Can't Even Install Dabien/KNOPPIX
 

Hey, I'm trying to install Dabien using kernel (or distro or whatever) 1, and its very frustrating. I'm running (or would if it worked) an Intel with a 3dfx Voodoo 3 video card, 256 mb RAM, a 10g HD, and a ~450 mHz pentium processor.

What I did (most likely useless info):

When I start it up it asks me to do some fairly easy stuff, then it says to partition a hard drive or something similar, I do this, but it doesn't let me out of the table of OSes, so I read through and it says to make a Linux, and another kind of partition, so I do this and it still doesn't let me out. I eventually hit escape and enter in the right combination almost like a code that lets me out of that god forsaken screen :(

I get to a network install, which I dont have because i'm not on the internet or network, and my ethernet card isn't set up and I have no need for it anyway, but it insists I need one, so I skip all the network oriented steps because unless Linux is run of the internet its wrong.

Now I finish the rest of the install with a fair amount of smoothness.

What it did:

Well, first it uncompiles about 1000 programs, and this takes about 30 minutes, then it tells me I should reboot and asks if i'm ready, I assume I am and type Y. It reboots and says something about there being no warranty and asks me for my login, which I graciously give, along with my password.

Now I get a command prompt, somewhat similar to that of DOS. It asks me if I want to list all of the choices of commands (in the thousands) and I say yes, and it does, with no description of what they do, not to mention I can only see the last 40 or so. So i'm stuck without a GUI.

After rebooting (improperly, I might add), it says I need to log in as Root, which I do and get a GUI (WHO HOO :D) but no mouse, and only the numpad works so far as I can tell, it says I need to install the mouse. Well, it gives me no hint as to how to do that, no icons, prompts, windows, wizards, files, folders, just a really cruddy grey background. So, i'm stuck, and the security, quickness, and less stress of Linux compared to Windows is all thrown out the window as bull, and now its just become a mission to get it to work.

BTW, I'v tried KNOPPIX (no installation whoopee) and like it a lot as far as the OS goes, but want something permanent, so I can reboot and still have the same icons, so if there is an alternative - like a smoother installing free distro (despite popular belief most distros of linux are $30-200, far from free) - can you let me know?

If you are a newbie, you should probably stay away from the pure Debian install.

You will find it easier to simply install Knoppix to the harddrive, where it basically becomes Debian "Sid". Boot the Knoppix CD, then when the KDE desktop appears, open the KNOPPIX menu, open a root console, then run knoppix-installer. However, the Knoppix installer is not exactly newbie-friendly; it's text-based and relies on cfdisk for partitioning, and you still need to do some tweaking after installing (eg. editing /etc/apt/sources.list to include the non-German Debian APT repositories, etc.)

For an even easier Debian installation alternative, try Mepis (no charge, but author appreciates donations). Mepis is based on Knoppix, but provides a graphical installer with a convenient desktop "Permanent Installation" icon. Boot the Mepis CD, then click the permanent installation icon, and you're in business. The installation procedure is easy, and it includes a graphical partitioning tool similar to PartitionMagic (QTParted) that can resize partitions.

Re: Can't Even Install Dabien
 

All Linux is free, but you are thinking free as in no cost. This is, rightly so, incorrect. You have stumbled upon a grave misinterpretation of the entire Free Software movement. It is free as in freedom, not as in beer (http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-sw.html).

For most distributions, you can get the ISOs from http://www.linuxiso.org.
If the mouse is not working, you can try configuring it using "xf86cfg -textmode".

There is a picture installation tutorial here:
http://linux.binarystorm.net/gnu-debian/

I haven't gone through it, but it seems okay. You may have to tailer some of the steps to suit your needs.

Thanks guys, I'll look into it. And I was also curious about one thing, what language is Linux written in, because I know of a programmer that might be interested in testing his skills :)

thanks again

Wow, this was weird. I was so impressed by KNOPPIX the first time I decided to do the installer, and it seemed to go all as planned, except for some reason I have a Dabien background :scratch:

I tried to login by clicking on the user and typing in the username and password, but the monitor just clicks about 3 times and sends me back to the login screen, do you know what is going on?

Btw, if I try to log in under the console first then start the gui, it doesn't work, and if I log in and type startkde it just says "X server error" indefinately

You probably installed the 2004-02-09 release of Knoppix 3.3; it has a bug with the xserver when it is installed to the hard-drive. See knoppix.net news for more info.

Either install the newest version of Knoppix 3.3 (2004-02-16), or better yet, install an older version. As you can see from my profile, I'm still using Knoppix 3.2 (2003-07-26) as my "stable and reliable, do not touch" distro on our entertainment workstation.

I keep a separate partition to test distros, including new releases of Knoppix. Personally, I had little problems with every release of Knoppix 3.3 (and the 3.3 versions seemed slower on boot which annoys my wife), so I still haven't replaced the Knoppix 3.2 install.

The nice thing about Debian, is that you will use apt-get to upgrade everything anyway, except for the kernel. Oh yeah, if you're thinking about fooling around with kernel recompiles, then Knoppix and Mepis both use custom-patched kernels; they're not the easiest to recompile. You'd be better off using Slackware or Gentoo if you wanted to experiment with the kernel.

Edit the file .wmrc in your user home directory and add kde3 to the file and save and exit then give it a try it also worked for me on the 3.4 c't version if I choose kde3 from the menu instead of leaving it set to default in the login session type at the KDE greeter screen.