On 7/25/12, Bret Busby <b...@busby.net> wrote: > On Wed, 25 Jul 2012, Joel Rees wrote: > >> >> On 7/23/12, Bret Busby <b...@busby.net> wrote: >>> [...] >>> >>> One of the reasons that I wanted to be able to log in as root, is to >>> perform an update on that system. >>> >>> The system is running Firestarter on Debian 5. >>> >>> However, another problem has arisen, that indicates that that system >>> apparently cannot be updated, and has to stay as it is, without having >>> been updated for about a year or so, which is unfortunate for a >>> firewall computer. >> >> I've had fun with openBSD, and their firewall is pretty good. Have you >> looked at that? >> >> (Sorry if that's not an appropriate suggestion.) >> > > Actually... > > From research that I had previously done, the simplest option (for me, > being a fairly simple kind of person) appeared to be PC-BSD > (http://www.pcbsd.org/). PC-BSD 8.x had only a KDE GUI (from memory), > and I am, a GNOME GUI user (from memory, one of the aspects of KDE, is > that it is supposed to be much more resource-demanding, but I could be > wrong).
I have generally had the opposite impression, using both. Especially now, since gnome's newest stuff won't even give my hardware a friendly smile these days. Personally, I'm using XFCE for my regular desktop. > So, I waited until PC-BSD 9 was released, which came with a > GNOME GUI (not sure, now, but I think a user could choose which GUI, in > the installation procedure, in PC-BSD 9). So, after a bit of messing > around, I installed PC-BSD 9 on the HP/Compa NX-5000. You might want to look at XFCE. It's much less resource-intensive. I'm sure it's available on pc-bsd. Also an option in debian, but it does take a bit more setup than either Gnome or KDE. > But, it does not > seem to include a "multi-boot loader" (? - not sure whether that is the > correct name for the utility), such as GRUB, and, when I rebooted, the > installation, while it still exists, could not be found by the installed > GRUB (installed with Debian 6). Heh. Not a good time to be having problems with multi-boot. Leviathan is against it, want you to use VMs buried in their OS. Playing games with the BIOS, as if the BIOS weren't enough of a mess already. > I had queried this problem, on both > this mailing list, and, the PC-BSD equivalent mailing list, but got > nowhere, so gave up on it. openbsd's installation notes mention the old standby of just changing the partition flagged for boot: http://www.openbsd.org/faq/faq4.html#Multibooting -- the sub-paragraph, "Setting active partitions". Have you tried that? > So, now, on that little laptop, I have (as > previously mentioned in this thread) Debian 5 and Debian 6, and, an > invisible (as GRUB can't see it) installation of PC-BSD 9. PC-BSD 9, > whilst having been designed to be a workstation implementation of BSD, > has now, I believe, released in a version able to be installed as a > server. But, as I can not resolve the GRUB issue, I am not confident in > attempting further installation of BSD. And, from what I had read, and > the research that I had done, PC-BSD was supposed to be the simplest > version of BSD, to install and operate. Depending on your definition of simple. If you can handle burning a bootable install CD and walking through text-mode menus when the install CD boots up, openbsd is actually quite easy to get installed and booted to the command line. You do have to be willing to use command line tools to at least install the GUI stuff and tweak the configuration a bit, but I generally find myself mucking with the GUI tools in Debian or Fedora about as much as I'd be mucking with the command line tools in openbsd. (I do use the man -k option a lot, or the alias, "apropos", which works on a lot of systems.) Can't get pc-bsd's wiki up in my browser right now, but, last time I looked, it didn't seem that much easier than openbsd. Never actually tried pc-bsd, so I can't really say. > So, BSD is all too difficult for > me. Just out of interest, the first UNIX or UNIX equivalent, that I have > used, was BSD 4.2, running on a VAX 11-785, in about 1979 or > thereabouts, I believe; before GUI's. Yeah, your memories of those days may get in the way, even with the modern BSDs. >>> I have a Samsung MFP printer thing; a CLX-3185FW, and I had been able to >>> use it with a Debian 5 system that I had been using. Then, the Debian 5 >>> system went awry (a separate system from the firewall system), and >>> became apparently unusable. >>> >>> So, I installed Debian 6 on another computer (this computer), and have >>> been using that on this system, for the past few or several months. >>> >>> But I was unable to install the drivers for the printer, on the Debian 6 >>> workstation. >>> >>> I have now been advised by Samsung, that the CLX-3185FW works with >>> Debian 3.x through 5.x, but does not work with Debian. >> >> In many cases with CUPS, you can find a printer that is similar and >> use the drivers/printer descriptors for that one instead. That's what >> I'm doing with an EPSON all-in-one that I bought nearly ten years ago. >> >> (Again, apologies if that's something you've already looked at.) >> > > From memory, a similar printer driver does not exist in > CUPS. Looking at Samsung's pages, they say the scanner is compatible with twain, so you should be able to take a scan from it okay. It says it used a universal printer driver for the MSWindows environment, so if you check other printers that worked (in MSWindows) with that driver and load the CUPS drivers/printer description for one of those other printers, it might work reasonably well. (Or it might pass blank sheets through or something for combinations that don't work.) There's a bit of hit-and-miss, but it only took me three tries with my Epson. You may also be able to get a match on the CUPS drivers by finding out what Samsung called the printer engine (hardware). -- Joel Rees -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org Archive: http://lists.debian.org/caar43iotwwpkj0agtpyykwq5xosnff4pelp802ymshynkxa...@mail.gmail.com
