I recently got my Pentium 3 to triple boot after much head-pounding with mepis' horrible grub (see signature). Ubuntu fixed all, and now I happily boot between Ubuntu, Fedora, and XP.

I do not generally have access to the internet (wifi=pain, and haven't sprung for 150ft ethernet cable yet) on that machine, although I can lug it to the router occasionally.

I was wondering how to install KDE & the Keramic theme (not a GNOME fan, sry) on Ubuntu via apt-get or by finding .debs. The later sounds like dependency hell waiting to happen, so my guess is that I will lug computer to router and use apt get. The thing is, how do I configure apt -get ? (intermediate rpm-based user but debian newb) What invocations do I use (i.e. apt .....)? Do you guys have any .deb repository recommendations?

On a tangent, if I get things like xine (and libdvdcss) separately, is there a .deb command similar to the "rpm" command in fedora? If so, what is the syntax?

Another thing, what is the difference between "testing", "stable", and "unstable"?

Any help on this newb stuff greatly appreciated. BTW, ubuntu runs faster than x86_64 Suse (IMHO).

Thanks,
James

You probably want to go with the testing distrobution, unless you need an absolutely solid system. I started with Woody (which is the stable distro) but it didn't support my graphics chipset very well, so I decided to go with Sarge (testing distro) and upgrade the kernel to 2.6.8, my system works GREAT! Sid(unstable) is for those on the developing edge of Debian, or for those who like to live dangerously in general.

The aptitude front end for apt is extraordinary, easy to use, and versatile. Check out www.debian.org for a list of mirrors which contain stable, testing, and unstable distros of Debian. You can add the sites using the base-config front-end or by editing the /etc/apt/sources.list to include the mirror that you choose.

Hope this helps... good luck, I think Debian is great, and I don't see any need to try other distros at all.

If you get individual packages you can use dpkg -i filename.deb to unpack and setup the package. If you need to go back and change the configuration (for example your xserver) you can use dpkg-reconfigure xserver-xfree86 (NOTE after you install the package you do not use the full file name) do a man dpkg for any questions on other uses.

I'm not sure if Ubuntu has the base-config front-end or not as I have never used it.

I checked Ubuntu's website, and it basically says that Ubuntu is a "testing" Debian distro. It uses kernel 2.6.8.

audibel, you answered all of my questions except one.
What are the specific apt (or aptitude) calls for KDE? (Ubuntu "is" Debian, i just didn't want to burn 7 cds (Ubuntu is one cd with 3 cds worth of packages compressed).

like:

#apt ....
or
#aptitude ...

BTW... thanks, aptitude seems sweet

I'm not too sure on that, as I don't use the apt apps individually and I only use aptitude as #aptitude... I know there is apt-get, but that's all. Glad you like aptitude, I think it's the greatest thing since sliced bread. When I installed woody, All I had was dselect, it was no fun at all.

dselect??!! dselect sounded like trouble from the get go. Personally I don't think that one should have to learn several commands, rifle through 8300 descriptions, try to boot, only to fail and have to install more packages....

I think its better to get a base install and THEN mod it.

Actually, dselect can be quite handy in certain situations. Not everyone has a graphical display on their system, so aptitude isn't always the answer. I find that dselect can be VERY handy if I am just looking for a specific package and don't quite know what the heck it is called. I use dselect to find the name, then immediately quite out of dselect and use apt-get to actually grab it and install.

then I guess it is handy post-install.

Could I use it to install KDE? (using real Debian disks as source for packages)

I don't see why you couldn't use it. The user interface of dselect take a bit of getting used to, as the commands are a bit arcane, but it does work so long as you take care in what you are doing. All it really is is a curses front-end to apt, the same as aptitude is an X front-end to apt.

No, aptitude is a text-mode frontend. Perhaps you're thinking of synaptic?

Oh jeez! You are absolutely right in that. I'm an idiot sometimes.

You just have to change stable or testing in your /ect/apt/sources.list to sarge or unstable, then you run apt-get update and you will be able to install KDE3. After the installation, you can change your sources.list back to normal.

Go to http://www.debian.org/doc/manuals/ap.../index.en.html to learn how to work with apt.
I find it more convenient then Aptitude or Synaptic in most cases.

If you want to install from CD, I think you should do: "apt-cdrom add" (make sure you have the CD inserted...) - this is also explained in the above link.

If you want to keep a mixed system (e.g. have the 'unstable' version of KDE), you should have a source (in sources.list) pointing to 'unstable', then do: apt-get -t unstable install kde.

If you want to use CD as your source then I guess you will have to get a sid (unstable version) CD - I think there is NO official sid ISO images available for download, but you may find unofficial ones. Not sure about this (last paragraph). You should check further.

to install kde, do the following

edit your /etc/apt/sources.list file and put in testing (sarge) or unstable (sid) where it says stable (woody), by the way, sarge is going to be the new stable soon and they will come up with a new name for testing, sid will remain unstable just as he was in Toy Story

apt-get update, then
apt-get dist-upgrade, reboot just to make sure, then
apt-get install kde

if you do not have x windows installed do
apt-get install x-window-system
reboot

when you login, type startx and kde should load

what kind of video card do you have? you might want to run dpkg-reconfigure xserver-xfree86 before you run startx, this will setup your video and monitor and screen resolution, stuff like that.

best place to go is the post-installation thread at the top of the debian forum which is here

The video card I have on that computer is a NVIDIA Geforce 256 (32MB)
The monitor is some random 15" Dell that goes up to 1280x 1024.

Thanks for all of the apt invocations and aptitude/synaptic instructions, now I just need good "unstable" sources for download...hmm....

any recommendations?

ftp://ftp.us.debian.org/debian/pool/main

That holds are distros... the packages list is on the same site, just ftp around a little... something like debian/distrs/unstable/