questions about debian SID
 

looking on the distro reviews section of the site, it seems everyone using debian sid is pretty pleased with it. so i think i might make an attempt at installing it on one of my systems. a few quick questions...

is debian more like redhat or slackware in terms of where it places config files and stuff? for instance, in redhat/mandrake-type linux, i can go to /etc/sysconfig and there are a ton of config files for me to play with to change stuff. in slackware that directory doesn't even exist.

2nd question: how does one go about acquiring/installing debian sid? i would assume that if it's so cutting edge, there probably aren't iso's for it. is this correct? if so, is there a decent how-to or something that could show me how to install linux not from iso's? although i've played with linux a while, i've never attempted to install it via any other method, which is one reason i'm posing this in the newbie forum.

lastly, any general tips or advice that would help me when insalling debian sid would be appreciated. thanks a lot :D

Get Debian isos from either www.debian.org or www.linuxiso.org - grab whatever the latest is from there. All updates are done from within your version of Debian - apt-get dist-upgrade updates your system to the latest.

I have always found the initial install to be awkward. Make sure you know what hardware you have and also what programs you need.

When installing, if you have cable/dsl you only need disk 1. All the rest can be done via ftp.

Re: questions about debian SID
 

it should probably run as stable as most other distros!

i've never used redhat or slackware - don't know ... i think there is a difference between rh and debian in where they put their config-files but there might still be quite a big difference between slack and debian as well...

you can get ('unofficial') sid-isos from ftp://ftp.fsn.hu/pub/CDROM-Images/debian-unofficial/ . i think they are recreated every sunday od so. you might also want to have a look at jigdo (http://www.debian.org/CD/jigdo-cd/) - have never used it though, so i can't help you with that one.

right now, i cant think of anything else than what XavierP already said

so does anyone know how similar debian is to slackware, mandrake, or redhat?? i'd like to try it out, but if i'm gonna have to search for the configuration files every time i want to change something because they're not in the same place as any other distro, it's gonna get frustrating. it was frustrating enough when i tried to cd to /etc/sysconfig using slackware for the first time, and found out that the directory doesn't even exist. imo there should be some sort of standard that all distros adhere to that determines directory structure, where specific configuration files should be placed, etc. if i have to do everything from the command line, it would at least be nice to know where everything is...

If you are that desperate for standards, install the LSB (Linux Standards Base). The distros are all different - different teams. If you want to know where things are in the distros, check out the documentation on each distros site.

PS didn't you invent the piano keyboard tie?

debian scripts are placed slightly differentl. there is no sysconfig. you wont spend much time figuring things out.

how i got sid:
install the base woody system with abs nothing on it, i.e i selected nothing from the dselect options, and had nothing on the machine. once, i had a base woody system, i apt-get update-distro to sid by changing the sources.list file to read everything from the unstable repository.

i did this cos i already had a woody cd. and well, it dont get simpler than that. :)

why yes, yes i did ;)

isn't LSB merely a standard? you don't install LSB itself, just applications that conform to the LSB standards, right?

has anyone out there used both slackware and debian that could give a general comparison? i'll probably stick with slackware anyway. i don't want to have to learn another distro if there's no real advantage. i really like mandrake, although i want to always be using at least one distro that doesn't have any kind of commercial ties--that way i won't get skrewed over if Mandrake decides to pull a red hat.

Debian definitely has no commercial ties and neither does Slackware (pretty much a one-man band). As I understand it, both Debian and Slackware are pretty close to 'original' Linux. If you really want to dictate where everything goes, build your own - try Linux From Scratch.

yeah, i'd love to--if i only had the time...

Well, since you tried to kill the President of Polynesia and Derek Zoolander, I'm not sure I should try to help, but.....:D

Since Debian and Slack are both close to "original" linux (or at least that's how they're viewed) I would say that once installed, they are pretty similar. Slack can be configured with KDE and/or Gnome, or start without a window manager and compile something else. Debian tends to start with TWM (Tab Window Manager). I have always found Slack to be really easy to install. Debian is a little more complicated and I have not ever really had it install properly. But that's just me, you may have a different experience.

To be honest, I have never worried about where things install to. Once it's up and running and looks like I want it to, I use it as just another desktop/laptop machine.

never mind

nm!!?! :eek: now i'm dying to know what you posted...

was supposed to be about using wget -c but i posted before testing and what i tried didn't work. now i can't delete the post so i edited and just put in never mind.

which iso do i need:

http://linuxiso.org/distro.php?distro=4

i want debian sid running on reiserfs. it sounds like all i need to do is install base stable debian with no options and then upgrade it to sid. but i read this:

http://www.debian.org/releases/stabl...ethods.en.html

and it looks like i need the bf2.4 iso if i want reiserfs or ext3 support, as well as install disc 1. why would i even need install disc 1 if the bf2.4 disc (disc 5) is bootable? which disc(s) do i absolutely need, and which one do i boot from?

if you want do i have done and install woody then upgrade the kernel (read the instructions in my sig to do that) and then once that is all done change your /etc/apt/sources.list to say testing instead of stable (you should be about to figure this out) and then do an apt-get dist-upgrade. <== this may take a while depending on how much you install on the base woody install. i just use disc 1 and skip using dselect and taskselect and install everything that i want from there (you can read the instructions in my sig to see how to do it the way i install debian)