How to load programs onto computer

jkhnsatx · 02-15-2005, 10:40 PM

Hello all,
I am just beginning my computer life with Linux. After bouncing around the net looking for a distrobution, I settled on Debian because I was able to load it on my Compaq LTE 5300 laptop using floppies. I was not able to configure my machine to boot from CD. After install I can mount to the CD Drive.

Now I just want to load some programs and take the machine for a spin. I figured the first thing I should do would be to install a windows manager. Hmmm... Which one? I don't care, KDE or Gnome. Makes no difference I just need to figure out out to find what I need and install it.

At this point I don't have internet connection to the laptop. I can download all day long on my windows desktop. In fact, I have two CDs I burned with libranet. Took about 3 days but I have them. Of course, not much good if one cannot boot from CD.

As I stated, I can mount the CD and I see all the .deb files. Cannot do a thing with them. Tried dselect but I am having difficulty figuring that out. It seems to me that there is no access to those files thru dselect.

Questions? Let's assume I am going to load KDE.
1. Which KDE file do I use?
2. There always seem to be a myriad of other files with KDE, do I need to download those too?
3. Once I have the appropriate files, how do I install them?

I use to think I was computer literate. Now I feel like a real dummy. Always room for growth.

Jim

dping · 02-16-2005, 12:59 AM

Welcome aboard.
Linux is a little different than windows. We all felt like dummies in the beginning.

What you are looking at doing either would take some power-user computing or a lot of tedious dependancy checking.

I would bet that you actually could boot from your cdrom drive if you used [the Smart Boot Manager]. Try it out. If it doesn't work let us know, and I'll be surprised.

f1dave · 02-16-2005, 01:47 AM

At the risk of totally misinterpreting the situation, wouldn't he just need to set his apt to fetch from a CD then start typing stuff like,

apt-get PROGRAM_NAME

Of course, you'd need to know the names of the stuff you want, but if you read the apt man pages, you'll find options that will add in dependencies and the like.

Wandering_Dru · 02-17-2005, 03:00 PM

If I understand you correctly, you now have a base Debian installed. You have a couple of CDS that were burned using a different computer and wish to install packages from these CDs. Assuming these are Debian CDs, just do the following on a command line to add the CDs to your apt.sources list.

Code:

$ su
(type your root password)
# apt-cdrom add
(follow the prompts)

You might have to rinse and repeat for each CD. It's been a while since I've used it.

Once the CDs are added, you can use the standard tools to install what you need. I'm a Gnome user myself, so I would do:

Code:

# apt-get install x-window-system gnome-desktop-environment

Hope that helps ya.