireless card (either add-on or on-board) probably needs some Win-drivers to work. If the hardware isn't properly configured, no manager can use it, no matter how good it's supposed to be :-\ Install the wireless tools, which includes iwconfig. Run, as root:This should list all wireless interfaces present. If that doesn't yield any results, try Again, as root. This only works if you have the lshw package installed btw!

Once you've determined what wireless chip is inside the adapter, you should locate a driver. Preferably one for Linux, but failing that the Win-driver could help: Google is your friend. In case of the latter, use ndiswrapper to 'package' the Win-driver into a usable state for the Linux kernel to fetch whatever data it needs from it.

As stated earlier by others, you will only get help to get your wireless working. Not on hacking any network you shouldn't be in.... :-\ Effectively, you're on the very sharp edge of being illegal. Don't push your luck, the mod's (and owner Jeremy) are very strict on illegal stuff....

Thank you all for the advice. The funny thing is, I have Ubuntu and Mandriva on my hard-drive. Networking and wireless worked first time and without a hitch. So this is not a hardware problem. As I said above, I have installed Debian before, but I´ve had to leave it, as things didn´t work, and I´m not an expert. But if Ubuntu can do it, so can DEbian. Why won´t it work? I will keep Debian on the ext. HD and file it and push it and prod it until it works.

The exact same network manager works in ubuntu. Why not here in Debian?

If it is an intel wireless, it is probably because Debian no longer ships the required binary blobs in the kernel. You may need to install the firmware-ipw2x00 package, but since you have not provided the output of lspci I can't know for sure.

Evo2.

Pedroski, forget the network manager for the moment. Nothing wrong with it. And that's not the reason for the lack of wireless connection.

Ubuntu, Mint and other distros come almost ready to work right out of the box. Others, like Debian and Slackware, need a little tweaking. Debian needs an addition to the /etc/apt/sources.list. That's the file that contains your repo list. More than likely you'll have to add some new sources to that file to get the apps needed to make your wireless card work. In particular a contrib non-free and multimedia source. You'll need those anyway, so add them.

Go to the top of the 'Debian' section here. There you'll see "Post your source.list". You'll need to know more about this matter and how to work with it. Really not much to it. And DO NOT add 10,000 new sources. Don't go ape adding new sources to that file. Not necessary. Just add ONE contrib non-free and ONE multimedia source. One of each.

After you tackle this subject you still need to know what kind of wireless card you have. Can't get around that. Focus young man. Fine out what your laptop has. Can't take another step without this information. Model, version, chip type, etc.

From a terminal did you key in lspci (as a user) or iwconfig -a (as root)

Also go to this site: http://www.debiantutorials.org/

Much info and howtos for Debian.

peter@peter-laptop:~$ lspci
00:00.0 Host bridge: nVidia Corporation MCP79 Host Bridge (rev b1)
00:00.1 RAM memory: nVidia Corporation MCP79 Memory Controller (rev b1)
00:03.0 ISA bridge: nVidia Corporation MCP79 LPC Bridge (rev b2)
00:03.1 RAM memory: nVidia Corporation MCP79 Memory Controller (rev b1)
00:03.2 SMBus: nVidia Corporation MCP79 SMBus (rev b1)
00:03.3 RAM memory: nVidia Corporation MCP79 Memory Controller (rev b1)
00:03.4 RAM memory: nVidia Corporation Device 0a98 (rev b1)
00:03.5 Co-processor: nVidia Corporation MCP79 Co-processor (rev b1)
00:04.0 USB Controller: nVidia Corporation MCP79 OHCI USB 1.1 Controller (rev b1)
00:04.1 USB Controller: nVidia Corporation MCP79 EHCI USB 2.0 Controller (rev b1)
00:08.0 Audio device: nVidia Corporation MCP79 High Definition Audio (rev b1)
00:09.0 PCI bridge: nVidia Corporation MCP79 PCI Bridge (rev b1)
00:0a.0 Ethernet controller: nVidia Corporation MCP79 Ethernet (rev b1)
00:0b.0 IDE interface: nVidia Corporation MCP79 SATA Controller (rev b1)
00:10.0 PCI bridge: nVidia Corporation MCP79 PCI Express Bridge (rev b1)
00:15.0 PCI bridge: nVidia Corporation MCP79 PCI Express Bridge (rev b1)
00:16.0 PCI bridge: nVidia Corporation MCP79 PCI Express Bridge (rev b1)
00:17.0 PCI bridge: nVidia Corporation MCP79 PCI Express Bridge (rev b1)
00:18.0 PCI bridge: nVidia Corporation MCP79 PCI Express Bridge (rev b1)
02:00.0 VGA compatible controller: nVidia Corporation GeForce 9200M G (rev b1)
06:00.0 Network controller: Atheros Communications Inc. AR928X Wireless Network Adapter (PCI-Express) (rev 01)