27 replies to this topic

[ragweed]

i decided to try my hand at linux again... this time ill be using debian and was wondering if there is anything special or important about debian i should know before installing it.

[sw1gger]

dont drop the soap.

[ragweed]

dont drop the soap.

lol i love that line

[feend]

Debian is unlike any other Linux you will have used. In fact you may catch a beating by some free software advocates if you don't refer to it as Debian GNU/Linux. Like voodooHAL mentioned, Debian is a horrible beginner distribution. Only switch to it when you are pretty comfortable at the command line and can edit config files without much trouble. If you have never built your own kernel, please stay away from Debian until you have hehe.

[ragweed]

Debian is unlike any other Linux you will have used. In fact you may catch a beating by some free software advocates if you don't refer to it as Debian GNU/Linux. Like voodooHAL mentioned, Debian is a horrible beginner distribution. Only switch to it when you are pretty comfortable at the command line and can edit config files without much trouble. If you have never built your own kernel, please stay away from Debian until you have hehe.

looks like ill be using another distro...so many distros so little time... thanks for that info feend you probaly just saved me a ton of problems. .. off to find another distro

[ragweed]

looks like im gonna try gentoo

[White_Raven]

Mandrake is a good newb distro.... but then again slack ownz so use that and just make extensive use of the "man" and "info" commands

[sw1gger]

Good choice... I love gentoo, been using it for aboot a month, works gnarlyish.

[ragweed]

any of you out there that might have installed gentoo or even if you havent mabye you can help me. im trying to do the following

#emerge sys-kernel/gentoo-sources

im getting the error

>>> Note: /etc/make.profile/make.defaults isnt available.
                 an 'emerge sync' will probaly fix this.
!!! no profile directory; system mode unavailble.

now i tred using emerge sync but inorder for this to work i need an internet connection which i currently dont have on the machine im installing it on. please.

[feend]

Gotta get an internet connection .

[bland_inquisitor]

feend.... is that chunk? LMAO the goonies came on last night, and you know i had to watch

[psychopuppy]

if you don't have a internet connection then installing gentoo is kinda pointless, since it relies mostly on the portage system.

[feend]

bland: Heh should be sloth. And I watched it too...twice .

ragweed: oops didn't even know emerging from a cdrom was an option. Any particular reason for gentoo :\? Like psychopuppy said, you really only see the benefits with an internet connection.

[ragweed]

well it will have one...but the modem is a win modem so i will have to do extr config after the install..and i also gotta buy a cable modem.i got both cable and dial-up but no cable modem for this comp

[feend]

Should only need one cable modem. My crappy little network looks like this:

-Chop- (there was a little ascii drawing of my network but the board doesn't like whitespace so it's gone now).

You are using dialup as well as cable?

[ragweed]

yeah.but i just gave up on gentoo...too damn har to install with out preexisting internet. off to try slackware

[bland_inquisitor]

USE KNOPPIX
USE KNOPPIX
USE KNOPPIX
its easy to install (for NIX anyway)
its debian
apt-get is your friend
it won't hate your hardware
its the double-ought shizzle
there is a knoppix.net forum and tons of literature on it

JUST USE IT!!!

you wont be sorry. Forget the other stuff for now... YOU'RE LEARNING LINUX!!! Dont try to be "1337" by cutting your teeth on slack or gentoo, you'll thank yourself in the end. If you have your heart set on not using redhat, mandrake or SuSE, use Knoppix. Seriously dude..Seriously

[ragweed]

ok well my moms cleaing lady moved my windows xp disk ...so i dont want to use knoppix but i might. slack im not going to be using cause my cable connection is maxing out at 36 kb/s on all the slack mirrors and i really dont wanna use redhat or mandreake cause they are too much like windows. sooo...

[vooduHAL]

The best Slack mirror I've found is the purdue one.