[TriLUG] Debian installation.

al johson alfjon at mindspring.com
Sun May 25 21:05:49 EDT 2003 

As luck would have it, the latest issue of LinuxFormat magazine from Britain
answered a question that I had about how to install Knoppix (a Debian
distribution with an extremely easy installation process--simpler in many
respects to RedHat and Mandrake) permanently on one's hard drive!! (on p.24
of the May 2003 issue there is this remarkable statement under the topic
"Knoppix Kudos": "The Knoppix distro that was provided on the Cover disc of
your December issue, is much more than is stated in your introductory guide.
Not only is it a complete install-free Linux distro that can be booted from
a CD, but IT CAN ALSO BE PERMANENTLY INSTALLED ON TO A SPARE PARTITION
GREATER THAN 3 GB ON YOUR HARD DISK. BEST OF ALL YOU THEN HAVE A DEBIAN 3.0
INSTALLATION WITH NEARLY ALL THE HARD WORK DONE FOR YOU." (caps. added by
myself!).
    The article continues with the statement that to do this you just have
to run the "kns-hdinstall" script (on the CD). They also add that it is
useful to first read the "Knoppix Hard Disk Installation HOW TO by John
Jubal. Useful websites to find this on (as well as other info) are said to
be www.knoppix.net and www.nzoss.org.nz .

      Speaking of Libranet, it is interesting that it was one of the
contenders for Linux Format Magazine's "Best Distribution" of the year
award!! (the winner was Mandrake).

      Also in this issue there is a extensive discussion of  SCO's
1,000,000,000 POUND lawsuit against IBM. If you're interested in a look at
this suit in the light of BRITISH (not American) common law, there's also an
article on that as well.

     Finally, there is a $20 book (actually found on the magazine rack at
Borders) on Linux by the same magazine. It includes a distribution which has
the same advantages as Knoppix for those who are interested in trying Linux,
as well as a ton of Linux tutorials on many different subjects.
     Bon Appetit!!--Al Johnson.
================

----- Original Message -----
From: "Ben Pitzer" <uncleben at mindspring.com>
To: <trilug at trilug.org>
Sent: Friday, May 23, 2003 11:04 AM
Subject: RE: [TriLUG] Debian installation.


> Yeah, the installer has been one of the biggest bugaboos for Debian.
> Actually, though, Progeny had a really good graphical installer for Debian
> that I'm surprised that they haven't wholeheartedly adopted, since Progeny
> seems to have donated their entire code base to the Debian project upon
> their demise as a corporate entity.  I can't speak to Libranet or Knoppix'
> installers, not having used them, but rest assured that Debian's install
> process is getting and will continue to get easier and more user friendly.
> As with all things in Debian, it takes time, largely because the
developers
> are very dedicated to writing good code, and making sure that their
products
> are the best they can possibly be.  Since many of those folks are doing it
> in their free time, things get a little slower.  Fact of the matter is,
> though, that once something is released as 'stable', you can count on it
> being about as close to unbreakable as code can get.  Naturally, as
> technology evolves, and related code gets modified, more bugs and security
> issues pop up, but Debian seems to do a very good job of correcting those
> issues.  For example, if a version of libc6 that Debian is using has a
bug,
> they won't put the version from 'testing' into 'stable'.  They'll fix the
> version already in 'stable' to fix the bug, but no upgrade any features,
or
> add anything to it that might compromise the stability or security of that
> package as it stands.  New features come out in 'testing', but a while
> before 'testing' becomes 'stable', all feature additions are frozen, and
> from there until the release, it's nothing but bug hunting in the current
> code base.  I can admire that.
>
> Nonetheless, 'Sarge' (testing) is great for the average home user.  It's
> more stable than almost any Windows or RH box that I've ever run, updates
> are a breeze, and there is a good selection of largely up to date
packages.
> When 'Sarge' becomes 'stable', and there is a new 'testing' distro, most
> folks move to that.  'stable' is largely there for those running
production
> boxes  that they just simply don't want to, or don't need to upgrade for
any
> reason.  I'm sure that we could find a few 'Hamm' or 'Slink' boxes still
> running out there, for that matter, and plenty of 'Potato' boxes.  (for
> those not in the know, every time a new 'testing' distro is generated,
it's
> named after a character from 'Toy Story', which is why the unstable distro
> is always called 'Sid'.  So far, we've had Buzz, Rex, Bo, Slink, Hamm,
> Potato, Woody, and now 'Sarge'.  Watch the movie for guesses as to the
next
> version.)  In any event, 'testing' is typically the best for the average
> desktop user who wants to play around with a Debian distro that's not only
> up to date, but also more stable than your average OS.
>
> Regards,
> Ben Pitzer
>
> ---------------------------------------------
>
> "Those that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary
> safety
>  deserve neither liberty nor safety."
>  --Ben Franklin--
>
>
>
>
>
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: trilug-admin at trilug.org [mailto:trilug-admin at trilug.org]On Behalf
> > Of al johson
> > Sent: Thursday, May 22, 2003 11:52 AM
> > To: trilug at trilug.org
> > Subject: Re: [TriLUG] Debian installation.
> >
> >
> > And there ARE simpler installation loaders being developed for Debian.
> > Knoppix has a great one (on their demo disk at least), and I'm aware of
> > another as well, which I'm trying to get my hands on, which is popular
in
> > South America called Libranet. If you believe the review in
Lockergnome's
> > Penguin Shell newsletter, it makes installing Debian Linux almost
> > as easy as
> > installing Red Hat and Mandrake. Unfortunately, the author of that
> > newsletter has left and the new editor says that she isn't going
> > to install
> > and give reports on all the various "flavors" of  Linux (it seems she's
> > "married" to RedHat :-). Yes, there are still differences, but
> > never assume
> > that anything in the Linux world is static.
> >
> >     One thing you CAN bet on Linux in all its flavors is in a
> > constant state
> > of improvement, which is why I like it so much, especially considering
the
> > alternative (where instead of real improvements all you get are
> > new bugs and
> > problems which are definitely not better than their earliest version!!).
> >
> > So if you don't want to do a difficult, manual (non-GUI) install
> > of Debian,
> > just watch and wait!!
> >
> > Remember there are literally more distributions of Linux than
> > anyone can try
> > out, and some of them are Debian!!---Al Johnson.
> > ====================
> > ----- Original Message -----
> > From: "Tarus Balog" <tarus at sortova.com>
> > To: <trilug at trilug.org>
> > Sent: Wednesday, May 21, 2003 4:23 PM
> > Subject: Re: [TriLUG] Debian installation.
> >
> >
> > >
> > > Ken Wahl said:
> > >
> > > > Thanks, this was useful for me.  I've been a Red Hat user
> > since 6.2 and
> > > > I was thinking of giving Debian unstable a whirl.  I wanted to ask
for
> > > > this very type of feedback from RedHat users about their experiences
> > > > installing Debian but was afraid the question would come off
> > as a troll
> > > > and/or start a distro war.
> > >
> > > I just rebuilt my main server this morning (with a Debian wizard's
help)
> > > and the one thing to emphasize is that Debian's install doesn't seem
to
> > > auto-detect hardware as well as Red Hat's install process. So be sure
to
> > > know the manufacturer and model of your network card, graphics
> > card, etc.
> > > (those were the two I needed, and it only needed to be as specific as
> > > "EtherExpress Pro" and "ATI"). Outside of that it was pretty slick.
> > >
> > > What I liked about woody is that since the new CDs are out,
> > there was very
> > > little that had to be downloaded to get current stable.
> > >
> > > Finally, if you want the latest kernel, start the process with
> > disk number
> > > 5 - that will install 2.4.18 - and then insert disk number 1 when
asked.
> > >
> > > -T
> > > --
> > > Tarus Balog
> > > Consultant
> > > Sortova Consulting Group, http://www.sortova.com
> > > +1-919-696-7625
> > > tarus at sortova.com
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > _______________________________________________
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> >
> >
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> >
>
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