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Having just installed Sarge, I am wondering what to learn next.

It seems important to set up Synaptic with useful repositories.

I found a huge list of unofficial ones here:
http://www.apt-get.org/main/

But - as a newbie - I am attracted to official ones - at least at first.
Where are they?
--
Chris

On Fri, 14 Oct 2005 20:11:31 +0100, Chris
<nospam@[127.0.0.1]> wrote:
> Having just installed Sarge, I am wondering what to learn next.
>
> It seems important to set up Synaptic with useful repositories.
>
> I found a huge list of unofficial ones here:
> http://www.apt-get.org/main/
>
> But - as a newbie - I am attracted to official ones - at least at first.
> Where are they?

You can run apt-setup or apt-spy to choose an official repository.
Apt-spy tests the known repositories in a country or region to find the
one with the fastest download speed. You should also have
security.debian.org on your list to get security updates.

--
I had no shoes and I pitied myself. Then I met a man who had no feet,
so I took his shoes.
-- Dave Barry

>>>>> Chris writes:

> Having just installed Sarge, I am wondering what to learn next.

Well if you are new to Linux, I would recommend reading some of the
online and locally installed documentation, of which there is an
enormous amount. The following will provide a useful start, however (in
no particular order):

The Apt-howto docs, which will give you a good understanding of the
package management system.
The Debian Reference. This should be required reading as it contains
much useful material and tips designed for the new Debian user. It can
be found in /usr/share/doc/Debian/reference/ or as the
debian-reference-en package.
The Rute Book (available in the rutebook Debian package) is rather a good
and fairly comprehensive reference.

The Shell (almost universally Bash on Linux systems) is well worth
learning - pretty much essential IMO.

> It seems important to set up Synaptic with useful repositories.

> I found a huge list of unofficial ones here:
> http://www.apt-get.org/main/

> But - as a newbie - I am attracted to official ones - at least at first.

I would definitely stick with the official mirrors until you are more
familiar with the system.

> Where are they?

There's a package called netselect-apt which chooses the fastest Debian
mirror by downloading the full mirror list to determine the best mirrors
to use from where you are located.

Good luck!
--
Neil.

Bill Marcum wrote:

> On Fri, 14 Oct 2005 20:11:31 +0100, Chris
> <nospam@[127.0.0.1]> wrote:
>> Having just installed Sarge, I am wondering what to learn next.
>>
>> It seems important to set up Synaptic with useful repositories.
>>
>> I found a huge list of unofficial ones here:
>> http://www.apt-get.org/main/
>>
>> But - as a newbie - I am attracted to official ones - at least at first.
>> Where are they?
>
> You can run apt-setup or apt-spy to choose an official repository.
> Apt-spy tests the known repositories in a country or region to find the
> one with the fastest download speed. You should also have
> security.debian.org on your list to get security updates.
>
The apt-how to is good reading and it's only 41 pages. It will explain
about a file on your hard drive /etc/apt/sources.list. Mine currently
looks like this:

debian1:/etc/apt$ cat sources.list
#deb file:///cdrom/ sarge main

deb ftp://ftp.uwsg.indiana.edu/linux/debian/ stable main
deb-src ftp://ftp.uwsg.indiana.edu/linux/debian/ stable main

deb http://security.debian.org/ stable/updates main


The first line starts with a "#", which means it is commented out (ignored).

At work since I can't get the downloads during an install because of
corporates proxy server I just took the 14 CD's and scanned them all in so
that apt-get would know which disk to prompt for when performing installs.

So I used:
debian1: apt-cdrom add

It prompts you to insert a cdrom disk and press enter. Once I was finished
with all 14 issuing commands for installing packages worked. The first
attempt was:

debian1: apt-get install openoffice.org

It spit out a screen full of stuff about dependencies and what was needed
and asked if I wanted to continue [Y/n]. I entered Y, it asked for disk 2
and off it went. When the prompt returned I logged into KDE and there were
all of the shortcuts under Office to OpenOffice stuff.

You can play so much, but the documentation is all out there and most is
worth reading. At least scan through it so that you know where the
reference information is when you need it.

Good Luck

In article <87y84vtxwt.fsf@phun.phasmic.org>, Neil Woods
<cnw+usenet@pobox.com> writes
>>>>>> Chris writes:
>
>> Having just installed Sarge, I am wondering what to learn next.
>
>Well if you are new to Linux, I would recommend reading some of the
>online and locally installed documentation, of which there is an
>enormous amount. The following will provide a useful start, however (in
>no particular order):
>The Apt-howto docs, which will give you a good understanding of the
>package management system.
>The Debian Reference. This should be required reading as it contains
>much useful material and tips designed for the new Debian user. It can
>be found in /usr/share/doc/Debian/reference/ or as the
>debian-reference-en package.
>The Rute Book (available in the rutebook Debian package) is rather a good
>and fairly comprehensive reference.
>The Shell (almost universally Bash on Linux systems) is well worth
>learning - pretty much essential IMO.

Neil - your suggestions are very welcome - and exactly what I was
looking for. There is a lot of reading to do - and that's OK - I enjoy
it - but I'll probably have to get a laptop so that I can sit in a
comfortable armchair rather than at a desk.

>> It seems important to set up Synaptic with useful repositories.
>> I found a huge list of unofficial ones here:
>> http://www.apt-get.org/main/
>> But - as a newbie - I am attracted to official ones - at least at first.

>There's a package called netselect-apt which chooses the fastest Debian
>mirror by downloading the full mirror list to determine the best mirrors
>to use from where you are located.
>Good luck!

The force seems to be with me at the moment. After a long period of
frustration, there appears to be a hint of light at the end of the
tunnel.

I read the apt-howto and got netselect-apt working.
I haven't yet installed the file it came up with - because I don't want
to lose the reference to the DVD and the security repository - and so
I'm thinking of adding its suggestions to the list in Synaptic.

Would it be better NOT to have the DVD listed - in case files from the
web are more up-to-date?
--
Chris

>>>>> Chris writes:

> I read the apt-howto and got netselect-apt working.
> I haven't yet installed the file it came up with - because I don't want
> to lose the reference to the DVD and the security repository - and so
> I'm thinking of adding its suggestions to the list in Synaptic.

> Would it be better NOT to have the DVD listed - in case files from the
> web are more up-to-date?

You might as well keep the reference to the DVD. Any updates will
override the ones on the DVD in any case, and it's useful (and much
faster) to be able to install new packages directly from the DVD should
you so wish.
--
Neil.
Bunker's Admonition:
You cannot buy beer; you can only rent it.

In article <87br1pt44b.fsf@phun.phasmic.org>, Neil Woods
<cnw+usenet@pobox.com> writes
>>>>>> Chris writes:
>
>> I read the apt-howto and got netselect-apt working.
>> I haven't yet installed the file it came up with - because I don't want
>> to lose the reference to the DVD and the security repository - and so
>> I'm thinking of adding its suggestions to the list in Synaptic.
>> Would it be better NOT to have the DVD listed - in case files from the
>> web are more up-to-date?

>You might as well keep the reference to the DVD. Any updates will
>override the ones on the DVD in any case, and it's useful (and much
>faster) to be able to install new packages directly from the DVD should
>you so wish.

Thanks, Neil. That's all done and working perfectly. I added the
repositories in Synaptic. Very straightforward.
--
Chris