I'm brand new to Linux/Debian. I have downloaded ISOs 1-5 in the x86 category from this site. I was able to install Debian from Cd 1, but I can't get any further. When I put in all the other CDs, nothing happens. I can read the CDs in Windows, so I know the programs are there. I read how to use "apt-get install filename" to install one of the programs on CD 2, but when I run this command I'm told that Debian needs about a dozen dependencies to install. How do I know which CD has these dependencies, where I can find the dependencies for each program, why aren't the dependencies on CD 2 if that's where the program is, etc?

I've been a Windows person for several years and am trying to switch to Linux, but I'm a GUI person, not a command line person. Debian is not making it easy. Is there even a GUI interface with Debian or is it entirely command line? Thanks for the help in advance.

You could install Synaptic (a GUI frontend to apt). As far as which cd to put in, apt will tell you when it wants to retrieve it. However, you must first configure apt to know which packages are in what cd... hopefully you did this at install time.

Thanks, but I tried Synaptic, and Debian didn't find it. As far as I know, I didn't configure apt to know where anything is on the other CDs.

then you should run "apt-cdrom add" to add the cds. IIRC you have to run this once for each disk.

I guess at this point, my original problem is solved. I'm not sure exactly what has happened, but I ran into all kinds of problems. I could not get a GUI to load. I could not get a network connection configured. I ended up reinstalling everything. I have a GUI interface now. It seems that something didn't load correctly the first time. I'll see about tackling the network next week.