Hi all,

I want to ask some questions are Debian, I have the Woody 7CD install Disc then my friend give me, I know it is base on kernal 2.2, and all old KDE and Gnome Desktop.

I want to make Debian be my Server and Desktop PC, and will self-learning it later to pass the LPI Level 1 Exam, it is why I choose Debian, LPI I want to choose the DKPG way to exam not the RPM, afraid the depend on problems in RPM will let me hard to pass the LPI 101 exam.

I also try using those 7 CD to install Debian on my 6 year old IBM Aptiva PC, but failed to install the X-Windows, KDE, Gnome etc, but I can install the base system on this PC just fine.

Now, on the next week end, I will try to using this CD to install again on a newer PC, I want to ask, Woody Debian, after install the base system, how to not using the other CD to install the X-Windows and Gnome 2.6, KDE 3.2? Can anyone give me the step by step example using apt-get install from internet and ftp, how to add other list to the /etc/apt that can let me upgrade the stable version (Woody) Debian to kernal 2.4 or 2.6 with Gnome 2.6, KDE 3.2, apache 2.x, MySQL 4.x, sendmail 8.12.x, bind 9.x server system? Since I am not too understand how the apt working, and the Offical Debian install manual is write too bad, no image, hard for Debian begineer, I have experience on RH 9, FC1, just discover Debian is hard to install well than RH9, FC1 with no image manual and hard to find some newer Debian book from book store :-(

Anyway, thank for your time to read this message

Debian Woody is very stable and if you want a stable server, that's the way to go.

However, Woody has pretty old software. If you want a desktop system, you'll probably want either Sarge or Sid. Check out here what versions of software Sarge and Sid have to offer:

http://www.debian.org/distrib/packages

If your sources.list is not yet set up, do "apt-setup". If you want to change your Woody installation into Sarge or Sid, you need to edit your /etc/apt/sources.list and change every "stable" entry into "tesing" (for Sarge) or "unstable" (for Sid). Then do (as root) "apt-get update" and "apt-get -f dist-upgrade". This should make your Woody installation to turn into Sarge or Sid -- whichever you decide to choose.

Of course, you'll need to have a working network connection to perform these changes.

The best way to upgrade the system from Woody to Sarge or Sid is to do at first just the basic installation, and then to do the upgrade and to install the "x-window-system" and "kde" and "gnome" packages afterwards (plus all the additional software you want).

Thx a lot of your kind teach, I will follow your suggestion install Woody base system, later upgrade it to "Test" version Debian be my Desktop, if I have any error or problems later, I will post on this message.

This forum is the one I see have many kind people there :-)

Oh, I'm no teach although I may at times sound like one.

One more advice I seem to remember reading: you should at first do "apt-get update" && "apt-get upgrade" in your Woody system. Then edit the sources.list to point to Sarge or Sid and do "apt-get update" && "apt-get -f dist-upgrade".

Some people say that this is the way to go...