Hello Debian users

Originally Posted by hydrurga Just out of interest, and with no disrespect to the Linux Mint forum, what do you mean by the "trolls" there.

There are many very helpful members at the Linux Mint forum. Unfortunately a few trolls can spoil the experience.
From the Slackbook, linux essentials.

Like every Usenet newsgroup, a few unhelpful participants (“trolls”) can mar the experience with constant arguing. Learning to ignore the trolls and identifying the truly helpful people is key to making the most of this resource.

I have just installed Debian on my remaining laptop as a dual boot with Windows 10. It just reminded me that there are some
pitfalls to be aware of for the uninitiated.
However since this is an Acer laptop, which uses the Atheros wireless adaptor, the non-free firmware is not an issue as the
wifi is recognized automatically.
I find the easiest way to configure my local mirror is to log in as root and use the graphical tools.
I now have it up and running, updated and upgraded, Since my install CD is 8.2 Jessie, it was about 430 mb to upgrade.

Originally Posted by Timothy Miller Was it this?

This looks extremely handy. From BSD. Should have thought to look in that direction.

Sudo documentation now recommends putting all such modifications in a file in /etc/sudoers.d by the way. Not sure why they don't want you to do the direct editing of the /etc/sudoers file but seems they don't.

Thanks. Will be reading that with care.

Do note that the author also recommends a root password.

On systems that only have one user I see little point in sudo at all though I could see some use for it being possibly handy. I don't use sudo in any of my installs and I attempt to not use sudo in any installs I make for others because I don't know how to limit it.

This may well give me some options for families with several members.

I have a Loaner drive, cheap external usb drive, that I loan to people that may be interested in Linux. I have 4 DEs; Xfce, OB, Mate, KDE in the order I perfer them all basically set up and ready to use. All are Debian installs but I will recommend Mageia (currently) for people that want to avoid the cli as completely as possible. There are actually 8 installs. This way I have full systems for each DE in both 32 and 64 bit versions.

Most people now have 64bit systems so I have OB64 set up to demonstrate a 3 user system a mythical 2 parents and a child setup. Would work well in any of the other DEs but you get a lot more control in OB over menu access easily. File and group permissions are all I am using currently. If the kid needs a package installed will need to ask for it. The possibility of a limited sudo account for that kid would be nice to have. Would need to create a 4th user so that could be demonstrated for an older child.

Current setup assumes a great trust relationship between parents so that while one is designated as the administrator the other does know the root password. So I could easily change that also if I can get sudo to work as I think it should.

Thanks a bunch.

Originally Posted by widget This looks extremely handy. From BSD. Should have thought to look in that direction. Sudo documentation now recommends putting all such modifications in a file in /etc/sudoers.d by the way. Not sure why they don't want you to do the direct editing of the /etc/sudoers file but seems they don't.

Everything seems to be going toward the *.d style of configuration. It makes some things easier to compartmentalize I guess, less likely perhaps to break the entire configuration of an application.

For sudo, however, I don't know if this truly makes sense.

Originally Posted by guitarguy Having done several Debian installs, I now find it very straightforward. But my first attempts encountered some issues, not difficult,just different than the other distros I was familiar with. Now I know what to expect. I would recommend first timers to read some documentation first, they may avoid some frustration.

What needs more recognition is the fact that Debian wants to distribute a foss system and while many hardware component makers are coming around to supporting open firmware not all have. But Debian does distribute and unofficial Live CD that does include the non-free content.

This is as easy to install as any distro that supports non free content.

I joined LQ 2 weeks before my first install of a Linux distro. A month later, before the non-free Debian CD was in existence, I installed Lenny and really had no problem with it due to the Sticky on the sources.list.

Learning to use nano at the tty was a bit of a struggle though. But I did have experience with DOS so the concept of a cli wasn't terrifying at all.

The real problem is mainly Debian respins peddling fud about how Debian is hard. Seeing how I first installed Ubuntu 8.04 and read that sort of thing on the forums there is one of the main reasons I installed Lenny. Just born a rather skeptical, stuborn and curious person and pretty much HAD to install it to see just how hard it was. Wasn't all that hard. And now it is pretty simple which is a great thing. But it would be nice to get that information out better.

Debian with their foss policy is right in my opinion but it limits their ability to promote the unofficial non free CD. Don't really know how to change that. But as a start here is the link.

http://cdimage.debian.org/cdimage/un...ding-firmware/

You do need to install using a wired connection unless you supply the wifi support to their installers in some manner alien to me. I, yes I am a grumpy geezer, don't use wifi and so am completely ignorant about it.

Originally Posted by goumba Everything seems to be going toward the *.d style of configuration. It makes some things easier to compartmentalize I guess, less likely perhaps to break the entire configuration of an application. For sudo, however, I don't know if this truly makes sense.

That is exactly what I think. I just don't see the point here but I will probably try it both ways.

I am afraid that there should probably be a 12 step program for serial multi booters. I could be a poster case for such a program. Only have 17 installs here at home on this system. This is a reduction in numbers.

Most are what are fondly named Victim* (VictimO and VictimOS are my current favorites. But they are expendable. I like to mess with the system and Linux enables that. My first install of Ubuntu lasted almost 24 hours. Had no knowledge to fix the thing. Reinstalled 5 times the first 7 days. Wife was not amused. Seems to think that a system should actually run reliably. So I reinstalled that 5th time and also installed another 8.04 install to play with.

Just got worse from then on. But the /home partition from that "real" last install of 8.04 is still in use on my more security centered Debian Stable install.

But I can pick a Victim or 2 to mess with different sudo configurations. Even have an external drive just for such security related experiments. Just redid the thing so that it is pretty fresh. Only 1 "anchor" install of OB so I have one on there that may work without a lot of messing around with it. But I have several partitions all ready for installs.

What grinds my butt is all these "tech savvy youths". Afraid my generation isn't. We didn't grow up with computers. And certainly not the internet. I was married when Radio Shack started offering a computer. But we did actually get a pretty good education in computer related science. This is not the case any more. Computer classes are primarily to learn how to run applications like MS Office or Art classes to run Photoshop. The buggers may know how to do that but have no concern about security at all. Just don't seem to understand the concept.

My Dreaded Mother in Law (worked as a switch board operator when they were still switching plugs around - has one from then as a key fob) has more security sense than the people I run into that could be my grandchildren. Scary.

They want to know how I learned this stuff growing up in a cave as I did. I tell them my generation, really Dreadeds generation really did the heavy lifting, didn't have that stuff so we had to invent it. I think it is funny. They don't somehow.

My wife grew up in a more populus area and is a bit younger than I am but they never saw a computer. But she had classes for writing in fortran and cobal in school. Now all they get is how to make those crappy slide shows that look like the work of elementary students learnig to use an over head projector.

Geeze. Learn to use .svg files with some decent pixel counts.

Sorry for the rant. Kind of. But the implications for security are really worrying in that everything is now connected and there is no education that seems to be dealing with the actual science behind the tech and no understanding of it at all. And the education they do get is very poor. Phones and Tablets seem to be some sort of idols for some cargo cult rather than tools. It is all magical stuff and no one wants to look at what or who is behind the curtain.

Hi.

My would be (netinst) if you have not give stretch/sid a try, it's much more muchiness... Xfce if I had to pick.
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https://cdimage.debian.org/cdimage/u...ding-firmware/

Originally Posted by guitarguy I would recommend first timers to read some documentation first, they may avoid some frustration.

The excellent documentation is one of the (sadly underutilised by most) strengths of the Debian project.

Debian is a great distro. The debian community really blossomed, and as mentioned, made a wonderful project of its documentation. You mention that you tried Slackware and it seemed to be doing things the hard way and you like Debian because things are simple and work well...

I use Arch Linux. It's tagline is "Keep things simple." It is a small and elegant distribution IMO, and above all, Its documentation is second to none. If you are comfortable with linux and you enjoy simplicity and minimalism, I would suggest you and everyone to give it a try. Some users say that the installation is painful but the guide on the Arch wiki is a step by step process and has never failed me. There is also a completely GNU compatible version and a pentesting repository. These are called Parabola and Blackarch respectively.

I hope this piques your interest in Arch as an alternative simple distro. But above all I wish the best to you in your Linux travels.

Originally Posted by descendant_command The excellent documentation is one of the (sadly underutilised by most) strengths of the Debian project.

Agreed. As I've stated many times before, no matter what distro, whenever I need information it's either the Debian or Arch Wikis that I go to.