-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 Replying with CC since I'm not sure if Eric is still subscribed. Eric: You might want to subscribe to debian-boot and repost your experience there; be sure to reference this thread by subject -boot folks can find the user discussion.
On Sun, Nov 16, 2003 at 09:06:21AM -0800, eric brown wrote: > I tough of posting my Linux experience as a complete > Linux & Unix newbie that chose Debian to start playing > with linux. (out of laziness and pure ignorance - I > wanted to do a net install instead of waiting for > entire cds iso to download and had no clue that Debian > was an "hard distro") Roughly my experience in 1997, except I couldn't go the CD route and I was pre-apt...apt really moved the focus of the "distro war" to package management on a *big* level (since Debian had already won the "most complete" DSW years before). > My first try: sarge & new installer > > The new one is real simple to use but it scared the > hell out of me: after installing x the only thing my > sceen could display was: "warning sync error will shut > down in 5 sec" That's a normal function of the monitor if it's not getting a usable signal (in this case, getting a signal that would take your monitor out of range). Sometimes switching video modes sends a out of synch signal for a moment. Your monitor at least tells you what's going on: Imagine my surprise the first time I booted with this monitor (after reconfiguring X for the new monitor)...and it says "Starting XDM..." and my monitor shuts off. Fortunately, geek instinct got the better of me: I didn't smell anything burning, so I gave it a moment, and the monitor came back on and drew the XDM login page. > But, after rebooting, magic, tadam!, I was welcomed by > KDM! still didn't figure out what happened. Woot! Autodetected everything OK? > I managed to got everything net installed by > configuring pppoeconf right at the very beginning (and > played for the first time with apt, wget and lynx). > After choosing a rather random selection containing > gnome and KDE with taskel, I never managed to get my > dsl connection to work again (yes I was loggin as > root, rebooted etc...)!!! After intense googling with > my powerbook (I was installing linux on an old Aptiva > desktop) I found some bug report on debian mentionning > a somehow similar problem with the new installer and > needing hacking in many .conf files that seemed > obsolete... And went through too many cryptic howtos. > I almost quit linux at that point... I had enough! Thanks for sticking it through, though when you're trying software for the first time, might want to hang back on the known stable versions for a while until you get used to how Linux works. Though you're more than welcome to tough it out! > Untill I found an excellent document in French: > "Formation Linux" (this NEEDS translation) > http://www.via.ecp.fr/~alexis/formation-linux/. That > was way more detailed on how to install Woody and get > some real things done (Play cds, burn, configure and > optimize X etc...) > I still haven't found any document matching it in > english. http://babelfish.altavista.com/ But yeah, there will be documentation. > Also the too many "use your brain to solve your problems" answers to > newbies post I ran accross surfing many newsgroups are inacceptable, > if Debian is to become anything more than a geek toy. Well, that's the thing: Debian's not out to please anybody who doesn't contribute. People who tend to contribute tend to be geeks, and right now, the geeks are making a move towards accepting the newbies. It's a two-way street, though, newbies still should know how to ask a smart question if they want a smart answer. http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html > Installing Woody the old way: > > Actually I found installing the old way was simpler > because now I had proper documentation and new what I > was doing. I managed to get everything (almost) to > work the way I wanted. Woohoo! This was much my experience back when boot-floppies didn't do quite as much as it does now. > Get pon dsl-provider to work for users: > > (still have to login has root everytime) and continue > it to work evenafter I unplugged the ethernet cable > for more than 5 minutes... In /etc/ppp/options, there should be something about "demand" in there. Might try fiddling with that to have it automagically go up and down. > >From a newbie perspective the debian choice can be > overwhelming. I still didn't find a better way than > apt-cache search to get packages that probably do what > I want to do. I normaly guess what is appropriate but > I would really appreciate a place where you can see: > want to do this : this is the best tool. Actually, AFAIK, everybody uses apt-cache search for that. Pipe it through less to keep the output from getting overwhelming. > Finally I would just like to say that are truly enjoy > the freedom Debian-linux now gives me: I somehow fell > that I emerged from the MS matrix and now live in the > free world. I think that if the Debian community put > more efforts in documenting more with a DOTHIS than a > HOWTO approach would help getting more people into > Zion. The problem is, Debian's flexibility prohibits such drool-proof documentation for the most part. The final debian-installer is supposed to greatly simplify the process for people looking to speed through it and get their hands on Debian while they burn in (God knows we all had a burn in process where you'd reinstall every couple weeks to get a fresh start). - -- .''`. Paul Johnson <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> : :' : `. `'` proud Debian admin and user `- Debian - when you have better things to do than fix a system -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.2.3 (GNU/Linux) iD8DBQE/ubvSUzgNqloQMwcRAkV9AKDb+elDydh+jziuXeNPSrwjZDJkMQCfTWKg dnP9sX2gKUAKSDGPpy5gH0E= =CkEC -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
