Which Debian ISO should I download?

Seph64 · 01-11-2004, 11:31 PM

A Gentoo user here, wanting to try out Debian. I am wondering what Debian installation ISO I should download.

I've had trouble with Debian ISO files, whether they contain a 2.2 kernel, or freeze up when I am trying to boot the kernel. So I am stuck wondering, what ISO file should I download? Cause there are so many ISO files.

Thanks.

Edit: Stupid tab button, meant to press the 'a' button... In case you are wondering, I press tab then pressed space, which in turn caused me to post the message before I was done typing it.

cmuller · 01-12-2004, 12:43 AM

I've spent much of the past few weeks trying to work my way through a bunch of Debian installation ISOs, so I can sympathize. I couldn't get through a single installation on any one of my three computers.

I ended up installing Debian via Mepis, and after feeling my way around Debian a bit that way, came back and tried again with a Woody bf2.4 net install. I had been getting hung up after the first screen, but finally went through with the boot option of

video=vga16

ff

Which, as I understand it, turns off the frame buffering in the right way.

If you haven't seen it already, you might want to take a look at the Debian Installers page at

http://www.linuxmafia.com/faq/Debian/installers.html

If you're using a USB mouse, if I were you, I'd try to plug it into a USB adapter for the time being. I haven't come across anyone yet who's gotten this working right in stable or testing.

Good luck!

Chuck

karnevil9 · 01-12-2004, 02:49 AM

You only need the first ISO to install Debian, the others are extras that you may or may not need. Vanilla Debian contains the packages most used, Bf4 is for more modern computers. Check out www.Debian.org for a more complete explanation. You may want to check out Knoppix or Morphix if you want a system that sets up more easily than Debian but is Debian based. Knoppix has great hardware recognition.

cmuller · 01-12-2004, 03:13 AM

I can confirm through my own experience that Vanilla offers the smoothest installation. The problem I had with it was that its 2.2 kernel doesn't contain the drivers for USB mass storage devices, which I use all the time.

Seph64 · 01-12-2004, 03:18 AM

And I do not think CD1 comes with the version of ncurses needed for a 2.4 kernel compile. I've tried a CD1 install a month or two ago, could not use it because I could not get a 2.4 kernel up and running.

je_fro · 01-12-2004, 04:59 AM

Bah!
Why bother with the CD?
I always just use the bf2.4 boot floppies.
6 floppies and you're done.

Seph64 · 01-12-2004, 05:51 AM

That's all good, except for two things:

1) I will never ever use floppies, most of the floppies I've used became unusable after 1 use... (bad floppy drive perhaps?)

2) They're slower than crap, I'd rather be sleeping on a bed of nails than to use floppies.

On a side note, I had to re-start the download since the first time it failed a md5sum check (I thought it downloaded too fast).

Seph64 · 01-12-2004, 12:17 PM

Okay, Debian is installed, but I got a problem trying to install ncurses.

when I type in apt-get install ncurses it says that it was mentioned in some sort of list, but it was not uploaded. Therefore I can not install it. I need ncurses to compile a 2.4 kernel.

Should I just compile ncurses from source? Or is there a .deb installation file somewhere?

Also, when I do get the 2.4 kernel compiled, would there be a way to convert the ext2 filesystem to ext3?

je_fro · 01-12-2004, 12:59 PM

Heh...you should've used the floppies.
I usually apt-get libncurses5-dev, and bzip2 and you're good to go.

Seph64 · 01-12-2004, 03:16 PM

Thanks, that did it. Now, how do I get Debian to use http/FTP servers as source for installation?

EDIT: I found out how..

Hmm, two more questions.

1. why does apt-get don't like newer versions of software? I type in apt-get update then apt-get install kde but it says that the current version installed is the newest version which is not true since KDE 2.2 is NOT the latest version. Nor is XFree86 v 4.1

2. how do I install XFree86? I thought apt-get install kde would also install XFree since XFree would be a dependancy, but it obviously didn't install it since startx gives me "X not found in /usr/folder/subfolder" error.

I've also tried to type in apt-get install xfree (or xfree86, XFree86, etc), but that returns a package not found in sources error.

GAVollink · 01-12-2004, 06:08 PM

.. 1) you are still using Debian Stable - and stable (as the name suggests) doesn't change very frequently. You will have to change the apt configuration to request testing stuff if you want to run a bleeding edge debian system. In other words it's offering you the most recent version that is approved for use on Debian Stable.

Not sure about the XFree stuff though - sorry.

je_fro · 01-12-2004, 07:31 PM

For xfree86:
apt-get install x-window-system

from /etc/apt/sources.list:
deb http://mirrors.kernel.org/debian/ unstable main non-free contrib
deb-src http://mirrors.kernel.org/debian/ unstable main non-free contrib
deb http://non-us.debian.org/debian-non-US unstable/non-US main contrib non-free
deb-src http://non-us.debian.org/debian-non-US unstable/non-US main contrib non-free

deb http://security.debian.org/ stable/updates main contrib non-free
deb http://ftp.freenet.de/pub/ftp.vpn-ju...de/openoffice/ unstable main contrib
deb http://marillat.free.fr/ testing main

After you change what you want, run apt-get update, then apt-get upgrade, then apt-get install x-window-system.

Seph64 · 01-12-2004, 08:46 PM

Thanks for the all the help, but XFree is still giving me some problems.

It does not want to go into 1280x1024 resolution, I successfully compiled the nvidia driver under the 2.4 kernel I compiled, here is the relevant sections of my XF86Config-4 file:

Code:

Section "Device"
        Identifier      "Generic Video Card"
        Driver          "nvidia"
        Option          "UseFBDev"              "true"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
        Identifier      "Generic Monitor"
        HorizSync       28-50
        VertRefresh     43-75
        Option          "DPMS"
EndSection

Section "Screen"
        Identifier      "Default Screen"
        Device          "Generic Video Card"
        Monitor         "Generic Monitor"
        DefaultDepth    24
        SubSection "Display"
                Depth           1
                Modes           "1280x1024" "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
        EndSubSection
        SubSection "Display"
                Depth           4
                Modes           "1280x1024" "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
        EndSubSection
        SubSection "Display"
                Depth           8
                Modes           "1280x1024" "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480" 
        EndSubSection
        SubSection "Display"
                Depth           15
                Modes           "1280x1024" "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
        EndSubSection
        SubSection "Display"
                Depth           16
                Modes           "1280x1024" "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
        EndSubSection
        SubSection "Display"
                Depth           24
                Modes           "1280x1024" "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
        EndSubSection
EndSection

This is using XFree 4.10 and KDE 2.2. I'll trying upgrading to the latest versions later.

newinlinux · 01-12-2004, 08:49 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Seph64
Thanks for the all the help, but XFree is still giving me some problems.

It does not want to go into 1280x1024 resolution, I successfully compiled the nvidia driver under the 2.4 kernel I compiled, here is the relevant sections of my XF86Config-4 file:

Code:

Section "Device" Identifier "Generic Video Card" Driver "nvidia" Option "UseFBDev" "true" EndSection Section "Monitor" Identifier "Generic Monitor" HorizSync 28-50 VertRefresh 43-75 Option "DPMS" EndSection Section "Screen" Identifier "Default Screen" Device "Generic Video Card" Monitor "Generic Monitor" DefaultDepth 24 SubSection "Display" Depth 1 Modes "1280x1024" "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480" EndSubSection SubSection "Display" Depth 4 Modes "1280x1024" "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480" EndSubSection SubSection "Display" Depth 8 Modes "1280x1024" "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480" EndSubSection SubSection "Display" Depth 15 Modes "1280x1024" "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480" EndSubSection SubSection "Display" Depth 16 Modes "1280x1024" "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480" EndSubSection SubSection "Display" Depth 24 Modes "1280x1024" "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480" EndSubSection EndSection

This is using XFree 4.10 and KDE 2.2. I'll trying upgrading to the latest versions later.

your monitor HorizSync & VertRefresh seems to be low to support the 1280x1024. U are sure the monitor can only go that far?

Seph64 · 01-12-2004, 08:55 PM

Ah, remind me to do a xf86config.

That is what I get for letting Debian configure my settings for me.

There fixed it, upgraded to XFree 4.3 as well.