just a general question and hello to debian!!!
 

Hi all,

i've downloaded my first debian cd this morning (sarge netinstall) and got it up and running pretty smoothly and decided to take it for a ride, yeahh!

the install looks pretty qute i must say and from a stable base install i went to server install, desktop install gnome, testing server, testing xfce, and i'm running unstable kde 3.5 at the moment restarting my machine twice during the day (not sure if it was actually needed).

so i've been enyoing this cold winter day here in rotterdam and i must say i'm rather impressed with debian so i'm gonna stick around here for a while and see if i can mold it to my likings.

i was wondering if some of you guys could point me in the right direction with some general thoughts and links for the purpose i have in mind.
( i can read a manual and after a year of Slack i know my way a little on the
command line, so no worries . but hearing the approach of experience experts with debian would do me good )

i have set up a server and a router in the office with slackware and i'm pretty happy with that set up,
but lately after some outlook/virus crashes in the office, the urge and confidence of moving ten desktops to linux is getting bigger.

have been testing out suse lately for that purpose and must say its nice, but i'm not impressed by the daily workings of all those clickinstall distro's and need something more solid, that also can be installed as quickly and easy as the ubuntu's and suse's with the default user friendly settings settings i prefer on 10 different pc's and later on perhaps also in some other office's.

it will take some time and modifying several scripts to create this set-up, and i was thinking of modifying the install cd or set up my own repository on the server etc....

so if anyone did this before or knows some good links (i admit, too tired today to do some more googling) your thoughts would be appreciated.


thanks!

Hi,

What scripts are you going to modify?

I've been running Debian for about a year now. Everyday I use it for work. Never hand modified a script for my box.

My understanding is that Debian pretty much takes care of any scripts that need changed. I understand that in Slackware you have to do it all by hand. Welcome to Debian.

Steve

well,, let me explain and let me know if it makes sense at all.

when i use the netinstall cd i can choose the default desktop setup which gives me a perfect gnome installed, nothing wrong with that, but i just happen to prefer kde.
so instead i do base-install and then apt-get x-window-system-core kde kdm openoffice.org k3b mplayer java etc...

now this gives me a pretty good kde installed, but i would like to cut out the edutainment, games,etc....
and i would have to manually add k3b java mplayer mstcorefonts etc.... cause they are not standard included
also i need to connect the desktops to the shares on the server and all those little things

i'm not having any problems setting my box up that way, but as said before, i need to do 10 of those and then it gets pretty time consuming,
and since i would have to write all changes next to the default install down any way, because its likely that i would have to do it all again next year when we get 2 extra boxes in the office, and then it will take me some time again figuring out how to install java, mplayer etc..

also, when debian as a desktop instead of XP as a desktop will be considered a succes, i will have to install the whole jumbo mumbo again on about 50 boxes in 5 other offices.

so, my idea at the moment is to change the installcd a little to add another default install pointing to the selected package i keep on my server or something in that direction.

stil makes any sense???

Hi,

Now I get it. You're going to love Debian. ;-)

You might google on cloning (replicating) debian. The packages are quite easily handled by Debian. I don't know about the settings. If the machines are exactly the same, it should be very easy to copy the settings too.

http://lists.debian.org/debian-isp/2.../msg00203.html

http://wiki.arslinux.com/Debian

Set one machine with all of the software you want. Make a list of the packages as stated in the posts above. Then transfer your sources.list and the package list to all the other computers., Then let Debian install everything.

I have never done it but it looks very easy. I actually have a spare machine here and may give it a shot. Looks pretty cool.

Steve

Anyother thing you want to check into is dpkg-repack, if you are making changes in the configuration files then if you use the dpkg-repack those changes will be included back into the package which you can then install on other machines. Also the last command in the second link to install all the packages you used would be apt-get dselect-upgrade and you may have wanted to use a dselect update just to make sure the dpkg/apt databases are in sync. One last thing you may want to look at the FAI the fully automatic installer and do a couple of searches on the debian-dev mailing list with Joey Hess in there as a keyword I have seen more than a couple of post by him describing how he does the testing by automatically installing for the work that he does as the maintainer of the Debian Installer.

thanks guys!!

thats exactly the kind of debian lingo i was searching for and it makes googling for docu's a lot easier as soon as you know what to look for.

will try to post the results of my strugle here as soon as i have some to share or need some technical insight
(am only doing this as a part-time job so it might take a while)

thanks again!