[TriLUG] Tony's attempt to install Debian Linux on his computer--from Lockergnome's Penguin Shell newsletter

[Daniel T. Chen]

On Wed, 21 Nov 2001, al johson wrote:

[Yeah yeah, it's a review, so the attribution is incorrect. ;P]
> I found no driver support for the network card (a Realtek 8029), the
> SoundBlaster Live! sound card, or the Voodoo 3 video card. Kernel-loading
> drivers for the CDROM also failed several times despite my best attempts.
> There were no useful lp (printer) drivers. The descriptions of the drivers
> were bare-bones. It was 5:15 a.m. yesterday when, after repeated attempts to
> get to a minimal working system, I pulled the plug and re-installed
> Mandrake.

Realtek 8029 -> PCI NE2000 clone (more info available @
http://www.scyld.com/network/ne2k-pci.html), use ne2k-pci.c and its
equiv. kernel module

SBLive -> emu10k1.o

Needs DRM for DRI if one uses X 4.1.0 (also requires a 2.4 kernel in this
instance). With X 3.3.6, other procedures necessary.

[...]
> ... a new Debian install without XWindow. As hard as I tried, as many
> avenues as I pursued, I simply could not get XWindow to load. The first
> problem was the Microsoft USB optical mouse. No problem. I pushed the
> adapter on and slotted it as PS/2. Then the X server refused to start based
> on the monitor settings. I tried virtually everything I knew to resolve the
> error but, after 6 more hours, was still console based. I'm actually fine
> with a console, but I don't think it will serve the full purpose of the
> review or do full justice to the distribution. Once again, Mandrake is my
> temporary Linux OS.

This is the type of stuff that really seems to tick off Branden, the
Debian X maintainer. *People just don't want to read the FAQs.*

I'm assuming the reviewer wants the latest version of X (which in woody is
4.1.0-9), so the simple step would have been:

# apt-get install x-window-system x-window-system-core
# dpkg-reconfigure xserver-xfree86

Voila, working X session.

[...]
> The lesson? Why, I'd be glad to share it with you! Preparation, especially
> when venturing off into uncharted waters, is paramount. I'll be better
> prepared for a thorough Debian review in a few weeks. That's a promise.

Yep. He should also check out www.debianplanet.org and www.debianhelp.org

---
Dan Chen                 crimsun at email.unc.edu
GPG key: www.cs.unc.edu/~chenda/pubkey.gpg.asc