Installing Debian.
 

Hi,

I am a FC2 user. I wanted to try out Debian10-woody.

We have an internal network server which has all the iso images of Debian (on ftp as well as smb) and many other distros.

I have a wireless connection and I am sure I cant do a network install, coz its difficult to configure the card even when running full fledged FC2. But I dont know if I can dump the iso's somewhere and install.

Please tell me how much space will it take to install everything. I have a 15GB partition free, will that do?

If anyone knows about how to install from hard disk dumping please tell me in detail. I never tried a hard disk install even in FC2 :)

thanks

regards
unpredictable

"But I dont know if I can dump the iso's somewhere and install."

can you dump and burn it?

"Please tell me how much space will it take to install everything. I have a 15GB partition free, will that do?"

absolutely. I got a 10 GB hd, i'm using 970 MB of space (df -h), i did a minimal install (skipped tasksel/deselect), avoided the framebuffer, and installed what i needed with apt-get. I would use the sarge net-install rc1 iso.

The Very Verbose Debian Installation Walkthrough
http://osnews.com/story.php?news_id=2016

Eventhough, it is a howto to install woody with cd1, it will provide an insight on how to do a minimal install and avoid common pitfalls that you can apply to the sarge net-install.

After the installation, read this thread for configuring it:

Debian Configuration Post-Install
http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...hreadid=224547

it might help you.

Obviously I can burn and install.....but I dont want to waste 7 CDs as the setup is ALWAYS AVAILABLE on the server, so any time I want to remove or add components, I can do it from the server.

I have just one Rewritable CD. Can I do an install from 1 CD and rest CDs dumped into the disk ??

Btw, what is the kernel that comes with it ?? And, will my wireless card work with the same driver rpm's in Debian too??

Anyways, thanks for the quick response.

regards
unpredictable

check debian.org, there's bound to be documention on how to do it.

2.6.8 should have quite good support for wireless/dvd/etc., but i have no idea if there is debian with inbuild 2.6.x

Fine... I will upgrade the debian kernel after install....
I have the rpms of FC2 kernel upgrades with me. Will they work directly ??

if u have an idea of FC2, we have
/etc/sysconfig/network-scripts directory to hold all network interfaces, is it similar in debian...

I guess I will collect 7 CDs somehow and do it the LAYMAN way :)

i heard tht debian has an excellent package management system...is it true...?? wht other things are new in Debian which is not there in FC2 and vice versa ??


regards
unpredictable

hell yeah, what i love about debian is that i can burn an boot cdand do absolutely clean install with custom kernel, and then start getting stuff i need, and the packaging system works very easy:
apt-get install x-window-system
atp-get install fluxbox
apt-get install irssi-text
etc.

synaptic is nice tool as well

but they got somewhat old stuff up sometimes, like firefox... they have totaly old version of it up (.93rc2 i think, i cant live without 1.0), so i simply dl it and install manualy
but that all works if you have internet connection available ;)

7 CDs is ridiculous. get the 1 CD debian installer, and then apt-get everything else. :cool:

true, but:
and thats the question, if he could get wireless working

sure, but he won't need 7 CDs just to get wireless. :p unfortunately no one can help him properly because he didn't provide any information about his wireless hardware. :(

Hi...

I have a Level One 54Mbps 802.11 g wireless card with Atheros AR5212 chipset....
I run it using MADWIFI.....a project which can b obtained from sourceforge.net....
To configure my card, I do what is there at http://students.iiit.net/~anurag_rana/madwifi

Now, I did burn 1 debian CD and install. Ya. It booted and worked..but i didnt find any /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts directory.....so where do i keep the "PROPERTIES" of the wireless interface....basically, in FC2, a file named something like ifcfg-ath0 is created and the mode (DHCP/manual) , ONboot=yes/no , type=wireless/ethernet/unknown....etc information is put....now the service called "network" reads these files and starts my network interfaces... how can i do a similar thing using debian...??

i am so new to Debian that except the LINUX SPECIFIC commands...i dunno anything...
and apt is also new to me...i m used to yum and up2date...
but the question is of getting the rest 6 CD images which means getting the network going on....how to do it.??

And also, the debian system was almost screwing my Fedora Partitions....everytime fedora booted with a disk check...sometimes hanged, etc....so for the time being i reformatted the debian partition to mount it back in FC2 as a normal data partition...(it takes just 10 mins to reinstall debian from CD1).....till you guys gimme a working solution to get my card working....etc.

regards
unpredictable

excellent, that is really great info. i have not used wifi, but based on what you provided i hope someone who really knows something would be able to help you.

in the meantime, i found this for you to check out. it looks pretty good and hopefully it will work:
http://madwifiwiki.thewebhost.de/wiki/Ath0OnDebian

that was on 2.6.0, so maybe by now there is even better kernel support making the process as painless as possible. down at the bottom there are more comments and pointers with later kernels, so i hope from at least some of that you can get it going.

The NIC settings are stored in /etc/network/interfaces. You'll need to apt-get wireless-tools to get your wireless working. For a GUI config program, there is one in the GNOME package gnome-system-tools. There's one for KDE, but I don't use KDE so I don't know the package.

Hi,

I think I will do a simpler approach, I will take my CPU to a laboratory and connect it to the wired network. I guess debian will detect that. Is there a way to create a boot floppy and driver floppy for a network install ??

Maybe I will install from CD1 and then install rest from the wired network. When I am done with CD1, how to activate my wired card ?? Will it detect it automatically..?? Will it ask for the source of other CDs or I have to do something??
Is there a way to specify it the iso image on the network....can i mount the iso and tell it to use it or something like that.....??

Another thing....when I install, it asks for the modules to be installed. Thats good but I am afraid I will miss something...What modules shud I CHANGE in its default configuration ??
My cards are all PCI....
I have a PS2/USB optical mouse....
a View Sonic 17" E71FSB monitor
Intel 865GBF motherboard with Intel P4 2.8GHz HT
LG CD RW
Microsoft Multimedia keyboard 1.0A ( so now they make keyboards too huh ?? )

And please tell how will Debian cleanly unmount my partitions?? Why doesnt it do it automatically while shutting down ?? Whenever I mount "/" (of Fedora) and then reboot to Fedora...it scans for errors...sometimes fatally exits...

About the wireless driver thing...I found some packagehere....

http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=200504 and http://nchipin.kos.to/madwifi/

It says I need madiwifi-modules package for my kernel. Can anyone search for them for me??

Another kind of driver at http://debian.isg.ee.ethz.ch/public/

Anyway, how do I upgrade the kernel..?? And will it come with KDE 3.2 or something...In any case I will upgrade KDE as soon as everything starts working...

regards
unpredictable
I AM REALLY HAPPY AND EXCITED FROM THE RESPONSE AND GUIDANCE BY YOU GUYS. NOW I AM DETERMINED TO GET DEBIAN WORKING.

Use PS2 settings, its easier to set up... only thing i have to say, if the mouse is with wheel use ImPS/2, if without then simply regular PS/2 (you can allways modify /etc/X11/XF86Config-4 file if you mess something up)
check your monitor specifications (sync rates and supported resolutions), you will need them to configure X correctly

If you use debian 3.2rc1 dont be afraid of installation, they made it really easy


i recommend you install stuff like this:
do clean install, DONT select any packages, when install is done do:
apt-get install kernel-image-2.6.8-1-386
apt-get install x-window-system
apt-get install kde
first you'll get newest kernel, after restart install X and then kde, youll end up with all basic stuff you need and you can add packages you need later, ofcourse you can avoid pain searching for packages by selecting to install "desktop system", but it will get you heaps of junk you might never use and painfully long installation time.

I cant really help you with wireless support, if you get that working then your fine and allways come and ask help here when your running into various problems



....and dont forget to use 3.2rc1 .net installation CD :p