Debian first time.

[mrrangerman43]

Hello all,

I just had to post, I've been reading this forum for some time now and have been kind of playing with linux on and off ( more off than on ) for the same amount of time. I've tried Suse, Mandrake 8.1-10.1, slackware. Mandrake 10.1 was not to bad to set up, but I just couldn't get myself to take the time and learn linux. Well I repented and last Monday I burnned a Debian net-install cd and then unplugged my Microsoft pc. hooked up the linux box, and after 5 installs and 5 days of reading and tweeking I'm typing my first post using Debian/linux. It took some time to get xserver going. Hey did you guys/gals know you use the space bar to make or remove a selection? lol. Was up half the night on that one. But then it happen, I logged in my user account typed startx walked away from my desk to get something, came back and there it was, a GUI HAAAAA. I yelled at the wife, COME AND LOOK, LOOK, LOOOOK at THAT. she said thats nice dear. "Thats nice" LOOK AT THAT.

Well I can see I have a LOT to learn, but that was the best feeling I've had in a long time working with a computer. Just wanted to share that with you all, you'll be hearing from me again, my linux box is a PIII dual 550 512 ram with on-board scsi I have two HDs dual boot, one with Mandrake 10.1 and Debian on the other. The Mandrake is to fall back on until I can get Debian the way I want it, I sure do like the APT-GET. I did some lookin and the Kernel I have does not see both my cpu's, we can't have that now can we? Thats like having a V8 engine and only using 4 of the cylinders, so I get to learn how to compile a Kernel that has smp ( nothing ventured nothing gained ).

So with that I'll let you all go for now, Just one question Does any one have a GOOD How To link on how to compile a Kernel for a NOOB like me?

Thanks Dan

[dkeav]

congrats, welcome back/to linux and the community, and nice choice of distro ;)

[Choozo]

Hello all,

Just one question Does any one have a GOOD How To link on how to compile a Kernel for a NOOB like me?

Thanks Dan
Well, there is a link at the top of these pages to our various HOW-TO pages? :p


Dang, those disappeared after the recent forum upgrade, but are available from the 'main page': http://justlinux.com/nhf/

[Sepero]

Nice. I vaguely remember the first time I was able to download in Linux. (software modem, arrr the headaches) Man was that a thrill!

Anyway, compiling a kernel in Debian isn't 100% necessary. To get the latest smp kernel for your system,
Type in an xterm:
apt-get install kernel-image-2.6.11-1-686-smp

(You'll need to be root.)

[je_fro]

Yeah, I remember the extasy of seeing twm for the first time....sweet victory!

[mrrangerman43]

Thanks all,

Sepero
I tried that command, no good, then I went to Debian.org and checked there arcives and found "linux-image-2.6.12-1-686-smp" so I tried to apt-get install that. Says it can't find the file. So I went to Kernel.org which is the site i used for the apt-get setup, and I couldn't find that image in there arcives. Is there a way i can force apt-get to look in the Debian.org arcives?

thank you
Dan

[demetrius]

Thanks all,
I went to Debian.org and checked there arcives and found "linux-image-2.6.12-1-686-smp" so I tried to apt-get install that. Says it can't find the file. So I went to Kernel.org which is the site i used for the apt-get setup, and I couldn't find that image in there arcives. Is there a way i can force apt-get to look in the Debian.org arcives?

thank you
Dan

It sounds like your /etc/apt/sources.list file is not setup correctly. Try running (as root) 'apt-get update' from a console, and see what the results are.

To find the name of a package you can use 'apt-cache search packagename -n' where packagename is the name, or part of the name, of the package you are looking for. The -n switch at the end limits the amount of information you get about the packages that match your search.

[dkeav]

that package may only be available to testing/unstable repository, if your using stable it may not be

[Sepero]

Here is a copy of my sources.list:
# Security updates
deb http://security.debian.org stable/updates main contrib non-free
deb http://security.debian.org testing/updates main contrib non-free

# Stable
deb http://ftp.de.debian.org/pub/debian stable main contrib non-free
deb http://ftp.de.debian.org/pub/debian-non-US stable/non-US main contrib non-free
# Sources
#deb-src http://ftp2.de.debian.org/pub/debian stable main contrib non-free
#deb-src http://ftp2.de.debian.org/pub/debian-non-US stable/non-US main contrib non-free

# Testing
deb http://ftp.de.debian.org/pub/debian testing main contrib non-free
deb http://ftp.de.debian.org/pub/debian-non-US testing/non-US main contrib non-free
# Sources
#deb-src http://ftp2.de.debian.org/pub/debian testing main contrib non-free
#deb-src http://ftp2.de.debian.org/pub/debian-non-US testing/non-US main contrib non-free

# Unstable
deb http://ftp.de.debian.org/debian unstable main contrib non-free
deb http://ftp.de.debian.org/debian-non-US unstable/non-US main contrib non-free
# Sources
#deb-src http://ftp2.de.debian.org/debian unstable main contrib non-free
#deb-src http://ftp2.de.debian.org/debian-non-US unstable/non-US main contrib non-free

# Experimental
#deb http://ftp.de.debian.org/debian experimental main contrib non-free

# loop-AES packages (for partition encryption)
#deb http://debian.hinterhof.net/ unstable/

# Nvidia kernels
deb http://fiasko.dyndns.org/~thomas/debian/ stable alsa backports icecast2 kernel main non-free samba

# DVD - css library (for watching encrypted dvd's)
deb http://download.videolan.org/pub/videolan/debian woody main
deb http://download.videolan.org/pub/videolan/debian sarge main
deb http://download.videolan.org/pub/videolan/debian sid main

# Mplayer
deb ftp://ftp.nerim.net/debian-marillat/ stable main
deb ftp://ftp.nerim.net/debian-marillat/ testing main
deb ftp://ftp.nerim.net/debian-marillat/ unstable main

# Java
deb http://www.linex.org/sources/linex/debian sarge linex
deb http://www.linex.org/sources/linex/debian woody linex

[mrrangerman43]

Thanks Sepero,

Well I downloaded the kernel "linux-image-2.6.12-1-686-smp" from Debian.org, as root I went to the dir it was in and "dpkg -i "filename" and it acted like it installed, it told me in the setup that I would have to reboot. So after it returned to the command prompt i did a reboot, everything came back to the CP so i went into the GUI and brought up control panel, and it lists the kernel as being 2.6.12-1-686-smp. But I started a system utility and it only shows 1 cpu, so I go back to root, do a "top" only 1 is shown, so i try the "cat command" same thing. The computer is running faster yet Im not sure why.
The sources.list you show on your system is WAY bigger than mine, mine has a cd-rom entery and 3 other http// lines. Can I edit mine and add some of the lines listed in yours " the testing " ones and then do a apt-get update? If I end up having to rebuild it would be no big deal. If I can get this cpu thing working right then i get to go on to the video driver update. We got to get to work.l

Thank All
Dan

[mrrangerman43]

Thank you all again, I got it working and got my sources.list in order.

[Sepero]

Congratulations. (And, yes, you can add my sources to your sources.list. That's why I posted it. Mix it up anyway you like.)