Check http://www.debian.org/distrib/vendors
I crashed my disk repartitioning it for Debian Linux so I don't have all the details, but I believe I paid $19.95 plus shipping. I ordered online and the order fulfillment was provided by Brandon Carter, 714-505-8915, Loki Entertainment Software, 250 El Camino Real, Tustin, CA 92780. They shipped by FedEx. The price included a single very comprehensive CD plus "Learning Debian GNU/Linux" by McCarty, published by O'Reilly Those resources, a lot of pointers from this list, HOWTO files (web and CD) brought it all together David ----- Original Message ----- From: Darrington, John <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[email protected]> Sent: Sunday, February 13, 2000 9:39 PM Subject: Newbie's experience Installing Debian > > OK, so after 5 years of playing with slackware and Red Hat, I decide that my > next OS will be Debian --- I've seen the web page, and like the philosophy > and want to get started. The usenet reports that Debian is so difficult to > install can't all be true can they? Unfortunately I've found they are. > > Not knowing much about Debian I look on the web site for advice. I find > this: > `It is recommended that first time installers buy the CD set as the > installation is more straightforward. Many of the vendors sell the > distribution for less than US$5 plus shipping (check their web page to see > if they ship internationally). ' > Fine I think US$5 == AUD8 plus let's say $10 for postage, I should be able > to get going for $18. Well I don't want to wait weeks for a shipment from > the US, so I phone my local software shop and ask them if they stock Debian > 2.1 . Yes, they have a 2 CD set for $25. Great says I . I don't really > mind paying an extra $7. The shop's got to make an honest profit, and I > don't have to wait. So I take home the 2 CDs, and one by one I put them in > my machine, and switch on. neither CD will boot. So I mount the CD and > take a look at them. After a while I figure that I've bought the source > CDs not the binarys. I have a look at the front and sure enough in tiny > writing I see that it does include the word `source'. Damn I say. Perhaps > it was my fault. I shouldn't have rushed in. Perhaps I need to be a > little more patient. I should have read up about it first. > I take another look at the Debian Web Site. I see that the words `Official' > are reserved for the set that the Debian team produce so I decide that I > ought to be getting these. I phone around my home town, but no-one has a > set of Debian CDs with the word `official' on the cover. Indeed the guy on > the phone seems to think I'm a bit wierd for insisting on this. After about > an hour of acute embarrassement I give up and have another look at the > Debian web site. > There's a list of recommened books which come with CDs. That's what I > really need thinks I. So I phone around the technical bookshops and low and > behold one of them has a product that I think will get me going: > Debian GNU/Linux: Guide to Installation and Usage > Author: John Goerzen and Ossama Othman > Publisher: New Riders Publishing > CD Included: one CD > > It's recommended on the web site and the title encourages me to think that > it should be easy to use. So, for $40 I buy this book. Take it home, read > through the first couple of chapters and am much more confident. I bung the > disk into the drive, and switch on. Hooray! it boots. A kernel runs and a > pretty menu of options appears. So, I step thought setting the colour, > selecting a keyboard, partitioning the disk . I set up a filesystem and > swap file everything appears to be fine. Then I come to the Install bit. > I choose to install off the CD (seems sensible to me). I see the following > message: > "Choose Debian archive path. Please choose the path inside the CD-ROM where > the Debian archive resides" > and the default appears to be /debian. I choose the default, not having any > other information. Then comes: > "Pleae select the directory containing the file resc1440tecra.bin" > This stumps me. How the hell should I know where that is? Being a > resourcefull character I back out of the menu wait until the CD is > unmounted, and place it in another machine and search for this file. It's > located at /debian/boot So back into the install procedure I go, enter > /debian/boot at the appropriate place. It seems to be denying the > existence of this file. --- but wait it's actually wanting the location of a > file with a similar name "drv1440tecra.bin". > I don't know where that is? I see there is an option `list' which > automatically detects it so I try that. Apparently it's not there. Back to > my other machine, and do a "find" . Sure enough it's not there. What do I > do now? I press <F1> like the start up screen told me. nothing happens. I > turn to the book. No hints. I spend the next 2 hours rebooting and trying > every possible path though the menu. including mounting the CD manually and > pointing the install process to the archives. It still wants this > non-existent file. > It's time to conclude that perhaps my hardware has some funny configuration > which this CD doesn't support. So, I borrow a machine and try again. Exactly > the same symptoms. > > So after 2 days and $65 I have not managed to get even a login prompt. For > that price I could have got RedHat 6.1. > It's quite a demoralising experience. Are these problems common in Debian > installation or is it just me ?? > > > > > -- > Unsubscribe? mail -s unsubscribe [EMAIL PROTECTED] < /dev/null > >
