Where's Apt?
I recently received an E-mail from this mailing list in response to a question about installing netscape. It was suggested that I make changes to: /etc/apt/sources.list It seems that this file does not exist on my system. Moreover I can't seem to find anything to do with apt. Could someone say a little about where I could get this program. I have been using dselect with a cd-dom that I bought, and I tried to use it to find apt but I've had no joy. Does someone know any good sources of info viz the usage of apt. T.I.A. T:Irvine
Netscapeagain
I recently installed netscape 4.6 from a public ftp site. I followed the instructions given and tried to use netscape after starting X window, by typing 'netscape' in an xterm window. The following error was printed: netscape: can't load library 'libXt.so.6' Can anyone help me to get netscape working/to get netscape to load this library. Thanx T:irvine
Matrox MGA-G100 and upgrading X ...
I recently installed debian alongside Win95 on a computer I've had just under a year. I thought I'd install the X window server today, but it seems that the version of X that came with my debian cd does not support my videocard (Matrox MGA-G100). I had a look at deja.com and found the following and lots of similar info: You should get the latest xfree86 3.3.3.1 updates. I had the same problem and this update made the card work under X. Make sure you get the xfree86 itself, the xfree86-libs, xfree86Setup and/or latest Xconfigurator, and the SVGA server. Good Luck. I am quite inexperienced and wondered if anyone tell me how I would go about acquiring this software, and what I would need to do with it once I'd acquired it. I realise that some work on my part is required and I would be happy if someone would point me in the direction of some source of information that I could read; in relation to acquiring software and installing it. Also I was wondering what command I need to give inorder to find out which version of X I was infact running. T:irvine
repartitioning Windows
Hello, I have a question about partitioning. I recently bought a computer with a 6.4gb harddisk. At the moment it has 4 partitions: 3 x 2gb and one 0.4gb. I want to use the last 2 partitions to (2gb + 0.4gb) to install Linux. Since buying this computer I have not installed anything nor created any files in these last two partitions. Nonetheless, they contain some files and programs (listed below). I suppose my question is this: How important are these files? Can I safely delete them (whilst using fdisk - linux version)? Or do I need to move them to some other directory before using another program to create one partition from these two? Are there any hidden files that I need to worry about? Partitions and their files. Partition E: Recycled ffastun.ffa ffastun.ffl ffastun.ffo ffastun0.ffx Partition F: Recycled ffastun.ffa ffastun.ffl ffastun.ffo ffastun0.ffx Thanks Irvine
Finnish Text
When I installed debian-linux I choose the Finnish keyboard option. I since used kbdconfig to experiment with fi, fi-latin1 and sunt5-fi-latin1. The first two give me a finnish keyboard but without å,ä,ö or their upercase equivalents. The last one ,sunt5-fi-latin1' , messes my keyboard completely. My problem I want to be to use these characters from the command line and with the vi editor.
Thanx (Re: EMERGENCY 'umount /')
Thank you for your E-mail. I have discovered the root(excuse the pun) of my problem. I was using the rescue disk instead of the boot disk. To cut a long story everything worked fine with the boot disk. I typed: 'linux init=/bin/sh' at the boot prompt and once instead bash I typed: 'mount / -n -o remount,rw' However this does raise the question in my mind about the exact purpose of the rescue disk. I naturally assumed that I should use it when I couldn't get into my system. Something else to investigate I suppose. ThanX again. T:per_adua32
EMERGENCY 'umount /'
Hello!!! I have a problem. Whilst trying to change the keyboard mapping my system got very messed up. I ran kbdconfig, choose sunt5-fi-something and that was that. First there was total confusion on my keyboard, the spacebar ,for instance, printed r when I pressed it and R when I pressed pause and spacebar at the same time. Then the system froze and I was forced to switch the computer off and then on again. My most immediate problem is getting into my system at all, so that I can find some way of fixing this problem. When I tried to boot normally I couldn't login because the keyboard was stil messed up. So I decided to try the rescue disk. After booting with linux-init=/bin/sh I was dropped into bash. I then tried to unmount the root filesystem so that I could mount it again as read/write. However, when I entered the command umount / I got some message like can't open mtab: file doesn't exist or something like this. Can someone please. I would to solve this without having to re-install the whole system. Thanx in advance. T:Irvine
booting dos and linux
Hello!!! I intend to add a dos partition to my hardisk. Can anyone give me any advice about what installation options I should choose so that I could boot dos by default (my kids want to play when I'm at work) and Linux optionally. Or would I need to edit the liloconfig file after installation. Any help much appreciated. T:per_adua32
re:Asking for information
If you go to the debian web site you will find some useful tutorials, some aimed specifically at debian users. http://www.debian.org/doc/ The following has a section on File permissions and using chmod and much much more. http://www.debian.org/~hp/debian-tutorial.html
The mysterious '2 '
A while back I noticed that there was a number 2 in some of my directories. Initially my first reaction was to delete them as I had not created them. Even this took a while as they were actually named 2space ie '2 ', which was not obvious to me. Last week I discovered some more of these files and decided to look inside one. I used 'file' and discovered that they were text files. I used 'cat' and the following was displayed: /usr/bin/updatedb: /var/lib/locate/locatedb.n: Permission denied find:/etc/ppp:Permission denied find:/etc/chatscripts:Permission denied find:/root:Permission denied find:/bin/secure-su:Permission denied updated: new database would be empty As I write this E-mail I seem only now to notice what the contents of the file actually mean. I hope I am wrong. I am a home user and the only network I'm connected to is the internet, and I haven't used this for a month or two as I intended to change my isp. Can anyone throw any light this situation. T: per_adua32
The mysterious '2 '
Thanx to olly, when he mentionned a possible mistake to do with redirection I pretty much guessed what that the problem was. In the file /etc/profile I have an alias that runs the following command: alias upD.='updatedb --prunepaths=/var /cdrom /tmp /proc /mnt /dev/null 12 \' This particular alias is I think OK, but I noticed that when I modified it slightly (by taking the '' away) and called it from a normal user account it produced the file '2 ' and the text I found so worrying. No doubt I ran the alias in the past when it wasn't correctly written. T: per_adua32
modem/pppconfig after dselect
I have a problem but I don't know exactly where. I installed the base system and used pppconfig to configure my connection to my isp. It worked fine. Then I used dselect to install the standard package plus a few other things. After that I could not connect to my isp. I started the installation again but this time I didn't use pppconfig with the base package. I tested the modem with echo ATDT myISPnumber /dev/ttyS2 and all worked fine. I proceeded to install the standard package again and after that tested the modem again. And again it worked fine. Then I used pppconfig and once again I couldn't connect to my ISP and the modem didn't seem to function using the test above. Could someone help ? ? ?
Re: modem/pppconfig after dselect
Thank you for replying to my posting. As I said in the letter the problems only started after I installed the standard package 'plus' (the plus being midnight commander and a game called luxman). I then tested the modem and it worked fine. Then I used pppconfig and the modem ... I won't repeat myself. Here's the rest of info you requested: /etc/ppp/peers/provider noauth connect /usr/sbin/chat -v -f /etc/chatscripts/provider defaultroute /dev/modem 38400 persist /etc/chatscripts/provider ABORT BUSY ABORT NO CARRIER ABORT VOICE ABORT NO DIALTONE ATDTedit phone number here ogin put login name here word \gput password here /etc/ppp/pap-secrets * molec3 * guest molec3 * - master molec3 * - root molec3 * - support molec3 * - statsmolec3 * - molec3 * password irvine * plog Jan 31 19:24:08debian chat[20480]: abort on (VOICE) Jan 31 19:24:08debian chat[20480]: abort on (NO DIALTONE) Jan 31 19:24:08debian chat[20480]: abort on (NO ANSWER) Jan 31 19:24:08debian chat[20480]: send (ATZ^M) Jan 31 19:24:09debian chat[20480]: expect (OK) Jan 31 19:24:27debian chat[20480]: ^M Jan 31 19:24:54debian chat[20480]: alarm Jan 31 19:24:54debian chat[20479]: Connect script failed Jan 31 19:24:58debian chat[20479]: Exit. I also thought I'd include the results of ps which amongst other things shows the following just after I try to connect: pid tty stattimecommand ...S2 S 0:00/usr/sbin/pppd call dlc ... S2 S 0:00/usr/sbin/chat -v -f /etc/chatscripts/dlc Thanks again for your reply. I hope you can help me. It's evening here in Finland and I will soon be going to work so if you write I have to wait until the morning before I can reply. Cheers Again !!! per_adua32
Dselect ...Finnish keyboard
Good Day (or night) everyone, I recently installed the base system of Debian, and intend soon to use Dselect to install the standard installation. Question 1: I read Debian User's Guide Edition 2 and therein it is said that after one has selected the packages one wishes to install it may be necessary to run the installation step over again until all the packages are installed. I wonder if someone could tell me how I would know whether or not all the packages had been installed. In other words how do I know when to re-run this section of Dselect and how many times to re-run it. Would I need to keep referring to /var/lib/dpkg or what ? Question 2: I live in Finland and have tried to map my keyboard to 'fi-latin1', using kbdconfig. It works pretty much as it should but it doesn't allow me to type the following characters: ä, Ä, ö, Ö, å, Å I have tried using the alt key and their ascii numbers but to no avail. Can anyone help. Thanks for your assistance. Per_adua32. Hei kaikki suomalaiset ! ! !
Emergency use of boot-rescue disk.
I came home from work looking forward to a few hours playing with my Linux box, but unfortunately am unable to log on. I thought about re-installing the base system (which doesn't take long) but I decided to ask for help instead. I have the rescue disk and a bootdisk but don't really know what to do with them. I looked some old copies of the Linux gazette and found the following: % If you have forgotten your root password: %1. Use a boot disk. %2. Login as root. %3. Mount the partition with your Linux. %4. Edit the second field, which is the encrypted password, of % /etc/passwd to show nothing. It would look something like this: % % root::0:0:root,,,:/:/bin/zsh % instead of something like this: % % wimpy:GoqTFXl3f:0:0:Steve:/root:/bin/zsh % % You should then be able to login as root with no password at all. Problem is I don't understand one logs in as root without a password. Can someone please help.
installing cd-rom device driver
Hello All, I am attempting to install Debian Linux and have got stuck.Before I began I read the installation F.A.Q.But it's section on installing the device drivers is extremly small. My problem started in the install device driver section: CD-ROM: I choose : cd-rom common routines for cd-rom drivers . On pressing enter I was greeted with the following: parameter documentation for this module is unavaible I pressed enter and was greeted with a page asking me to: Enter command line arguments for the cd-rom. Can anyone help me? I would like to know which arguments are being requested and where I should find the information. Thanx ! ! !
