Hello,
I've been installing a Debian 3.1r1 system, burning CDs
as necessary. So far I've only used CD 1 and 2 from the set.
I'm fairly new to Debian 3.1, and I've some questions,
and general feedback about the installation process.
NB: I had some trouble getting sound to work on my
Soundblaster Vibra 128 sound card under kernel 2.4.27.
When I switched to the alternative kernel 2.6.8 which is
also on CD 1 of the set, sound now works (well, artsplay).
For some reason the loaded module is es1371, not sb.
NB: I've read that neither esd nor arts are being maintained.
Q: If that's correct, is there something I should get instead?
NB: XMMS freezes when it tries to play a song.
Q: I just want to queue and play MP3s while I work. I read
about alsaplayer, but couldn't find it on CD 1 or 2.
Which, if any, CD is it on? Or is there something better?
NB: CD disk 1 had almost all the software I use daily (great!)
One exception is LaTeX (to make PDF doco).
Q: Which, if any, CD is LaTeX on? Its dependencies?
NB: I haven't installed my printer yet. OOo seems to only
list Postscript printers (but I could be wrong).
Q: Basically 'lpr' doesn't work, and being a total newbie
on printing under Linux I'm just looking for info?
(My printer directly connects to the PC, no network.)
Which CDs have HP drivers?
NB: I used the normal XFree86 installation, but it
produced a default login screen with some weird
resolution like 416 pixels by 380 pixels.
I had to hack /etc/X11R6/XFree86Config-4 to get
it to use my Cirrus card at 800x600. Yet still
it scatters 'grey static' rectangles across the
login screen just before the login window appears.
Anyway, it works now apart from that static.
Q: Is there some better way of getting X to detect my
graphics card or tweak the settings apart from
hacking the config file?
NB: I was very impressed with the clear Gnome setup.
It feels coherent. (Haven't tried KDE much yet.)
Q: Is there a way to randomly in real-time change the
background picture? I used to use "xv -root" under
FVWM2, but this method can only initialise the
picture used by Gnome, not change it while Gnome
is running (Gnome seems to cache the picture data).
NB: I have no ISP at home, and no DVD drive on the PC,
so all installation must be done via CD.
My general question is: how do I find modules on the CD set,
if I want to burn-as-needed? Is there a CD directory
listing somewhere on the net, or, better yet, a look-up
form somewhere which will tell me "if you want to install
package BLAH, you need CD 5 and also CDs 1 and 2 for all
the dependencies"? (I worked out how to add CDs to the
apt database after reading some man pages.)
Overall I found the installer pleasantly helpful and most
things just worked first time.
Loki
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