LinuxExtras-Debain-6

Posted on March 13, 2011 by asokaplus

I do not procrastinate on the old distributions, I have used. 

I did forget when I started with Debian.

I started in year 2000.

Having gone through my old blog pieces it is moast likely from Debian 6 and now I am waiting for the 13th version.

LinuxExtras-Debain-6

In between World Cup Cricket, my work and students examinations, I found time to install Debian 6.0 KDE CD version, in one of my old IBM computer with 512MB RAM.
Unlike in the good old days new Linux distributions especially the KDE craves on RAM do not ever think of trying it less than 512 RAM and ideally 1 GB is necessary now.

I upgraded to 1GB.
This computer I fiddled with  to add some muscle (but could not find a SCSI hard disk) and it did not boot up (20 GB SCSI and 20 IDE).

I installed latest PCLinux KDE and it took ages to install.
 

The one thing that gives me headache in hard disk detection. 

One distribution does not recognize the nomenclature (a becomes b and b becomes a scenario) of the other distribution and only Debian figure out the architecture and the type of disks.

Sure enough, it did a good job of recognizing two other distributions and partition table was edited correctly since Debian was the one I used the last.

In www.distrowatch.com forum there was so much animosity towards this distribution which follow Free Software principles and for that principle I call it the God Father of Linux (I did not get involved in the flame war).

I now have a special liking for it since for the first time a Sinhala Linux version has come in to being (it can be installed in Sinhala Graphic format) and that is Debian 6.

I went through Sinhala graphic installer and it selected Sri-Lanka as the location, correctly. 

I stopped at that point and installed it in English (my Sinhala computer vocabulary is next to nothing, having brought up in Science and in English) and I could not get Sri-Lanka as a location.
Now Sri-Lanka is reserved for Sinhala only.

This I found strange since we have Tamils and Muslims in this country and many of them do not work in Sinhala.
 

In defense of the Tamils Linux can be installed in Tamil but then they cannot select Sri-Lanka as a the location.

I decided to use Singapore as the location since Singapore uses English as their language operation.
 

I think Debian should allow Tamils and English installers the ability to select the location as Colombo.

This can be corrected after installation but this I found annoying to say the least.

It installs the basic (kernel) system and then let you select the installation type that include laptop and desktop.

Unlike PCLinux installation is fast and user and root passwords are selected in the first time round.

I can understand why many were against its installation mode.
 

It’s partition tool is not in graphic mode and only in writing mode (old habits die hard).
 

All these irritations are not found in Modern Debian Linux.

 

The instructions are clearly written for any sane person to follow.
 

1.Create a partition.
 

2.Format a partition.
 

3. Mount a partition with or without boot flag and the job is done.
The procedure has to be repeated for root, home, var and user partition.
There is nothing more to it.

Another point of importance is that it always assume that you are connected to the internet.

Missing packages can be installed with apt get and there are over 60, 000 to select.

Mind you if you do not understand partitioning it does it automatically for you.
 

Why bother?

Its GRUB automatically select what is to boot and the boot splash is very simple and not graphic intensive.
 

Because it does things in an organized and simple manner once configured it boots and runs program fast unlike other KDE counterparts, say SuSe.

It has no K3B (one of my favorite CD/ DVD writing tool), or OpenOffice (mind you there is a limit to what can be put in a CD with 700 MB).

All these are simple routines to me which I learned 12 years ago without any Guru but by trial and error.

If you want to learn nuts and bolts of Linux one has to use and learn Debian in its write mode.

Mind you best graphic partition tool is gParted and it is Debian based and it is very reliable and even better than that of Knoppix or Puppy.
 

Whatever criticism Debian will outlast all its other distributions since its resource base is over 60,000 and may grow up to 100,000.
 

That is why it had 40 odd CDs and now 8 to 10 DVDs.

One DVD will do the work for you and they are available in 32 and 64 bits.
 

I am currently downloading the first DVD and it will take two solid Sri-Lankan days for the download and I will be back with you soon.