Ok, I am new to Linux and only have limited experience with Xandros4.5OCE for 2 months now and now want more flexibility without being bound to there own drivers and programs. I have been able to only make a very few generic programs written for debian linux work on X4.5OCE other than what is available from the Xandros network. In all fairness the Xandros network supplied programs work perfectly and are really nice, just not everything I want.

Downloaded and tried installing the small CD install of debian lenny 2 times, (the one that has minimal files and you must have an internet connection to get the rest). Two main problems, It didn't pick up my wireless connection during installation and it will only boot to a prompt, no GUI.

For write or wrong I ordered complete install DVD set and will again try to install on a new separate hard drive this coming week.

A few questions and some feedback would be great before I try again.

1) What should I have on hand relative to the wireless card I have. It is a Linksys wireless pci # WMP54G. Router uses Dynamic address and functions with only minimal data input under Xandros 4.5 WinXP sets up fine. Xandros 4.2 Pro does not have the available input dialog to put the WPA-PSK. With XAndros 4.5 it immediately picked up the presence of the wireless signal and name of network. I just input the passphrase and configure the WPA-PSK once and it signs on automatic on boot.I only assume D.Lenny may not as it failed in my first 2 attempts. I do not know if it failed to reconise the wireless card or the signal or if there was even a driver for it on the small CD install I downloaded.

Any direction welcome. Thanks so much

This should get you started. It's a lot to read, but should help

http://www.debian.org/releases/stable/i386/

Boot loader\Grub, And disc partitioning I got to learn first before installing. trying to climb Mt Everest and don't have my snow boots on yet! I go put em on. Jon

As pointed out by btret381, the install manual is always the best place to start.

Regarding your wireless it seems that you need some non-free firmware that does not ship with this installer. Please read the following section of the manual to find out how to get your wireless working during the install:
http://www.debian.org/releases/stabl...h06s04.html.en

Hint: It seems you need the firmware in the firmware-ralink package [1]

Cheers,

Evo2.

1. http://www.tjlug.org/2009/10/12/link...-debian-lenny/

I have read the instructions and have reviewed the link to TJLUG. It seems to do this I need a live internet connection during or after instalation which is the problem.

I did try to find a copy of RT61_Firmware_V1.2.zip. searching the internet with no results. Lot of talk about it, how to use it, but no source for it.

There was a link on the instalation pages for firmware, I downloaded it and it does have a file firmware-ralink_0.14=lenny2_all.deb file in it. It is not the "RT61_Firmware_V1.2.zip" spoke of in the TJLUG link.

My card is definitly a WMP54G but when I type in connsole it reports,02:01.0 Network controller: RaLink RT2561/RT61 802.11g PCI.

I Went to Ralinktech site and just can't seem to find the Firmware there. I did find 2009_0123RT61_LinuxSTAv1.1..2.3.tar.bz2. When uncompressed it has many files but none listed with firmware in the name. I suppose it is just drivers and software.


I Just do not understand why I cant just obtain the Firmware, put it on a floppy or mem stick and install it.

I will go ahead and install Debian Lenny and hopefully I can get the firmware installed later to make internet work.

Some direction welcome, Jon

That is exactly what are should do. Did you install the deb package?

Just in case, here it is explicitly.

http://http.us.debian.org/debian/poo...lenny2_all.deb

Download the file and put it on a usb stick. The installer will prompt you to insert the usb stick. I thought those instructions were in the link I gave.

If you have already done the install, just plug in the usb stick, gnome should mount it for you, then install the package.

Evo2.

1 members found this post helpful.

Still have the same problem. The link opens as soon as I click on it. I can not seem to save the file, it just opens. a tried going to the site and directory where it is (http://http.us.debian.org/debian/poo...mware-nonfree/) Yes, firmware-ralink_014+lenny2 all.deb is shown. Tried to copy it that way, same thing happens. If I right click on it there is no option to save or copy the file. When right clicking on it and selecting properties it will not allow me to copy it. Tried draging it to desktop and usb, won't let me. I am logged in under root.
I got to be overlooking something realy basic. Thanks, Jon

Where "/media/usbstick/" is where ever your usb stick is mounted

Evo2.

wget, so simple and I understand now, Thanks.

Now, what program or procedure do I use and how once I am in gnome to install the firmware. Gnome sees the mem stick as soon as I plug it in. tried clicking on it and copying to desktop and clicking on it with same report as follows:
could not open "firmaware-ralink......all.deb" Archive not supported.

do I use apt-get, synaptic or other procedure. I understand these are for installing programs and packages but not sure of firware? I don't want to mess anything up.

Another anoying issue is that I can not log in under root. I am 100% positive of my root password and that is is case sensitive. whenever I try it it does not accept and prompts me again. The only other possibility I can imagine is the nomenclaure of spelling the user name "root". tried Root, root, ROOT admin, rootadmin, etc with no results. I can however under gnome get root privileges as it only requires root password to do.

Ok, finaly for now, How do I set up vidio, seems I can'y even set up resilution, no dual monitors, arangement and other things of this sort. No Nvidia config window to configure. I have a nvidia GeForce 7100 GS card. I see there is a driver nvidia offers for linux but do I need a specific one configured for deian lenny? Also some simple directions on installing the driver if it requires anything like probe detect or other procedures i as a new user would need to know after install. Enough for now and thanks so much for the help so far. Jon

Well,without root privileges you won't be able to install anything.
Normally with Debian you use su.
So,open a terminal/shell and type su -.
You should then see the prompt in the terminal change:

So after using the su command it looks like this:

So now you can navigate to where the .deb file is located,type:

cd /media/disk
ls(to check the file is actually located there)
Then install with:
dpkg -i firmware-ralink_0.14+lenny2_all.deb


As regards to Nvidia drivers have a look at the second link in my sig.

Ok,
Thanks to all am am well under way. A few snags perhaps one could advise me on.

After install Nvidia console apears as expected just as in Xandros. It was locked, simple just set read write. Problem is it will not let me save xorg.conf as it reports can't rename xorg.conf.backup. I susspect it is because I am not logged in as root. I can only seem to figure out how to log in as root under a shell or the root console in gnome. Seems root priveliges are limited to the command prompt. I try to log in as root in the log in screen by typing "root" as the user name and then the password, It just laughs at me. This is how am able to do in Xandros. How to in Debian Lenny?

Furhter I see some other missing things in the Nvidia console that are in earler drivers that pertain to duel monitors. Hopefuly they will appear when I am able to save an xorg.conf showing 2 monitors. The nvidia driver I use in Xandros begins with a 186.xxx. The one proposed by Nvidia and the one I installed is 190.53.

If I could one other. How to access other drives attached on the system that are not part of the Debian lenny system. (The NTFS and the other Linux drive and partition). In Xandros I can log in as root with root priveliges with GUI running and I can access all files including other disks attached to the system, NTFS, EXT etc with the default KDE GUI. Gnome shows them but but reports the NTFS as not athorized and the other linux partition as access restricted. Will not allow me to even look inside less copy something from them. The other linux drive with Xandros on it also reports I must mount it. Can I set up Gnone to see my floppy and the other drives as default when it opens?

I have tried finding information using the man pages with little success. I am sure most info I need is is there, it would be helpull to know how the man pages are organised and just how to navigate and find what I am looking for. Figure about time I lean to help myself this way.


You folks tired of me yet?. Thanks for the great help so far. Jon

Good to hear.

I'll see what I can do.

GUIs can be run as root, but it is usually considered a security risk.

If you want to edit (modify) your xorg.conf, try this in a terminal
1st command gives you root priv.
2nd command makes a backup copy of the existing xorg.conf file
3rd command opens the xorg.conf file in the text editor called nano
(the key bindings for saving files and quiting etc are listed at the bottom of the screen in nano)


It is possible, but you shouldn't do it. Why do you want to?

Sorry I don't really know anything about the nvidia drivers.
Looking at and copying require the same "read" permission. You can automatically mount your ntfs partition with read permissions. To set it up please follow these procedures
1st command gives you root powers
2nd command makes a "mount point" (which is also a directory - aka folder in MS speak)
3rd command adds a line to the file /etc/fstab. The /etc/fstab file tells the system how to mount partitions.
4th command mounts the partition: it should automatically mount on next reboot

Sorry, I don't know much about gnome.

The man pages are a great reference, but they are rarely much use if you are looking for a "howto" or "tutorial", infact most man pages don't even have examples.

No problem. Just remember to click on the "thumbs up" link for any posts that have helped you.

Cheers,

Evo2.

Outstanding, I would never had been able to figure all the code to write in fstab to allow windows partition to be mounted. I do get the idea how this relationship works between the fstab file and the mount command. I would like to be able to at least read to another partition that has my Xandros on it. I can see how the Debian paritions are mounted but I do not want to mess anything up. If you could please a bit of help with the code to put in fstab to allow me to read and or write to the Xandros drive which is sda6. I understand I need create a folder called Xandros, but what for the options, dump and pass and anything else I need include in fstab? /dev/sda6 /Xandros ext3 ??????? This gota be easy, Thanks, Jon

Ahh, with proper file systems (read - not ntfs) it's easy :-)
That ought to do it.

Cheers,

Evo2.

Great, thought it would be that simple.

2 other issues I would like some direction.

1) I have a program installed in Xandros. It does not require instalation you copy the executable file and directories to a directory and just run it at the prompt. I have it running in Xandros. I put the program on My Debian Lenny system and it runs far superior with no lagging. It saves file that allows me to go back to the same place where i lesft off. The file name is Machinarium.sol This file is locacted on my Xandros system and should be (according to the author) on Debian Lenny as follows. /Home/'user name'/macromedia/Flash_Player/#SharedObjects/{RANDOMWORD}/localhost/{PathToYourMachinariumInstallDirectory}/machinarium/Machinarium.sol. It is there on my Xandros system but the only items in /Home/Jon are Desktop and edid.bin. Is there something hidden from me. I have done searches for Macromedia, Machinarium.sol, Flash_Player and nothing comes up. What am I doing wrong. I have looked around with gnome and also at the command prompt with root priveliges. I can save my place in this progrm and return to it so I only make an assumtion that it is realy here on my system but whay can i not find it, even a file search turns up nothing. So frustrating.

2) Ones I figure out where to put this file I will need to know the procedure to set permissions as I have a difrent user name in Xandros and yes, Debian Lenny knows this as I have moved it to my desktop and it shows in gnome with a warning. I Did some reading but I am unsure about the code. It seems that I need to use chmod. There is warning in the reading stating that I can mess things up if I don't know what I am doing. That would be me! There is a swithch that can be used with chmod to set permissions the same as another existing file on my system. Ther reading says to use --reference=file to set permission as another given file Thanks, Jon