Hi,
After some good advice whilst on IRC (albeit cut short cos my windows machine wouldn't stay up long enough to keep me logged in!), I've decided to try to install the latest version of Debian "testing" on my new HP laptop. Given I'd prefer a KDE desktop, I've downloaded this CD image:
http://cdimage.debian.org/cdimage/weekly-builds/i386/iso-cd/debian-testing-i...
Which I think should let me install what I want.
Problem is, after installing most of the packages, the text-only installer messes up. The readable screen is replaced by funny coloured blocks - I can see it's asking me a question and can tab around the boxes on screen, but there's no way I can read any of it, as all the characters have been replaced by blocks.
Soo ... I assume it's not playing nicely with my graphics card? or something?
Any suggestions, on how I can get through the install?
TIA,
Peter.
On Monday 09 July 2007 11:15:00 samwise wrote:
I've downloaded this CD image:
http://cdimage.debian.org/cdimage/weekly-builds/i386/iso-cd/debian-testing- i386-kde-CD-1.iso
Which I think should let me install what I want.
Just as an aside, if you have a decent internet connection then its easier just to use the netinstall disc and get apt to download the packages you want when you install them.
Problem is, after installing most of the packages, the text-only installer messes up. The readable screen is replaced by funny coloured blocks - I can see it's asking me a question and can tab around the boxes on screen, but there's no way I can read any of it, as all the characters have been replaced by blocks.
Soo ... I assume it's not playing nicely with my graphics card? or something?
There are a couple of things you can try:
1) the graphical installer :-)
2) just test switching to another virtual terminal with CTRL+ALT+F2. Are they broken too?
3) does the Debian install process still re-boot after installing the base system? If so, you could try setting the boot parameters to GRUB when it boots by pressing ESC to cancel the timeout, then e to edit the boot commands. Try adding "vga=791" (for 1024x768) to the end of the "kernel" line.
Might be of some use?
Cheers, Richard
Just as an aside, if you have a decent internet connection then its easier just to use the netinstall disc and get apt to download the packages you want when you install them.
Indeed, I think I may have made an error, anyway. After some more googling this morning, I think I might only be able to install "testing" from the netinst cd, after all. I think the one I downloaded was labelled testing but actually only installs the stable version (tho, I'm still not sure). Anyway, have downloaded the netinst cd and am trying that now!
There are a couple of things you can try:
- the graphical installer :-)
Unfortunately, I don't think this will let me encrypt the filesystem, which is something I want to do. :(
- just test switching to another virtual terminal with CTRL+ALT+F2. Are they
broken too?
Yep, they are.
- does the Debian install process still re-boot after installing the base
system? If so, you could try setting the boot parameters to GRUB when it boots by pressing ESC to cancel the timeout, then e to edit the boot commands. Try adding "vga=791" (for 1024x768) to the end of the "kernel" line.
Might be of some use?
Unfortunately, I think they eliminated that re-boot from the install process (at least, I think I read that in a review somewhere - this is my first install!).
OK, well, I'm now trying with the netinst CD to see if that gets me any further ... :/
Peter.
- does the Debian install process still re-boot after installing the base
system? If so, you could try setting the boot parameters to GRUB when it boots by pressing ESC to cancel the timeout, then e to edit the boot commands. Try adding "vga=791" (for 1024x768) to the end of the "kernel" line.
Might be of some use?
Ahah. Finally turned out to I had to set the vga=771 line to stop it from screen corruption which I also found documented on the loader help screen. Got as far as a command prompt now ... which is a good start. :)
Thanks, Richard.
Peter.
On Monday 09 July 2007 17:13:07 samwise wrote:
- does the Debian install process still re-boot after installing the
base system? If so, you could try setting the boot parameters to GRUB when it boots by pressing ESC to cancel the timeout, then e to edit the boot commands. Try adding "vga=791" (for 1024x768) to the end of the "kernel" line.
Might be of some use?
Ahah. Finally turned out to I had to set the vga=771 line to stop it from screen corruption which I also found documented on the loader help screen. Got as far as a command prompt now ... which is a good start. :)
Cool. Did you ask it to install any stuff automatically? I normally don't. I also normally don't install the great big, all-you-can-eat kde metapackage either. You can get a list of more subtle kde packages like this:
$ apt-cache search "kde.*meta"
The main ones are: kde-core, kdeadmin, kdenetwork, kdeutils, kdepim
You'll also probably be looking for this some time soon:
http://www.debian-multimedia.org/mirrors.html
You should add the following to your /etc/sources.list:
deb http://mirror.home-dn.net/debian-multimedia stable main deb-src http://mirror.home-dn.net/debian-multimedia stable main
but be aware that these packages have a habit of moving on an almost weekly basis.
You will probably also want to do this:
$ su # cat 1> /usr/sbin/apt-add-key #!/bin/bash gpg --keyserver subkeys.pgp.net --recv $1 && gpg --export --armor $1 | sudo apt-key add - ^D # chmod 750 /usr/sbin/apt-add-key
and then when apt complains at you that it can't find the gpg key for various sources, just get the key id and pass it as an argument to that script:
# apt-add-key 07DC563D1F41B907
Though you probably know all this already.
Have fun!
Cheers, Richard
On 09/07/07, Richard Lewis richardlewis@fastmail.co.uk wrote:
Cool. Did you ask it to install any stuff automatically? I normally don't. I also normally don't install the great big, all-you-can-eat kde metapackage either. You can get a list of more subtle kde packages like this:
$ apt-cache search "kde.*meta"
The main ones are: kde-core, kdeadmin, kdenetwork, kdeutils, kdepim
Hmm ... I've seen this mentioned a few times on the web. Given I'm not excessively short on disk space, why would I not want to install the KDE shebang?
You'll also probably be looking for this some time soon:
http://www.debian-multimedia.org/mirrors.html
You should add the following to your /etc/sources.list:
deb http://mirror.home-dn.net/debian-multimedia stable main deb-src http://mirror.home-dn.net/debian-multimedia stable main
but be aware that these packages have a habit of moving on an almost weekly basis.
You will probably also want to do this:
$ su # cat 1> /usr/sbin/apt-add-key #!/bin/bash gpg --keyserver subkeys.pgp.net --recv $1 && gpg --export --armor $1 | sudo apt-key add - ^D # chmod 750 /usr/sbin/apt-add-key
and then when apt complains at you that it can't find the gpg key for various sources, just get the key id and pass it as an argument to that script:
# apt-add-key 07DC563D1F41B907
Though you probably know all this already.
Have fun!
Thanks Richard!
I've done most of these kinds of things before on other distros but it's very handy to have a debian-specific guide. :) I have to say, so far, I am finding the debian community a bit more fragemented than, say, ubuntu. Still, only just started ... :)
Peter.
-
Richard Lewis -
samwise