adz, admittedly tasksel isn't anything to write home about, but dselect uses apt by default. It's just a simple front-end for apt.

Yes I realise that but what I meant was that it's a nightmare to use. Especially if you're new to debian, and you're faced with something like 8000 packages that you know nothing about. So it's bad for newbies. BUT, when you get better at it, you don't want to wade through that huge list just to install one package you could have just installed with a simple command. So it's bad for experienced users aswell! If you want to browse the list of packages, then apt-cache or www.debian.org does the trick 1000 times better.

I think it's useful for browsing because of its organized interface. Granted I could do the same thing with stormpkg and it doesn't handle package suggestions very well, but searching in it is fast and efficient, and it definitely doesn't hide anything from you. Personally, I think the search engine at packages.debian.org kinda sucks.

Question :

Can one do a base installation from cd then use apt-get to do the dirty work without an Internet connection - I mean from the CDs?

Absolutely! Just make sure you define your CD's in sources.list (this should be done during the automated install or can be done later with the apt-cdrom command) and use apt-get as per usual. One prob is that if you want recent packages then the cd is not the way to go. Some of the packages are positively ancient. However, if you're setting up a server or something then they're ideal.

I don't have an Internet link available - that's why I use CDs...



I have just downloaded the update a few minutes ago at work

Just my 2p worth. I installed Debian via a minimal install route. I was a total newbie and still am. The selection of packages for install from the net was very daunting mainly because I didn't understand what they were referring to. Dselect was also very intimdating but I finally figured the system out and happily used and still use it. Synaptic is a much easier system to use. Apt-get is truely superb. I am not an IT professional but fairly intelligent. I have subsequently done a number of installs having put the various downloads on cd (there is a trick to making a custom cd for this) and specifying the cd option instead of the net option during the install and it worked very well on all ocassions. I just love Debian.

I found TigerOC's way best for me, too. I like starting from the minimum and getting exactly what I want. While I know a fair amount now, I'm still not ready for LFS so Debian is a cool solution. And Debian has a lot of clever options: apt-get is cool, kernel package is a neat way to recompile your kernel, that jigdo iso downloading program is pretty fast too. But it isn't for everyone. Different strokes for different folks, I guess.

--GT

Just my whatever cents worth.
Debian is great.Apt-get is really the best tool if you work with packages BUT the tools for getting packages suck.They might have been nice when there where 20 packages in the distro but with 10000 packages it's almost impossible to find what you need.The gui tools do work much better for somebody new to debian.But to use them you'll have to work your way thru deselect or the likes first.Plus all the politics with free and non-free are killing debian - just try to install java.
And don't hold your breath for the new installer - that thing is a mess.

I respect your opinion, and I'm not trying to flame you. For you personally, each of your points may be 100% correct. However, I don't think there's evidence to make such conclusions universally.

I wouldn't call apt-get hard to use, but shift-pageup or shift pagedown help you get through longer package lists (I think that works). Synaptic is pretty easy, too. I don't know about the alternatives. Apt-get is a very powerful package manager. If you think it sucks, that's more of a a personal preference--not universal statement. I think it works pretty well.

No, you don't. Select "no" for both Dselect and Tasksel. Unless I'm forgetting, all you need from then is "apt-get install x-window-system synaptic wmaker," for example. Neither Dselect and Tasksel are mandatory. The walk-through I first used suggested this, in fact.

Select "Yes" to download non-Free sources. I haven't tried to download Java, so in this instance you might be totally right. But you could always install it another way than apt-get. I'm not sure there's really evidence that such a fight is killing it. Debian is still up there in terms of downloads at least at distrowatch and linuxiso.org and continues to influence other debian-based distros. In fact, there is a "market" for some people who want things totally free. Those people have that choice with Debian.

Again, not flaming you. I just think your statement should be prefaced with "for me..." I'm not a Debian zealot. This is being typed on a Mac while I install Red Hat 9.0 on another computer. I just think Debian gets a bad rap from personal opinions being as universal fact.

--GT

Oh - my god.Somebody got another opinion - just kidding.
The reasoning I tried to get thru there was that a debian install is not a lot of fun compared to - lets say a mdk or suse install when it comes to package selection for somebody that is used to gui everything - which is not a bad thing.I only use terminals when I have to.The package management is the best in my opinion that is available for any binary distro (I thought that was somewhere in my post).
It might be better now but the last time I did tasksel and x-windows-system i did get anything but a working x system.Debian would need to overhaul the installation - which is acknowledged by the fine people that develop it BTW; but it seems that there is not a lot of developers interested in doing so.Which makes sense since debian is developed by volunteers that want a working distro and figure that you only need to install it once anyway.
The last time I did a netinstall with the experimental sarge installer they didn't include all modules for the NIC's available when you select 'netinstall'.
After you finally locate them and figure out how to get the one you need in there you still might have to do an insmod because the installer can't load them with modprobe for some reason.
I really like debian,it's the last distro I would want to put down - but there are some things that are not so great about it,too.

Or do this:

apt-cache search package-name | less | grep 'something to narrow your search '

but put grep before less ....

Naflan,

Cool use of grep. Thanks for the tip.

Crashmeister,

I don't know. Sarge still is "testing," so you can't be too too hard on it. I know most people gripe about Woody being as "old" as dirt, but oh well. And a lot of the Debian user base likes the installer how it is. But then again, Slack and Debian are probably my favorite installers--I'm ill, what can I say? Anyhow, one distro can't be everything to everyone. That's the beauty of Linux: choices, choices, choices.

--GT

Debian is too hard to install - thats the reason I stick to gentoo for now -hehe.