Three problems about Debian
 

I just move from Fedora to Debian, for freedom. The following is my problems.

1. I install kernel 2.6. Why does it take about so long time for my Debian to boot? I have never change any default configuration since I completed the installation.

2. As default, the login interface does not allow user to log in as account root. Where and how should I log in as root? When I log in as other user account, I try the LEFT-ALT + F1---F6, but nothing happens.

3. Debian installation question. I have downloaded the whole two DVD ISO files, and installed the Debian with the command: linux26. But when processing the last step, it began updating security packages from the Debian server, which cost whole one day of mine( the poor local network). Is there any installation parameter I can use to avoid the operation?

Thanks for any reply. Thanks.

1. Check for services running at startup that you don't need. One such service that Debian seems to install by default is Appletalk services and protocols..
open a shell and su- to root.

apt-get remove netatalk - that alone should trim at least 20 seconds from the boot..


2. You Should never log into a graphical session as root. Log in as a normal user if you need to do anything as root, you can either open a shell and su- or sudo your commands. any graphical cofiguration tools such as synaptic will prompt you for the root password when you run them.


3. from this point forward Debian will notgo out on it's own and download any updates.. if you want security updates or other updates from the Internet you will either need to run synaptic, aptitude, or apt-get so this one shouldn't be an issue...

I agree with farslayer...

Moreover:

In order to support a wide variety of hardware and other things, which makes 1st installations go better, the out-of-the box debian kernel is bloated somewhat, and there's loads of unneeded modules. Im sure this is the same for any easily installed desktop distribution to some extent.

Your best bet is to get it running and booted, and when you have the time - re-compile the kernel and take out all the uneeded stuff (and you can optimize according to your processor at the same time).

Regarding access via root - it is possible. Once you log in to KDE or whichever GUI, simply open a terminal , become root, and type

/etc/init.d/gdm stop

Then you'll get to a terminal log in - do so, and again become root. As root, from here you can type

startx

Now you'll be in a gui as root. But as advised by our friend farslayer, this is not a good idea.

To resolve security updates, you can put in a cron job that will run

apt-get update
apt-get upgrade

during off-hours. You definitely want the security upates to be frequent. There is also a program called

cron-apt

(i think...)

Have a look.

there's an option in gdm to allow root logins. change your preferences to allow

in the GUI(where I'm assuming you are logging in, stands for Graphical User Interface) you can typt CTRL-ALT-F{1,2,3,4,5,6}(in other words anything from F1 to F6), and get to a console, where you can login as root.

Sometimes also exim is long to start when the DNS (or resolver mechanism with network down) is not well configured.
dpkg-reconfigure exim4-config
Do it only if it stucks saying exim:.....

Never login from GDM as root. As mentioned above, "su" and "sudo" will get you far, but you might experience problems starting graphical programs as root. To fix this, check out "gksu" and "xsu".