Hi All

when i went looking for Debian I found 7 binary-iso's, 1 NONUS-iso, an update iso etc....before i start downloading...are all seven necessary? What is a NONUS-iso?

still a newbie...looking to try another distro....help me please?

i know if i googled and read and googled and read i could find out the answers but the answers i get from LQ are worth more to me....

Thanks in advance
Tom

If you have broadband, you can just install a minimal Debian from the first CD, and pull anything else you need from the web.

You definitely don't need all 7 iso's. The best way to do a debian install is to download a net install cd and it'll download the packages as needed in the install.

Of course that doesn't work so well if you don't have a decent internet connection. Of course downloading the 7 iso's isn't going to be much better if you don't have a decent internet connection....

Thanks Big Al

quick answer..appreciate it...i do have broadband...is it worth downloading all seven? are there alot of extra's that make it worthwhile?

Tom

You can get everything that's on the cd's just by using apt-get. By downloading your programs with apt-get instead of the cd's, you will get the most up to date programs. So just use one cd to install and then download what you need by internet. Get x-server, xfree86 and your favorite windows manager as soon as you can and you will be good to go.

I also love Mepis. I gave a really nice install with Synaptic and access to all the Debian packages. It recogonized my equipment including Nvidia. I have tried several distros including Suse6.0 and Mandrake7.0. Since I have gotten back into Linux, I have been tinkering with various distros some which I really like but I really feel comfortable with MEPIS.

I think I'll go ahead and send Warren a $10.00 registration. It was worth it.

Thanks for the advice guys

1 cd & apt-get ....gotcha

Thanks again
Tom

You're welcome, Tom! Let us know how it goes for you!

Hi Serrano! I paid for the premium download and bought a registration for Mepis. I was that impressed with Mepis. It's the first time I actually felt it was worth paying for a distro. I thought it was deserved because of how easy it was to install and the fact that I didn't have to do any configuration to get it to recognize and run my hardware correctly.

Hi folks,
Please guide me in my first steps into the Debian world!
I want to install the latest stable release, which I believe came out in Jan'05 as Woody, right?
OK, I know I can manage with just the first .iso out of all seven of them.
I told jigdo to download the first image using http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian/, and it just finished assembling debian-30r4-i386-binary-1.iso. So, is this the right image???
I burnt it and booted my machine with it. It looks fine, only that I am not sure I am using the latest stable release... it says something about the 2.2 kernel... which kernel does Woody come with?
Thanks in advance!

I can tell you right now, there are very few reasons to have Woody, especially because Sarge will be going stable in the very near future. Woody is considered ancient. Debian is known for their stability. Sarge is more stable than most other distros out there.

I expect the one you really want is the Testing (currently "Sarge") Net-Install CD which is here:

http://cdimage.debian.org/pub/cdimag...86-netinst.iso

The CD you just got is the first of the 7 Woody disks, and yes, 2.2 is what Woody defaults to. Testing has packages that have been deemed stable enough (I haven't experienced any big problems), and you get new programs - Firefox 1.0 was in about 10 days after its release on the official page if I remember right.

OK, thanks a lot for the wise words!
I just wasn't sure how stable Sarge was... but I have a good reference now, I'll take your word for it!
I am going to download Sarge's netinst cd then and forget about Woody
One last question, I read something about the standard kernel not
having SMP support. I plan to install on a couple of IBM dual-processor servers (Netfinity).
Will I need to tweak Sarge in any way?
Once again, thank you! I'm looking forward to being a new happy Debian user

I'm using the 2.6.8-1-686-smp kernel with my P4 Hyper Threading processor, it detects the "two processors" of HT - works for me. So I expect all you'll need to do it apt-get a different kernel (like the one I have - with smp in the name).