Hello all, I may be crazy but I'd like to begin my serious journey into Linux with Debian, having used Knoppix 3.3 previously from disk. I plan to install Debian onto this machine

Sager 5680 Laptop
15" screen, 1600x1200 Resolution, true color 32bit.
Dual Boot with WINXP PRO
3.0Ghz Hyperthreaded P4c 800FSB
1.0 GB RAM PC3200 LL
ATI Radeon 9600 Pro Turbo 128MB GFX card
Realtec gigabit LAN chip.
Realtec AC97 complient audio
US laptop keyboard (?)
Logitech MX 310 Mouse.
Toshiba DVD-RW Drive.
Hitachi 7200RPM 60 GB HDD (45 partitioned to WinXP, approx 12GB for Deb)
NO FLOPPY DRIVE (unless I switch out the modular bay 2nd battery)
1394 4pin Firewire port
USB 2.0 (x4)
Atheros Chipset 802.11a/b/g MINI-PCI module

Do you see any problem with this machine?

I have the large version of the Sarge netinstall CD. I would like to get the most up to date (working) version of Debian as possible. Including

2.6.x kernal, KDE 3.2.1, latest GNOME, SAMBA etc...

Is there a way to do that via this install method?

Next, is there anything special I must do to get a kernal with HT support? I have HT enabled in CMOS settings, but I read somewhere that at one time you had to get a special SMP compiled kernal. Can aptitude do that for me?

I'd definately like NTFS read support (and write, if at all possible) How would I go about obtaining that?

Should I install GRUB or LILO? Last attempt GRUB did not reconize my Windows partition and made it impossible to fix with the windowsXP recovery console. LILO from Mandrake10 was more easily remedied. With that said, where should I place the bootloader? I have 1 physical drive, with the first partition being NTFS winxp, and the 2nd being freespace that will be occupied by Linux+Swapfile. What linux filesystem should I use?

Also, I read that Debian has a tool that can read .rpm packages? Is this true, as the Linux ATI Radeon 9600 drivers only come in RPM format.

Whew...thats all I can think of for now. Anything else I should know?

Thanks so much for helping this poor

It should be fine, theres nothing in your machine that jumps out at me as being incompatable. If you've already had one Linux set up already then Debian should work fine.

For HT an smp kernel is best. I don't think you can do that straight in the install ( I could be wrong, the new installer might. ) but you can download and install a new smp kernel for your machine with apt-get.

To use KDE3.2 or other newer programs you'll have to allow your machine to use unstable(SID) packages, if you wish to keep your machine mainly at sarge(testing) you have to set your apt-get sources to have unstable available but set the options in /etc/apt/apt.conf/70debconf to prefer testing packages by adding the line

Then to get the stuff from unstable use "apt-get -t unstable". The Apt HOWTO has all the details.

I've had no problems with grub here booting windows. If it doens't automatically set up windows for you its very simple to add the appropriate commands to the /boot/grub/menu.list file

title Windows
rootnoverify( hd0,0 )
makeactive
chainloader +1

Will boot windows on the first partition of the main disk.

To use rpms in Debian you need the program Alien this will handle rpms for you.

Thanks for the info!

I don't mind upgrading to a full "Sid" distro instead of Sarge. Is there anything I have to do during install to get Sid files instead?

Are you saying that my NTFS partition will be viewed by grub/Linux as "hd0"? If so, what will my linux partition be? hd1? hda?

I'd like to be able to enable ntfs read support (I like how knoppix allows you to browse your NTFS part from an icon on the KDE desktop). Do I need to do anything special for this? I know SAMBA is involved somehow. Likewise, what do I need for NTFS write support? Is that even a good idea? I hear that there are some issues with it in older versions.

EDIT:

As soon as the installation is done, should I boot right into Debian, or should I use Aptitude and upgrade then? Can the GUI apt-get manager (Sym something...) be obtained via apt-get?

Arigatou Gozaimasu!

The best way to install debian unstable, is to use the CDs you've got to install a standard installation. Boot into it, then to edit the /etc/sources.list to point to unstable, instead of testing or stable.

The do an apt-get update, followed by apt-get dist-upgrade. This will fully upgrade your system to unstable. This is the simplest way to do this.

you can then do apt-get install, and it will get the packages from unstable. to get a good smp kernel for your system, after the dist-upgrade you'd do

apt-get install kernel-image-2.4.25-1-686-smp

or for the latest kernel

apt-get install kernel-image-2.6.4-1-686-smp

Then you can download alien, aptitude, etc. then to keep your system uptodate just

apt-get update
apt-get upgrade

Actually, i think that its just that grub uses a diffrent hard drive spec than lilo at least. i belive that that is hd(bios drive num, partition num.

To go to sid, you dont need to do anything other than change stable to unstable in your /etc/apt/sources.list.

Have you done linux on a laptop before? If so, then this wont be new to you, but i'll give the links anyhow.
<http://tuxmobil.org/>
<http://w1.894.telia.com/~u89404340/touchpad/> (I dont know what kind of touchpad you have, but if it's compatible with the Synaptics driver, then it is worth the look. Lots of very cool features in the driver.
<http://www.linux-laptop.net/> Your laptop isnt listed here, but if you have the chance after getting going post it here. Just for the community. (And post the HCL here!)

Nice hardware! Cant wait until my job moves to a new pay scale... then i'm going to get a new laptop. My ancient beast is great, but... i drool over the new thinkpads.

Thanks for the info! My touchpad is synaptics compatable, so those drivers will really help!.

Ok, I'm completing the netinstall and have gotten to the point of installing GRUB. It defaults to installing at "hd0".Do I want to install it at the beginning of the 2nd partition, using "hd0, 1" ?

I REALLY don't want to go through the hell of fixing the MBR from knoppix again.

Also, in everyone's opinion is GRUB a better bootloader than LILO? I've sorta gotten that impression but I'm just making sure.
Thanks!

The main diffrence between grub and lilo, is grub access a file called /boot/grub/menu.list when you boot to find the options. lilo has to be reinstalled after every change.

I prefer grub, because the syntax of the options, and I've found it more flexable than lilo, but its purely taste.

Write down the options that your current bootloader has. and add them to the fresh install, if the installer doesn't find them.

That raises a question: Debian installed me with Lilo, but how hard is it to switch to GRUB?

Ok, I shall stick with GRUB then. Where should I install it to, the hd0, or hd0, 1 ?

hd0 I think is the MBR in front of my first partition (winxp), and hd0, 1 is my newly created linux partition.


I really have no idea about converting from LILO to GRUB, but if uninstallation is any key, you simply could remove LILO, install GRUB, which would create a new MBR. Am I right?

You don't have to uninstall LILO or any bootloader, its simply overwritten. From what you've said Windows is on hda1(hd0,0), and Linux is on hda2(hd0,1). so hda(hd0) would be the logical place for the bootloader.

You'll have to set the booting of Windows in the /boot/grub/menu.list, with

title Windows
rootnoverify (hd0,0)
makeactive
chainloader +1

For the linux as an example of a 2.4.25 kernel ( The exact names will have to be changed to match although the grub install might do this for you. )

title Debian 2.4.25
root ( hd0,1)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.4.25 root=/dev/hda2

Thats about it really.

Can you use symlinks in grub?

I think it maybe possible to use symlinks, but its definitely not recommended.