Debian network install problem

[directhex]

All working!!!! This post is from debian/mozilla 1.7.8.

problems/things I dont yet know how to do:

Add a thing in /media/ for my windows NTFS partition which is SDA4. Edit /etc/fstab properly so that I can mount it.

mkdir /media/steakandchips
nano /etc/fstab
add a new line which reads:
/dev/sda4 /media/steakandchips ntfs auto,umask=0222 0 0

Network: how do I login to my win2k pc's? the link to my spare pc is smb://MPC/ but I need to change that to include username and password

in konqueror? no idea i'm afraid. i have an entry in /mnt/gir/ for my windows file share mounts, and you can define a username & password for these

Installing firefox. I looked on aptitude but the most recent version is 1.04.
How do I install the 1.06 from firefox's site which is a .tar.gz.
Is there a .deb version?

make do with 1.0.4 (it's security patched), or 1.0.6 from unstable: http://packages.debian.org/unstable/web/mozilla-firefox
(installing packages from unstable can be non-trivial. if you want a more certain method, and are SURE you want to run the risks of doing so, ask me. on a related note, 1.0.6 in unstable is known to have earnt the 'unstable' moniker, and isn't recommended)

Xfree86 running in 1280*1024, however it feels like its in 800*600, everything is much bigger than it should be. How do I change that?

1) check you're REALLY at 1280x1024, run "xrandr" in a terminal window
2) if not, run dpkg-reconfigure xserver-xfree86 as root. the critical thing is to use the space bar to select the resolutions you want access to at this screen: http://img.hexus.net/v2/features/foss/a2/images/x17.png
3) if so, use your window manager (kde, gnome, whatever)'s config screens to lower the font sizes
4) the VESA driver might not cope with high resolutions

Havent yet installed drivers for my X850XTPE. Currently using vesa drivers.

http://xoomer.virgilio.it/flavio.sta...installer.html - read VERY carefully

Mouse: logitech mx310 (5btn optical wired wheelmouse). Not sure how to set up the buttons, really *need* mb4/5 to be backwards and forwards for web browsing in firefox (when I work out how to install it)

not sure, i'm afraid. should probably learn, i'm using my mx518 as a 3-button...

[SilentDeath]

ntfs:
I looked in /proc/filesystems (man fstab told me too) and theres no entry for NTFS
What does the "guid=100,umask=550" part of fstab do?
I had this (mostly copyed from my cdrom entry): "/dev/sda4 /media/Sda4 ntfs ro,user, noauto 0 0"
Screen resolution:
The OSD on my tft says its in 1280*1024, so I assume it must be. I will hunt for a setting to lower the font size, but as an example, this text box (advanced) takes almost half of the screen vertically (3/4 horizontally) in mozilla.

[directhex]

ntfs:
I looked in /proc/filesystems (man fstab told me too) and theres no entry for NTFS

the ntfs driver will only be loaded when it's needed, so it won't show up in /proc/filesystems unless you compiled it into your kernel manually or ran modprobe ntfs

Screen resolution:
The OSD on my tft says its in 1280*1024, so I assume it must be. I will hunt for a setting to lower the font size, but as an example, this text box (advanced) takes almost half of the screen vertically (3/4 horizontally) in mozilla.

how odd. just to be certain, try running apt-get install x-window-system again in a terminal, as root, in case it's missing some scalable fonts

[SilentDeath]

how odd. just to be certain, try running apt-get install x-window-system again in a terminal, as root, in case it's missing some scalable fonts

When it was getting stuff, I noticed when it was d/l'ing most of the fonts, there was an error.

Just ran it and:

The following NEW packages will be installed:
lbxproxy proxymngr twm x-window-system xdm xfs xfwp xnest xprint
xprint-common xprt-xprintorg xterm xvfb
0 upgraded, 13 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
Need to get 7542kB of archives.
After unpacking 19.6MB of additional disk space will be used.

I then b0rked it by trying to alt-f2 when the configure menu came up, and it done stuff..

Where should installed programs be? In windows I use c:\apps.
where should I put my files? for example in windows, I had c:\backup\ which then had \drivers, \apps, \incoming etc...
I dont like the idea of seperate places for each user either - which is why i dont use the default places in windows...

[SilentDeath]

[edit]firefox 1.0.4.2 installed [/edit]

[mike_w]

ATi drivers were easy for me - run the program from the ATi website, change one part of /etc/X11/XF86Config-4, and done! (You can test with glxgears).

The part you have to change is:

Section "Device"
	Identifier	"NVIDIA Corporation NV11 [GeForce2 MX/MX 400]"
	Driver		"nvidia"
EndSection

The driver part should say fglrx (obviously not on this machine, since this has a nVidia card!)

As for mounting over a network, I use the package linneighborhood - it will allow to browse the network, including Windows machines, something which appears to be broken in the version of Nautilus in Debian Sarge. You just access the network, and then mount whichever shares you want mounted.

When I used network mounts using fstab or from the terminal, I used smbfs rather than ntfs.

[directhex]

Where should installed programs be? In windows I use c:\apps.
where should I put my files? for example in windows, I had c:\backup\ which then had \drivers, \apps, \incoming etc...
I dont like the idea of seperate places for each user either - which is why i dont use the default places in windows...

installed applications go into may places:

/usr/bin for the executable
/usr/lib for libraries (DLL style)
/usr/share/doc for the readmes
/usr/share/man for the "man" manual pages
/usr/share/pixmaps for the icons
/etc for systemwide config files
/home/$USERNAME/.$appname for user-specific config files, e.g. /home/directhex/.quake3
/var/log for log files
/var/lib for other crap like application databases

anything you install which isn't under the strict governance of a package manager should go into /opt/$APPNAME or /usr/local

e.g. /opt/TeamSpeak2RC2/TeamSpeak or /usr/local/bin/rmmlite

dpkg -L packagename will tell you what files were installed where:

directhex@mortos:~$ dpkg -L tree
/.
/usr
/usr/bin
/usr/bin/tree
/usr/share
/usr/share/man
/usr/share/man/man1
/usr/share/man/man1/tree.1.gz
/usr/share/doc
/usr/share/doc/tree
/usr/share/doc/tree/README
/usr/share/doc/tree/copyright
/usr/share/doc/tree/changelog.gz
/usr/share/doc/tree/changelog.Debian.gz

[SilentDeath]

Ive got linneighborhood setup, thanks

Is there any reson I would ever need to exit Xfree86 (to run xf86config - is there a version to run inside x?), if so, how would I do it, so that I would have the normal tty1-4 screens?

Im going to try some different graphics drivers, in the hope of getting proper 1280*1024 (instead of 800*600 which I assume is somehow resized to 1280*1024 by the vesa driver)

I noticed theres about 50 drivers included with xfree86. Vesa is the one I knew would definatly work, but what others are there?
I remember there was vga - would this limit me to 640*480?

There was Ati - havent tryed, I assume it would be for very old gfx cards and has no chance of working on my x850.

[mike_w]

Is there any reson I would ever need to exit Xfree86 (to run xf86config - is there a version to run inside x?), if so, how would I do it, so that I would have the normal tty1-4 screens?

Assuming you're using gdm, /etc/init.d/gdm stop. If you're using kdm, I assume it would be /etc/init.d/kdm stop.

Im going to try some different graphics drivers, in the hope of getting proper 1280*1024 (instead of 800*600 which I assume is somehow resized to 1280*1024 by the vesa driver)

I noticed theres about 50 drivers included with xfree86. Vesa is the one I knew would definatly work, but what others are there?
I remember there was vga - would this limit me to 640*480?

There was Ati - havent tryed, I assume it would be for very old gfx cards and has no chance of working on my x850.

I tried the ATi ones that came with Debian on my 9600, and it didn't work particularly well. The ones from the ATi website are fine - just use the .run file and change /etc/X11/XF86Config-4 accordingly.

[SilentDeath]

I tried the ATi ones that came with Debian on my 9600, and it didn't work particularly well. The ones from the ATi website are fine - just use the .run file and change /etc/X11/XF86Config-4 accordingly.

So I would download this?
ati-driver-installer-8.14.13.run

and edit /etc/X11/XF86Config-4, and thats it?

What order do I do this in, and is there any things this is dependant on that I might need (like kernel source?)

ATi drivers were easy for me - run the program from the ATi website, change one part of /etc/X11/XF86Config-4, and done! (You can test with glxgears).

Although Im quite sure ive only got the vesa driver, "glxgears" runs fine! should it?

[mike_w]

So I would download this?
ati-driver-installer-8.14.13.run

and edit /etc/X11/XF86Config-4, and thats it?

What order do I do this in, and is there any things this is dependant on that I might need (like kernel source?)

Ah yes, sorry, you need to download the kernel headers as well, to match your kernel. I'm on 2.6.8-2-k7, so I would fetch kernel-headers-2.6.8-2-k7. Other than that, that is all I did. Glxgears works fine, as does the bouncing cow.

[directhex]

glxgears runs fine on any system with working 3d.

"working" varies, though.

less than about 1000fps means software rendering. i get about 12500 with other things going on

[SilentDeath]

Ah yes, sorry, you need to download the kernel headers as well, to match your kernel. I'm on 2.6.8-2-k7, so I would fetch kernel-headers-2.6.8-2-k7. Other than that, that is all I did. Glxgears works fine, as does the bouncing cow.

The kernel Im using is "linux-image-2.6.12-1-k7_2.6.12-1_i386.deb"

A search for "kernel-headers-2.6.12-1-k7" finds nothing on aptitude

[mike_w]

The kernel Im using is "linux-image-2.6.12-1-k7_2.6.12-1_i386.deb"

A search for "kernel-headers-2.6.12-1-k7" finds nothing on aptitude

Perhaps try linux-headers-2.6.12-1-k7?

Found it on the Debian website: http://packages.debian.org/unstable/...rs-2.6.12-1-k7

I wonder why the name is different - perhaps because it is still in unstable i.e. in development? For the kernel I'm using, it's called kernel-image-2.6.8-2-k7, rather than linux-image-x.x.x-x-x. Sorry about that!

[SilentDeath]

Perhaps try linux-headers-2.6.12-1-k7?

Found it on the Debian website: http://packages.debian.org/unstable/...rs-2.6.12-1-k7

thanks

Should I use this to install them: "dpgk --install /home/kram/linux-headers-2.6.12-1-k7"

Or is there a way for me to point apt-get at the .deb file?

While im downloading stuff, should I also get the 2.6.12-1 source incase I need it in the future?

[mike_w]

thanks

Should I use this to install them: "dpgk --install /home/kram/linux-headers-2.6.12-1-k7"

Or is there a way for me to point apt-get at the .deb file?

They're just installed the same way as a normal package - you should be able to fetch them using apt-get linux-headers-2.6.12-1k7 so long as /etc/apt/sources.list has a source for unstable packages e.g.

deb ftp://ftp.uk.debian.org/debian/ unstable main