On Thu, 2001-11-15 at 02:32, Michael Kaminsky wrote: > I finally got my new machine and armed with the advice of many people > on this list, I aimed to install stable and upgrade to testing. The > follow is my feedback: > > * I installed the base from a Windows 2000 partition which worked > fine. The install kernel kept locking up on boot and it turns > out I needed the idepci kernel. The problem now was that although > it didn't lock up, it wouldn't recognize my notebook's Intel > PRO/100 (builtin ethernet). Apparently in the 2.4 kernel, the > eepro100 driver works with this card, but the install kernel > couldn't find it. > > Long story, but many hours later I finally got a functional kernel > on the machine via Windows. Ironically, I booted a Mandrake 2.4 > kernel I had on another machine to bootstrap Debian...Once I had > network access I could install a kernel-image deb file, etc. > > Bottom line is that I got the machine functional (not fully > installed yet) in about a half-day. BUT, I doubt there is any way > a beginner could have pulled it off, IMHO. I was moving modules > and kernels around, using multiple machines, multiple boot disks, > etc. until it clicked. That's just to get the most minimal stable > running. > > (The Debian claim is that stable is so stable because it works and > doesn't really ever change. Problem with that is that the hardware > changes underneath it and outdates--makes it UNstable anyway.) > > * That being said, apt-get is so much better than rpm. My > dist-upgrade to testing had no problems. With minimal script > updates, my new kernel + grub are working just fine. The new > flexiblity is a real win. > > * QUESTION: The new notebook (A30p) has a Radeon Mobility card that > happens to only be supported in the CVS version of XFree86 > (4.1.99.1) from this month. So I have to compile this > ultra-bleeding edge X server, which is fine, but... > > How do I make the Debian packaging system think that I have the > xserver-* packages installed. I want to be able to apt-get galeon > for instance but not have it try to pull down those packages and > install an X-server. Can I insert a dummy entry/package into some > DB?
Look into the equivs package. --mike
