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Debian Etch KDE Multimedia Installation

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michael7
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Debian Etch KDE Multimedia Installation

#1 Post by michael7 »

Debian Etch KDE Multimedia Installation

Purpose:
This is a "newbie" tutorial for installing Debian Etch with a KDE desktop and configurations of a printer and an nVidia video graphics card. It also covers installation of fonts, codecs to play CDs and DVDs, and a flash player and a browser plugin for viewing video content on webpages. This tutorial assumes that you have a broadband connection and will be installing from a netinstall.iso.

Preliminaries:
There are 3 preliminary steps. First, download the netinstall.iso. Second, burn the iso to a CD as an "image" and third, make sure that your computer's BIOS boot sequence looks first for the operating system on the computer's CD-ROM drive before it looks on the hard drive.

From www.debian.org/devel/debian-installer/ I downloaded the "daily built" netinst CD image for testing. The debian-testing-i386-netinst.iso is 159.7 MB in size and using my broadband connection it took 9 minutes to download. (Perhaps it goes without saying, but I already had a Debian distro (Sidux) installed on this computer and used it to download and burn the Debian Etch netinstall.iso. Of course, I could have done the same with thing with Windows.)

Using K3b (the CD and DVD Kreator for KDE), I burned the image to a CD using the DAO option at a speed of 4x. The burn took about 7 minutes.

If you're completely new to Linux and not familiar with burning an "image" to a CD or setting your BIOS to boot from the CD-ROM drive, here's a helpful article from Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols at: http://www.desktoplinux.com/articles/AT2914026253.html

Installation:
I restarted my computer with the iso CD in the CD-ROM drive and began the installation. Having set the BIOS boot sequence properly, the computer looked for the operating system first in the CD-ROM drive and found the Etch CD that I had just created. At the Debian "boot" prompt, I entered:

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boot: installgui install tasks="kde-desktop, standard"
These two boot options caused the GUI installer to run (which is more “user friendly”) and the KDE desktop to be installed (instead of the Gnome desktop, which is the default). By the way, if this doesn’t work, my friend Kevin says to add the word “linux” after boot:

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boot: linux installgui install tasks="kde-desktop, standard"
Here is a list of the installation screens that followed:
1. Choose language
2. Choose country
3. Choose keymap
4. Detecting hardware
5. Detecting network hardware
Note: Because this is a netinstall, a connection to the Internet is essential. On a prior occasion, Debian did not recognize the network interface card of my new computer. The NIC was built into the motherboard and it was the "latest thing". The easiest fix was to buy an inexpensive card from my local computer shop, plug it into an empty slot on the motherboard and disable the on-board card in the BIOS setup. I got the idea from Martin Krafft. Here's a quote from page 81 of his great book, "The Debian System-- Concepts and Techniques": "I usually have a known-to-be-supported network interface (e.g. with an RTL8139 or EtherExpress Pro chipset) with me and use that in case of problems."

6. Configure the network
Enter the hostname-- debianBox (Just make up something.)
Domain name-- Workgroup (My wife has an XP computer and I use the M$ default to be consistent.)
7. Detect disks
8. Partition disks
Starting up the partitioner
Guided- use the largest continuous free space
Guided- use entire disk
Guided- use entire disk and set up LVM
Guided- use entire disk and set up encrypted LVM
Manual (This is what I chose.)
List of existing partitions that includes FREE SPACE
I highlighted FREE SPACE and pressed Enter
Create a new partition
10 GB
Create at the "Beginning" of the available space
Use as: Ext3 journaling file system
Mount point: /
Done setting up the partition

I highlighted FREE SPACE again and pressed Enter
Create a new partition
30 GB
Create at the "Beginning" of the available space
Use as: Ext3 journaling file system
Mount point: /home
Done setting up the partition

Finish partitioning and write changes to disk
You'll see a list of the changes which are about to take place with the question-- Write the changes to disks? Review the changes and if they are correct, select "Yes" and press Enter.

Note: I have two other versions of Debian already installed on this computer with a single /swap partition. This new installation will share the /swap partition so I don’t need another. If this were the first Linux distro I was installing, I also would create a smallish /swap partition of 512 MB or so.

Assuming the later, here is what I would have:
hda1 (10 GB) /(root)
hda2 (512 MB) /swap
hda3 (30 GB) /home

Note: There are many opinions about partitioning and many articles on the Internet about it. This setup is simple and has worked satisfactorily for me. Putting your /home directory on a separate partition will save you much grief if you accidentally break your installation.

9. Select your time zone
Is the system clock set to UTC? Yes

10. Set up users and passwords
Root password:
Re-enter password to verify:

Full name of the new user:
Username of your account:
Choose a password for the new user:
Re-enter password to verify:

11. Installation of the base system
Use a network mirror? Yes
Debian archive mirror country:
Debian archive mirror:
HTTP proxy information (blank for none): (I left it blank.)
Participate in the package usage survey? (Default is no, but I selected yes because I want to help Debian all that I can.)

12. Select and install software

13. Install the GRUB boot loader on a hard disk
Install the GRUB boot loader to the master boot record? Yes.
Note: If you have other distros installed, Debian will identify them and add them to the GRUB menu so that you can boot to those without any problem. Some distros won't do that.

Installation complete! The process took about an hour.

First Boot:
With Etch installed, I removed the CD and rebooted. When the GRUB menu appeared, the version that I had just installed was the first option. I paused the boot by touching the up-arrow key and made a note of the kernel:
Debian GNU/Linux, kernel 2.6.18-3-486

I knew that I would need this information shortly when I installed the driver for my nvidia graphics card.

I logged into my new Etch install and completed the KPersonalizer with a few clicks. The "Debian Overture" played so I knew that my sound system was configured properly.

I opened Firefox and the browser promptly took me to the Mozilla-Firefox webpage, demonstrating that my network connection was properly configured, too.

Note: Debian’s automatic hardware detection is excellent. While that hasn’t always been the case, the work of Debian developers and the inclusion of Ian Murdock’s “Discover” package have greatly improved it.

To see what software had been installed by default, I opened a Konsole terminal and entered the following command. This created a list of all installed packages and redirected the output to a new file:

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$ dpkg -l > packages_installed.txt
(That's a lower-case L, not the digit 1, by the way.)
There is no requirement that you do this, of course, but it’s useful information to have on hand. I opened the file with the editor Kate. From the View menu in Kate, I selected "Show Line Numbers". Scrolling to the bottom of the file, I saw there were 957 lines. I subtracted 5 for the header lines at the top and knew that Etch has installed 952 software packages. Using the utility KDiskFree, I saw that 2.9 GB of the /root partition has been used.


Software Sources List:
Again using the Konsole terminal, I edited the /etc/apt/sources.list using nano and commented out the line for "deb cdrom", as I'm not using the netinstall CD as a package source anymore.

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$ su
Password: <enter root password>
# nano /etc/apt/sources.list
To comment out a line, simply put a pound sign in front of it. For example:
# deb cdrom:[Debian GNU/Linux testing_Etch_ - Official Snapshot

I also added contrib and non-free to each line, so that the file read:

deb http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian/ etch main contrib non-free
deb-src http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian/ etch main contrib non-free

deb http://security.debian.org/ etch/updates main contrib non-free
deb-src http://security.debian.org/ etch/updates main contrib non-free

And I added this line to the bottom of the file:

deb http://www.debian-multimedia.org etch main

I needed this software repository for the multimedia packages I planned to download and install later. I saved the file with Ctrl+o, pressed the Enter key, and exited with Ctrl+x.

Next, I imported the gpg key for the multimedia repository with these commands:

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# gpg --keyserver hkp://wwwkeys.eu.pgp.net --recv-keys 1F41B907
# gpg --armor --export 1F41B907 | apt-key add -
I did an update and an upgrade:

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# apt-get update
# apt-get upgrade
Nvidia driver installation:
Next, I wanted to install a driver my nvidia graphics card. I opened a Konsole terminal and entered:

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# apt-cache search linux-image
The output easily fills a page. There are numerous listings for headers and images and even an alsa-base and a linux tree reference. To the uninitiated, the list can be bewildering. There are only two lines, however, in which I’m interested:

linux-headers-2.6.18-3-486 - Header files for Linux 2.6.18 on x86
linux-image-2.6.18-3-486 - Linux 2.6.18 image on x86

Remember, I had made a note of the kernel that was installed when I booted up, so I knew that it was linux-image-2.6.18-3-486. If you failed to make a note, the command to find out is:

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$ uname -r 

I also knew from experience that the headers are not installed by default and that I would need the headers for the nvidia installation. So, I entered this command:

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# apt-get install linux-image-2.6.18-3-486
Here’s the output:
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree... Done
linux-image-2.6.18-3-486 is already the newest version.
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.

As expected, APT (Advanced Packaging Tool) told me that the image was already the newest version. So I entered this command:

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# apt-get install linux-headers-2.6.18-3-486
APT then told me that it would install three new packages: linux-headers-2.6.18-3, linux-headers-2.6.18-3-486 and linux-kbuild-2.6.18. I responded Yes to proceed, as the header files are what's needed.

Here is the output:
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree... Done
The following extra packages will be installed:
linux-headers-2.6.18-3 linux-kbuild-2.6.18
The following NEW packages will be installed:
linux-headers-2.6.18-3 linux-headers-2.6.18-3-486 linux-kbuild-2.6.18
0 upgraded, 3 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
Need to get 3457kB of archives.
After unpacking 25.0MB of additional disk space will be used.
Do you want to continue [Y/n]? y
Get:1 http://ftp.us.debian.org etch/main linux-headers-2.6.18-3 2.6.18-7 [3019kB]
Get:2 http://ftp.us.debian.org etch/main linux-kbuild-2.6.18 2.6.18-1 [168kB]
Get:3 http://ftp.us.debian.org etch/main linux-headers-2.6.18-3-486 2.6.18-7 [269kB]
Fetched 3457kB in 14s (243kB/s)
Selecting previously deselected package linux-headers-2.6.18-3.
(Reading database ... 88111 files and directories currently installed.)
Unpacking linux-headers-2.6.18-3 (from .../linux-headers-2.6.18-3_2.6.18-7_i386.deb) ...
Selecting previously deselected package linux-kbuild-2.6.18.
Unpacking linux-kbuild-2.6.18 (from .../linux-kbuild-2.6.18_2.6.18-1_i386.deb) ...
Selecting previously deselected package linux-headers-2.6.18-3-486.
Unpacking linux-headers-2.6.18-3-486 (from .../linux-headers-2.6.18-3-486_2.6.18-7_i386.deb) ...
Setting up linux-headers-2.6.18-3 (2.6.18-7) ...
Setting up linux-kbuild-2.6.18 (2.6.18-1) ...
Setting up linux-headers-2.6.18-3-486 (2.6.18-7) ...


With the headers installed, I downloaded the nvidia driver from:
www.nvidia.com/content/drivers/drivers.asp
I clicked the link for "Linux, FreeBSD and Solaris Drivers" and downloaded the latest version which is the NVIDIA-Linux-x86-1.0-9746 driver. It's a shell script and I saved it (Save Page As) to my /home directory (where I could find it again from the command line). To install it, you must run the script as root and you must stop X. Here are the commands to do that:

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Ctrl+Alt+F1
login: root
Password: <enter your root password> 

# /etc/init.d/kdm stop
# cd /home/michael		<insert your username, of course>
# sh NVIDIA-Linux-x86-1.0-9746-pkg2.run
As the NVIDIA shell script ran, I responded to the questions. Among other things, the script builds a kernel module, modifies the configuration and when the process is completed, brings me back to the command prompt. I rebooted.

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# reboot
With the nvidia driver installed, I logged on to a favorite webpage and scrolled down. It didn't look like waves on the screen as it refreshed. Success!


Desktop Configuration:
How you configure your desktop is purely a subjective matter. It includes wallpapers, screensavers, fonts, font size, and mouse cursors/pointers. Most of this is configured through the KDE Control Center. Some you can configure by right-clicking on the desktop and selecting “Configure Desktop” from the menu.

Regarding wallpapers, there are thousands available. A good place to start is www.kde-look.org. Another sites is www.gnome-look.org.

Unless you are an expert, it is best to install software from the Debian repositories. That photo of your son in his soccer uniform, however, the one you want to use as your desktop wallpaper, is not in the repositories. Here's one method for installing it as your wallpaper.

By default, Debian puts wallpapers in the /usr/share/wallpapers directory. Assume that your son's photo is on your Desktop and it's named "soccer.jpg". All that you need to do is login as root and copy it to the wallpapers directory. Here are the commands:

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$ su
$ Password:		<Enter root password>
# cd /home/michael/Desktop
# cp soccer.jpg /usr/share/wallpapers
Right click on the Desktop and select Configure Desktop. "Background" will be highlighted. From the "Picture" list box, select "soccer", click Apply and then OK. By the way, I always put a copy of my favorite wallpapers, photos, etc. in a directory on my /home partition, too. I've named it "images".

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# cp soccer.jpg /home/michael/images
I use the KPackage program (installed by default) to see what software is available, as it provides a description of the package you select. You can search for types of packages, too. For example, to find in the repositories what screensaver packages are available, type “screensaver” in the Search box (upper left hand corner). Here are some of the results.

kscreensaver, kscreensaver-xsavers, lockvc, electricsheep,innerspace.app, rss-glx, xscreensaver and xscreensaver-gl.

You can install these using KPackage or with the apt-get install command that I've used above.

For mouse cursors/pointers, type “cursor” in the Search box and some of the results are:

industrial-cursor-theme, icoutils, artwiz-cursor, big-cursor, chameleon-cursor-theme, comixcursors, crystalcursors and xcursor-themes. Again, you can install them with KPackage or with the apt-get install command.

Typically, I install more fonts. The bitstream-vera fonts are good.

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# apt-get install ttf-bitstream-vera
If you want Microsoft fonts, they're readily available.

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# apt-get install msttcorefonts
These are just two of many. Type "fonts" in the Search box of KPackage and you'll get a lengthy list.

After you install fonts, you select them with the Control Center. To select a different font:
K -> Control Center -> Appearances & Themes -> Fonts -> Adjust All Fonts. Check the Fonts box at the top and make your selection.

I like my fonts a little larger:
K -> Control Center -> Appearances & Themes -> Fonts -> Adjust All Fonts. I check the Size box at top, select 11 and press OK.

Printer Configuration:

There are two ways to configure a printer.

K -> Control Center -> Peripherals -> Printers -> Add -> Add Printer/Class, which brings up the Add Printer Wizard.

Or I can use my web browser and type in this URL: http://localhost:631/
I use the browser method because I think it’s easier.


Multimedia Software and Drivers:
To play audio CDs, Kaffeine, the media player for KDE, is all that you need in some cases.

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# apt-get install kaffeine
Here's the on-screen message that I got when I popped in "Mermaid Avenue" by Billy Bragg and Wilco.

******
Kaffeine-Xine...
Ok.
KDE...
Found version: 3.5.5
Ok.WIN32 Codecs...
No WIN32 codecs found in /usr/lib/win32. You're not able to play Windows Media 9 files, newer Real Media files and some less common formats. Download the codecs here: http://www.mplayerhq.hu.
libdvdcss...
libdvdcss not found. You're not able to play encrypted (most commercial) DVD's. You can get the library here (but using it may violate copyright regulations of your country!): http://developers.videolan.org/libdvdcss.
DVD Drive...
Ok.
DVB-Device...
No DVB-Devices found. The DVB related functions will be hidden.
Distribution...
Ok.
RESULT: Found some problems, but nevertheless Kaffeine may work.
*****

Without any assistance, Kaffeine played Mermaid Avenue just fine. And when I put in my "Revolution OS" DVD, it played, too. Most commercial DVDs, however, won't play with just Kaffeine. Consequently, if it's legal where you live, you can install the libdvdcss runtime libraries with:

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# apt-get install libdvdcss2
And while you're at it, you can install mplayer, which will let you play just about anything:

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# apt-get install mplayer
As mentioned above, WIN32 codecs are not installed by default. They are easy to install but there are legal ramifications. If you believe that you have a lawful right to use them, you can install them with:

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# apt-get install w32codecs
On a related note, Noatun plays MP3 files. It's another KDE media player and it's installed by default.

To install the Mozilla plugin (for viewing embedded video content on the web like cnn.com videos):

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# apt-get install mozilla-mplayer 
And for the Macromedia Flash Player plugin:

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# apt-get install flashplayer-mozilla

Other Software:
Although Etch installed more than 950 software packages by default, Debian offers more than 15,000 software packages in its repositories, so there is a program (or two or three) for just about anything you want to do. Why go anywhere else!

Here are some other software packages that you might consider installing: abiword, amarok, bastille, bzip2, cdrdao, dvd+rw-tools, ffmpeg, flac, f-spot, kaffeine-mozilla, knemo, ktorrent, liblame0, mc, mozplugger, p7zip-full, realplayer, streamtuner, sun-java5-plugin, unzip, unrar, and xmms. You can find descriptions in the KPackage program.


Credits:
Our Aussie friend sunrat first gave me the idea for this. You can find his Etch KDE setup at:
http://forums.debian.net/viewtopic.php?t=10876

I also found Alexander Grundner's article helpful, especially with the multimedia support.
http://www.ehomeupgrade.com/entry/2812/ ... tup_debian

1/7/07

Edited once to correct several formatting errors and once to correct typo in link.
Last edited by michael7 on 2007-02-03 04:25, edited 3 times in total.
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chealer
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#2 Post by chealer »

I don't see why this includes instructions for NVIDIA cards only, but anyway, in case someone would consider using this tutorial: be warned that a system installed using this tutorial would have zero support. Appart from the use of proprietary software, this also uses a wrong method to install the NVIDIA drivers. The "Debian way" of installing the NVIDIA graphics drivers is described on http://wiki.debian.org/NvidiaGraphicsDrivers
I didn't check whether the rest of this tutorial could be helpful.

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michael7
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Joined: 2005-05-14 22:33

#3 Post by michael7 »

The Andrew Schulman article to which you refer is an excellent treatment of the subject but it’s lengthy, somewhat technical and requires prior experience with Linux. The target audience, i.e. the Linux beginner, would find it incomprehensible, in my opinion.

In the article, Mr. Schulman discusses both the “Debian way” and the nvidia-installer way of installing nvidia drivers, pointing out the pros and cons of each. At no point does he indicate that the nvidia-installer method is the “wrong method to install the NVIDIA drivers”, as you state. That is your opinion. I have used both methods and chose the nvidia method for the tutorial because I thought that it would be easier for a beginner.

Regarding your comment about “zero support”, if you were referring to 3D drivers, your remark is misleading. Mr. Schulman devotes a paragraph to the topic at the end titled “nvidia license taints kernel”. He states:
“If you get such a warning message on your console or in your syslog, don’t worry. Your kernel is fine… or at least as fine as a kernel that can run NVIDIA’s 3D driver can be. All this message means is that because your driver isn’t open source, you won’t get any support from the kernel maintainers if anything goes wrong with your kernel while the module is loaded.”
It’s important to understand that Mr. Schulman is not referring to the way that the 3D driver was installed, but to the fact that it was installed at all. If you want 3D acceleration, you must use non-free nvidia drivers and the kernel maintainers won’t support them, regardless of how they are installed.

Regarding the use of proprietary software, please refer to Item 5 of the Social Contract and in particular, the last sentence which states:
“[A]lthough non-free software isn’t a part of Debian, we support its use, and we provide infrastructure (such as our bug-tracking system and mailing lists) for non-free software packages.”
I have used the “tutorial” three times and had no problems. Two friends also used it without difficulties. Simply stated, it works.
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chealer
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#4 Post by chealer »

michael7 wrote:The Andrew Schulman article to which you refer is an excellent treatment of the subject but it’s lengthy, somewhat technical and requires prior experience with Linux. The target audience, i.e. the Linux beginner, would find it incomprehensible, in my opinion.
I disagree. If someone can read your tutorial, I don't see how they could be unable to read Andrew's guide.
In the article, Mr. Schulman discusses both the “Debian way” and the nvidia-installer way of installing nvidia drivers, pointing out the pros and cons of each. At no point does he indicate that the nvidia-installer method is the “wrong method to install the NVIDIA drivers”, as you state. That is your opinion. I have used both methods and chose the nvidia method for the tutorial because I thought that it would be easier for a beginner.

Regarding your comment about “zero support”, if you were referring to 3D drivers, your remark is misleading. Mr. Schulman devotes a paragraph to the topic at the end titled “nvidia license taints kernel”. He states:
“If you get such a warning message on your console or in your syslog, don’t worry. Your kernel is fine… or at least as fine as a kernel that can run NVIDIA’s 3D driver can be. All this message means is that because your driver isn’t open source, you won’t get any support from the kernel maintainers if anything goes wrong with your kernel while the module is loaded.”
It’s important to understand that Mr. Schulman is not referring to the way that the 3D driver was installed, but to the fact that it was installed at all. If you want 3D acceleration, you must use non-free nvidia drivers and the kernel maintainers won’t support them, regardless of how they are installed.
I was not.

[...]
I have used the “tutorial” three times and had no problems. Two friends also used it without difficulties. Simply stated, it works.
Until your system breaks, yes.

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michael7
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Joined: 2005-05-14 22:33

The Debian Way

#5 Post by michael7 »

The following steps represent the most simply method, in my opinion, for installing an Nvidia 3D graphics driver using the "Debian way" as recommended by chealer. Sometimes it has worked for me and other times it hasn't, which is one of the reasons I did not include it in the first post. Regardless, I support Debian and offer this as an alternative.

Assumption:
You have a "stock" kernel installed and not a "custom" kernel, which most likely will be the case if you just installed Etch using the netinstall.iso.

There are 5 steps:
1. Make sure that APT has non-free and contrib sources-- We did this when we modified the /etc/apt/sources.list file in the first post.
2. Build and install the kernel module--

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# apt-get install nvidia-kernel-$(uname -r)
3. Install the user-space libraries

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# apt-get install nvidia-glx
4. Configure X to use the nvidia driver

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# dpkg-reconfigure xserver-xorg
You will be asked a long series of questions. You only need to change your answer to 2 of those questions. When asked to choose an X server, choose nvidia. When asked to select X Server modules, deselect (uncheck) dri and if present, GLCore. Select (check) glx.
5. Force the kernel module to load at boot

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# modprobe nvidia && invoke-rc.d kdm restart
(If your display manager is gdm, use gdm instead.)

To determine if acceleration is working, use glxinfo which in the mesa-utils package. It wasn't installed after default, but you can install it with:

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# apt-get mesa-utils
After it is installed, use this command:

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# glxinfo | grep rendering
If it returns "direct rendering: Yes", then acceleration is working. If not, please refer to the article.
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pilgrim
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#6 Post by pilgrim »

From www.debian.org/devel/debian-installer/, I downloaded the "daily built" netinst CD image for testing. The debian-testing-i386-netinst.iso is 159.7 MB in size and using my broadband connection it took 9 minutes to download. (Perhaps it goes without saying, but I already had a Debian distro (Sidux) installed on this computer and used it to download and burn the Debian Etch netinstall.iso. Of course, I could have done the same with thing with Windows.)
Michael7;

First; great tutorial.

Second; I just tried your link www.debian.org/devel/debian-installer/ and it seems to return "...not Found on This Server". This is odd because <http://www.debian.org/devel/debian-installer/> works in my Firefox Browser; just not the link from your post that calls it up on IE.

Third; I'm confused by the size of the Etch Installer per my d/l'd file. "Properties" indicates 236 KB, <debian-testing-i386-DVD-3.jigdo-22Jan2007 235K> You ascribe 159.7 MB.

Have I d/l'd the wrong file?
pilgrim

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#7 Post by bluesdog »

michael7 -- there is a typo in the link:
Please remove the trailing comma ','

pilgrim -- the jigdo script file you downloaded is not the same as the iso cd image file

Download the daily build netinstall cd iso image

Explanation of jigdo here
Tips & Tricks

Something more to read while waiting

If you obviously have not read THIS, don't expect too much...




*winter bluesdog....*

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michael7
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#8 Post by michael7 »

bluesdog wrote:michael7 -- there is a typo in the link:
Please remove the trailing comma ','
Thanks for the alert. It's done.
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pilgrim
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Debian Etch KDE Multimedia Installation: Step 8 Partitioning

#9 Post by pilgrim »

Michael;

I’m having a little “seniors moment” getting through Step 8, “Partition Disks”.

When I get to:
You are editing partition #1 of IDE1 master (hda). No existing file system was detected in this partition.
Partition Settings
Use as: ext3 journalling file sustem
Mount Point: /
& etc.
I hilit “Use as: ext3 journalling file system”, and [Enter]. This called up a screen:
“How to use this partition”, which gave a list, the topmost being “Ext3 journalling file sytem”; which I hilit and [Enter].

This took me back to the “You are editing partition ….” screen.
I then hilit “Mount Point /” [Enter] and this opened the screen:
“Mount Point for this partition”, which lists:
/ - the root file system
/boot – static file of the boot loader
/home – user home directories
/temp – temporary files
& etc.

I have the feeling this is not where I want to be because your text goes directly to “done setting up the partition” with none of the folderol I got into.

? Should I interpret the editing partition page to signify I can just accept (without hiliting) the menu items as they appear and just hilite “done setting up the partition” [Enter] and merrily blast along to create the next (hda2 512 MB swap) partition?
pilgrim

I thimk, therefore I am.

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michael7
Posts: 120
Joined: 2005-05-14 22:33

Re: Debian Etch KDE Multimedia Installation: Step 8 Partitio

#10 Post by michael7 »

pilgrim wrote:Michael;

I’m having a little “seniors moment” getting through Step 8, “Partition Disks”.

When I get to:
You are editing partition #1 of IDE1 master (hda). No existing file system was detected in this partition.
Partition Settings
Use as: ext3 journalling file sustem
Mount Point: /
& etc.
I hilit “Use as: ext3 journalling file system”, and [Enter]. This called up a screen:
“How to use this partition”, which gave a list, the topmost being “Ext3 journalling file sytem”; which I hilit and [Enter].

This took me back to the “You are editing partition ….” screen.
I then hilit “Mount Point /” [Enter] and this opened the screen:
“Mount Point for this partition”, which lists:
/ - the root file system
/boot – static file of the boot loader
/home – user home directories
/temp – temporary files
& etc.

I have the feeling this is not where I want to be because your text goes directly to “done setting up the partition” with none of the folderol I got into.
Actually, you are almost there. Highlight "/ - the root file system" and press Enter. Now you will see the screen that shows:
Use as: Ext3 journaling file system
Mount point: /

Using the down arrow key, scroll to the bottom of the screen and highlight "Done setting up the partition" and press Enter and you are finished with that partition. Follow the same steps to create a small second partition but this time set the mount point for "/swap" and then a third larger partition for "/home".

I understand your confusion because the Debian installer confused me at first. After you use it a time or two, the light bulb will switch on and you won't have anymore problems. Please feel free to send me a private message and I'll help any way that I can.
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pilgrim
Posts: 44
Joined: 2007-01-20 00:42

Debian Etch KDE Multimedia Installation: Step 8 Partition

#11 Post by pilgrim »

Michael7;

I’m running into options each step of the way that you don’t seem to cover in your tute. Either that or I need to step back and review it all again.

I got the 10 GB /root part’n OK. I began the 512 MB /swap configuration, and was given the screen “!! Type for the new part’n” with the options:
-Primary
-Logical

At first I tried “Primary”, but when I got to the next screen: “Choose … new part’n to be created at the beginning or end of the available* space.”, I chose ‘Beginning” and got an error message: “Can’t have a part’n outside the disk!”.

I backtracked to the main menu start and when I got to this point again, ”Type”, I tried, “Logical” instead of “Primary”, and “Beginning” for the location.

[Enter] took me to the main part’n menu, but it doesn’t look the way I expected. As you can see, the 2nd part’n, appearing mysteriously as #5, doesn’t resemble the way I entered the information.
…overview…
IDE1 master (hda) – 160.0 GB Maxtor 6L160P0
#1 Primary 10.0 GB f ext3 /
#5 Logical 509.9 MB f ext3 /home
pri/log 149.5 GB FREE SPACE
*available: I can’t tell from the etch install text what this word applies to. Does it mean available on disk, available in the Free Space or available in the partition. That affects what interpretation needs to apply to the location term “beginning”; i.e. beginning or end of what? Similarly; “primary” could have 2 or 3 different interpretations. 3x2x3 = 18 different ways this sequence could turn out; theoretically. (Practically there are only 3x2x2 = 12)... whereas reasonably (to the savvy) there is only 1; the right way.

Metrices aside, I see now that I needn’t be quite so paranoid because I can go back and plug away until I get it to turn out right without being afraid I’ll get some incomprhensible garbage on my HDD or, what I feared most, changing the way my PC appears to my ISP and beyond.

I don’t know if it would be helpful to other neophytes if you ‘fleshed out’ your tute a bit to cover these options, but I thought I would mention the problem I had when faced with them just for your consideration.

I knew when I started this was going to be a challenge. For a newbie to PCs and Linux, it’s a little like trying to shovel gravel with a pointed stick; underwater. Wheee!
pilgrim

I thimk, therefore I am.

User avatar
michael7
Posts: 120
Joined: 2005-05-14 22:33

Re: Debian Etch KDE Multimedia Installation: Step 8 Partitio

#12 Post by michael7 »

pilgrim wrote:I don’t know if it would be helpful to other neophytes if you ‘fleshed out’ your tute a bit to cover these options, but I thought I would mention the problem I had when faced with them just for your consideration.
I'll do that. Also, there's a great deal of information on the web about this topic, many pages with screenshots, and I'll provide you with a link or two.
Live simply so that others may simply live.
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michael7
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#13 Post by michael7 »

pilgrim,

I've read the other thread that you started. Because you are using a new hard drive without other partitions, this is the easiest way to do it:

Manual
FREE SPACE
Automatically partition the free space
Separate /home partition
Finish partitioning and write changes to disk

The only possible drawback is that you will use up your entire hard drive for this single Linux installation. If that's what you want to do, by all means, do it that way. If you want to use only a portion of the hard drive, perhaps half of it, you should do it this way:

Manual
FREE SPACE
Create a new partition
New partition size: 10 GB
Beginning
Use as: Ext3
Mount point: /
Done setting up the partition

(Note: if a selection isn't correct, highlight it, press Enter and you'll see a window with choices for that item. Highlight the correct choice, press Enter to change it and you'll return to the previous screen with the change.)

FREE SPACE
Create a new partition
New partition size: 512 MB
Beginning
Use as: swap
Mount point: /swap
Done setting up the partition

FREE SPACE
Create a new partition
New partition size: 30 GB
Beginning
Use as: ext3
Mount point: /home
Done setting up partition
Finish partitioning and write changes to disk.

Regarding your question about the "TYPE" of partition, all three can be "Primary". When you're ready to install a second distro on this hard drive, we can discuss "Logical" partitions.

I hope that helps. If you have other questions, please let me know.

Michael

P.S. By the way, dual booting is easy. Linux plays well with other operating systems, unlike M$. You install M$ first and Linux second and let Linux write to the MBR. There's a bazillion articles on the web about dual booting.
Live simply so that others may simply live.
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pilgrim
Posts: 44
Joined: 2007-01-20 00:42

Debian Etch KDE Multimedia Installation: login & p/w pro

#14 Post by pilgrim »

Michael;

I was over in the Etch install and didn't see your last post until a few minutes ago. You are correct that some poking about eventually starts to make things clear.

In reverse order, I have 2 Q's.

I got to the login screen for the first boot after completing the installation from the CD.

The prompt begins with my "Host Name login": I entered my user name for the new account. I hit [Enter] which brings up the password prompt line. Nothing I try to enter on this line does anything. The blinking cursor just sits there. I turned the Num Lock on an off; still no joy.

I did a search here, but the onliest entry I saw: http://forums.debian.net/viewtopic.php? ... #50561said
...said it was necessary to log on as root first. I have absolutely no idea what that means.

The second Q is: how come I can still boot my windows after re-connecting the HD as master again? The language of the install said this would not be possible until I got back into GRUB and modified the MBR to allow this to happen.
pilgrim

I thimk, therefore I am.

User avatar
michael7
Posts: 120
Joined: 2005-05-14 22:33

#15 Post by michael7 »

First things first--congratulations on installing Etch! Now that you've done it once, it will be easier next time.

Regarding the login problem, there's no requirement that you log in as root the first time. During the installation process, you were asked to create a user account and a user password. (You were also asked to create a root password, root being the system administrator.) If you were entering the wrong password, it would tell you. Also, as you type the password, asterisks would appear in the password text box. The fact that the cursor is just sitting there sounds as if the password text box doesn't have focus because it's not responding to your keystrokes.

I would suggest that you mouse click in the text box to make sure that it has focus and try typing the password again. If that doesn't work, I would suggest you try to login as root and if that's successful, you can reset the password for user because as root, you can do anything. (If you can't login as root, there may be a reinstall in your future. Since you're an experienced hand now, that won't be any problem, right?)

Regarding your second question, you can still boot into Windows because you haven't changed the Master Boot Record on that hard drive. You are reconnecting your hard drives so each still has a MBR. For example, when you set the Windows HD as the master, the computer reads the MBR on that HD to find the operating system to boot. When you set the Linux HD as the master, the computer reads the MBR on that HD to find the operating system to boot.

When you install one HD as the master and the second HD as the slave, you won't be able to boot the operating system on the slave HD because the MBR on the master HD doesn't know anything about the operating system on the slave HD.

When you are ready, I suggest that you install the Windows HD as the master and the Linux HD as the slave and then reinstall Linux, allowing it to write to the MBR. Linux will recognize the Windows installation and add it as an item to the GRUB menu list. Then you can boot to either operating system.
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pilgrim
Posts: 44
Joined: 2007-01-20 00:42

#16 Post by pilgrim »

Michael;

Pas du joie.

My user name enters after the Login prompt OK. But Password prompt won’t accept any input.

“Mouse click in the text box”?? No box appears on the screen I get and the mouse and scroll functions don’t work; either. This is a black screen with white script on it; right? It appears immediately following the pages showing what is loading… goes by quickly.

I don’t think it has anything to do with anything, but a dozen or so lines above on the screen I see:
Starting Advanced Configuration & Power Interface daemon: acpid
*Not starting Internet superserver: no services enabled
I be lookin’ at a re-install; eh?
pilgrim

I thimk, therefore I am.

User avatar
michael7
Posts: 120
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#17 Post by michael7 »

Pas du joie, indeed. Sorry that you are having problems. Another install may be required. I'll post again later after I've had time to consider alternatives.
Live simply so that others may simply live.
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nicoblue
Posts: 4
Joined: 2007-02-03 19:42
Location: UK

Re: Debian Etch KDE Multimedia Installation

#18 Post by nicoblue »

michael7 wrote:Debian Etch KDE Multimedia Installation

Purpose:
This is a "newbie" tutorial for installing Debian Etch with a KDE desktop and configurations of a printer and an nVidia video graphics card. It also covers installation of fonts, codecs to play CDs and DVDs, and a flash player and a browser plugin for viewing video content on webpages. This tutorial assumes that you have a broadband connection and will be installing from a netinstall.iso.

Preliminaries:
There are 3 preliminary steps. First, download the netinstall.iso. Second, burn the iso to a CD as an "image" and third, make sure that your computer's BIOS boot sequence looks first for the operating system on the computer's CD-ROM drive before it looks on the hard drive.

From www.debian.org/devel/debian-installer/ I downloaded the "daily built" netinst CD image for testing. The debian-testing-i386-netinst.iso is 159.7 MB in size and using my broadband connection it took 9 minutes to download. (Perhaps it goes without saying, but I already had a Debian distro (Sidux) installed on this computer and used it to download and burn the Debian Etch netinstall.iso. Of course, I could have done the same with thing with Windows.)

Using K3b (the CD and DVD Kreator for KDE), I burned the image to a CD using the DAO option at a speed of 4x. The burn took about 7 minutes.

If you're completely new to Linux and not familiar with burning an "image" to a CD or setting your BIOS to boot from the CD-ROM drive, here's a helpful article from Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols at: http://www.desktoplinux.com/articles/AT2914026253.html

Installation:
I restarted my computer with the iso CD in the CD-ROM drive and began the installation. Having set the BIOS boot sequence properly, the computer looked for the operating system first in the CD-ROM drive and found the Etch CD that I had just created. At the Debian "boot" prompt, I entered:

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boot: installgui install tasks="kde-desktop, standard"
These two boot options caused the GUI installer to run (which is more “user friendly”) and the KDE desktop to be installed (instead of the Gnome desktop, which is the default). By the way, if this doesn’t work, my friend Kevin says to add the word “linux” after boot:

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boot: linux installgui install tasks="kde-desktop, standard"
Here is a list of the installation screens that followed:
1. Choose language
2. Choose country
3. Choose keymap
4. Detecting hardware
5. Detecting network hardware
Note: Because this is a netinstall, a connection to the Internet is essential. On a prior occasion, Debian did not recognize the network interface card of my new computer. The NIC was built into the motherboard and it was the "latest thing". The easiest fix was to buy an inexpensive card from my local computer shop, plug it into an empty slot on the motherboard and disable the on-board card in the BIOS setup. I got the idea from Martin Krafft. Here's a quote from page 81 of his great book, "The Debian System-- Concepts and Techniques": "I usually have a known-to-be-supported network interface (e.g. with an RTL8139 or EtherExpress Pro chipset) with me and use that in case of problems."

6. Configure the network
Enter the hostname-- debianBox (Just make up something.)
Domain name-- Workgroup (My wife has an XP computer and I use the M$ default to be consistent.)
7. Detect disks
8. Partition disks
Starting up the partitioner
Guided- use the largest continuous free space
Guided- use entire disk
Guided- use entire disk and set up LVM
Guided- use entire disk and set up encrypted LVM
Manual (This is what I chose.)
List of existing partitions that includes FREE SPACE
I highlighted FREE SPACE and pressed Enter
Create a new partition
10 GB
Create at the "Beginning" of the available space
Use as: Ext3 journaling file system
Mount point: /
Done setting up the partition

I highlighted FREE SPACE again and pressed Enter
Create a new partition
30 GB
Create at the "Beginning" of the available space
Use as: Ext3 journaling file system
Mount point: /home
Done setting up the partition

Finish partitioning and write changes to disk
You'll see a list of the changes which are about to take place with the question-- Write the changes to disks? Review the changes and if they are correct, select "Yes" and press Enter.

Note: I have two other versions of Debian already installed on this computer with a single /swap partition. This new installation will share the /swap partition so I don’t need another. If this were the first Linux distro I was installing, I also would create a smallish /swap partition of 512 MB or so.

Assuming the later, here is what I would have:
hda1 (10 GB) /(root)
hda2 (512 MB) /swap
hda3 (30 GB) /home

Note: There are many opinions about partitioning and many articles on the Internet about it. This setup is simple and has worked satisfactorily for me. Putting your /home directory on a separate partition will save you much grief if you accidentally break your installation.

9. Select your time zone
Is the system clock set to UTC? Yes

10. Set up users and passwords
Root password:
Re-enter password to verify:

Full name of the new user:
Username of your account:
Choose a password for the new user:
Re-enter password to verify:

11. Installation of the base system
Use a network mirror? Yes
Debian archive mirror country:
Debian archive mirror:
HTTP proxy information (blank for none): (I left it blank.)
Participate in the package usage survey? (Default is no, but I selected yes because I want to help Debian all that I can.)

12. Select and install software

13. Install the GRUB boot loader on a hard disk
Install the GRUB boot loader to the master boot record? Yes.
Note: If you have other distros installed, Debian will identify them and add them to the GRUB menu so that you can boot to those without any problem. Some distros won't do that.

Installation complete! The process took about an hour.

First Boot:
With Etch installed, I removed the CD and rebooted. When the GRUB menu appeared, the version that I had just installed was the first option. I paused the boot by touching the up-arrow key and made a note of the kernel:
Debian GNU/Linux, kernel 2.6.18-3-486

I knew that I would need this information shortly when I installed the driver for my nvidia graphics card.

I logged into my new Etch install and completed the KPersonalizer with a few clicks. The "Debian Overture" played so I knew that my sound system was configured properly.

I opened Firefox and the browser promptly took me to the Mozilla-Firefox webpage, demonstrating that my network connection was properly configured, too.

Note: Debian’s automatic hardware detection is excellent. While that hasn’t always been the case, the work of Debian developers and the inclusion of Ian Murdock’s “Discover” package have greatly improved it.

To see what software had been installed by default, I opened a Konsole terminal and entered the following command. This created a list of all installed packages and redirected the output to a new file:

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$ dpkg -l > packages_installed.txt
(That's a lower-case L, not the digit 1, by the way.)
There is no requirement that you do this, of course, but it’s useful information to have on hand. I opened the file with the editor Kate. From the View menu in Kate, I selected "Show Line Numbers". Scrolling to the bottom of the file, I saw there were 957 lines. I subtracted 5 for the header lines at the top and knew that Etch has installed 952 software packages. Using the utility KDiskFree, I saw that 2.9 GB of the /root partition has been used.


Software Sources List:
Again using the Konsole terminal, I edited the /etc/apt/sources.list using nano and commented out the line for "deb cdrom", as I'm not using the netinstall CD as a package source anymore.

Code: Select all

$ su
Password: <enter root password>
# nano /etc/apt/sources.list
To comment out a line, simply put a pound sign in front of it. For example:
# deb cdrom:[Debian GNU/Linux testing_Etch_ - Official Snapshot

I also added contrib and non-free to each line, so that the file read:

deb http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian/ etch main contrib non-free
deb-src http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian/ etch main contrib non-free

deb http://security.debian.org/ etch/updates main contrib non-free
deb-src http://security.debian.org/ etch/updates main contrib non-free

And I added this line to the bottom of the file:

deb http://www.debian-multimedia.org etch main

I needed this software repository for the multimedia packages I planned to download and install later. I saved the file with Ctrl+o, pressed the Enter key, and exited with Ctrl+x.

Next, I imported the gpg key for the multimedia repository with these commands:

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# gpg --keyserver hkp://wwwkeys.eu.pgp.net --recv-keys 1F41B907
# gpg --armor --export 1F41B907 | apt-key add -
I did an update and an upgrade:

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# apt-get update
# apt-get upgrade
Nvidia driver installation:
Next, I wanted to install a driver my nvidia graphics card. I opened a Konsole terminal and entered:

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# apt-cache search linux-image
The output easily fills a page. There are numerous listings for headers and images and even an alsa-base and a linux tree reference. To the uninitiated, the list can be bewildering. There are only two lines, however, in which I’m interested:

linux-headers-2.6.18-3-486 - Header files for Linux 2.6.18 on x86
linux-image-2.6.18-3-486 - Linux 2.6.18 image on x86

Remember, I had made a note of the kernel that was installed when I booted up, so I knew that it was linux-image-2.6.18-3-486. If you failed to make a note, the command to find out is:

Code: Select all

$ uname -r 

I also knew from experience that the headers are not installed by default and that I would need the headers for the nvidia installation. So, I entered this command:

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# apt-get install linux-image-2.6.18-3-486
Here’s the output:
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree... Done
linux-image-2.6.18-3-486 is already the newest version.
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.

As expected, APT (Advanced Packaging Tool) told me that the image was already the newest version. So I entered this command:

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# apt-get install linux-headers-2.6.18-3-486
APT then told me that it would install three new packages: linux-headers-2.6.18-3, linux-headers-2.6.18-3-486 and linux-kbuild-2.6.18. I responded Yes to proceed, as the header files are what's needed.

Here is the output:
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree... Done
The following extra packages will be installed:
linux-headers-2.6.18-3 linux-kbuild-2.6.18
The following NEW packages will be installed:
linux-headers-2.6.18-3 linux-headers-2.6.18-3-486 linux-kbuild-2.6.18
0 upgraded, 3 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
Need to get 3457kB of archives.
After unpacking 25.0MB of additional disk space will be used.
Do you want to continue [Y/n]? y
Get:1 http://ftp.us.debian.org etch/main linux-headers-2.6.18-3 2.6.18-7 [3019kB]
Get:2 http://ftp.us.debian.org etch/main linux-kbuild-2.6.18 2.6.18-1 [168kB]
Get:3 http://ftp.us.debian.org etch/main linux-headers-2.6.18-3-486 2.6.18-7 [269kB]
Fetched 3457kB in 14s (243kB/s)
Selecting previously deselected package linux-headers-2.6.18-3.
(Reading database ... 88111 files and directories currently installed.)
Unpacking linux-headers-2.6.18-3 (from .../linux-headers-2.6.18-3_2.6.18-7_i386.deb) ...
Selecting previously deselected package linux-kbuild-2.6.18.
Unpacking linux-kbuild-2.6.18 (from .../linux-kbuild-2.6.18_2.6.18-1_i386.deb) ...
Selecting previously deselected package linux-headers-2.6.18-3-486.
Unpacking linux-headers-2.6.18-3-486 (from .../linux-headers-2.6.18-3-486_2.6.18-7_i386.deb) ...
Setting up linux-headers-2.6.18-3 (2.6.18-7) ...
Setting up linux-kbuild-2.6.18 (2.6.18-1) ...
Setting up linux-headers-2.6.18-3-486 (2.6.18-7) ...


With the headers installed, I downloaded the nvidia driver from:
www.nvidia.com/content/drivers/drivers.asp
I clicked the link for "Linux, FreeBSD and Solaris Drivers" and downloaded the latest version which is the NVIDIA-Linux-x86-1.0-9746 driver. It's a shell script and I saved it (Save Page As) to my /home directory (where I could find it again from the command line). To install it, you must run the script as root and you must stop X. Here are the commands to do that:

Code: Select all

Ctrl+Alt+F1
login: root
Password: <enter your root password> 

# /etc/init.d/kdm stop
# cd /home/michael		<insert your username, of course>
# sh NVIDIA-Linux-x86-1.0-9746-pkg2.run
As the NVIDIA shell script ran, I responded to the questions. Among other things, the script builds a kernel module, modifies the configuration and when the process is completed, brings me back to the command prompt. I rebooted.

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# reboot
With the nvidia driver installed, I logged on to a favorite webpage and scrolled down. It didn't look like waves on the screen as it refreshed. Success!


Desktop Configuration:
How you configure your desktop is purely a subjective matter. It includes wallpapers, screensavers, fonts, font size, and mouse cursors/pointers. Most of this is configured through the KDE Control Center. Some you can configure by right-clicking on the desktop and selecting “Configure Desktop” from the menu.

Regarding wallpapers, there are thousands available. A good place to start is www.kde-look.org. Another sites is www.gnome-look.org.

Unless you are an expert, it is best to install software from the Debian repositories. That photo of your son in his soccer uniform, however, the one you want to use as your desktop wallpaper, is not in the repositories. Here's one method for installing it as your wallpaper.

By default, Debian puts wallpapers in the /usr/share/wallpapers directory. Assume that your son's photo is on your Desktop and it's named "soccer.jpg". All that you need to do is login as root and copy it to the wallpapers directory. Here are the commands:

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$ su
$ Password:		<Enter root password>
# cd /home/michael/Desktop
# cp soccer.jpg /usr/share/wallpapers
Right click on the Desktop and select Configure Desktop. "Background" will be highlighted. From the "Picture" list box, select "soccer", click Apply and then OK. By the way, I always put a copy of my favorite wallpapers, photos, etc. in a directory on my /home partition, too. I've named it "images".

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# cp soccer.jpg /home/michael/images
I use the KPackage program (installed by default) to see what software is available, as it provides a description of the package you select. You can search for types of packages, too. For example, to find in the repositories what screensaver packages are available, type “screensaver” in the Search box (upper left hand corner). Here are some of the results.

kscreensaver, kscreensaver-xsavers, lockvc, electricsheep,innerspace.app, rss-glx, xscreensaver and xscreensaver-gl.

You can install these using KPackage or with the apt-get install command that I've used above.

For mouse cursors/pointers, type “cursor” in the Search box and some of the results are:

industrial-cursor-theme, icoutils, artwiz-cursor, big-cursor, chameleon-cursor-theme, comixcursors, crystalcursors and xcursor-themes. Again, you can install them with KPackage or with the apt-get install command.

Typically, I install more fonts. The bitstream-vera fonts are good.

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# apt-get install ttf-bitstream-vera
If you want Microsoft fonts, they're readily available.

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# apt-get install msttcorefonts
These are just two of many. Type "fonts" in the Search box of KPackage and you'll get a lengthy list.

After you install fonts, you select them with the Control Center. To select a different font:
K -> Control Center -> Appearances & Themes -> Fonts -> Adjust All Fonts. Check the Fonts box at the top and make your selection.

I like my fonts a little larger:
K -> Control Center -> Appearances & Themes -> Fonts -> Adjust All Fonts. I check the Size box at top, select 11 and press OK.

Printer Configuration:

There are two ways to configure a printer.

K -> Control Center -> Peripherals -> Printers -> Add -> Add Printer/Class, which brings up the Add Printer Wizard.

Or I can use my web browser and type in this URL: http://localhost:631/
I use the browser method because I think it’s easier.


Multimedia Software and Drivers:
To play audio CDs, Kaffeine, the media player for KDE, is all that you need in some cases.

Code: Select all

# apt-get install kaffeine
Here's the on-screen message that I got when I popped in "Mermaid Avenue" by Billy Bragg and Wilco.

******
Kaffeine-Xine...
Ok.
KDE...
Found version: 3.5.5
Ok.WIN32 Codecs...
No WIN32 codecs found in /usr/lib/win32. You're not able to play Windows Media 9 files, newer Real Media files and some less common formats. Download the codecs here: http://www.mplayerhq.hu.
libdvdcss...
libdvdcss not found. You're not able to play encrypted (most commercial) DVD's. You can get the library here (but using it may violate copyright regulations of your country!): http://developers.videolan.org/libdvdcss.
DVD Drive...
Ok.
DVB-Device...
No DVB-Devices found. The DVB related functions will be hidden.
Distribution...
Ok.
RESULT: Found some problems, but nevertheless Kaffeine may work.
*****

Without any assistance, Kaffeine played Mermaid Avenue just fine. And when I put in my "Revolution OS" DVD, it played, too. Most commercial DVDs, however, won't play with just Kaffeine. Consequently, if it's legal where you live, you can install the libdvdcss runtime libraries with:

Code: Select all

# apt-get install libdvdcss2
And while you're at it, you can install mplayer, which will let you play just about anything:

Code: Select all

# apt-get install mplayer
As mentioned above, WIN32 codecs are not installed by default. They are easy to install but there are legal ramifications. If you believe that you have a lawful right to use them, you can install them with:

Code: Select all

# apt-get install w32codecs
On a related note, Noatun plays MP3 files. It's another KDE media player and it's installed by default.

To install the Mozilla plugin (for viewing embedded video content on the web like cnn.com videos):

Code: Select all

# apt-get install mozilla-mplayer 
And for the Macromedia Flash Player plugin:

Code: Select all

# apt-get install flashplayer-mozilla

Other Software:
Although Etch installed more than 950 software packages by default, Debian offers more than 15,000 software packages in its repositories, so there is a program (or two or three) for just about anything you want to do. Why go anywhere else!

Here are some other software packages that you might consider installing: abiword, amarok, bastille, bzip2, cdrdao, dvd+rw-tools, ffmpeg, flac, f-spot, kaffeine-mozilla, knemo, ktorrent, liblame0, mc, mozplugger, p7zip-full, realplayer, streamtuner, sun-java5-plugin, unzip, unrar, and xmms. You can find descriptions in the KPackage program.


Credits:
Our Aussie friend sunrat first gave me the idea for this. You can find his Etch KDE setup at:
http://forums.debian.net/viewtopic.php?t=10876

I also found Alexander Grundner's article helpful, especially with the multimedia support.
http://www.ehomeupgrade.com/entry/2812/ ... tup_debian

1/7/07

Edited once to correct several formatting errors and once to correct typo in link.


Have I understood you correctly when you say grub will let me have more than one Linux distro on same hard drive or is it only windows versions please?

Regards Nico

pilgrim
Posts: 44
Joined: 2007-01-20 00:42

#19 Post by pilgrim »

michael7 wrote:Pas du joie, indeed. Sorry that you are having problems. Another install may be required. I'll post again later after I've had time to consider alternatives.
I think someone needs to show Nicoblue how to post. If he is reading this, he should use the "Edit" control at the top of his post and delete the entire quote of your OP.

Michael;

I took a shot at reinstalling etch. They don't make it easy.

When I get back to the Partitioning module, I am unable to proceed. On the "...options..." screen, I see my original partitioning table as per my installation yesterday. At the bottom, I am given 2 options:

- Undo changes to partitions
- Finish partitioning and write changes to disk.

If I choose "Undo..." I get a screen which includes : "WARNING: This will destroy all data on any partition you have removed as well as on the partitions that are going to be formatted.
The following partitions are going to be formatted:
"partition #2 of IDE1 master (hda) as swap".

There is no data there as far as I know, but the language doesn't tell me how to leave things 'stet' and proceed.

I tried "Finish...", and ended up with a red screen saying:
"No root file system is defined. Please correct this from the partitioning menu".

This screen locked solid and no keyboard (or mouse) commands were accepted.

Hard shut down => back to Windows.
pilgrim

I thimk, therefore I am.

User avatar
michael7
Posts: 120
Joined: 2005-05-14 22:33

Re: Debian Etch KDE Multimedia Installation

#20 Post by michael7 »

nicoblue wrote:Have I understood you correctly when you say grub will let me have more than one Linux distro on same hard drive or is it only windows versions please?
Yes, you can have several Linux distros installed on the same hard drive. You can also Windows and several Linux distros on the same hard drive.

For example, on this computer I have a 200 GB harddrive and I have 10 different distros installed on it: Etch, sidux, Fedora Core 5, PCLinuxOS, Mepis, DreamLinux, CentOS, Mandriva One, Kanotix, and Linux Mint. When I switch on my computer, I get a GRUB menu that has all of them listed and I can boot into any of them.

I have another computer with Windows XP, which I seldom turn on. If I desired, I could install numerous Linux distros on that computer, assuming I had the HD space. If you install Windows first, it's easy to add Linux to a second partition and dual boot. (Installing Windows second is often problematic because Windows doesn't play well with others.)
Live simply so that others may simply live.
Debian Social Contract

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