The newbiest of them all - Debian

[soccercisco]

Hi all,

First thank you for taking the time to read this post. I am a newbie finally making the leap of faith, taking the blue pill, coming out of the dark side... i.e., leaving Windows to join the Linux community.

Current motivation: My first goal is to setup a simple and reliable (as opposed to Windows) network at home with a Laptop and a Desktop.

Distro: Well, I chose Debian (Sarge) because there is an UAV project written using this OS (but I digress).

Stupidity (I mean newbidity) level: above average.

I usually am the "I can, and shall do it myself" type of person. But, this time I come to you recognizing that this process will require help (and a heck lot of reading). Since I have a headache from spending the last 44 hours in front of a monitor, I have decided to cut me some slack and ask:

While working on my first system, a now dual-boot Dell Precision M20 Laptop, the following questions came up (please note that I still run windows on a different desktop computer to access this forum):

1) (Out of plain curiosity) Using the apt-get command, who/what decides where the packages are downloaded and installed, is this handled automatically or can I specify for instance the installation folders (as in Windows... just as an example)

2) (Out of plain stupidity) I am not able to configure the X Server in order to run Gnome. I have installed 'x-window-system-core' and 'gnome-core' but as many newbies before me, the freakin' video card (ATI Mobility FireGL V3100) has a driver problem (I tried different options with dpkg-reconfigure, but no results). What frustrates me is that the driver I need is here:

http://ati.amd.com/support/drivers/l...ux-firegl.html

I think I can download it and put it in my USB Memory Stick (a.k.a. pendrive) and somehow install it on the Laptop but I do not know how.

3) For the touchpad mouse, I downloaded the synaptic package, how can I check if it's working (I don't have a Desktop Environment yet)?

Finally, I have also downloaded the gcc, cvs and emacs packages, so if you need me to post a log, please provide instructions on howto do so (sorry).

Thanks in advance for your time and help!

-Francisco

[antidrugue]

Distro: Well, I chose Debian (Sarge) because there is an UAV project written using this OS (but I digress).

It is a good choice if you wish to learn. Not the easiest Linux distribution around though.

1) (Out of plain curiosity) Using the apt-get command, who/what decides where the packages are downloaded and installed, is this handled automatically or can I specify for instance the installation folders (as in Windows... just as an example)

That depends of the package. You can search the packages here and get a list of there content. Alternatively

dpkg -c some_package.deb

will list the element of the specific package. You usualy don't need to know where the package installs its content, as it will appear in Gnome/KDE menu.

2) (Out of plain stupidity) I am not able to configure the X Server in order to run Gnome. I have installed 'x-window-system-core' and 'gnome-core' but as many newbies before me, the freakin' video card (ATI Mobility FireGL V3100) has a driver problem (I tried different options with dpkg-reconfigure, but no results). What frustrates me is that the driver I need is here:

http://ati.amd.com/support/drivers/l...ux-firegl.html

I think I can download it and put it in my USB Memory Stick (a.k.a. pendrive) and somehow install it on the Laptop but I do not know how.

I wrote some instructions on my blog that should make your life easier :
http://technowizah.com/2006/10/debia...i-drivers.html

Or else you can search the forums and find threads that will help you, like this one :
http://www.linuxforums.org/forum/deb...g-started.html

3) For the touchpad mouse, I downloaded the synaptic package, how can I check if it's working (I don't have a Desktop Environment yet)?

Nothing special here : the package you need should be called xfree86-driver-synaptics. Make sure the module evdev gets loaded at startup (in /etc/modules) and it will work.

Finally, I have also downloaded the gcc, cvs and emacs packages, so if you need me to post a log, please provide instructions on howto do so (sorry).

Use apt-get to install them :

apt-get install build-essential

will install c++, c and make.

When you'll have Gnome working, you can use Synaptic (graphical frontend to APT) to search & install packages.

Linux is a lot of fun: if you try hard, I'm sure you will feel quite at ease in no time.

[soccercisco]

Ok, so I had to go learn a bunch of things (mounting the CD-Rom, copying, moving, removing, executing, superuser, etc, etc, etc)... But you're right Linux is fun

New problems arouse of course:
1) (Separate issue) Can I access and browse the internet from X? Moreover, how?

2) I downloaded on another machine the video driver, burned it to a CD, put the CD on the laptop (where I am installing Debian/sarge), copied the files to /usr/share and followed the intructions on (very well written btw):

http://wizah.blogspot.com/2006/10/de...i-drivers.html

I got to the point:
fakeroot sh ati-driver-installer-8.30.3.run --buildpkg Debian/sarge

and two things happened:
2.1) I still needed to use sudo to run this command (fakeroot), it would not let me create the fglrx folder, why?
2.2) It didn't support the architecture:

Generating package: Debian/sarge ./packages/Debian/ati-packager.sh 
line 1: dpkg-architecture: command not found
Error: unsupported architecture

So naturally, I went to look at the --listpkg and voila it was there, Debian/sarge... I tried again --buildpkg using Debian/Sarge and Debian/sarge and got the same error.

I started trying to run the driver using ./ in front of it, a GUI came up and I followed the instructions. There were two options: a. intalling it for on XFree86 4.3.x or b. Generate Distribution Specific Driver Package. I tried both with unsuccessful results (can give more details if needed, but if your method worked for you this shouldn't be necessary).

Thanks again,

-Francisco

[antidrugue]

1) (Separate issue) Can I access and browse the internet from X? Moreover, how?

Once you've got X running (the ATI drivers installed and configured), given your network works, you'll be able to browse no problem.

2) I downloaded on another machine the video driver, burned it to a CD, put the CD on the laptop (where I am installing Debian/sarge), copied the files to /usr/share and followed the intructions on (very well written btw):

[...]

and two things happened:
2.1) I still needed to use sudo to run this command (fakeroot), it would not let me create the fglrx folder, why?
2.2) It didn't support the architecture:

Generating package: Debian/sarge ./packages/Debian/ati-packager.sh 
line 1: dpkg-architecture: command not found
Error: unsupported architecture

You don't need to copy the files to /usr/share/, just leave them where they are (in your /home/yourself directory), and follow the tutorial.

Try using the driver you pointed out here :
http://ati.amd.com/support/drivers/l...ux-firegl.html

instead (version 8.29.6, that's the last one I tested on Sarge).

[soccercisco]

Well after 4 days I finally am Graphical User Interfaced to Debian. Thank you.

For future readers: the problems I was having while installing the drivers were based on the fact that I did not have all the packages for the driver's installation package to run completely, so the installation would get stuck. I tried installing the packages by hand, but after 15-20 and still getting errors (different each time) I decided to reinstall Debian selecting the "Desktop Configuration" option during the second part of the installation process (if you are using netinstall like me). By the way, use the space bar to select options during installation, don't just highlight it and press enter.

Hope this helps people in the future. Follow antidrugue's instruction for ATI Driver installation, though the packages will vary according to your video card and distro (all drivers are available at www.ati.com).

Debian is awesome!

-Francisco