Which Debian Release

[Allen]

http://cdimage.debian.org/debian-cd/torrents/current/

There doesn't seem to be any help regarding which one I need to d/l. Please, someone help me!

I take it Debian (which lots of people seem to rave about) is a good place to start? I use a VDS and know a few basic commands but wanna get more into it.

Thanks.

[mike_w]

I assume you're using testing (Sarge)? I use the net install so that I only download what I need: http://www.debian.org/devel/debian-installer/

The version I downloaded is i386. That's the one you want if you have an ordinary PC.

If you use the Open Source guide made by Directhex on the front page, installing Debian should be easy.

[Allen]

I assume you're using testing (Sarge)?

Erm, wouldn't have a clue... Are you talking about on my VDS? If so, I just know it's Linux.

The version I downloaded is i386. That's the one you want if you have an ordinary PC.

Thanks!

If you use the Open Source guide made by Directhex on the front page, installing Debian should be easy.

Heh, perhaps I should read the front page more often...

:edit: When you mean from the front page, do you mean http://www.hexus.net/ ? If so, I can't find it...

[mike_w]

Part One: http://www.hexus.net/content/reviews...lld19JRD03OTI=
Part Two: http://www.hexus.net/content/reviews...lld19JRD03OTM=
Part Three: http://www.hexus.net/content/reviews...lld19JRD04MjQ=

As for the different versions of Debian, there are three. The first is the official release, called Stable. The current version is Woody, and getting a bit old. The other end of the scale is Unstable (Sid). In the middle, there is testing, called Sarge. This uses more recent stuff than Stable, but is more stable than Unstable. As such, I think it is the best one to use.

Oh, and in case you were wondering, I think all of the Debian versions are named after characters out of Toy Story.

[Allen]

Thanks Mike!

[Allen]

OK, so I downloaded debian-30r5-i386-binary-1.iso, burnt it to a CD and partitioned my new hard drive myself, using the Windows XP CD, thinking I could leave a small amount (16GB) of unpartitioned space left for Linux. Install of XP went fine, as usual, am working from it now, but, I put the Debian CD in a boot from CD I get some options up.

Quickly read through them, press Enter to install and after a few mins I get this:

Loading /install........isolinux: Disk error 80, drive 9F
Boot failed: press a key to retry

I thought this was because of my SATA drives, but a quick google shows that people using PATA drives have had the same problem, but I can't seem to find a resolution.

Any of you Linux guru's know what that error means please?

[directhex]

the solution is:

don't use woody. it's antique & useless on any pc made after january 2002

follow mike_w's link to the debian-installer page, and download sarge - considering sarge should be finalised as the new stable release in less than a month anyway, you've not much to worry about

[directhex]

oh, and if you're using sata, be sure to type "linux26" at the boot: prompt of a sarge install cd, 2.6 kernels cope much better with sata than older 2.4 kernels (default)

[Allen]

Cheers mate, I didn't read the whole article...

Downloading Sarge now.

[directhex]

the latest versio of sarge is rc3, be sure to use that (link from mike_w), and not the tc1 i link to in the article (there are a number of major bugs and security issues fixed in the rc series, tc1 came out after beta 4 but before rc1, and apparently was so buggy that it was pulled. not that i noticed)

[Allen]

Umm, I hope I am... I used the link in the article: http://www.nl.debian.org/devel/debian-installer/

It says the following are for rc3, but the exact one I downloaded (http://cdimage.debian.org/pub/weekly/i386/) doesn't mention rc3 at all...

[directhex]

nah, you got the right file.

[Allen]

Cool... coz I left my machine on to download it whilst I'm at work. Would be very pee'd off if I had the wrong one!

[ikonia]

when I was looking to use debian as a solid distro I got some tips of people in here (thank you) and some comments from the debian channel on irc.

One thing I would say about how debian is presenting its self on the way is that versions are not very clear - and there is a lack of "obvious" progress with releases on the website.

eg: woodys been around for ages, and as directhex says - its pretty old and not great for newer kit yet it is marked as "stable". Which of course it is stable but also antique.
Sarge is marked as testing yet in reality this is the real debian "stable" build although it is still evolving.Sid is marked as unstable which of course it is as its the development release.

on digging around you can find the daily sarge build CD's and the AMD64 CD's but the website doesn't really show too much progression on the sarge build for example (although the irc channel where helpful in updating me to its status)

Its not a moan more feedback for debian that perhaps re-thinking how they label their releases, and a little more information and maybe smaller interim releases (sarge seems to have been coming for a long time).

I'm still looking at debian as a possible base for my HTPC but I did find going back to debian after such a long removal away from it, was tough to find out what was going on with the releases.

[Allen]

OK. Got it up and running (sort of) following the great tutorial from the front page, but I have hit a snag. Now, the Sarge install I am running from seems to differ a little so I have had to improvise a bit. Unfortunately, I can't now remember what I've done and exactly what options I chose. I do remember it asking me about graphic drivers and I chose "nv" for my 6800GT. Everything is working by the way, I can listen to music, surf the net in text form and use IRC (well, once I learn how to log onto it I will), but the problem came when installing x-window-system. Again I can't remember all the options, but here is my error:

Apologies for the quality of the pics, they were taken in a rush and using my phone!











Any ideas what could be wrong? Wrong driver selection? Any ideas how I can possibly fix this? This error came up when trying to run the recently installed GDM and Gnome, and even occurs after rebooting.

Cheers,

Allen, the Linux noob.

[directhex]

sarge's nv driver doesn't appear to support 6-series cards

you can use the vea driver for now, or go straight to the 3d accelerated nvidia driver

the method i posted for getting nvidia working is out of date, if you want to go that route, do the following:

• "nano /etc/apt/sources.list", ensure all lines end with "main contrib non-free" not just "main". this gives access to software which isn't Free under the Debian Free Software Guidelines (non-free) and software which is Free, but cannot operate without non-free (contrib)
• "apt-get install module-assistant" - module-assistant is a tool for building kernel modules
• "m-a a-i nvidia" - instructs module-assistant to download everything it needs to build an nvidia kernel module, compile the module into a debian package, and install it
• "apt-get install nvidia-glx nvidia-settings" - installs the 3d driver, and control panel tool

to change to "nvidia" or "vesa" rather than the non-functional "nv", then:

• "dpkg-reconfigure xserver-xfree86" - gives you back the configuration wizard from the xserver-xfree86 package, where you can select another driver

once you've changed it, you can either "reboot", or just restart gdm ("/etc/init.d/gdm restart")