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Old 07-14-2006, 11:35 PM   #1
SAZMan
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Registered: May 2006
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Etch Preinstallation Questions


I have a spare computer on which I have decided to install Debian testing (Etch) using the netinstall CD. I have some preinstallation questions I was hoping to get some help with. Here are the specs of my system:

Dell Dimension L667r
Intel 810E chipset with integrated graphics
128MB RAM
Pentium III Coppermine 667 MHz
10GB Western Digital IDE HD with Windows 98SE
80GB Western Digital IDE HD FAT32 (empty)
SoundBlaster Live! Value PCI sound card
Linksys 10/100 LAN ethernet PCI card
USB 2.0 PCI card
Sony CD-RW Drive
Floppy Drive
MDP3900V-U Telephony Modem

Debian will be installed on the second hard drive (I plan to dual boot), but GRUB will be on the MBR of the Windows drive. Will that be a problem to set up during installation?

Any recommendations for partitioning? I was planning to have a root, a swap and a home partition. This will be a desktop setup, and there is a possibility I might put another distro or two on in the future.

I have successfully used DSL (using toram) and Knoppix (with a window manager) on this computer, though I often need to set vga=normal to avoid an error. Is there any information I should gather from these distros prior to installing Debian, or should I wait until after install?

Any other tips considering my system specifics? Any boot options I should consider?

Thanks for any help.

 
Old 07-14-2006, 11:43 PM   #2
rickh
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Should work fine. Your 'FAT32 formatting' will (presumably) be overwritten with ext3 or something during the install. / = 9GB, swap = 256MB, /home = whatever you want. Writing Grub to the MBR will be effortless and will work.

Last edited by rickh; 07-14-2006 at 11:47 PM.
 
Old 07-15-2006, 12:01 AM   #3
SAZMan
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Thanks for the reply. I should also note, I will be on a home network using a Linksys router with an ethernet cable (with the DHCP on). I was planning on using ext3, since it seemed the most straightforward choice.

Didn't mention it before, but I'll be using one of the daily builds to install etch. Not sure if that would affect any advice. I'm both a little excited and a little nervous. I've only been using live cds previously. It's nice to have a spare computer to play around with.

Last edited by SAZMan; 07-15-2006 at 12:03 AM.
 
Old 07-15-2006, 12:39 AM   #4
samael26
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Hi,

This is a very sensible move to use the daily build
to install etch. I made the mistake myself to rely on
an older cd to try install, which failed, without my
knowing why.
Go ahead, it's now perfectly usable. Xorg installs with
no problems whatsoever and your current set up should be
fine.

cheers
 
Old 07-15-2006, 10:25 PM   #5
SAZMan
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Well, I'm on Etch right now. I won't say it went off without a hitch. When I installed, there was no option to let me set root password, so I had to boot to the installer again in rescue mode and I was able to open a root shell and change the password. Installing apps with aptitude was pretty easy. I loaded icewm with xdm and xfe. Firefox seems very slow on my system. I also have a problem with xfe. It gives an error mounting /dev/.static/dev. I searched the web and found a partial solution with chmod, but whenever I log out and in, I have to do it again. This is going to be challenging.
 
Old 07-15-2006, 11:24 PM   #6
rickh
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Hmmm! Never heard of it failing to set the root password. Using the daily cvs can be a bit challenging. I usually use whatever beta is available.

Let me make a really radical suggestion, which you will probably want to discard immediately, and that's OK. You seem to be interested in setting up a really lean & mean system. You've learned quite a bit already in the installation ... Why not do it again? I usually tell my newbie friends that they should plan to install two or three times until they get comfortable with the process.

Post #32, on this thread describes the setup of a system like the one you want. Dead Parrot wrote it, and he is widely considered to be one of the top Debian experts on these forums.

As I said, it's advice that doesn't need to be followed, but don't hesitate to do it if things get too hairy.
 
Old 07-16-2006, 11:01 AM   #7
SAZMan
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I had to smile reading your post. I have Dead Parrot's post already bookmarked. I wanted to try icewm, and I couldn't find midnight commander with aptitude, but other wise that's what I was doing. I am not opposed to reinstalling at all. I wondered if that was really a big deal to do or not. I was also interested in trying out a partition scheme noted in another thread - putting a seperate /var partition next to the swap and creating symlinking /tmp to it. Found here. If I do reinstall, how should I handle GRUB? Do I need to reinstall it, or leave it alone? Any other possible pitfalls?
 
Old 07-16-2006, 01:09 PM   #8
samael26
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If you reinstall, GRUB will be re-installed as well
 
Old 07-16-2006, 09:23 PM   #9
JaseP
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RAM might be a little low...

You might consider having 512MB on your system.

The Intel graphics sytem is actually a good thing if you are thinking of going with XGL.

By the way, I am writing this on a Dell C640 laptop running Debian Etch, using an Atheros 5212 PCMCIA Wireless G card running the win drivers through ndiswrapper and utilizing WPA encryption through wpa_supplicant.

Graphics, sound and wifi are the hardest things to set up in Etch. Once you have that in the bag, it's easy.
 
Old 07-16-2006, 10:03 PM   #10
rickh
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Also, I recommend that you get kernel 2.6.17 from Sid. I think that's the kernel they're aiming at having when Etch becomes stable, and it reportedly has much improved wireless handling among other things.
 
  


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