Hi

I am currently running Mandrake 10.1 CE. ANd have it pretty much well configured for almost everything. But I heard of debian and recently received a debian sarge dvd.

I am interested in trying debian ( what with the distro fever and stuff) but need to know what packages would be installed by default. How can I know (there are some 6600 !)

Also I have mozilla messenger (something like thunderbird) with a whole lot of mails and don't want to lose them because of the transfer. So what do I do for this.

Thirdly : I have always had difficulty playing videos (DVD's , VCD's etc) are debian's default packages good enough or will I have to download stuff and compile.

Lastly - how do I know if my Mandrake is set up for dual boot and what do I need to do to make it dual boot. I know that the hd will need to be partitioned so what do I use in Mandrake to do and then what next steps.

thanks

bamboo

You can install as many or as few as you like. The first time you reboot after installing the base system, it runs "base-config" to set up your install. Part of that is selecting packages to install. To do that, it runs a program called "tasksel" that you can use to install groups of packages to do specific tasks, like "desktop environment", "mail server", etc. You can choose not to select any packages there and just exit if you want full control of what is installed. You will be left with a text prompt and you can pick and choose things from the DVD or internet using apt. For example: will install the x windows and: will install a basic KDE environment. will install all of KDE.

You can copy the .mozilla directory that has your mails in your home directory to your home directory of the new install. I just did this migration myself. Just make sure that you have the same mozilla themes installed on both if you want to use the same theme. All the configuration files are there including themes, bookmarks, e-mails, etc.

To play DVD's you need non-free stuff that isn't available in Debian. It is easy enough to install though and has been answered here plenty of times. Just make sure you install mplayer, w32codecs, mozilla-mplayer, and libdvdcss2. Search the forum here for how to use Marillat's Debian repositories.

There is a guide on multi-booting Linux available from Distrowatch: http://distrowatch.com/weekly.php?issue=20040614#2

Are you sure you have the right install medium from Debian?

The following quote is direct from the html on the install CD #1 of the CD-ROM version of Debian 3.1 (Sarge): Quote source > Debian 3.1 (Sarge) Install CD #1 (file:/cdrom/doc/FAQ/html/ch-basic_defs.en.html)

Where did you get the idea that it's just 6,600 packages?

Well its a dvd from PC Quest - a computer magazine in India

The quote on it says "Debian Sarge, including 6616 packages. Will autoboot and install of the dvd".

anyway the reality of the packages will be in its use.
An heard that debian is one of the tougher linux's to use
is that true

regards
bamoo

Thanks for the info. Will follow it up.

regards