Newbie's Debian Road
This is a stepped summary about my working environment 'debian etch'. I don't want just play with the OS, and I hate hard working, so the linux distributor I chosed must be stable ,easyly understood and simple configured. Based on those clauses, 'debian' is the best suit, except its uglily name. After 3 weeks' testing on my old hard disk, I thought "hmm, IT is!". Now I'm formal accept myself using this as my main OS. Followed is the tips I soloved by google, list here for reference.
1. How many CD disks do I need download from Internet?
A: Just 1 is enough, except you don't wanna access the Internet again or you must wasting you life/money on doing this or you'll be another distributer.
2. I have a win-USB-ADSL modem, can I access the Internet using this at debian(etch)?
A: Yeah, if you got 3 things : a) the firmware about your adsl, called 'cxacru-fw.bin' and b) a package named 'br2684ctl' . c) a package named 'pppoe' .The first one is get from your win-modem's driver disk and using some software to transform it as linux firmware, and put it in '/lib/firmware', then linux can driver it. The next one can be get from internet two. after install br2684ctl, you can using this command to create a virtual adapt 'nas0' :
#br2684ctl -b -c 0 -a -0.yourVCI.VPI
#ifconfig nas0 up
then
#pppoeconf
will call up a graphic wizard to guide your input the username and password your ISP giving you, and create a dial-up configure file called 'dsl-provider'(default), next time you can using
#pon dsl-provider
to connect the internet.Disconnect using
#poff
3. How to show east asian characters , input chinese/japanese/korean, using MS truetype font like SimSon, Yahei...,
A: l18n support not only ASCII code but a widen character sets. Here is my way to show the character correctly:
#apt-get install xfonts-intl-chinese xfonts-intl-chinese-big
maybe the way as above is not really needed, it just install some fonts to support chinese and chinese(T),you can try without that step, but as follow is a *must*:
#dpkg-reconfigure locales
It'll open up a graphic wizard allowed you to set the locales, check the en_US.UTF-8, zh_CN GB2312...as your wish debian to support, and allowed you to set your default language for menu represent either. By doing this step, logout/login again to make sure it works.
For input chinese and others, you need install a software called 'scim' , using Synaptic to search, install language input method (pinyin, Anthy(for japanese)..etc). Remember , also install a little software 'im-switch'. Then:
#im-switch -c scim
The scim input method will works next time you login.
The truetype fonts can install as this way:
#cp xxx.ttf /usr/share/fonts/truetype/YouCreateFold/
and
#fc-cache -fv
to update fonts list.The command
$fc-list
can show all your fonts in debian.
4. How to install nVidia driver :: The nVidia-debian Rules
A: The web site page:
http://wiki.debian.org/NvidiaGraphicsDrivers
has alll details about that. here is my successed steps:
#apt-get install module-assistant gcc nvidia-kernel-common
#m-a update
#m-a prepare
#m-a auto-install nvidia
#apt-get install nvidia-glx
# dpkg-reconfigure xserver-xorg
//with the graphic wizard, select nvidia ->uncheck dri(GLCore if it exist) and check glx
Also install nvidia-setting can make configure your graphic card more easy.
5. How to install Java 6.0 and Netbeans?
A: Those two can get from the unstable source. However, mixed software source may cause danguages problem. So, the solution is set the APT-PIN. This way, you can get what you want and make other software update mechanism untouched.
http://www.weiqigao.com/blog/2007/11/04/getting_sun_java_6_on_debian_4_0_with_apt_pinning.html
describe morer about why to do this, follow is just my steps:
a) Add this to /etc/apt/sources.list
### unstable ###
deb http://debian.cn99.com/debian/ unstable main non-free contrib
This source is faster than others in main land China.
b)Add a line to /etc/apt/apt.conf.d/70debconf:
// Pre-configure all packages with debconf before they are installed.
// If you don't like it, comment it out.
DPkg::Pre-Install-Pkgs {"/usr/sbin/dpkg-preconfigure --apt || true";};
//Here we added!
APT::Cache-Limit "100000000";
c)add a file called 'preferences' in /etc/apt/ if not exist, and edit it.
#nano /etc/apt/preferences
Package: *
Pin: release a=stable
Pin-Priority: 700
Package: *
Pin: release a=unstable
Pin-Priority: 600
d)install a package called 'feta' for install Java & Netbeans
#apt-get install feta
e)Run apt-get update
#apt-get update
#feta update
f)download java-doc from sun's website (java6-doc.zip) and put it in /tmp for automate install java-doc purpose then type:
#feta install sun-java6*
#feta install netbeans-ide netbeans-platform
NOTE: If you prefer to eclipse (3.2 in debian stable), one thing is needed: Edit eclipse's 'java_home' file in /etc/eclipse/
#nano /etc/eclipse/java_home
and add
/usr/lib/jvm/java-6-sun
to the top of it.
6. About the start system servers' configuration, how to find/set it?
A: All servers start scripts in debian is in the /etc/rc*d folds. If you don't want it run at start time, just change it's name start with 'S' to 'K'. A more easy way to done this is using a script called 'sysv-rc-conf'
#apt-get install sysv-rc-conf
#sysv-rc-conf
You'll get a GUI to configure it.
7.How to make my USB2.0-storage works on a USB 1.1 port?
A: When your plug-in a 2.0 device in a 1.1 port, a lot of error messager will report to log file. This thing will same happen in windows platform, but it just remind you 'This thing can run faster if..." and still works fine. But now we must face this problems on debian. Simple way to fix it up is using command:
#modprobe -r ehci_hcd
to remove the moudule on run time. I know it's not a good solution, any suggestion?
8.How to write/read NTFS & how to read UDF cd/dvd rom?
A: The first is easy when you get a package called 'ntfs-3g'.But if you try to install it by Synaptic, it'll remind you 'can't install it cause it's very new....'
Here is the steps!
a)add this source to sources.list:
### Debian Backports ####
deb http://www.backports.org/debian etch-backports main contrib non-free
b)edit the 'preferences', a lower pin priority is needed:
#nano /etc/apt/preferences
Package: *
Pin: release a=sarge-backports
Pin-Priority: 200
c)get the key ring:
#apt-get install debian-backports-keyring
d)install ntfs-3g
#apt-get -t etch-backports install ntfs-3g
This way, you can work around Synaptic forbidden warning and get what you wanted.Also works fine on install 'pidgin'( a msn/google talk/others IM.)
e)When ntfs-3g is installed, it also have added a user named 'fuser'. If you don't want NTFS must be mounted by root, you can add your user account in its group.By 'user and group' shiped with gnome works fine on this.
Usage:
$ntfs-3g /source /target
The UDF cd/dvd rom problem can soloved by edit /etc/fstab:
#nano /etc/fstab
and edit the cd/dvd rom's line, just added type 'ro'. For instance:
/dev/hdd /media/cdrom0 udf,iso9660 user,noauto 0 0
to
/dev/hdd /media/cdrom0 udf,iso9660 user,ro,noauto 0 0
9.How to install a 'rpm' package?
A: A package alien can do this. Use 'alien -cv xxx' to change it to 'deb'.
10.How to play divx/dvd/mp3/rmvb/many other codes' media files?
A: Add this source:
### MPlayer ###
deb http://www.debian-multimedia.org stable main
more information can get from www.debian-multimedia.org.
HAVE FUN!