On Mon, 14 Feb 2000, Darrington, John wrote: john.d >OK, so after 5 years of playing with slackware and Red Hat, I decide that my john.d >next OS will be Debian --- I've seen the web page, and like the philosophy john.d >and want to get started. The usenet reports that Debian is so difficult to john.d >install can't all be true can they? Unfortunately I've found they are.
if it makes ya feel any better my first debian install took 3 long days, 1 day was wasted because of a broken CD(curropted files i will never order from cheapbytes.com again) the second day was wasted because of a broken FTP mirror(at the time, metalab.unc.edu i think since the debian mirror there was removed it was missing at least half of the distribution) the last day was successful because of a good CD :) john.d >I take another look at the Debian Web Site. I see that the words `Official' john.d >are reserved for the set that the Debian team produce so I decide that I john.d >ought to be getting these. I phone around my home town, but no-one has a john.d >set of Debian CDs with the word `official' on the cover. Indeed the guy on john.d >the phone seems to think I'm a bit wierd for insisting on this. After about john.d >an hour of acute embarrassement I give up and have another look at the john.d >Debian web site. yeah... i think even cheapbytes may be an official distributor, but their CDs were so broken, and they never replied to my emails or phonecalls. bastards.. linuxmall.com has good stuff, sofar anyways. john.d >There's a list of recommened books which come with CDs. That's what I john.d >really need thinks I. So I phone around the technical bookshops and low and john.d >behold one of them has a product that I think will get me going: john.d >Debian GNU/Linux: Guide to Installation and Usage john.d >Author: John Goerzen and Ossama Othman john.d >Publisher: New Riders Publishing john.d >CD Included: one CD haven't tried that one, but the one from O'reilley (sp) www.ora.com is good, step-by-step instrucitons, even an online version available. very good quality cd. john.d >I don't know where that is? I see there is an option `list' which john.d >automatically detects it so I try that. Apparently it's not there. Back to john.d >my other machine, and do a "find" . Sure enough it's not there. What do I john.d >do now? I press <F1> like the start up screen told me. nothing happens. I john.d >turn to the book. No hints. I spend the next 2 hours rebooting and trying john.d >every possible path though the menu. including mounting the CD manually and john.d >pointing the install process to the archives. It still wants this john.d >non-existent file. john.d >It's time to conclude that perhaps my hardware has some funny configuration john.d >which this CD doesn't support. So, I borrow a machine and try again. Exactly john.d >the same symptoms. bad cd. since debian is non commercial theres no gaurantee made that there are all good CDs out there, which is too bad at times, it happened to me, it happened to you..im sure it happens to a lot of people. john.d >So after 2 days and $65 I have not managed to get even a login prompt. For john.d >that price I could have got RedHat 6.1. john.d >It's quite a demoralising experience. Are these problems common in Debian john.d >installation or is it just me ?? john.d > i wouldn't go so far as to say its a problem with debian, their ISO images are freely available to download and there are scripts to build an ISO based on specific packages. clearly some vendors download curropted files and/or burn bad cds, or burn incomplete CDs. It can cause a major headache. I have downloaded many debian ISOs since i had access to a fast net connection and every single one burned perfectly. vendors don't take enough care(some do, seems linuxmall does) in ensuring that their CDs are of good quality. i have bought 2 copies of the book from www.ora.com and highly reccomend it. i have done many many installations with those CDs and it goes great everytime. it is backed by both ORA and VA Linux, and the profits go to the debian project(it runs about $40) or you can get a good cd from linuxmall(it was good last time i ordered) for about $2. i dont know if they ship overseas. nate ----------------------------------------[mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] ]-- Vice President Network Operations http://www.firetrail.com/ Firetrail Internet Services Limited http://www.aphroland.org/ Everett, WA 425-348-7336 http://www.linuxpowered.net/ Powered By: http://comedy.aphroland.org/ Debian 2.1 Linux 2.0.36 SMP http://yahoo.aphroland.org/ -----------------------------------------[mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] ]-- 10:43pm up 178 days, 10:59, 1 user, load average: 1.01, 1.06, 1.02
