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Progress! Ha!

For those of you who are planning to install Linux and have no idea what you're doing (like me) I do not recommend the lovely shrink-wrapped version of Debian. It's nice in that it comes with a copy of O'Reilly's "Learning Debian GNU Linux" right in the box. But what's not nice is that both the installation docs and the book (or maybe it's the CD itself) are wrong, Wrong, WRONG. I've already come to a few places where I'm told to select an option that doesn't exist at all. (installing the dummy network driver module for instance... that option doesn't exist)

It begins by assuming that you are installing Linux to a drive that already has Windows running on it. It tells you how to partition off space for Linux. This goes through just fine, but when you get to the part of the installation procedure where it wants you to make a swap partition.... oops! Now it assumes you are installing to a brand new drive and totally forgets about that Windows partitioning thing. The option to make a new partition on the "Free Space" on your drive doesn't exist because the program doesn't see the new partition you made as free space. It sees it as already in use because it's got a Win95 or 98 FAT system on it already.

Once I saw what was going on I worked around that, but so much for documentation. And I haven't yet been able to figure out how to get and install that dummy network driver module that didn't exist as an option when I was told to install various driver modules. []/w3timages/icons/tongue.gif[/] And then when all's said and done, I can't make X work. It loads. I get a background and a cursor, and then nothing. I can't move the mouse, and I can't send any keyboard commands as far as I can tell (other than the command to close out of X). Unfortuanately, no error messages. I don't know whether it's failing to load the appropriate window manager or what. I did have it at one point running my login right through X, and I could put in my username and password... but then again, as soon as that was through I'd just get the cursor and the blank screen and nothing. And then I couldn't exit out of X to just the command line. Trying to exit would just ask me to login again.

Fun for the whole family!

Phoenix

Have a look at these:

linxuconf - http://www.solucorp.qc.ca/linuxconf/
Webmin - http://www.webmin.com/webmin

Webmin seems to be the answer.



[]http://www.amdragon.com/images/eileensig.gif[/]

Thanks! I know those are going to be really helpful soon. []/w3timages/icons/smile.gif[/] I haven't gotten that far yet, though, because I couldn't get the X window thingy to run, and I needed that so I could use a graphical browser and suchlike.

As it turned out (after an entire day of hunting) X didn't like my video card... specifically it didn't like the BIOS version of my particular video card, and once I found that out I was able to upgrade the bios and get this running in a jiffy. Getting to that jiffy was the tedious part.

But... so far so good. []/w3timages/icons/crazy.gif[/]
Phoenix

Those programs I quoted are supposed to help with instalation but it looks as though you're doing nicely on your own.

[]http://www.amdragon.com/images/eileensig.gif[/]

Oh, no... I'm doing horribly. []/w3timages/icons/wink.gif[/] I haven't even got to the point yet where those programs would be useful, because they help with setting up the web server and related things, and I haven't even got to that yet. First step was make Linux run... no problems there. And the next thing was to get connected to the internet and be able to lunch a web bowser that isn't lynx. That's what I accomplished yesterday. So I'll be keeping the programs you mentioned in mind as I get to the setup of the web server and all its parts. (eek!)

Phoenix

This might interest you:
http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,1282,34750,00.html

[]http://www.amdragon.com/images/eileensig.gif[/]

Thanks, Eillen. I do have Gnome on the debian CD. I'll get round to checking it out soon. I originally set up the desktop with KDE instead (which was not included on the debian CD because the debian people consider themselves purists and some tiny component of KDE has a commercial background and its therefore impure) but I'd still like to check out Gnome, and switching back and forth doesn't sound like a problem.

In further news on the progress report, Wooo Hoooo! It's going a lot better now. I've figured out quite a few things and I've been able to download and install a few good packages. The desktop environment is gorgeous and in many aspects really puts Windows to shame. I got my pen tablet working properly in the X window environment, and the freebie graphics programs are surprisingly robust so I'll actually be able to do some of my graphics work in Linux.

I haven't yet come up with an email program that I find suitable. Does anyone have any suggestions? I need an email program that will allow me to send and recieve mail on multiple accounts at once, without having to shut down and start a new instance or anything like that. Finding programs that let me check mail on multiple accounts is not too hard, but they don't let me send mail on multiple accounts. I also need a mail programs with fairly sophisticated filtering options. And I despise command-line mail. I've only ever come up with 2 windows mail clients that have good enough features... Pegasus mail and the most recent version of MS Outlook. I was hoping Pegaus would have a Linux version, but they don't... instead that have a page devoted to explaining why they don't have a Linux version which amounts to "we don't know how to port it to Linux and we won't release the source". Too bad. That's an excellent mail program. So if anyone has suggestions they would be most welcome.

But overall, I'm really liking Linux a lot, and if I can just get a few more things set the way I want them, I may be a true convert.

Phoenix

Phoenix,

a good place to look for any linux software is at http://www.freshmeat.net. It seems that that is where all the stuff is released. You might also want to look at http://linux.tucows.com/. They have all the software laid out just like they do their Windows software... along with ratings, etc...

Are you using the Gimp for your graphics software on linux? If not, I'd take a look at it... it seems to be incredibly powerful from what I've seen...

Anyway, enjoy!

Matt

Edit: try this one... http://igateway.linux.tucows.com/gnomehtml/net_email.html and scroll down to Postilion (which also has a Debian version)... maybe that's close to what you're looking for...?

Thanks, Matt. I'll check those out. That should help a lot in finding good programs. I'm actually having fun with this. Who'da thunk it?

Yes, I'm using the gimp for graphics. It's really very impressive. It's almost Photoshop quality, and better I think than Paint Shop Pro (in Windows). I was pleasantly surprised.

Phoenix