Toying with the idea...

[leech]

I would highly recommend this installer.

http://www.debian.org/devel/debian-installer/

Of course get the one for i386. This will autodetect your hardware and will use Tasksel so that you can have a working X display after it's done downloading and setting everything up. This is the installer I use now (well, I used it with the Beta4 and it worked great).

Of course it's different from the typical redhat install... especially in that you can CHOOSE what packages a lot better... RedHat has the tendancy to install a bunch of crap you won't ever need.... it's a bit more of a pain to install only what you need/want, but in the end you have a nicer system IMHO.....

Once you get using Synaptic or Apt-get, then you'll appreciate the loveliness that is debian.

Leech

[leech]

A quick note, one of the reasons that the debian installer sucks so much is that they have to keep it compatible with all the other architectures that Debian supports... Redhat pretty much just supports i386, IA64 and x86-64 (does RedHat even support this one...)

Leech

[Kooldino]

Cool. I'll give that another go this week.

[Kooldino]

Ok, I'm on Debian now, after running the SARGE installer tonight. Don't ask me why, but as i type here in Konquerer, certain words are turning red. Words like Ok, SARGE, ooh, i see... it's a spell checker built in. BADASS!

So anyway, when I was asked in the setup to configure my desktop res, I put in a SAFE number of 800x600 @ 72hz. Now I'd like to run higher (1024). However, there is no menu option for that.

To make matters worse, some of these configuration menus can't properly be run in 8x6, since the "ok" button is off of the screen. Go figure.

So is there some file I can edit to increase my desktop res options?

[Kooldino]

Ok, I've got Firefox on here now too. I just went to the site and downloaded it...'unzipped" the GZ, and umm...ran the program without installing it.

I tried to install it, but the stupid readme was for mozilla, and mentioned things that don't exsist in the firefox GZ. So this browser is currently running from my download folder. Weak. How the hell do I install it?

[Wombat]

If it was Debian, you should have been able to apt-get firefox.

[Kooldino]

ahh, you have to type a dash? I tried typing "apt get firefox", and it didn't know what i was talking about.

so I logged in as root.

Ditto

So then i found apt, cd'd there, and ran it there. Didn't wanna work.

How do I know which apps i can apt-get?

[leech]

For your first problem, to add more resolutions you'll want to 'dpkg-reconfigure xserver-xfree86' This will ask you what video driver, and refresh rate of your monitor, etc.

Best way to do this, is first find out the refresh rate of your monitor and right it down.

For example; my monitor's refresh rate is HorizSync 30.0-97.0 and VertRefresh 50.0-180.0.

Once have that in there, it should also ask you what resolution you'd like to run at. Just select the one you want. It should automatically run at the highest refresh rate for your monitor at that res.

For the second thing... do an 'apt-get install synaptic' and that will install a front-end to Apt. This way you can browse what software you'll want to download.... if there is something for linux that isn't in the default repositories, you can always check http://www.apt-get.org for other repositories.

Leech

Quick edit: After installing Synaptic, it'll be under System -> Package Manager (Synaptic Package Manager)

[Kooldino]

Cool I'll try that.

@ Wombat: apt-get firefox didn't work. I forget what the error was.

[leech]

You have to tell apt-get what to do with firefox...

'apt-get install firefox' will install it just fine.

Leech

[Kooldino]

Originally posted by leech
For your first problem, to add more resolutions you'll want to 'dpkg-reconfigure xserver-xfree86' This will ask you what video driver, and refresh rate of your monitor, etc.

Best way to do this, is first find out the refresh rate of your monitor and right it down.

For example; my monitor's refresh rate is HorizSync 30.0-97.0 and VertRefresh 50.0-180.0.

Once have that in there, it should also ask you what resolution you'd like to run at. Just select the one you want. It should automatically run at the highest refresh rate for your monitor at that res.

For the second thing... do an 'apt-get install synaptic' and that will install a front-end to Apt. This way you can browse what software you'll want to download.... if there is something for linux that isn't in the default repositories, you can always check http://www.apt-get.org for other repositories.

Leech

Quick edit: After installing Synaptic, it'll be under System -> Package Manager (Synaptic Package Manager)

Ok, got the resolution problem solved. It asked me a bunch of questions when I rant that program, and I guessed or hit enter on half of them. Here I am.

As for #2:

linuxbox:~# apt-get install synaptic
Reading Package Lists... Done
Building Dependency Tree... Done
synaptic is already the newest version.
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.

----------------------

and

linuxbox:~# apt-get firefox
E: Invalid operation firefox

-----------------------

and one more...


linuxbox:~# apt-get install /home/kooldino/download/firefox-0.9-i686-linux-gtk2+xft.tar.gz
Reading Package Lists... Done
Building Dependency Tree... Done
E: Couldn't find package
linuxbox:~# ls -al /home/kooldino/download/
total 7980
drwxr-xr-x 3 kooldino kooldino 4096 Jun 24 00:51 .
drwxr-xr-x 17 kooldino kooldino 4096 Jun 25 19:17 ..
drwxrwxrwx 12 2232 2232 4096 Jun 24 01:11 firefox
-rwxrwxrwx 1 kooldino kooldino 8144467 Jun 24 00:17 firefox-0.9-i686-linux-gtk2+xft.tar.gz

[Kooldino]

Oh, and...

linuxbox:~# apt-get install firefox
Reading Package Lists... Done
Building Dependency Tree... Done
E: Couldn't find package firefox
linuxbox:~#

[Kooldino]

WTF? Ok, so I ran that GUI package manager...and discovered I have mozilla on here (even though there aren't any shortcuts to it). So I ran it. It's there alright.

Oh, look at that...I also have gimp 1.2. No shortcut to it anywhere, but if i gimp& it pops right up. wtf? Can i have it reproduce my "start menu"?

[leech]

Ok... my big OOPS... first you'll want to run 'apt-get update' that will update all of your apt repositories (the place for these are in /etc/apt/sources.list). THEN you run apt-get install synaptic, that should install a newer version...

If you're using KDE, the 'start' menu is basically the big K in the bottom left corner of the screen. If you're using Gnome, it's the Applications menu up at the top-left. Unlike Windows, it doesn't just have a "Program Files" thing that leads to all your programs in no particular categories... KDE and Gnome both have sections for Office, Multimedia, Graphics, etc.

Gimp should be accessed by clicking the big K and going up to Graphics and selecting The Gimp. Though version 1.2 is quite old now, Gimp 2.0 should be in Sarge...

Mozilla also should be under the Internet Menu.

If you want shortcuts either on your desktop or on your panel, you should be able to just drag and drop it off of the menu onto your desktop and/or panel. At least this works in Gnome, and should work in KDE as well.

If you'd like a window manager that is much more like Windows, try out IceWM 'apt-get install icewm' It has a 'feel' very close to windows 9x.

Leech

[Kooldino]

Originally posted by leech
[B]
If you're using KDE, the 'start' menu is basically the big K in the bottom left corner of the screen. If you're using Gnome, it's the Applications menu up at the top-left. Unlike Windows, it doesn't just have a "Program Files" thing that leads to all your programs in no particular categories... KDE and Gnome both have sections for Office, Multimedia, Graphics, etc.

Yup, same as every KDE/Gnome I've ever run...

Gimp should be accessed by clicking the big K and going up to Graphics and selecting The Gimp.

Key word is "should". It's not there. But I can run it from the command line.

Mozilla also should be under the Internet Menu.

" "

If you want shortcuts either on your desktop or on your panel, you should be able to just drag and drop it off of the menu onto your desktop and/or panel. At least this works in Gnome, and should work in KDE as well.

It does.

Couple of more things:

Appletalk: On startup it said that the service is running. I don't want it. How do I disable it?

Also, I want to be able to browse my windows shares. I thought I configured some samba network stuff so I can browse for PCs running Windows shares, but I don't know how to actually connect to a machine and see its share.