Hello. I am new to Debian Linux (Sarge). I just installed the two DVDs and GRUB automatically setup a dual boot where Linux first then Windows XP.
I wish to change that i.e. Windows XP first then Linux. Well, I do not want to use NTDL so I opt to change grub booting sequence. There were a few info on the net i.e. setting up a grub.config or edit menu.lst. I wonder whether this is a standard file because I can't find both files in my HD. When I use "fdisk -l", nothing came out. When I use "rdev", it says "/dev/hdd1 /". I presumed hdd1 is boot disk. I have 2 HD, one for windows XP and one for Debian. If one should create a new file of grub.config to change the booting sequence, then I do not know what device is my Debian sitting on or Windows XP (ntfs) sitting on.

Q1 : When grub boot loader boots and display the booting options, which file does it refer to (in which directory as well) or is there any reference file at all? I can't find /etc/grub.config or /etc/menu.lst anywhere. If there is a file then I could refer to it and change it. I installed grub boot loader at MBR. If there is no file, how to change the sequence?

Q2: I get repetitive message (before & after login) "NETDEV WATCHDOG: eth0: transmit time out eth0: link up, 10Mbps, half-duplex, lpa 0x0000. Well, it is obvious the network is not working. I used a cable modem with usb connection. The ISP is NTL and when it is in windows xp, the DHCP server is 62.252.224.21 but it provide a fix ip of 82.13.165.254 with gateway 82.13.165.254. The DNS server are 194.168.4.100 and 194.168.8.100. During installation, autoconfig of DHCP failed and I have to setup manually. The only doubt is when the Debian installer ask for host server, I am not sure to put whether DHCP or DNS server. I put DNS servers. However, it does'nt work. Well the PC had Realtek NIC card with ethernet connection but it is not used. I tried to used ethernet with the cable modem but it also failed to work. When I plugged in the usb network connection, Debian detects it but the network does not work. So what I am supposed to do?

Q3: XWin is not working. I am not sure why. Any idea or any info that I should provide?

Q4: Well, if nothing works, I need the linux to use perl to compile a pl file.
This also failed to work. Does a complete Debian Sarge 3.1r0a comes with perl? If not I probably have to download it from perl site and will learn how to install it but then I need my network.

I would greatly appreciate anyone who tries to help.

Thank you.

for grub, check in boot, specifically /boot/grub/menu.1st should be the file it refers to

Q3 : check the logs of X, under /var/log/XFree86.0.log. In the end of this file, you'll find the error that X produced before exiting.
Q4 : If you did a complete install, I think that perl will be also installed.
Try running perl from the command line. If it says "Command not found", you could run :
And for Q1, like __J said it's under /boot/grub/menu.lst.
If you know that the file is named menu.lst, but you don't know where it is, I recommend running the locate <FILENAME> command, after running updatedb. Once you run updatedb all files are stored which makes locate very fast.

Cheers.

Thanks _J for the quick reply. I have created the menu.lst and edited it. It seemed to be affecting the booting as I edited the file and placed the windows
booting sequence first. However, it couldn't boot saying that the name partition of windows is incorrect (hd something). I thought it would just need rearranging by something like this

title windows xp booting
..
..
boot
chainloader +1

title linux
...
...
savedefault
boot
..

It didn't work.

Any clue?

Thanks very much hfawzy. Well, things has amazingly progressed and I appreciate very much everyone's help. I got my Xwin started .. it was great and it was a very beautiful GUI. The problem is video card .. earlier I selected S3 which was incorrect. It was VIA. In windows XP, it was indicated as VIA/S3. Once Xwin started, things got flying as I installed various softwares and drivers using Synaptic Package Manager. I managed to run perl and detect the error. It was due to missing PDL.pm and core.pm which is fixed by installing PDL library. The perl program ran perfectly. I also installed xawtv and managed to watch TV but the linux box does not have any sound though. It can play MP3 file but no sound came out. XAWTV showed channel/video but no sound. Anyone knows how to setup sound driver for Yamaha sound card. Surprisingly, the internet connection works! It worked even though it is not directly connected to the USB cable modem but through
a Windows XP server (I reconfigured the network to local LAN). I can browsed the internet now. Just fantastic. However, when I installed some software, Apache2 failed to be forced to run (it just hangs). I also failed to update Aegis virus scanner (message of ftp://ftp.perl.org/pub/CPAN is not responding). I did manage to download a file:scan 1.4.3 but I do not how to install it. Any idea? I mean it is TAR file and I managed to view it in unzip but how should install. If I unzipped it, it will be at a default directory filescan 1.43. In windows, I would create a temp directory to unzip it and then run setup.
Hopefully it will detect the existing files and replaced them. I am not sure about Linux? Please let me know how? I have downloaded a few software from the internet but it seemed that must software are zipped TAR and do not use setup. Any advice on software installation in Linux? I downloaded GCAD3D and it is installed in GCAD3D directory and I do not know how to put an application icon at the menu or launch the software from the application panel. I am sorry for the load of questions. I have tons of it but I'll ask more later. I am investigating and exploring it myself.

Thank you again.

i think as a beginner you should be using apt to install everything without exception

Hello. I noticed my keyboard was set to US keyboard so I checked out
some advices and changed my XF86Config-4 file, i.e. "us" to "uk". Now when I login to XWin I get an error message

Error activating XKB configuration.
Probably internal X server problem.

X server version data:
The XFree86 Project, Inc
40300001
You are using XFree 4.3.0.
There are known problems with complex XKB configurations.
Try using simpler configuration or a newer version of the XFree
software.
If you report this situation as a bug, please include:
- The result of xprop -root | grep XKB
- The result of gconftool-2 -R /desktop/gnome/peripherals/keyboard/xkb

When I run xprop -root | grep XKB, I get

_XKB_RULES_NAMES_BACKUP(STRING) = "xfree86", "pc104", "uk", "", ""
_XKB_RULES_NAMES(STRING) = "xfree86", "pc104", "uk", "", ""

When I run gconftool-2 -R /desktop/gnome/peripherals/keyboard/xkb, I
get

layouts = [us]
model = pc105
overrideSettings = true
options = []
update_handlers = []

Well, I wanted to change the file that holds gconftool-2 that still
indicate us layout. Please help.

In addition to that, I noticed my screen resolution is 800x600 (in Xwin/Gnome display) even though in windows XP, I can set it to 1024x968. I tried to change it using Gnome display using screen resolution but it allows me to set 640x480 or 800x600 only. Anyone has any advices are warmly welcomed.

Thanks foo_bar_foo for your advice. I did use APT but some questions are difficult to comprehend. As for the sound card, it's working but it was muted as default. So everytime I login, it's muted. Anyone has any idea which file I should edit to fix this. As for installation, I have installed mozilla firefox in /usb/bin though I am not sure that's a suitable or common location for software installation.

I am still stuck with a Linux bootloader at a diskette, I do not advice on how to create boot loader at har d drive (post installation method). I did
tried to copy linux.bin from the diskette to windows XP boot drive (C drive) and edited my boot.ini to add C:/linux.bin at the last line. However, it doesn't work. Anyone has any idea how?

Thank you.

did your grub installation come with a tool called grubinstall ( try it as root, it's a menu system to set up partitions and such for boot and write the bootloader to the place of your choice)