Ok, FC4 is very nice as its almost 100% out of the box but I want a Debian system since I think that is going to be one of the leading distros in Linux.

I tried Debian once before (sarge), unstable I think it was 3 months ago but my problem is that I can only install Debian with a 2.4 kernel and if I tried to load linux26, the install would fail to find my media (cd) drives.

Can someone please tell me what Debian I should install so I can run the following:

Gnome (lastet and greatest)
GIMP
Firefox
Apache
FTP server

I don't like selecting "desktop environment" because this add's way too much junk I don't need or use on my machine (like KDE) and or other apps.

Is there a way to just install Gnome?

Debian Sarge is now stable, and by default the installer uses a 2.4 kernel. (I think that a few months ago, when Debian Sarge was still in Testing, its installer defaulted to a 2.6 kernel.)

You can download the latest Debian net installer (stable), and upgrade from there to get the latest GNOME in Debian unstable. I don't know exactly how to install just GNOME, but others will probably answer that (or you can search the forums).

Another possibility is to try out Ubuntu, which may be more bleeding edge than Debian unstable. It's GNOME oriented.

Hi

Don't select desktop environment
Edit the file /etc/apt/sources.list from stable to unstable
Then as root run
Then
That gives you a minimum gnome desktop

Sls

So I should download the Net installer for Debian (Sarge) which is now stable?

What about unstable? Will that have more current applications? I would rather use Debian since it seems to be a more solid server OS than Ubuntu.

Hi

Try the net-installer
Stable has gnome 2.8
Unstable has gnome 2.10
If you are going to run a server i would recommend stable as packages in unstable when updated can break your system

Sls

The whole debian install process is very complex to me...Is there a net installer for stable and a seperate one for un-stable or just a universal net installer and you point the apt util to the proper packages.

I really would like to try unstable but am confused about what I mentioned above.

Hi

For unstable net-installer start here

http://www.nl.debian.org/devel/debian-installer/


For stable net-installer start here

http://www.nl.debian.org/releases/sa...ian-installer/

Both links include links to documentation on installing debian

sls

If you wish to latest version of things, you have to use unstable. If not, and you value security, stability and reliability over bleeding-edge technology, stable (Sarge) is recommended. Any any case:

To install minimum gnome system:
To install GIMP:
To install Firefix:
To install Apache 2:
To install Very Secure FTP Daemon:
You can put all these into one line:
You should always remember to update the package list before installing anything:

I am looking on this page:

http://www.nl.debian.org/devel/debian-installer/

What am I suppose to download? There is so much random clutter on this page and I can't find anything thats says - "Click here for Net-Installer". I see alink to the "sarge page" but that will take me to "stable" which I don't want. I want the unstable net isntaller.
Thanks again for any help...

Under Installing with the Debian-Installer, select the link "the sarge page" which will take you here:
http://www.nl.debian.org/releases/sa...ian-installer/
If you are running a standard PC, select i386 under netinst cd image (100 MB). Save the download to your computer, and then burn it to CD as an image. That should get you going. When you insert the CD, just hit enter to boot and it will install the standard 2.4 kernel. If you want to upgrade your kernel later, it is very easy.
Sarge is now the stable branch. If you do not select desktop environment, then it will not install X. After the install, run:

#apt-get update
#apt-get install xserver-xfree86 gnome-panel

If you want Debian to automatically boot to the graphical desktop, then you also need to install gdm as mentioned below. I personally do not want Debian to boot into gnome, so I removed gdm, and now it boots to the standard text interface. If I want to run gnome, gimp, firefox, or anything requiring graphics, then I just type startx at the command prompt and X starts and loads gnome.

I hope this helps. If not, keep posting questions and there are plenty of people in this forum who can have you up and running.

Good Luck!

Unstable net-install cd image is available here

Kanotix will install a stable Debian Unstable/Sid system very simply all in one disk.

Ubuntu also uses Debian unstable packages, that might be a good place for you to start also.

You can start with the Testing net-installer here (#edit link fixed)
then upgrade. You might want to start with Testing most packages are reasonably up-to-date. Then upgrade to unstable once you get the hang of Debian.

I'm not sure if anyone has mentioned this to you or not but sid can be really UNSTABLE. Unless you are a linux seasoned pro, who doesn't mind being unable to use a program for a couple of days until it is fixed, I would stick with either stable or testing. Testing is nice because you get some of the bleeding edge applications with a lot more stability than sid. Now you could install Sarge and update, as someone already metioned, your /etc/apt/sources.list file and just change the word "sarge" for "sid" and remove the security update lines and the cdrom line.
How long have you been using linux? If you're coming from Fedora maybe you should stick with something easier like stable (Sarge) because the fact is if you are coming from Red Hat you probably don't know linux well enough to handle unstable (in my opinion).

Especially if you need to ask how to install sid you probably shouldn't

Otherwise try Ubuntu.

Its not that I am horrible at Linux - but debian has a complex distro scheme.

There is Stable | Testing | Unstable

I guess I am trying to find the Debian net installer for Testing which gives me some bleeding edge stuff but not the problems with unstable.

The link posted above for the testing net installer is dead

The actual link for the latest testing netinstaller is:

http://cdimage.debian.org/pub/cdimag.../i386/current/

The reason why the eariler link was broken was because the testing CDs are rebuild daily. The above link will send you to the latest one.

^

Thanks - I will install this now.

Thanks for eveyones helpful info!