debian virgin

[heezer7]

i am going to be installing debian tomorrow night or the next and i have hear there can be problems installing it. i am for the most part a nOOb at linux so i was wondering if there were any little tricks to make everything go smoother? i will be dual booting w/ win 2k if that matters for anything. thanks.

 

[PolyPill]

Know what chip sets in your network, sound, and video cards. Debian wont auto detect anything. So if you aren't familiar with modules you're going to have a lot of hardware that's not working.

 

[DreamingWolf]

Know what chip sets in your network, sound, and video cards. Debian wont auto detect anything. So if you aren't familiar with modules you're going to have a lot of hardware that's not working.

Great, only after I've been fighting to get Debian up and running for a week now (thanks to the recommendations I read in this forum) does he tell me this.

My question would be I know the chipset and location pci1.0.0 of my vid card, how do I tell the kernel where to look and how do I restart the main service to activate the new settings?

I won't leave Linux, I'll just go back to SUSE8.0 pro which requires 0.01% skill and just feel stupid if I can't get this going. Amazingly though, my eth0 connection is up so I can get to the net, now I just have to learn how to navigate it in text

BTW what's the FTP command to transfer a whole directory?

heezer7, if you run into problems, post them and we'll work through them together

DWolf

 

[PolyPill]

The video card is different. It doesn't use the kernel. It relies on you selecting the correct one in the xfree86 configuration. You also need to know the horizontal and vertical sync rate of your monitor. Then you can test it by restarting X, hit ctrl+alt+backspace when in X.

The ftp command depends on which ftp client you're using.

 

[heezer7]

Well can someone tell me or give me an example of what i will have to do. i have some experience with xf86config and installing a vid card but thats about it. i have a gf4, 3com (forget model) NIC and onboard sound.

 

[PolyPill]

You're going to need to figure out exactly what sound card that is. If you're running windows on it it'll say in the device manager.

To load modules for sound/nic just type modprobe 3c90x or what ever module you want. If that works then add a line to your /etc/modules.conf something like this:

alias 3c90x eth0
alias maestro3 sound

For your video card just run an x configuration program, like xconfigurator and follow the prompts. If you've got an Nvidia card then after that download the drivers from their site and read the README

 

[moorcito]

Along the lines of figuring out what hardware you have, get a piece of paper, open up you box, pull out what you have inside, and write down the model number, manufacturer, ect. You never know when you might need to know exactly what you have inside, without having to open it up to look.

And, if you want a list of vendors that support linux, you can check out this list from Linux Online. A lot of vendors actuall have linux support pages on their web sites. Plus googling will get you anything you ever wanted to know.
http://www.linux.org/hardware/components.html

 

[heezer7]

do i have to download the modules or what? how am i suppose to know what they are called?

 

[DreamingWolf]

The video card I can definitely help with. Linux drivers for the GeForce cards can be found at
http://www.nvidia.com/view.asp?IO=linux_display_1.0-3123
and you'll need to get two files, one a GLX file and the other a 'kernel' file. They are available in rpm format and have explanations of which one to choose.

DWolf

 

[DreamingWolf]

The video card is different. It doesn't use the kernel. It relies on you selecting the correct one in the xfree86 configuration. You also need to know the horizontal and vertical sync rate of your monitor. Then you can test it by restarting X, hit ctrl+alt+backspace when in X.

The ftp command depends on which ftp client you're using.

I select the GeForce card in xfree86config and it still claims no display detected.

And for FTP I just type FTP and it drops a line and gives me a "FTP>" prompt. I can get to a site get logged in and navigate but I want to download the latest XFree86 files and don't want to have to do it one at a time


DWolf

 

[XWRed1]

There's only 3 files you need to build the latest XFree86.

 

[moorcito]

do i have to download the modules or what? how am i suppose to know what they are called?

you build the modules yourself. If you installed the kernel source, you have all you need to make the modules.

To figure out what the modules are called, you need to read the documentation that comes with the kernel source code. The default directory is '/usr/src/linux-2.*.*' Once you are in that directory try reading the README, and then go into the Documents directory, that's where all the information about make the modules is located. Example, if you want to find out what the sound module would be you would go into the the sound directory in Documents, etc...

 

[DreamingWolf]

YEAH!!!
Finally found the proper settings in the proper file. This is being sent from Gnome desktop in Debian in my first real accomplishment with this distro.

Now to start my serious tinkering

DWolf