New user - Just saying hello

[benjt]

I just joined to hopefully get answers to some of my Linux questions. I've been using it for a couple of years now. That is deceiving though because until recently I have done nothing more than email, web, etc.

I just got assigned to the wireless networking team at my job. I wanted to use some of the tools available in Linux (e.g. Airsnort) for demo purposes. In fact I'm working on "cracking" my office's WEP key right now.

I have found that installing software in Linux is still very difficult, even with RPMs. Autoinstall.org is a gift from heaven, but the list of software is very limited. I'd like to see improvement in this area so Linux can continue to grow.

[bryansmith]

Welcome aboard.

Package management in Linux has come a long way. Depending on your distribution, installing software can be extremely easy.

Bryan

[benjt]

The main problem I have had is resolving dependencies. For example, I tried to install Firefox from an RPM. It required some Kerberos packages which took some effort to find. When I attempted to install those, I got warnings that installing them would require me to downgrade several other packages including Samba. At that point I quit to avoid breaking anything Eventually I installed Firefox successfully using autopackage.org.

I'm using SUSE 9.2. If there is some other, better way to install software that would be great.

[brigzzy]

W007! Welcome to the forums!

[drakebasher]

welcome to the community..

I'm using SUSE 9.2. If there is some other, better way to install software that would be great.

I just installed Debian last night from a CD from a magazine and it was painless and looks great so far. If I can believe what I've read about Debian's package management system, you might want to reseach it.

[a thing]

1. I think you mean http://autopackage.org/

2. You need to use a tool that automatically resolves dependencies. For Debian-based distros, use apt-get. For SuSE use YaST. For other RPM-based use yum to install apt-get (yum is big and written in Python thus very slow -.-). For Gentoo use emerge. For FreeBSD pkg_add -r.

[a12ctic]

yes i love debian it is a great distro and i would suggest to any user with some linux experiance.

[a thing]

yes i love debian it is a great distro and i would suggest to any user with some linux experiance.

If you want a more "user friendly" Debian-based distro go with Ubuntu or Kubuntu. Debian GNU/Linux plain is rather hard to set up.

[drakebasher]

Things I'm disliking most about Debian right now (yeah, I know, it'll pass in time):

• -root can't open X windows (okay, I fixed that)
  -users with "empty" password can't log in to X windows
  -can't see yet how to not boot to GUI: Debian apparently doesn't use the same runlevel 3=text, runlevel 5=gui paradigm that some other popular distros use....
  -no success yet in making me a sudoer (am I undeserving?)

So how do you like us so far, benjt?

[Shaun Prince]

I have use debian for quite some time, and really liked it.

-can't see yet how to not boot to GUI: Debian apparently doesn't use the same runlevel 3=text, runlevel 5=gui paradigm that some other popular distros use....

this is absolved by moving the xwindow startup script in /etc/rc2.d/ from a name that begins with 'S' to a name that begins with 'K'. This just disables it from start-up.

-no success yet in making me a sudoer (am I undeserving?)

I believe that

visudo

is the only command that is used to add sudoers. Just create an entry similar to the one for the 'root' account.



Needless to say, this is completely trivial to me as I have lost interest in debian due to it's older packages and conservative defaults. I am trying to get gentoo running at the moment. Using a stage 2 install, this feels like a very intermediate install procedure that will render a good sence of accomplishment. I will have noone to blame other then myself for the settings of my OS.