[PLUG] Debian experts?

[Michael M.]

On Tue, 2007-02-20 at 22:30 -0700, Carlos Konstanski wrote:
> > But doesn't the netinst CD image require me to be connected to the
> > internet during the install? Surely that image is way too small to
> > contain the whole OS. How long will it take me to install over the
> > internet when my connection during the day sometimes drops to well
> > below 100K/s? Add the fact that the server I am downloading from may be
> > popular and not well supplied with bandwidth due to funding issues.
> >
> > Those are the reasons I decided I wanted to download the full image,
> > which I can do overnight. Not only will the bandwidth be much better,
> > but if it takes all night I don't care. I'll be asleep, dreaming of the
> > joys of running Debian.
> >
> > But thanks for pointing out that I want amd64. My main experience with
> > distros is Ubuntu, and they have just one 64-bit image that works for
> > either Intel or AMD 64-bit CPUs. I didn't realize other distros made a
> > distinction.
> >
> > I tried to find the image for amd64 on the Debian site. The DVD link
> > was empty. The CD link had 22 CD images, about 14 GB in all. So I went
> > back to the OSU ftp directory and searched all over without finding
> > anything that looked like a CD or DVD iso image of Etch.
> >
> > Maybe I should just wait until Etch goes gold.
> 
< <snippage>
> I'm accustomed to gentoo; a slow install in my book is one that takes
> more than 4 days).  A proper debian install is minimal anyway - you
> are not downloading a whole lot.  The sources.list file you get at
> install time is spartan; you won't even be able to get much cool stuff
> until you replace it with your favorite sources.  You'll spend a lot
> more time in apt-get later than during the install.  Plus there's the
> up-to-date-ness factor.  Netinst will get you the latest packages.  If
> you use an even slightly out-of-date bloater CD, how many of those
> packages are you going to reinstall right out of the chute, as soon as
> you do your first "apt-get dist-upgrade"?


Carlos is right -- if you were to download a dated full CD or DVD image
and install a lot of packages from it, you'd have a lot of updating to
do, which would be painful over a slow connection.  The fastest way to
go is download a netinst .iso and do a minimal installation (no xorg, no
DEs or WMs).  Downloading packages won't take very long at all, because
you're only downloading a relatively small number.  Configure, reboot,
then start adding packages as needed.  The problem with choosing
"Desktop Environment" from the installer is that it downloads both KDE
and Gnome.  That takes quite a while, even with a fast broadband, and
it's probably more than you want.

Once you've rebooted, fire up aptitude and look at the "Tasks" options.
>From there you can select *either* Gnome *or* KDE (or XFCE), if you want
a full desktop environment.  It takes much less time to download one or
the other than it does to download both.

Or, even better, issue one of:

~$ aptitude install xorg gnome-desktop-environment
~$ aptitude install xorg kde
~$ aptitude install xorg xfce4

If you don't want a DE, you can just install xorg and whatever window
manager strikes your fancy.  (You probably also want a terminal, like
xterm or aterm, not to mention a graphical web browser.  The minimal
install includes w3m.)  That will be fairly quick.  It has taken me
roughly 45 minutes to download xorg & gnome-desktop-environment at about
160kB/s.  Obviously, just downloading xorg & [flux/open/black]box or
icewm, plus a terminal, graphical web browser, and assorted apps will be
faster.

I'm not sure what you mean about the server being popular.  I just use
the generic "deb http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian/ etch main non-free
contrib" in my sources.list and I always get a fast mirror -- that is,
one that maxes out my download capacity.  Security downloads are equally
as fast.

The "amd64" image is for 64-bit Intel and AMD CPUs.  There's no separate
image for Intel.  Debian calls it "amd64" because AMD was first to
market with 64-bit.  (Debian also call the 32-bit installer "i386" even
though it runs on AMD 32-bit CPUs.)  Some distros refer to the
architecture as "x86_64," but it's all the same.  Personally, I think
the "x86_64" moniker is kind of a slight to AMD.  After all, "x86"
orginally denoted processors developed by Intel.  So AMD comes along and
develops a 64-bit extension, and Intel's terminology sticks?  Not fair.

But I don't loose any sleep over the issue.  :-)


-- 
Michael M. ++ Portland, OR ++ USA
"No live organism can continue for long to exist sanely under conditions
of absolute reality; even larks and katydids are supposed, by some, to
dream." --S. Jackson