Really specific questions.. need help to be productive asap!

[phalaris_trip]

Hi guys,
I will keep it short, and I really appreciate the help.
I don't know anything about Linux really. I'm a student with C++ programming experience in Windows. I got a summer job and I'm required to use a linux system with Eclipse CDT for C/C++ development.

So I installed Debian 4.0 off a linux dvd from October 2007 (we use Debian in college). I want to be able to use it so that it "just works" ASAP, no frills, no 3d stuff, just internet and Eclipse. Here are my questions:

1) I had partitions created beforehand, but the installer said something about the swap partition not being used. I have three partitions: / , swap and /home. How do I check to make sure the swap partition is working fine?

2) In the GRUB menu my installation comes up as Debian GNU/Linux, kernel 2.6.18-4-amd64, but I have a 32bit Intel laptop. Did I mess something up?

3) The DVD I installed from is nearly a year old. How do I make sure everything is up to date? Debian doesn't change often, right? Should I have bothered getting a newer release? When I go to update manager it tells me "everything is up to date" but I don't see how, because I didn't have an internet connection plugged in during the installation so everything came off the DVD. And it never did any updating. Surely, something must have changed in the last 8 months?

4) Ubuntu 8.04 recognizes my wireless card (I have a Sony VAIO VGN-N38Z) and works fine. Debian does not. What is the absolute fastest and easiest way of making my wireless work? Is there still no easy way of doing this?

5) I have no idea how to download or install programs for Linux. I know you can download them from a website or you can type apt-get into the console. What is the absolute fastest and easiest way of downloading and installing Eclipse CDT so that I can click with my mouse on Applications -> Programming -> Eclipse and it will simply Just Work?

Thanks for any help at all on such short notice,
I'm still really skeptical about Linux. It's been years since I used it, and everything still seems as difficult and awkward as it ever was..

Peace

[jledhead]

1) I had partitions created beforehand, but the installer said something about the swap partition not being used. I have three partitions: / , swap and /home. How do I check to make sure the swap partition is working fine?

type the following in a terminal

free

2) In the GRUB menu my installation comes up as Debian GNU/Linux, kernel 2.6.18-4-amd64, but I have a 32bit Intel laptop. Did I mess something up?

ummm, maybe, is the dvd you have an amd install, because they are different?

3) The DVD I installed from is nearly a year old. How do I make sure everything is up to date? Debian doesn't change often, right? Should I have bothered getting a newer release? When I go to update manager it tells me "everything is up to date" but I don't see how, because I didn't have an internet connection plugged in during the installation so everything came off the DVD. And it never did any updating. Surely, something must have changed in the last 8 months?

welcome to debian
check the file /etc/apt/sources.list and there is probably an entry like this

deb cdrom:[Debian GNU/Linux 4.0 r1 _Etch_ - Official i386 NETINST Binary-1 20070820-20:21]/ etch contrib main

put a # in front of it and add some lines like this if they are not there already

deb ftp://ftp.us.debian.org/debian/ etch main
deb-src ftp://ftp.us.debian.org/debian/ etch main
deb http://download.webmin.com/download/repository sarge contrib

# Line commented out by installer because it failed to verify:
deb http://security.debian.org/ etch/updates main contrib
# Line commented out by installer because it failed to verify:
deb-src http://security.debian.org/ etch/updates main contrib

and then run

apt-get update
apt-get upgrade

and you will have the newest available

4) Ubuntu 8.04 recognizes my wireless card (I have a Sony VAIO VGN-N38Z) and works fine. Debian does not. What is the absolute fastest and easiest way of making my wireless work? Is there still no easy way of doing this?

what kind of wireless card do you have

5) I have no idea how to download or install programs for Linux. I know you can download them from a website or you can type apt-get into the console. What is the absolute fastest and easiest way of downloading and installing Eclipse CDT so that I can click with my mouse on Applications -> Programming -> Eclipse and it will simply Just Work?

again, welcome to debian

to search for a program

apt-get search program

to install said program

apt-get install programname

Thanks for any help at all on such short notice,
I'm still really skeptical about Linux. It's been years since I used it, and everything still seems as difficult and awkward as it ever was..

Peace

I believe the word you are looking for is different, its not so much difficult, just different.

[phalaris_trip]

Thank you for replying, jledhead. I sorted out the first three issues earlier today.

About the wireless:

I'm using a Sony VAIO VGN-N38Z. The network adapters are:
- LAN-Express AS IEEE 802.11g PCI-E adapter
- Marvell-Yukon 88E8036 PCI-E fast ethernet controller

Not sure which is the wireless. I have no idea how to configure anything to do with networking. I can gladly supply you with any additional information.

..........

And now more problems. I can't mount either my windows partition or my main data partition. Both give the following errors:
libhal-storage.c 1401 : info: called libhal_free_dbus_error but dbuserror was not set.
process 4317: applications must not close shared connections - see dbus_connection_close() docs. this is a bug in the application.
error: device /dev/sda1 is not removable
error: could not execute pmount

Here is the fdisk thing:
# fdisk -l

Disk /dev/sda: 160.0 GB, 160041885696 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 19457 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 * 1 3826 30732313+ 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda2 3827 19457 125556007+ f W95 Ext'd (LBA)
/dev/sda5 3827 16868 104759833+ 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda6 16869 17912 8385898+ 83 Linux
/dev/sda7 17913 18173 2096451 82 Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sda8 18174 19457 10313698+ 83 Linux
Note: sector size is 2048 (not 512)

Disk /dev/sdb: 1015 MB, 1015021568 bytes
32 heads, 61 sectors/track, 253 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 1952 * 2048 = 3997696 bytes

This doesn't look like a partition table
Probably you selected the wrong device.

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sdb1 ? 398636 983425 2283019262 72 Unknown
Partition 1 has different physical/logical beginnings (non-Linux?):
phys=(357, 116, 40) logical=(398635, 6, 23)
Partition 1 has different physical/logical endings:
phys=(357, 32, 45) logical=(983424, 30, 61)
Partition 1 does not end on cylinder boundary.
/dev/sdb2 ? 86419 1078237 3872056480 65 Novell Netware 386
Partition 2 has different physical/logical beginnings (non-Linux?):
phys=(288, 115, 43) logical=(86418, 26, 1)
Partition 2 has different physical/logical endings:
phys=(367, 114, 50) logical=(1078236, 17, 53)
Partition 2 does not end on cylinder boundary.
/dev/sdb3 ? 957932 1949749 3872056384 79 Unknown
Partition 3 has different physical/logical beginnings (non-Linux?):
phys=(366, 32, 33) logical=(957931, 2, 32)
Partition 3 has different physical/logical endings:
phys=(357, 32, 43) logical=(1949748, 25, 36)
Partition 3 does not end on cylinder boundary.
/dev/sdb4 ? 1478321 1478349 110998 d Unknown
Partition 4 has different physical/logical beginnings (non-Linux?):
phys=(372, 97, 50) logical=(1478320, 8, 25)
Partition 4 has different physical/logical endings:
phys=(0, 10, 0) logical=(1478348, 22, 13)
Partition 4 does not end on cylinder boundary.

Partition table entries are not in disk order

... so I take it something is totally screwed.

[rcgreen]

Ubuntu 8.04 recognizes my wireless card (I have a Sony VAIO VGN-N38Z) and works fine. Debian does not. What is the absolute fastest and easiest way of making my wireless work? Is there still no easy way of doing this?

Let's do this the easy way. Go ahead and install Ubuntu. No one
will know the difference but you. Are they going to punish you
for not using Debian? Ubuntu is Debian, after a fashion.
It is just a bit more polished, and that seems to be exactly
what will make the difference between satisfaction and frustration.