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Topic: Newbie goes into the jungle of setting up Debian (Read 1675 times) previous topic - next topic
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Newbie goes into the jungle of setting up Debian

Ok. As A followup to my previous threads in this forum I can say that I have gotten a Thinkpad R50 and is now trying to come to terms with the sweet distro known as Debbie(an).

[Rant: Bloody bloated XP. I had to use several hours patching it up and closing services and I feel like it could use a good slimming. And what happened to giving a customer a CD with the OS instead of forced partition space ("We think you are a moron and should be led when it concerns your computer.") for backup?
Stable, though. I must give Microsoft that.] 


It has been trial and error. I've had no experience with the NTFS-format, pre-installations and pre-dektops, so It took me a while to be able to run QPparted (long live systemrescue-discs for linux), so set up an extra 5 GB partition where I'm going to run Debian.

I'm mainly going with Debbie GNU/Linuxfor three reason.

1) It's open source policy appeals a hell of a lot to me. I believe that a programmer should be free to choose whether he/she want to close their source and/or want pay, but the open community spirit and "let's keep things in the open and do this together" just appeals to this neo-softwarehippie.

2) Apt-Get. When I first tried Linux, dependency hell put quite a damper on my spirit. This looks more promising.

3) Non-bloat and stable.
I want a system where you build up as you learn instead of having a fully fledged graphic enviroment (Mandrake, Suse, Fedora?) thrown in the neck. I still desire a lean machine.

3½) I was considering Libranet, but somehow just think starting with "pure" Debbie was cooler.

What I have done.
I've gotten a systemrescue-CD and a Knoppix-Live CD for emergencies.

I have fiddled around with different Sarge Install CD's (they seem to be a bit buggy regarding base-config and the mounted CD-Rom) and have finally gotten my Debian Sarge up and running with a PPPoE network connection.

I have installed a bare Fluxbox and have gotten it somewhat set up. My resolution is 12xx, where it should be 14xx. Must find a way to reconfigure that. Middle button does not work :-/.

I have installed Firefox and is able to browse.

I have installed Beep-Media-Player and can now play my MPC's and MP3's. I miss replaygain and OGG.
Installed MPlayer for other media.  Looks overwhelming.

I've tried Wine and Foobar. It works, but Foobars display "disappears"/becoms transparent after having been minimized.

I've heard of pruning programs like debfoster and deborphan. Installed for later testing.

Installed Xemacs for X-enviromental Emacs. Makes it easier to learn while googling for anwers.

I need to set up Sylpheed-Claws with some kind of filtering for my one user. Must learn to set up Procmail, spamassassin and Bogofilter (heard good things about them. I'm used to simple spampal and general MUA-filters).
Maybe learn to set up a mail server (that will send through ISP's mail server).
Long-term mail goal. Having X-Sylpheed share email with console-Mutt and/or Emacs. [Prerequisite: Learn to use Mutt and/or Emacs]


I need to set up local news server. I love Hamster (scripts and filters also killing toppostings save me many an aggravation) and want something alike for Linux.
Any suggestions for both newsserver and -reader? For starters I'm considering Pan as client. My final aim is (because of newsposters whom I respect use them) is likely Gnu-Emacs.

Needs file-manager and/or editor. Will prolly start out with Midnight Commander and try to learn to use Emacs. I've gathered that Emacs is a handy vertasile tool and quite an asset if you know how to use i.

All in all, I'm confused and overwhelmed. My impression is that (software for) Linux is so big, comprehensive and powerful that I'm spoiled for choice. There's so many things you need to learn if you want to do it "the pure Linux way".
But fortunately I'm stubborn.
We ARE going to dance, Debbie, even if it's going to get me sore feet and a laughing stock at the prom. And we are going to end up dancing gracefully.

Next hurdle:
Fixing resolution to 14xx. (dpkg-reconfigure xserver-x86free, right? Or manual editing of config file somehow.)

Setting up Sylpheed-Claws with spamfiltering from several POP-accounts. Check for proxy-program that will fetch from Hotmail-account. A quick google says a Perl-script "Gotmail" should do it.

*Sigh*
So much to do.

Newbie goes into the jungle of setting up Debian

Reply #1 –
Fixing the resolution should be as simple as opening up XF86Config in a text editor, adding the required resolution, save, restart X, voila.  My supervisor had one of those wide aspect displays and when I first installed Linux on it, there were these two black bars on each side.  But then I went and made a simple edit and X now fills the screen.  Too easy.

Newbie goes into the jungle of setting up Debian

Reply #2 –
The middle mouse button seems to require additional setup with a 2.4 kernel (you need the synaptics driver), but in 2.6 it just works™.  Editing XF86Config should get the resolution issue fixed.

BTW, Gentoo is a nice one too, and IMHO it's easier to use (once you set everything up) than Debian - when I last tried Debian I got some weirdo glibc update failure that b0rked some stuff.  The Pentium M also happens to compile things really quickly - I finished a stage 1 install with Gnome and XFCE in under 1 day.
 

Newbie goes into the jungle of setting up Debian

Reply #3 –
Please. Do not tempt me with another distribution. I'm  already too well into this project to give up and redo the whole thing. Besidees i don't know whether I'll be able to handle Portage. ;-)
I'll try it once I've been able to lose the mantle of noviceness.

Regarding resolution, got it fixed. Even got my CD automounted and learned a bit more about chmod in the process

Right now i'm trying to set up email

I come from 3 regular ISP-POP3 retrivals and a Hotmail popped-POP3 -> Spampal (proxy-program)-> [MUA] Sylpheed-Claws with "standard" mailbox filtering.

Googling has made me aware that I should do something like

ISP-POP3 (I might as well drop the Hotmail account anyway) ->
Fetchmail [MTA, right?] ->
Postfix [MTA?] ->
Procmail (combined with SpamAssassin/Bogofilter) [MDA]->
Sylpheed/Claws (or Mutt) [MUA]

[I'm beginning to feel like the person in Kate Bush's "Deeper Understanding". Where's my dinner?]