[TriLUG] Thinkpad R30, Debian 6.0.6

[Alan Porter]

Sorry to hear that you're having a rough install, Brian.

Like David suggested, some distros are aimed at "ease of use" and others 
have other priorities.  Debian's main reasons for existence include 
"completely free" and "elegant packaging" and "somewhat minimalist".

You might want to try Ubuntu, which is a Debian-based distro, but with a 
lot of extra effort put into making it more new-user-friendly.  A 
freshly-installed system usually gets the basics like video resolution 
and pointers installed correctly.

In a Debian or Ubuntu system, you can install extra programs like python 
by doing "apt-cache search KEYWORD" and "apt-get install PACKAGE".  On 
Ubuntu, you may need to enable an option to pull in more than just the 
basics that Canonical has blessed... this would be "enabling the 
universe or multiverse" repositories.  Ubuntu has a nice graphical 
package selection tool called "synaptic" that lets to enable the bigger 
repositories and search for packages. Or you can always edit the config 
files in /etc/apt/sources.list .

More than anything, let us know how you're progressing.  This group can 
be extremely helpful.

Alan



On 01/22/2013 02:39 PM, Grawburg wrote:
> I'm trying to get started with Linux to support my efforts with the Raspberry Pi.  Boy, am I disappointed!
> I'm used to installing OS/2 and Windows and then making whatever changes I need to the system once it's up and going.  But Debian is trying my patience.
>
> 1. I only get about 2/3 of the screen...and I can't find anyway to make the desktop fit the entire screen space.
> 2. I'd like to have better than 800x600 resolution.
> 3. The mouse, be it the Trackpoint on the R30 or an attached USB is very annoying.
> 4. Can't find the extra programs like Python.
>
> I've got a book on order, but I'd sure like to play with the software before the book arrives.
>
> How about some direction?
>
>
> Thanks very much,
> Brian Grawburg
> Wilson
>
>
>
>


-- 
# Alan Porter