First, welcome to Debian! I was in your shoes about a year and a half ago, and for a while it's pretty uncomfortable.
There is a *tremendous* amount of documentation available for Debian, but that doesn't help you unless you know how/where to find it. I recommend Steve Hunger's book "The Debian GNU/Linux Bible". It's a couple of years old, but most of the book is still helpful. Next, get aptitude. That's "apt-get update" followed by "apt-get install aptitude". Aptitude is a package browser with a more friendly interface than dselect. Open aptitude and browse the "Not Installed Packages" "Doc" section. (Use the "+" key to show which packages you'd like to install.) Get as much documentation as you can stand, but be sure to get "dwww". It creates a local www site on which you can browse the many kinds of help available. (It will require and install Apache, but configured without network access so it's not a security problem.) Another good package is "newbiedoc", which is just what it sounds like. Some people are pretty impatient with newbie questions, and that's a shame -- we were all newbies once. I hope you don't let that run you away from the best Linux. Good luck. Kevin On 26 Feb 2003 23:36:29 -0500 Bret Comstock Waldow <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Hi, > > Your point is well taken, but consider I've never had to do this before > with any Linux kernel I've built, so I have some history to suggest the > approach I took was valid, and the deviance unusual. > > I was also concerned that this was evidence that something hadn't been > chosen, or accomplished properly, in the install process (I'm new to > Debian - never got it to work before) or there might have been a > conceptual problem (mine) with the structure of names. > > There's a tremendous flood of info out there just on the aspects of a > system that's working perfectly - add in possible errors, omissions, or > mis-configurations, and the places to consider rise geometrically. I > have no way of knowing what they might be yet, except for experience > with other distros to date. I was hoping I could just get a quick nudge > in the direction to look. > > With the quick, short answers people gave, I was able to fix the problem > quickly, and that is helpful for beginners - we need a working system to > learn about, otherwise the task is too daunting to proceed. > > I have been using Red Hat most recently, and this is my main system - > all my mail, business, etc. goes through here. Not having it working > isn't bearable for very long. Now I'm trying to get support for syncing > my Clie PDA. I can tolerate not having that working for a bit longer > than mail, but it's a make or break issue - this isn't just hobby stuff > for me. > > I have re-installed Debian (twice today) because I was leery about my > choices. I find it helpful to do this anyway, as it familiarizes me > with the process, and that has paid off when I've had to reconstruct a > system, or migrate to another version or distro. > > Again, your point is well taken, and helpful. Although I've never > needed it before, I'll take to reading the kernel docs. I'll get there > - but there's a lot of "there" to get to with Linux. > > Much of what I've written here isn't in response to you particularly, > just taking the opportunity to mention my viewpoint on the list. > > Cheers, > Bret > > On Wed, 2003-02-26 at 14:16, Jaume Guasch wrote: > > others answered correctly, but did you read the description for > > kernel-source-2.4.20 ? > > > > in dselect, aptitude, apt-cache, web page, whatever: > > http://packages.debian.org/kernel-source-2.4.20 > > > > "You may configure the kernel to your setup by typing "make config" and > > following instructions, but you could get ncursesX.X-dev and tkX.X-dev > > and try "make menuconfig" for a jazzier, and easier to use > > interface. Also, please read the detailed documentation in the file > > /usr/share/doc/kernel-source-2.4.20/README.headers.gz." > > > > So just reading the description of the package puts you in the correct > > way... > > > > Is NOT that you have to dig on documentation to find it. > > > > -- > To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] > with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED] >
