Just some help with Debian...

[TheSmokingGNU]

I have an old iMac g3 with a 500mhz processor... etc. I don't really need to get into the details, cause lenny installed just fine. I am trying to get the gui among other things, and have downloaded all the package files and burned them to a cd. How do I install from a cd in command line?
I can't connect to the internet with it, otherwise this would have been a lot easier.
Thanks in advance for the help!

[nadir]

apt-cdrom add cdrom
as root.

[Bro.Tiag]

Welcome to debian & the forums.

I have an old iMac g3 with a 500mhz processor... etc. I don't really need to get into the details, cause lenny installed just fine. I am trying to get the gui among other things, and have downloaded all the package files and burned them to a cd. How do I install from a cd in command line?
I can't connect to the internet with it, otherwise this would have been a lot easier.
Thanks in advance for the help!

Good job on installing to your iMac, btw. When you say that you have;

and have downloaded all the package files and burned them to a cd.

do you mean that you downloaded just the debian.deb's of what you want toinstall or did you download the whole set of Debian 5.0 install cd's (all 31 and/or just a few)?

Cheers

[TheSmokingGNU]

rather, I just found out through some browsing of the interwebs that even if you burn all the packages (the .tar.gz files of what I wanted for packages btw) onto a cd, it won't necessarily install. I tried apt-cdrom add, and it just says perhaps this is not a debian disc. So yeah, what should I do?
I can mount the cd, and it has a whole bunch of "package.gz" files on it (such as abiword, xorg, etc) but I can't/don't know how to install from it.
I mainly use Ubuntu and Mint for my normal Linux fix, so Debian is a little more advanced than I thought it would be (I hate CLI installs). Anyway, thanks in advance!

[Absent Minded]

If you use apt-move to create the proper file structor ad packages files then you can burn the to disk and it will work corectly.

[nadir]

edit: missed AbsentMinded's post, might be that is one of the better options i mention below. i for one don't know it. end edit.

i misunderstood you once, so i take my chance to misunderstand you for a second time.
basically you need to unpack it and then install it with dpkg -i
unpack is
tar -xzf for files which end *tar.gz
tar -xjf for files which end *tar.bz2
tar -xvvf for files which end *.tar
gunzip -d for files which end with *.gz (similar for bz2)

once its unpacked and it has got an ending with .deb you may install it with:
dpkg -i package_name.deb
bad news : if it misses dependencies you need to do just the same for them (download, unpack, install).
might be there are better ways, i seldom do it that way.

if it doesnt contain an ending with .deb it should contain a file called README or INSTALL. this will tell you what to do.

hopefully i'm not wrong with the commands/options, else you need to check the man-pages or try. at minimum its very similar.

[nadir]

as an example this site tells you the dependencies of abiword
http://packages.debian.org/lenny/abiword
usually a lot of it is already installed.
you will find the site by navigating here:
http://www.debian.org/distrib/packages
and entering the package you are looking for. another site opens
http://packages.debian.org/search?keywo ... ection=all
and you click on the blue lenny-stable (for example).

downloading the debian-cd's or dvd's should be more easy. imo.

[TheSmokingGNU]

alright, well, apparently my system didn't come with tar-xzf capabilities, or if it did, I just don't understand how to use them. Is there an easier way? For instance, on my pc that I am currently typing on, I have linux mint and win xp dual booted (atm I am in xp) and I know how to let other computers use this one as a gateway for internet access. That's simple. How do I configure lenny for networking through ethernet to be able to do that? or, failing that, I have a usb wireless card that I could use, if I knew how to configure that. That'd make things so much easier, cause I could just apt-get away. Any help there?
Thanks again!

[Bro.Tiag]

rather, I just found out through some browsing of the interwebs that even if you burn all the packages (the .tar.gz files of what I wanted for packages btw) onto a cd, it won't necessarily install. I tried apt-cdrom add, and it just says perhaps this is not a debian disc. So yeah, what should I do?
I can mount the cd, and it has a whole bunch of "package.gz" files on it (such as abiword, xorg, etc) but I can't/don't know how to install from it.
I mainly use Ubuntu and Mint for my normal Linux fix, so Debian is a little more advanced than I thought it would be (I hate CLI installs). Anyway, thanks in advance!

Well seing how you downloaded source files (ie. tarballs) and not binary's (*.deb's) dpkg (the back end of apt) you would need to build each application indivually. First you will have to build any dependencies for said applications. So, provided you managed to get the tools needed to build applications, you first need to untar an application tarball, then read the README & INSTALL files. That should get you started.

Oh, welcome to the Big Leagues, learn to like the cli. Embrace the cli. Love the cli. Be The CLI!

Cheers

[TheSmokingGNU]

I used to be the cli, back in college, when I was still using things like debian on a regular basis. Now I have gone back to sissy mode, and use ubuntu and the like. There are two things to remember about me at the moment though:
1. It is saturday. My brain doesn't work on saturday, no matter how hard I try to get it to. It's in the union regulations or something.
2. I have dabbled with many different forms of linux, but only dipped deep enough to install once and call it good. I used debian before, but... not on a powerpc, and the minimal install that is given for that is quite a daunting thing for a noob to overcome.

Anyway, Is there a way to get my interwebs working? cause that would be good.
thanks!

[nadir]

something like that into /etc/network/interfaces with nano (the cli-editor of choice):
address 192.168.1.42
netmask 255.255.255.0
gateway 192.168.1.1
the nameservers into /etc/resolv.conf
/etc/init.d/networking restart

??? i dont know, but thats what i would do first.

hard to believe you ain't got tar. but who knows.

[TheSmokingGNU]

alright, so this is what I typed:

first off, I did a:
nano -w /etc/resolv.conf

when in there, I put:

address 192.168.0.99
netmask 255.255.255.0
gateway 192.168.0.1
nameserver 205.171.3.65

then after saving, I did:

nano -w /etc/network/interfaces

then I put:

auto lo
iface lo inet loopback
auto eth0
iface eth0 inet dhcp

then saved, then:

/etc/init.d/networking restart

it then proceeded to loop a dhcp, cause my lan connection wasn't enabled on my pc. if I enable it, however, for some reason, my pc doesn't like my wireless card to run. So I will post this, try it out, and then post again if it didn't work. Is this all good?
thanks!

[TheSmokingGNU]

so, it turns out that made it worse somehow, cause I didn't have any internet at all. I am about ready to give up and just do something else.
Maybe I'll use my powerpc of ubuntu on it. I dunno. Anyway, thanks for all the help!

[nadir]

i would try this:
/etc/resolv.conf

Code: Select all

nameserver 205.171.3.65

/etc/network/interfaces:

Code: Select all

auto lo
iface lo inet loopback

auto eth0
iface eth0 inet dhcp
#or this:
auto eth0
iface eth0 inet static  #or manual instead of static
address 192.168.0.99
netmask 255.255.255.0
gateway 192.168.0.1

and finally restarting:
/etc/init.d/networking restart

i'm not sure, thats what i would do.

[Bro.Tiag]

I used to be the cli, back in college, when I was still using things like debian on a regular basis. Now I have gone back to sissy mode, and use ubuntu and the like. There are two things to remember about me at the moment though:
1. It is saturday. My brain doesn't work on saturday, no matter how hard I try to get it to. It's in the union regulations or something.
2. I have dabbled with many different forms of linux, but only dipped deep enough to install once and call it good. I used debian before, but... not on a powerpc, and the minimal install that is given for that is quite a daunting thing for a noob to overcome.

Anyway, Is there a way to get my interwebs working? cause that would be good.
thanks!

Well I don't know how to go through another computer (or rather well enough to explain it), but if you have an ethernet card in the iMac & can get it close to your router/modem/whatever then just hook the iMac up to the web. Additionally, one can install a full operating system (for a powerpc) from the correct install media

Cheers.