[PLUG] Lycoris NFS?

[Jeff Schwaber]

On Fri, 2003-03-28 at 15:51, Petcher, Danielx J wrote:
> I read an article recently (
> http://www.linuxworld.com/site-stories/2002/1104.barr.html ) about using
> Knoppix as a GUI installer for Debian, but I haven't tried the technique
> yet. (Gotta' finish remodeling the bathroom first.)
> 
> Daniel Petcher
> http://folding.stanford.edu - the brain you save may be your own!

Hello,

I'm new here. Or rather, not there yet--I'm planning on moving to
Portland soon, and thought I'd start reading the local LUG. =)

I have used Knoppix as a GUI installer for Debian in a couple of ways,
and it's fabulously useful. It's been said by various people I've talked
to that you can determine if a machine (and its hardware) will be
supported by Linux by plopping in a Knoppix cd and booting. If it finds
the hardware in question, it's supported. If not, you're going to have a
bitch of a time figuring out how to get the thing working. =)

That said, there's a problem with the using-knoppix-as-a-gui method,
which is that Knoppix's install method installs EVERYTHING. So you end
up with 2 gigs of crap, which if you have the space is great cause you
rarely find you need anything, but if you're a minimalist like me, is
irritating. However, if you want to do that, here's how you do it:

Pop a Knoppix 3.1 cd into the cd drive, and boot to it. If you haven't a
bootable cd, grab their floppy. Once the GUI comes up, you can play with
it and decide if you like it, or you can just go and install it by
switching to the first virtual terminal (ctrl-alt-f1, as I'm sure
everyone knows) and typing knx-hdinstall . It's graphical, but very
barebones. You've got to have 2.2 or so gigs free, and such.

So I moved on to another method: boot knoppix, format the hard drive
that you want to install on, mount it, and run the command debootstrap
(it's usually debootstrap [woody|sid] /mount/point, but I always look it
up anyway in the man pages). This gives you the bare debian installation
with no frills, into which you copy Knoppix's configuration files (X,
network stuff, modules) and Knoppix's kernel, and you have a working
system (With a bit of tweaking). It definitely requires some work
though.

However, I have also installed Just Plain Debian, and I have to say that
it's not really so bad. You don't need to know truly arcane things,
until you get to X configuration. Then Debian requires you to know
Everything And More (EAM, or part of REAM, REALLY Everything And More
=). 

Debian, though, is FABULOUS if you have a) a truly simple graphics card,
like the Matrox MGA/Millennium (I, II), or b) no need for X. 

If you're looking for a user-friendly debian distribution, and knoppix
is too large, you might also consider Xandros. I've been hearing
fabulous things about the install--that it's as good as Knoppix, and
that the install is actually meant for installing).

Jeff

> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: guy1656 [mailto:guy1656 at ados.com]
> > Sent: Friday, March 28, 2003 12:46 PM
> > To: plug at lists.pdxlinux.org
> > Subject: Re: [PLUG] Lycoris NFS?
> > 
> > : On Mar 27 at 7:52pm -0800, guy1656 wrote:
> > :
> > : Just curious - why is Debian not being considered?
> > :
> > : Tyler
> > Because I am a user, not a developer, and I've heard that Debian installs
> > require lots of points where one must know quite a bit, rather expertly
> > and
> > exactly, about the distro, how it works, and/or one must know or have
> > handy
> > lots if exacting and specific info about the hardware.
> > 
> > I don't want to be 1/2 way through this and suddenly find I have to take
> > the
> > guts apart to find out 'How many cylinders are on /dev/hd1?' or some such
> > thing.
> > 
> > I've simply heard that Debian installs are a techno-intensive siege; I'm
> > looking for the slot-a-CD and start a video in the other room, listen for
> > 'BING,'  and your computer is now ready for a few quick NFS how-to-route
> > commands.
> > 
> > If there is a USER-friendly, RTFM-minimized, no-Web-research install of
> > Debian, let me know.
> > 
> > GLL
> 
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