How long should it take to get Debian fully up and running?

[BigCletus]

I wasted a good part of my day trying to get debian installed and running. I have been a red hat user for years. I thought I would try a different distro to see what else was available but I am not impressed. The red hat installation program is light years ahead of debian. After wasting enough time on it, I gave up when I realized that X wouldn't even run...no screens found was the error. They were specified in XF86config-4. I couldn't even run any kind of XF86config, XF86Setup, etc to configure it aside from the initial setup during install.

I previously had red hat 8 on that hard disk and after trying to get debian working, I think I will try Mandrake next or Red Hat 9. What is the point of debian if you have to do every single thing manually? It didn't even setup a console mouse.

I am just curious as to how long it takes the average joe to install and get everything running in debian? What is so great about it? All it did was waste my time and CDRs. Any suggestions on how to solve the "no screens found" if I do decide to keep it on that hard drive? Thanks.

[sharth]

Easiest method, copy your old X config from red hat and use it in debian. If you have nvidia modules, make sure you add them.

[Fryguy8]

My first linux distro was debian, and I had it running X after about 3 hours.

Debian has some great advantages over redhat, a much better upgrade system (IMO), and general speed improvements over redhat. Not to mention the fact that is is much more secure and stable than redhat.

If you think you have to do every single thing yourself with debian, use slackware or LFS :)

[deathadder]

first of i got very confused with debian now i can get the full install done in about an hour, i will say that i agree with Fryguy, however if you prefere red hat does it matter?

[Hayl]

if you want it to set up everything for you then use this installer instead. debian is going to be using it by default eventually anyway. it is like the red hat installer.

(ps: editing /etc/apt/sources.list, then apt-get update && apt-get upgrade is necessary after the install)

http://hackers.progeny.com/pgi/

[ghostwalker]

A very easy way is to get Knoppix install it on you hard drive and follow the directions give to at: jetblackz.freeservers.com
I noticed if you updatedb then apt-get update and then apt-get dist-upgrade. After that you will have a uptodate Debian/SID system.

[RWiggum]

Originally posted by BigCletus
The red hat installation program is light years ahead of debian.

And the Debian package manager is light years ahead of Red Hat. Now ask yourself, what will you spend more time with - installing a distro, or maintaining a distro?

The only problem with an out-of-the-box Debian install is that the packages are "of interest mainly to archeologists" as I've heard it described. They do that so it's a good, stable server platform. But with a few easy commands (and some download time) you can go as bleeding-edge as you want.