debian partly up

Bloddy well miss semagic!!

One more of the Inspiron 9300 installation stories.. installed windows xp home edition first. then started with debian..

IMPORTANT: http://fluffi.info/inspiron9300/single/ gives a lot of info.. i'd try and fill the missing links..

I got the sarge dvds (both of them ) and installed a basic install -
I just got a shell prompt with *no* audio/video/anyotherthing..
here is the saga so far:

hmm.. anyways.. I have my debian useable level at least..
some interesting things:

apt-get commands and learnings: http://homepage.mac.com/sao1/fink/commands.html

I got the nvidia drivers, the ipw2200 drivers , interestingly these are valid for 2.6 kernel and above.

Debian's Sarge installation is with 2.4.27 kernel!! this is painful. so the thing i did was to download 2.6.15-rc6, applied a patch to it,
here is how to compile the kernel and create a .deb package - pretty nice to do a dpkg -i and apt-get remove package_name and play around..
libata patch: http://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/people/jgarzik/libata/2.6.15-rc6-libata1.patch.gz
matching kernel: http://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/v2.6/testing/linux-2.6.15-rc6.tar.bz2
Here is my .config: http://www.geocities.com/crecmca98/Linux/dot_config_inspiron9300_2.6.15_rc6.txt

Two things here:
read the ipw2200 requirements+ the ata requirements too..+ what ever u'd like to add..
I have also applied the libata patch for 2.6.15-rc6
make menuconfig (with all the required stuff)
make-kpkg clean
fakeroot make-kpkg --revision=custom.1.0 kernel_image
cd ../
dpkg -i kernel-image-2.4.23_custom.1.0_i386.deb


Things are not done now, U need to edit the grub file /boot/grub/menu.lst and ensure that u set it up for hda2/sda.. as required for the root partition. the reason for this is that compared to 2.4 kernel, the 2.6 kernel got itself a nice problem with scsi detecting it for sda and the default grub config gives a dumbo kernel panic.

Now, to get nvidia and ipw2200 to work, u can use module-assistant - this is the easiest way out.

apt-get install module-assistant

module-assistant

and follow the instructions.. hah - just remember that once u select it, u need to build and install it too.. :) wont tell u more than that.. sweat a bit dude...

OR:
apt-get install nvidia-kernel-source
Compile the module to a deb file... lotsa place to search for this - google it..
dpkg -i nvidia-kernel-custom
depmod
modprobe nvidia
apt-get install nvidia-settings nvidia-glx


for working with ipw2200, u better disable the default ieee80211 drivers (as they are already obsolete!!), update from the ipw2200 site - and with lots of .config restrictions.. U get the driver here: http://ipw2200.sourceforge.net/

This is where I had to recompile the kernel (since no one had told me to look here before compiling the kernel first hand...

then u need to update ur lil synaptic touchpad driver - failed bad here.. dunno still why this does not work, but the normal ps2 or compatible mouse still works!!

Once ur install is all ok... bit of hacking into /etc/X11/XF86Config-4 is required.. read http://fluffi.info/inspiron9300/single/ the mousy part failed..

#BACKUP --- OLD SETTINGS --
Section "InputDevice"
Identifier "Configured Mouse"
Driver "mouse"
Option "CorePointer"
Option "Device" "/dev/input/mice"
Option "Protocol" "ImPS/2"
Option "Emulate3Buttons" "true"
Option "ZAxisMapping" "4 5"
EndSection

Section "ServerLayout"
Identifier "Default Layout"
Screen "Panel"
InputDevice "Generic Keyboard"
#InputDevice "ALPS Touchpad"
InputDevice "Configured Mouse"

InputDevice "USB Mouse"
EndSection

Section "DRI"
Mode 0666
EndSection



The ALPS Touchpad never worked for me!!

Then I kicked out xdm and put kdm in place (apt-get install again).

edited /etc/network/interfaces

# The loopback network interface
auto lo
iface lo inet loopback

# The primary network interface
#auto eth0
iface eth0 inet dhcp

#Wireless Lan
auto eth1
iface eth1 inet dhcp
wireless_mode managed
wireless_channel 1
wireless_essid ARCHANID
wlan_ng_authtype open
wireless_key 2G:EM:70:DE:5F:B3:BD:AA:57:FB:0D:FF:F0

My 802.11 G type Netgear router is set with SSID ARCHANID is set for open WEP 128 Bit and Key Index 1, and the key is stated, I changed the default channel from 11 to 1.

I usually work from my bedroom and would never like the ethernet to start off on its own, hence the "auto eth0" is commented out.

I got gaim working, gaim-1.5.0 - but install libssl before u ./configure and install, since msn and google chat requires this.. now, am connected to google,yahoo and msn from linux.. heh heh..

gmplayer is also working - albiet with lotsa choppy audio/video on it not worth it.. check the mentioned site on dvdcss etc.. but the best part is mpg123 which is my loved mp3 player - it is still up and running..
dvd works out of the box..

one lil thing on kdm: edit /etc/kde3/kdm/backgroundrc to set the background image to what u like..
I love this:Wallpaper=linux_addict.jpg
physical file: /usr/share/wallpapers/linux_addict.jpg

things i love abt debian -
apt-get and kpackage when i feel guish..
better integration in KDE3.3

hate:
kinda not out of the box feeling (well.. thats why i dumped kubuntu and tried it anyways).
bad artsdsp - choppy audio,lousy multimedia (esp video) esperience.

PM needs a big cleanup - windows seems way ahead here..

but compared to 1999 when i last had a linux desktop to play with.. things are a hell lot easier today (mebbe I learnt a bit working on omap kernel which i could use here I guess).. stilll i dont feel the ease of working I do have in windows.. mebbe let me review this a week later...

Adios... weekend... and Appy New Year everyone..