July 2008 Archives

A very warm welcome goes to Tim Patterson who has offered to write the occasional blog and share his Linux pursuits.  I've come to know Tim over the past several years in blog exchanges over at ZDNet as being a very knowledgeable and forthright individual.  He brings his special insights and seasoned experience to bear galvanized by a proud and passionate 'Debian way' of using Linux.

I look forward to reading more of what he has to say!

Welcome Tim!

With the target date looming for the Debian 'Lenny' stable release 
and  the Debian project's 15th birthday coming up on Aug. 16th (Debian Day)  I thought I'd spin-up the World's largest Linux Distribution.

What's it for?
The short answer is, 'whatever you want to use it for'. While those new to Linux may find the installation program to be slightly spartan an lacking in options, Debian is a great choice for servers and desktops.

Installation
For this installation I am using Debian testing AMD64 on an AMD Athlon X2 system. Due to the sheer size of this distribution Debian Lenny is available as 30 CDs or 5 DVDs. Thankfully it is not necessary to download all of them. The first CD or DVD will suffice. There are also KDE and xfce-specific .iso's available for download. There is also the option of a net-install .iso which includes the Debian installer and will download only the packages you choose to install. (a long process with a slow internet connection)

There are a few options available upon booting the install disk. Simply pressing return brings-up a console install. To start the installer in graphical mode type 'installgui'. For this install I am using DVD-1 and 'installgui'.

The installation is straightforward but does include a few frustrating issues. Setting up network (in this case wired Ethernet), root password and users, timezone, etc.. are all pretty standard. The partitioner offers options to use the entire disk, the largest contiguous free space, and LVM. When choosing the 'manual' option it is a good idea to have a basic knowledge of disks and partitioning. Unlike other distributions, the installer does not provide a graphical representation of the disks.

Debian installs the GNOME desktop environment by default. A glaring weak spot in the installer is the lack of an option to choose which DE to install. Most other distributions such as Mandriva, Fedora, and openSUSE allow you to choose between at least KDE or GNOME or both. This is not an issue for me personally as I usually install KDE, GNOME, and xfce and frequently switch between them. For those who wish to install and use KDE exclusively this can be frustrating. The boot option of 'expertgui' may offer a solution here but I haven't yet tested that option. If you wish to install and use KDE there is a KDE-specific .iso which should suit your needs.

Package selection is very limited with this installer. The installer offers a choice of package groups such as "server', 'desktop', 'laptop', etc... but does not allow for individual package selection. For instance, choosing 'server' installs both Samba and NFS along with AppleTalk. The default of installing everything in the category can lead to bloat and unnecessary disk usage.

After installing the base system the installer offers the option of using a network repository. Selecting this option will download and install the latest packages but, depending on your connection speed may take considerably longer. In the case of the KDE-specific .iso, choosing to use a network repository will actually download and install GNOME. If you are using this option DO NOT use network repos. Packages can updated after install.

Installed System
After completing the install and logging-in the system boots into a Debian-branded GNOME desktop. The system is fast and very stable. Debian is very suitable for CLI system configuration. For those who prefer configuration via GUI there are a number of GNOME tools which will allow for this. Unlike 'one-stop' configuration tools such as SUSE's YaST it is necessary to have a familiarity of which tools perform what configuration tasks. This can be daunting for new Linux users. If you are new to Linux configuring some parts of your system will require reading documentation.

Installing proprietary Nvidia drivers in Debian is not trivial. There are a number of ways to do this. Unlike Ubuntu's 'restricted drivers' and openSUSE 11's 'one-click install' getting these drivers installed will require some pain.

The install includes kernel 2.6.24, GNOME 2.22.2, OpenOffice.org 2.4.1, and as of this install, iceweasel (re-branded firefox) 2.0.0.14. Although 3.0 will be available if it's not already.

Package Management
This is an area where Debian really shines. APT (Advanced Package Tool) is a great package management system. APT can be invoked via a console or through Synaptic. An intuitive graphical interface makes package management as easy as it can be. Debian also includes Ubuntu's 'add/remove programs' applet. With Synaptic, adding repositories is a breeze. One problem I encountered while installing KDE involved a failure to recognize the install media. When attempting to grab some packages from the media APT failed. It was necessary to disable the disk option in the repository list to force downloading of all packages chosen for install.

Multimedia
As with other major distributions, support for popular multimedia formats is lacking due to patent concerns. Outside of the US this problem is easily solved by adding the debian-multimedia.org repository to APT's repository list.                                               

To Sum Up
All of your favorite applications should work without a hitch. The system is very stable.              
GNOME will notify you of any available updates. Curiously, to get update notifications using KDE, I have to install Adept.

I don't recommend Debian for those who are new to Linux. Instead they would  be better served with distributions such as Ubuntu, openSUSE, and Mandriva.  However Debian is a great choice for those with a basic knowledge of Linux. Although Debian may require more manual (console) configuration. Reading the documentation will become necessary at times. There is no 'all-in-one' tool for configuration such as SUSE's YaST or Mandriva's Control Center. Multimedia restraints are no different than those of other large distributions but this is easier to remedy on Debian than most others.

Debian is a great choice for a server or desktop. You can count on Debian's legendary stability and quality. There are good reasons behind the fact that Debian is the basis of so many other distros.                              

I've been running openSUSE 11.0 64 bit for about a month now.  Everything has been ok, but I discovered the other day that installing the 32-bit static version of Skype 2.0.0.72 doesn't work.

Specifically, when I place a call, the other person receiving my call can see me, but cannot hear me.  I hear them fine.

I've Googled for several days trying to locate a solution to no avail.
This begs the question--why isn't there a 64-bit compile of Skype 2.x for Linux.  From my perspective it shouldn't be a major project to accomplish this.

Skype Folks: please make a 64-bit compile available.

If anybody has a 'workaround' to get the 32-bit working with openSUSE 11.0 x86_64, I'd appreciate having your feedback.

Thanks

It's been quite a while since I've seen my old Friend GNOME.  We had good times together.  My first Linux Distro encounter came with Red Hat Fedora Core 1.  The impressions I had then still remain.  The excitement of a new operating system with a GUI, different from Windows, yet fresh, clean, and decidedly usable from the outset were the hallmarks of GNOME then and now.

A few weeks ago, I made the switch from openSUSE 10.3 32-bit to openSUSE 11.0 64-bit. 

At this point, I feel the decision to go 64-bit was a good one, but I have since had concerns about the direction that KDE Desktop has charted with KDE4.  So, I opted not to install KDE4 and chose KDE 3.5.9 instead.  To be fair, the KDE Development Team have undertaken some very ambitious changes, some of which will really need more time to be fully worked out than was anticipated.  I've got high hopes for KDE 4.x--when it reaches that plateau of stability and replicates 100% of the 3.5.9 functionality, I have every confidence that it will exceed my expectations.  Until then, I patiently wait.

Out of curiosity, I decided to try GNOME again--yes, you can have more than one GUI installed in openSUSE (at the login screen, click on Switch to see your choices) .  Among the many improvements made to YaST Control Center in Software Management is 'Patterns'.  Selecting Patterns displays logical categories of software.  Doing so, you can then simply pick GNOME Desktop and all related packages for GNOME and install together in one click.

The GUI simply sits along side the others present on your system and you can switch at will depending on your particular needs.  And so I made the GNOME install and switched to it.

Thus far, I haven't found the need or had the impulse to switch back to KDE to do anything in my day-to-day activities.  I was pleasantly surprised to find the Desktop Icons I had for KDE were replicated on GNOME's Desktop.  A survey of listed applications, from the Panel,  Computer 'More Applications', included in its list all of the KDE apps I had installed, which means that without leaving the GNOME environment you can have the best of 'both worlds'.  Want to use Konqueror File Manager instead of Nautilus?  It's there.  Want to use KInternet instead of NetworkManager?  It's there.  Want to use Konsole instead of GNOME Terminal?  Yep.  You get the idea.  Taking the best from both brings you an amalgam that can't be beat.  GNOME makes it easy to do so and for the most part I find its design as easy to use as KDE if not easier in some respects.  I'm feeling the integration of Compiz is better in GNOME as well.

GNOME, old friend, it's nice to see you again and I trust our relationship will last for many, many years to come.
 

Hat's off to the GNOME Development Team!