Debian 3.1 Installation Problem

[aditya.shevade]

Hi

I just installed Debian 3.1. Now the problem is rather the question is, how to install the desktop environment? The manual says that it has a K desktop. But I was unable to locate the instructions to install it.

The set contains 2 CDs.

Please help me as you always do.

Aditya Shevade

[kalpik]

2 CD's or 2 DVD's? Debian Sarge stable is 2 DVD's or 14 CD's. Check if you got all of them.

[aditya.shevade]

I got the 2 CD's from a magazine this month. You will know which one I am talking about. There were only 2 CD isos in the DVD. I burnt them on 2 CDs. I installed the OS from disc 1. Now the command line runs fine. WhenI insert the second disc then there an error while booting from the dics,

It says something like 1 FDD 2.88 2 89 MB like this, I will confirm and tell you.

[kalpik]

Hmm.. You must have got a slimmed version of Debian. You boot from CD1 only.. But during installation, it should ask you to insert your CD2, so that it can scan it and install the packages on that disk. Didnt you get such a prompt?

[aditya.shevade]

I got that message. But when I inserted the disc and pressed enter the message reappered saying insert the remaining discs if you have them. After some 10 times I said cancel. Now as I said the CD boed not boot.

Maybe I should try something else.... what about 3 CD version of Mandriva? Or there is a solution for this? I cannot work without a desktop from the beggining. I need it at least at the start.

The computer I am using linux on is 6 years old. Right now I am sending this through knoppix 5.0.1 DVD on my Laptop.

[mehulved]

If your RAM is below 256MB then I suggest you go for some distro that is light. I would prefer Xubuntu.
Or install XFCE or some other windows manager rather than desktop environement like GNOME or KDE.
If you want something easy then you can also look for freespire.

[kalpik]

Frankly speaking, Debian is OLD! I mean i installed Debian, had one look at the interface, and removed it If you are asking for suggestions, i'd say go for Ubuntu. It is based on Debian only, is easy to pick up, and probably has the best support community.

[Pathik]

yup use mandriva 2k6.. Its a gud distro wit gud gui.,i don like the gui of debian nd ubuntu

[mehulved]

Debain is meant to be for someone who needs strong, stable distro with lots of apps. It's not meant for desktop users specifically. Desktop users need cutting edge and slick distros which debian isn't out of the box.

[praka123]

I am sure u can select "desktop" from during nucrses installer,u need to select this using up and down arrows and then press SPACE to confirm.
btw i now uses Debian Etch(Testing) GNU/Linux with GNOME which contains new and updated packages and will be released as stable in coming December.Best O' LUX i found this below link though in other LANG shows the options.and use "base-config" command any time to select and set ur gui.
http://baumbart.homelinux.org/linux/..._aufbauen.html

YES,follow below steps:
http://www.howtoforge.com/book/print/118

debian is superior OS compared to Other Lenux distros which uses other pkg managers..

[aditya.shevade]

@ tech your feature,

Forgive if the spelling of the name is wrong, I have 96MB SD Ram, Intel Celeron @ 500MHz. 128KB cache. I know it's very old, Still is there any thing that will run OK? I am thinking of switching over to Mandriva, Will it run fine?

[JGuru]

@Aditya, you need atleast 128 MB RAM for decent performance of any O.S!!
Recommended RAM for most Linux distros is 256 MB RAM. Also Mandriva is quite
sluggish.So you need atleast 256 MB RAM for Mandriva Linux.
You can try Xubuntu Linux, which is recommended for old hardware.
Get it from here

[mehulved]

As I said before and also recommended by JGuru you can use Xubuntu, which uses XFCE - a lightweight window manager, so it will use less RAM.
Still if you insist on trying Mandriva, install mandriva but use XFCE or whichever window manager it has, instead of KDE.
But, I haven't seen a better looking window Manager(WM) for newbies than XFCE of Xubuntu, well that's just my opinion.

[praka123]

I think you can use DeLi Linux which is best for old/low systems.but contains old kernel+development seems to be halted

http://www.volny.cz/basiclinux/oldpc/

What is DeLi Linux ?

DeLi Linux stands for "Desktop Light" Linux. It is a Linux Distribution for old computers, from 486 to Pentium MMX 166 or so. It's focused on desktop usage. It includes email clients, graphical web browser, an office package with word processor and spreadsheet, and so on. A full install, including XFree and development tools, needs not more than 250 MB of harddisk space.
The trick is, that DeLi Linux uses only "lightweight" alternative software. If you are looking for the newest KDE, GNOME or Mozilla, DeLi Linux will not make you happy. The test computer is a 486 laptop with 16 MB RAM, and all apps which comes with DeLi Linux are running smoothly.

http://www.delilinux.de/#about
better options includes Damn small linux,Puppy Linux, Slax, BeatriX,vector
http://www.digg.com/linux_unix/LINUX...AT_FOR_LAPTOPS

[aditya.shevade]

After reading the req. for mandriva, it's surely not gonna work at 96 mb ram. Now final. I searched for the distro which could run well on this configuration. I found that knoppix 3.2 is very good. I tried the live cd and it works fine, fast without any problem. They have provided some instructions regarding the installation but I am unable to figure out the exact way. Can someone please tell me the step by step procedure? I have started a new thread in open source regarding this question. I have also written the instructions provided in the CD .

[mehulved]

Knoppix 3.2 is very old. Believe me Xubuntu will run fine and even Mandriva with XFCE will be good. What system requirements you saw for Mandriva are for KDE, which is a resource hog. If you go for XFCE, it will run smoothly and you will have a recent distro. Also, Xubuntu is more customised for desktop users, Knoppix is better when it is used as a live cd.

[aditya.shevade]

Ok. I will try Mandriva. I have a 3cd version. 2006. And for Xubuntu, the size is too big to download. I have broadband but the speed is just too slow.

I have installed Knoppix 3.2. Itried Mandrivbut it was too slow. Knoppix runs fine even with KDE. Now I have a LILO question. I have asked in the Knoppix Installation Thread. Someone Please answer that.