pch.shot wrote:A little tip on using your bios to boot into different operating systems and by passing grub altogether.
Install each operating system separately on each hard drive with only one hard drive plugged in at a time.
Once you have all your systems installed hook back up all your hard drives and then use your bios to boot into the operating system of your choice. No more grub errors. It takes a little longer, but is much safer. When you decide to change operating systems just go through the procedure again.
Thats exactly what i did. Although i didnt actually unplug anything. I just went into the bios and disabled the primary ide channel (where my windows drive is) and the sata controller (where my data/storage/backup drive is connected). Then i used my usb hard drive to install debian on. Still gives that darn error2 though. I think i just have a buggy bios. Hitting esc and selecting the usb drive from the bios boot menu allows me to boot fine everytime though so its not too big of a deal. After i finally figured out i could just boot it fine from the bios boot menu it was like "duh...why didnt i think of that before". Before that i had been trying for like 3 days to get it to boot and happened to hit esc one day by mistake (had meant to hit F1 to get into the bios) and just highlighted the usb drive and to my amazement it booted fine. I knew the bios boot menu was there by using the esc key just never thought of trying it that way.
SaddleTramp wrote:drama wrote:SaddleTramp wrote:Well I be ...Different look, but it's the same setup in Jaunty. What you got there is all I need and then I can install the desktop and the setup you show in the pics and I'll be set...yeah, I've got to thumb drives (just bought an 8GB one today)...Thanks drama..I didn't go looking into sid (it's not recommended by anyone unless you're a developer or like living "extremely" on the edge!! LOL... besides the pkgs you're showing in your pic, I know it (Jaunty) also draws info from the 'mobile-broadband-provider-info' pkg...I didn't see that in the 'stable' pkg lists, but that may be in the sid too...when you click on "add" (in Jaunty), a list of providers (alltel, at&t, verizon, etc...) comes up ...
I dont recommend sid as a whole either. I used it once. That lasted a whole 2 weeks before i scrapped it. Way too many bugs for my taste. I do pull packages from there sometimes though when needed. But i mostly stick with testing.
Still working on the network-manager thing. I didnt realize there would be so many deps for what "seems" like a relatively small app. i think im about 3/4 of the way tehre though. Spent a few hours trying to compile it first. EPIC FAIL! Thats all i can say about that one. I know next to squat about building packages from source not to mention the fact that network-manager-applet is supposed to provide a few different packages from what i gathered from the debian source page but it dont do it automatically...only does one. Unless im just plain doin it wrong.
As for that mobile-broadband-provider-info package that isnt in debian anywhere. Im not sure how complicated it really is but that may...and i use the word may very loosely...be something i can compile.
I'm off to catch some sleep though. Ill keep you posted.
...Provider pkg not a problem...
...in your Debian installation in your pics, if you click on add and then see a list of cellphone providers, then the pkg is there, otherwise, Debian is somehow doing it a different way...
I tried adding the ubuntu package and it didnt work. All that happens when hit add is the option for either a new gsm or cdma connection. Its actually more than just mobile-broadband-provider-info that provides that ability though. mobile-broadband-provider-info is the "backend" and then libmbca is the frontend. libmbca is what actually provides the "wizard". Basically like how firestarter is a frontend to iptables. The problem is libmbca has a few dependancies that arent in debian. Not even in sid. libgtk2.0 being one of them. Yes libgtk2.0 is in debian but its like 1 or 2 revisions older than what the requirement is. I suppose could track down the deps for the libgtk2.0 version it requires and just use the libgtk from ubuntu but im not even sure that would work and could very easily break something since that is a rather important package and ubuntu has a habit of making sure the majority of they're packages aren't debian compatable. Yes they originally pull from debian repos but ubuntu packages for the most part are heavily modified from the original debian package. I even tried to compile them against the versions that are in debian but the ubuntu sorce files have no configure file so ./configure doesnt work. There is a configure.ac file but i cant figure out how to use it. I tried ./configure.ac but it didnt do anything.
SaddleTramp wrote:I sincerely appreciate all the work you're going thru to help me figure this out, but I don't mean for you to get yourself a headache about it...it may take me a little longer to get it figured out myself, but I'll eventually get there...at least you've shown me that it is there, just a matter of figuring out which way to get it to install on mine....don't let it hold you up finishing the "How-to"...that's needed more than this connection thing with me...
No headache really. Actually its be sort of a learning experience for me. I learned some of the basics of compiling from source. Although the package didn't work i did learn what the commands are. Before i knew nothing about it. I mean yea ive built the ati driver packages before but that is just a matter of executing the build script. Doesnt involve using ./configure, make, make checkinstall. Learned some aptitude commands i didn't know about mainly the -d switch (downloads the needed packages including deps but dont install them). Learned how to setup a local repo. Learned where aptitude stores the downloaded packages. Learned how to make a "packages.gz" file (basically just and index). I love gaining knowledge but had it not been for this i most likely wouldn't have learned these things as i didn't exactly had a big need for them until now.
As far as the howto its on hold temporarily anyway. As part of it i want to show how to make mysql work with amarok (took the idea from one of thee's guides). But the version of mysql in testing is severly crippled (adding now users fails) and the version from sid fixes it but im waiting for it to be moved to testing (scheduled to be moved friday).
As for the network manager issue. I have found the solution and tested it 3 times (twice in a vm and once in a real environment). However this is what it requires (full instructions below) Downloading a series of files in tar.gz format (named by what they do). They are pre-upgrade, upgrade, xserver, gnome-core, gdm-iceweasel (this one isnt mandatory but i made it anyway), nm-testing and finally nm-unstable. Basically the only way to get it to work properly is to in the end upgrade totally to testing. Each tar.gz basically just has the .debs including deps to preform that step and a Packages.gz file (packages.gz is there so we can just use apt-get). Just under 500mb total that has to be downloaded but the process is perfect. If you want to do it here is the process
First since im not sure what all you had added i would suggest a reinstall. Now this may not be totally nesseccary but i would advise it. That is the only way i can be 99% sure the process with work. You should be able to use dvd1 though since you already grabbed that. But when it get to the step where it asks about installing software deselect DESKTOP. Actually deselect everything but standard.
These are the files you will need:
pre-upgrade Size:100mb
upgrade Size:54mb
xserver Size:53mb
gnome-core Size:190mb
gdm-icewease This one is optional it just contains the gdm packages and deps as well as iceweasel (firefox). Size: 10mb
nm-testing Size:24mb
nm-unstable Size:4mb
Might wanna grab these two as well
All of these except for pre-upgrade and nm-unstable have packages from testing (this is what i run).
Download all of those first in Ultimate Edition. And extract them. Don't extract the individual .debs though. Just the folder (we want to leave the .debs in the original folders). Then put them on a usb stick. I would make a folder named "debian" and place all the extracted folders inside of it, then copy that to the usb stick, so we have debian, and then inside of that we have: pre-upgrade, upgrade, xserver, etc... etc. Also put gnome-system-tools_2.22.1-2_amd64.deb and gnome-network-admin_2.22.1-2_amd64.deb in that debian folder.
Debian has no support for ntfs by default, so i suggest making sure the usb stick is either formatted with fat32 or ext3 (I used fat32).
Now boot the dvd and run it as normal, but only select "standard system".
After the system is installed and boots for the first time, this is what we will do:
Login with your username and pass. Then become root
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su -
Enter the root pass.
Now we will make a few directories and copy over the folders that have our packages in them.
We will be putting our needed folders under /usr/downloads
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mkdir /usr/downloads
Now make a folder to mount our usb stick
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mkdir /mnt/external
Now we will mount our usb stick, but we need to find out where it is
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fdisk -l
Mine was /dev/sdb4
Now we mount it
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mount /dev/sdb4 /mnt/external
Replace "sdb4" with the actual partition/result from fdisk -l
Now we will copy that WHOLE debian folder that has all our sub-folders that we downloaded and extracted earlier
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cp -R /mnt/external/debian /usr/downloads/
This may take a few minutes. When its done you will be dropped back to the command prompt.
We are done with the usb stick so we can unmount it now
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umount /dev/sdb4
Replace "sdb4" with the actual partition.
Now we will add the folders that contain our .debs and package.gz files to our sources.list. But we won't add them all at once. We add the one for the step we are on. First we want to comment out everything though.
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nano /etc/apt/sources.list
Place a # in front of every line. Then save it by pressing ctrl+O (captial O not zero), then hit ctrl+x to exit the editor.
Now we will add the needed line for our pre-upgrade step (these are just packages that are needed prior to upgrading to testing. You may not need these. but its not a bad idea to install them anyway just to be sure its successful (better safe than sorry). To do this we run the following command
Part 1: pre-upgrade- Code: Select all
echo "deb file:/usr/downloads/debian/pre-upgrade ./" >> /etc/apt/sources.list
Now we update the package list
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aptitude update
Now we have to do the install of those packages in 2 steps
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aptitude safe-upgrade
This will install 4 packages An updated kernel is among them.
Then reboot
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shutdown now -r
When the system comes back up, login with your username and pass. then become root
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su -
Then enter the root password.
Now the only way i have found to install the remaining packages is using dpkg (kinda dirty but i cant figure out any other way). This is the only time we need to use dpkg though.
cd to the directory
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cd /usr/downloads/debian/pre-upgrade
Now issue the command to install every .deb in that folder
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dpkg -i *.deb
We use *.deb so we don't have to type the name of every package.
After all those are installed we reboot.
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shutdown now -r
Part 2: upgrade to testingWhen the system comes back up login with your username and pass, then become root
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su -
Then enter the root password.
Now we add the line to our sources.list to preform an upgrade from lenny to testing.
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echo "deb file:/usr/downloads/debian/upgrade ./" >> /etc/apt/sources.list
Now we update the package list
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aptitude update
Now we initiate the upgrade
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aptitude safe-upgrade
After that is done we will reboot
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shutdown now -r
Part 3: install xserverWhen the system comes back up login with your username and pass, then become root
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su -
Then enter the root password.
Now we add the line to our sources.list to install the xserver.
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echo "deb file:/usr/downloads/debian/xserver ./" >> /etc/apt/sources.list
Now we update the package list
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aptitude update
Now we install the xserver
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aptitude install xorg xserver-xorg-core xorg-docs xserver-xorg
After that is done we will reboot
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shutdown now -r
Part 4: install gnome-coreWhen the system comes back up login with your username and pass. then become root
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su -
Then enter the root password.
Now we add the line to our sources.list to install gnome-core (just the core of gnome).
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echo "deb file:/usr/downloads/debian/gnome-core ./" >> /etc/apt/sources.list
Now we update the package list
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aptitude update
Now we install gnome-core
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aptitude install gnome-core
After that is done we will reboot
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shutdown now -r
OPTIONAL Part 5: install gdm and iceweaselWhen the system comes back up login with your username and pass. then become root
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su -
Then enter the root password.
Now we add the line to our sources.list to install gdm and iceweasel
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echo "deb file:/usr/downloads/debian/gdm-iceweasel ./" >> /etc/apt/sources.list
Now we update the package list
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aptitude update
Now we install gdm and iceweasel
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aptitude install gdm iceweasel
After that is done we will reboot
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shutdown now -r
Part 6: install the network monitor and deps from testingNow the reason why we are doing this way (installing nm from testing then from unstable) is so in the end we have pulled as few packages from unstable as possible. We get the majority of the deps from testing.
NOTE: IF YOU INSTALLED PART5 ABOVE, THEN YOU WILL BOOT INTO THE DESKTOP. PRESS CTRL+ALT F1, THIS WILL PUT YOU IN TERMINAL ENTRY. (CONTINUED BELOW)When the system comes back up login with your username and pass. then become root
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su -
Then enter the root password.
NOTE: (CONTINUED FROM ABOVE) NOW WE NEED TO STOP THE XSERVER (GDM). TO DO THIS, TYPE- Code: Select all
/etc/init.d/gdm stop
Now we add the line to our sources.list to install nm from testing
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echo "deb file:/usr/downloads/debian/nm-testing ./" >> /etc/apt/sources.list
Now we update the package list
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aptitude update
Now we install nm from testing
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aptitude install network-manager pcscd wpagui pcmciautils wireless-tools
After that is done we will reboot
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shutdown now -r
Part 7: install the network monitor and remaining deps from unstableWhen the system comes back up login with your username and pass. then become root
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su -
Then enter the root password.
Now the first thing we will do is remove all the previous lines we added to our sources.list (just to make sure they don't interfere)
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nano /etc/apt/sources.list
Comment out EVERYTHING in this file. Now hit ctrl+O (capital o not zero) to save it. Now hit ctrl+x to exit the editor.
Now we add the line to our sources.list to install nm from unstable
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echo "deb file:/usr/downloads/debian/nm-unstable ./" >> /etc/apt/sources.list
Now we update the package list
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aptitude update
Now we install nm from unstable
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apt-get install network-manager pcscd wpagui pcmciautils wireless-tools avahi-autoipd network-manager-pptp-gnome
Note: we use apt-get this time because otherwise aptitude wants to remove some things that were auto installed. It thinks we don't need them. We will fix that later though.After that is done we will reboot
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shutdown now -r
OMITPart 8: fix aptitude thinking it needs to remove crap as mentioned earlierWhen the system comes back up login with your username and pass. then become root
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su -
Then enter the root password.
To fix the issue with aptitude run the following command
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aptitude keep-all
Optional: add gnome-system-tools and gnome-network-adminThese probably aren't mandatory but i added them just in case (also posted above)
Now install them
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cd /usr/downloads/debian
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dpkg -i gnome-system-tools_2.22.1-2_amd64.deb gnome-network-admin_2.22.1-2_amd64.deb
Reboot one final time
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shutdown now -r
Optional final stepsWhen the system comes back up login with your username and pass. then become root
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su -
Then enter the root password.
Setup sudo so you don't have to use su - anymore (u don't need to do this but it makes things easier...remember you cant use gedit as su - but you can as sudo)- Code: Select all
nano /etc/sudoers
You will be presented with a file like this
# /etc/sudoers
#
# This file MUST be edited with the 'visudo' command as root.
#
# See the man page for details on how to write a sudoers file.
#
Defaults env_reset
# Host alias specification
# User alias specification
# Cmnd alias specification
# User privilege specification
root ALL=(ALL) ALL
# Uncomment to allow members of group sudo to not need a password
# (Note that later entries override this, so you might need to move
# it further down)
# %sudo ALL=NOPASSWD: ALL
We want to make it look like this
# /etc/sudoers
#
# This file MUST be edited with the 'visudo' command as root.
#
# See the man page for details on how to write a sudoers file.
#
Defaults env_reset
# Host alias specification
# User alias specification
# Cmnd alias specification
# User privilege specification
root ALL=(ALL) ALL
yourusername ALL=(ALL) ALL
# Uncomment to allow members of group sudo to not need a password
# (Note that later entries override this, so you might need to move
# it further down)
# %sudo ALL=NOPASSWD: ALL
Look at the part in
REDOf course replacing "yourusername" with your actual username. Then add a space below it. Now save it by pressing ctrl+O and exit the editor by pressing ctrl+x.
Then run the exit command to get back to a standard user
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exit
Optional stepNow the network-manager should be up in the notification area but just in case it isn't this is what i would do. First check system--->preferences--->sessions
Make sure the network manager is listed. If it isnt add it. This is the command to use in sessions when adding it
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nm-applet --sm-disable
If it is listed then launch it using the command in the terminal
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sudo nm-applet --sm-disable
After issuing that command it should pop up there. If you ever notice a red x over it that doesn't necessarily mean you have no connection. For some reason it doesn't always show the correct "state".
That is the best i can do for you. As far as actually setting up the connection for your wireless i really cant help there. Ive only ever used a wired connection.
If you have any problems with this little guide let me know. The process isnt as long as it looks though. Takes about 20-30 mins from basic command line system to finished.
PS: Before i forget. After you have a network connection this is what you need to make your sources.list look like