New Set-up on old computer.....
 

Howdy, from the =Flyin' S's Ranch, brought to you by that great, tasting, Hello World, Dog-gone Ya' Coffee,

I've discovered that my 4 gB thumb drive won't hold all of Debian 6 ("Squeeze"). So, I'll have to remove my CD burner out of my old, 1.2 gig computer, hook it up to a 120 gig hard drive and burn a CD (or several) and then load it on the blank 120 gig HDD.

OR is there a better solution?

I'll keep the WIN XP HOME drive seperate from the Debian drive and just hook-up the windows drive when I need to work from it.

120 gigs should be enough to put Debian 6 and MYSQL on, don't you think? I'll certainly need some "help" in setting MYSQL up. I also plan on using the ham digital applications to control and log my ham radio contacts and keep them on the Linux drive, until I can afford a couple of 2 terabyte drives. By then, I hope to have a new motherboard, RAM, and one that does RAID. Can you imagine 9-2Tb drives? LOL! That should last forever.

Respectfully submitted,
Regards,

"Buck"/KA5LQJ
QCWA
Ten/Ten International
Area_5_Wx_Group
Chapter 2 - No Bull Shit Radio Club

Can't you do a installation over the network with the Debian Squeeze netinst CD image?


If unsure disconnect that drive during the installation phase. When you're satisfied Debian is installed to your liking add the drive back in and add a GRUB entry to switch to The Other OS.


While you might that drive up to capacity over time it will not be the OS itself causing it. What you need space-wise depends on machine and service use (as in headless server vs desktop). A basic Linux command line-only server installation might be as small as 500 to 800MB, meaning plenty of space for /home, /var/www, databases and uninitialized disk space you might want to set aside for later use, provided you deploy a usable partitioning scheme.


One thing at a time I'd say.


Personally I would advice against shelling out cash for hardware until you've got a better idea of what you need.

A 4 gig stick can hold the debian iso, the problem is you have to get rid of all the files on it that you think were deleted. My cruiser flash had the same problem.

The network install that unSpawn mentions is durn near probably your best bet. That's what I do now-a-days without even thinking too hard. It's a smaller download so quicker to write to CD and purdy near as fast to get the installation process running. You'll have that old boiler up and tooting along in no time.

I will second (third?) the net install option. I've used it several times and it has worked flawlessly.

I disagree on netinstall.

Its fine for people who know what they are doing, and have a good internet conenction with high/unlimited d/l limits.

For somebody that hasnt installed debian before, netinstall could be a pain in the arse. If the install stuffs up, or the user decides they want to reinstall, or install on a different computer, its easier to just get a normal install iso. \

I would get 'debian-6.0.5-i386-xfce+lxde-CD-1.iso'

XFce and Lxde. Select the desktop you want on the initial screen, then just follow installer. No need to go into taskel to pick the desktop you want, etc..

Much easier for a newbie than trying to get Xfce installed from the netinstall .iso.

It should do, unless you've got stuff still on the drive, or you are trying to put a DVD .iso on.

120GB is tons for a debian install.

10-15GB on /, 1-2GB swap space, the rest as /home.

How much space do ham radio logs take up? Megabytes an hour?

You dont want a motherboard with 'RAID' its just fakeRAID (fairly junk), rarely has good linux support, and linux has its own software RAID system *(mdadm) which is better.

9 x 2TB drives might sound 'sexy' but unless you need that space, its pointless. Not much point getting 9 x 2TB drives if you only need 1TB now.....by the the time that you need 18TB you might be able to get a single drive that size.


IMO when you get a new computer you are best to get as much space as you need, plus enough to last you 1-3 years. HDDs keep getting bigger, and 9 x 2TB = 18TB of space. In theory, 5TB drives are possible now, and when they come out 4 HDDs will have more storage space.

Cost also decrease over time. Currently HDD prices are still high after the Thailand floods. Over time HDD prices will fall even more than usual.

I think I'll try the debian net install. Most distro's it is just as easy if not exact as the normal install. Maybe Debian is odd?

If you want you could make a live cd/usb from the live debian iso. Pretty sure you can add in what ever you want later.

Wonder why more distro's don't offer a gpxe boot?

If you have an extra computer you could set up a local server but that may be more than you wanted to try.

Cascade9 is correct that, if you don't have a good broadband connection, it's not the way to go.

Otherwise, the preliminary steps are straightforward. Once you've answered the configuration questions, it installs base software off the CD, then gets the rest over the network. It can take a little longer than installing from optical media, until you count the time to download and burn all those disks . . . .

Debian install...
 

This computer is one at home, so I'm not on a network. I was
thinking ifjust downloading Debian directly on the hard drive. Isn't
that possible? Maybe I'm misunderstanding.
Thanks,
"Buck"/KA5LQJ

'netinstall' uses the internet to d/l the files. A LAN (local area network) or WAN (wide area network) connection isnt needed, just a net conenction.

No, that is not really possible.

Some people could download the files or data to a hard drive and use it. I would not recommend it for a beginner.

In any case data has to be downloaded. I have spend weeks downloading stuff over the phone in years past. It some cases you only download exactly what you need.

I tried the Debian 6 usb iso for netinstall. It was like 9M and was a simple installer. About 10 enter keys and it was installing. I then tried the largest usb netinstall about 130M, not sure the difference. Looks the same 10 enter keys simple installer. Not easy options maybe for a newbie. Advanced choices may give you some issues.

It may be that you have some friend with faster access that could download an iso or set of files for you to use.

"Good News!"
 

Howdy, Y' all! :hattip:

The Physical Therapist came yesterday to test my stability. I'm pleased to report that I've been approved to put FULL WEIGHT now on my left leg. The final judgement will come on the 29th when I see the Orthopedic Surgeon. But for all intent and purposes, I can lose the wheel chair and just use the walker. I can even sit in my soft recliner and watch TV with my family. Yippie! It's been a long time in coming and the CREATOR has properly healed me.

I'm also allowed to go outside with the walker into my yard as long as someone accompany's me until the Doctor's OK. I can start putting up antenna mast and build my antennas for my digital ham use. The new Liniux computer will have to wait until after September, when I go to Bayor Medical in Dallas, TX. to see my liver transplant doctor. We haven't had a 'vacation' in over a year, so we'll take a couple of days off and enjoy the different sites in town. That will give me the chance to go by Frye's and check out motherboards, cases, etc, :D If any of you live in the Dallas area, let me know and I'll buy you a cup of coffee and we can talk a bit. I'm sure someone has some incrediable stories we can talk about.

Now, to keep it legal.......I might could get my wife's laptop and burn a cd on her DVD player/recorder as a CD and not a dvd. Then I can hook up some known good CD player/recorder and download (?) Debian on to a blank, 120 gig hard drive. Will that work?

Respectfully submitted,
Regards,

Buck/ KA5LQJ

Usually one can take a modern computer and use a usb cdrom to boot and install an OS. To do an internal, you'd have to open it up. Someone you know might let you borrow a usb cd drive.


I don't think you wife would mind you making a cd. The full install is like 39 cd's or something like that.