Problem 1: the cursor won't respond I installed the Potato release as the default OS in a dual-boot setup on an Apple PowerBook "Pismo" (Firewire/2000/&tc.). X (v.3) launches happily, but the cursor arrow won't respond to either the trackpad or an externally connected USB mouse. It won't budge from the center of the display (which is some sort of Debian desktop decoration with some icons on either side. Don't know what they do yet; I can't click'em.)
I've tried manually editing the XF86Config file, setting the pointer to /dev/input/mice, as per a suggestion. Still no joy. In searching the new system & documentation for an X configuration tool, I found that none were installed (I chose the "task-based", "simple" installation method, selecting everything I *thought* would be useful). This leads to: Problem 2: dselect config file mulched I've inadvertantly hoarked whatever shoot-myself-in-the-foot.config file it is that controls what the dselect program can access. I can't seem to get a package list update from the CD's I installed from. With this remedied, maybe I could install the man pages! In any event, this leads to the frustrating: Problem 3: dsl via dhcp internet connection does't work Which means that I can't connect to the Debian ftp site to download the XF86Setup package! I posted a plea the other day and received very interesting information in return. (Thanks!) My /etc/network/interfaces file, edited accordingly, now reads: # interfaces to launch at boot auto lo eth0 # loopback interface iface lo inet loopback # fast ethernet iface eht0 inet dhcp Nontheless, I still get "unresolved address" errors from dselect's Access methods. Lynx complains as well. From a cold boot and root login, invoking "ifconfig" returns no output whatsoever. If I then invoke % ifconfig eth0 up I get eth0 PHY ID: ... full_duplex:1, speed: 100 dselect & lynx remain unhappy though, even after that ifconfigery. Note that the computer is connected to a Linksys Cable/DSL Router, which serves IP numbers via DHCP -- and the whole setup works flawlessly under MacOS ... Two related questions: - What does /sbin/pump do? I'm told it plays/can play a role in dhcp configuration. What would/should I do to implement it? - What does /sbin/ifup do? There's reference to it in the original /etc/network/interface file. Thanks in advance for your help. I've spent the better part of a week absolutely dead in the water - Scott