[ale] Losing Ubuntu
Damon L. Chesser
damon at damtek.com
Mon Aug 16 09:24:41 EDT 2010
On Mon, 2010-08-16 at 01:29 -0400, Joshua wrote:
> Thanks for the pointers. I will probably stick with Debian Lenny
> (stable) for now. I need this machine for college courses and I don't
> want to have to spend precious study time fixing things that break or
> stop working with Debian Sid.
>
> I might eventually experiment with sid once I get another computer and
> more experience with linux. I am not currently prepared to deal with
> whatever fallout comes along from using Debian unstable.
>
> I do really like Debian with LXDE. My system actually functions at a
> speed I can tolerate. I would like to know what the display (monitor)
> manager is with KDE though. Reason being that when I am running KDE I
> can get my LVDS and VGA0 to work as a twin view desktop and not just clone.
>
> Gnome is unable to let me do that with out fussing over xorg.conf or
> Xrandr, which I don't want to deal with. With KDE it just works on the
> fly. Someone suggested that KDE might edit xorg.conf or something like
> that, but I have not seen it be permanent.
>
> Anyway, for whatever reason, LXDE uses Gnome behind Openbox it seems.
> This leaves me wondering how I can get the KDE display functionality, at
> least long enough to setup xorg.conf or Xrandr.
>
> Does that make sense? I may have to learn how to add KDE, remove Gnome,
> rework openbox to point to KDE for its settings and move on from there.
> Not sure if that is what I want to do though.
>
> Any thoughts?
A few, none of them helpful: xorg.conf is pretty much auto-magically
configured now-a-days. If you pull out or re-name xorg.conf, your X
will probably start. KDE would just config xorg.conf on the fly and not
write a file. You can use xorg.conf to add functionality but the hard
coded stuff is mostly not needed any more. You can add synaptics touch
pad parameters for example (Two finger scroll on a touch pad, circular
scrolling, etc).
As for adding KDE, aptitude install kde-desktop IIRC will install kde.
You can have gnome and kde. Look at xfce4 and openbox (flux, blackbox,
as well). If you do that, aptitude will ask you what display manager
you want, gdm or kdm. I always picked gdm (the devil I know), but it
will not matter which you pick, as all the WM will be there for your
choosing at log in.
IF this box is "mission critical", then yes, stay with Lenny. That is
what stable is for. Wait a month or three, a new stable will be
released as testing is in a freeze now. Make sure your sources point to
"lenny" and NOT to stable or you will wake up one day to find massive
changes when you do an aptitude update. The change from one stable to
another should be a planned change, not a surprise, you need to check
the readme and known issues in case you actually need to use the box and
something breaks.
Subscribe to the debian-users mailing list to find out how to get dual
monitors set up. What is your video card? That makes a big difference
on HOW you get there.
>
> Damon L. Chesser wrote:
> > On Mon, 2010-08-16 at 00:23 -0400, Joshua wrote:
> >
> >> I am now a sudoer. It was really not hard at all.
> >>
> >> using su root I successfully edited visudo and now I am good to go.
> >>
> >> I also successfully learned how to move my /home from the 10GB root
> >> partition I to the old 45GB /home partition I used with Ubuntu. For
> >> some reason during the install and while running debian I could not use
> >> the partition. The installer would not let me use it without formatting
> >> and debian would not mount it, said directory did not exist. I probably
> >> just need to mount it manually or something, but I wanted to clean out
> >> all the old crap anyway so I just loaded a live CD, copied the stuff I
> >> wanted to a flash drive. Then I rebooted into debian, used my new sudo
> >> powers to run gparted -- formated the partition to ext3.
> >>
> >> Then I logged out, tried to use Alt+F1 to get a terminal but no luck, so
> >> I changed sessions to a failsafe terminal. Using su root I used
> >>
> >> mv /home /home.bak
> >> mkdir /home
> >> mount -t ext3 /dev/hda8 /home
> >> cp -a /home.bak/* /home
> >>
> >> edited the fstab with a /dev/hda8 /home ext3
> >> defaults 0 0
> >>
> >> rebooted and yeah I have a 45GB /home... cheers.
> >>
> >> Next I had to do some more work by installing fuse-utils and ntfs-3g and
> >> using fstab again to auto mount my old windows partition.
> >>
> >> I do believe that I am coming along.
> >>
> >> I like the response time and stability of debian more than ubuntu, but I
> >> do miss having all the apps and repos that ubuntu has. Like the
> >> chromium-browser is only in sid.
> >>
> >
> > aahh-hemmm: Debian has MORE repos and apps then Ubuntu, by thousands.
> > Check out Debian Mulitmedia http://debian-multimedia.org keep up to
> > date with things at Debian Planet: http://planet.debian.org
> >
> > Go here for Chromium: http://www.google.com/chrome don't know if it
> > will install in Stable or not, but perhaps Debian multimedia has it?
> >
> > Current Debian stable is about three years old (again, IIRC) so it is a
> > bit stable for a desktop, but it is also fully functional. For Ubuntu
> > flavor, you need Sid, but if it breaks, you get to keep all the pieces.
> >
> >
> >> I made the mistake of adding sid to my /etc/apt/sources.list running a
> >> apt-get update upgrade and broke my system.
> >>
> >
> > Broke is a bit vague. aptitude full-upgrades can be ugly, but only once
> > did it fully make my system non-functional. It's kinda of a
> > self-regulator: If you can't work apt-get, dpkg (especially dpkg -i
> > --force-overwrite) apt-get install -f you might not be able to run Sid,
> > then you will not experience Sid in a negative way. Practice in a
> > virtual machine, if you can do KVM that would be the full Linux way and
> > bring the vm from stable to unstable. When you get it, you can bring
> > your box up, if you want.
> >
> >
> >> had to reinstall.
> >>
> >
> > No, you just did not know how to fix it, but from your perspective, it
> > amounts to the same thing.
> >
> > Next time, post the error messages from dpkg, or apt-get, I and many
> > more who know more then me can assist you, plus there is a debian-user
> > mailing list.
> >
> >
> >> won't do
> >> that again. All just to get chromium-browser without having to manually
> >> install dependencies. Oh well, live and learn.
> >>
> >> Overall it has been a great experience. I will keep on truckin'.
> >>
> >> Thanks for all the help.
> >>
> >> Joshua
> >>
> >> wolf at wolfhalton.info wrote:
> >>
> >>> I use the group approach, then all I have to do is add accounts to the
> >>> admin group to make them sudoers.
> >>>
> >>> -----Original Message-----
> >>> *From*: Damon L. Chesser <damon at damtek.com
> >>> <mailto:%22Damon%20L.%20Chesser%22%20%3cdamon at damtek.com%3e>>
> >>> *Reply-to*: damon at damtek.com, Atlanta Linux Enthusiasts - Yes! We run
> >>> Linux! <ale at ale.org>
> >>> *To*: Atlanta Linux Enthusiasts - Yes! We run Linux! <ale at ale.org
> >>> <mailto:Atlanta%20Linux%20Enthusiasts%20-%20Yes%21%20We%20run%20Linux%21%20%3cale at ale.org%3e>>
> >>> *Subject*: Re: [ale] Losing Ubuntu
> >>> *Date*: Sun, 15 Aug 2010 14:12:28 -0400
> >>>
> >>> On Sun, 2010-08-15 at 13:51 -0400, Damon L. Chesser wrote:
> >>>
> >>>> On Sun, 2010-08-15 at 13:04 -0400, Joshua Roberts wrote:
> >>>>
> >>>>> ah I had forgotten about the su command. I guess I don't really need
> >>>>> to deal with any of this. I can just su to root whenever I want to
> >>>>> change stuff and then back to my account when I just want to use
> >>>>> stuff.
> >>>>>
> >>>>> And I tried editing the kernel parameters and I kept getting Error 11
> >>>>> unrecognized command or something like that. I think I will stick
> >>>>> with the su instead of using sudo.
> >>>>>
> >>>> Well, seeing the other responses to your sudo/su/root question, I am
> >>>> wondering if I am right, at least I am covered, I did say "IIRC".
> >>>>
> >>> Some more thoughts on su vs sudo: Since you went to the trouble of
> >>> disabling root login, you might want to use sudo: Every instance of
> >>> sudo is tracked in the logs, who invoked it, what command was run, but
> >>> su is NOT covered. It will only show foo became root, then it will show
> >>> you root ran bar (maybe), but not who was root when bar was run. Visudo
> >>> is really easy, just the vi portion is hard, and then only if you don't
> >>> know how to use vi. The one liner I showed you in an earlier post will
> >>> work for you. If you wanted to be fancy you could use a group instead
> >>> of a user name: $wheel ALL=(ALL) NOPASSWORD ALL will allow all users
> >>> in the wheel group to use sudo with out a password.
> >>> $wheel ALL=(ALL) ALL will allow all users in the wheel group to run any
> >>> command from any computer (using ssh) with a password.
> >>>
> >>> usermod -G $USERNAME wheel will add a user to the group wheel
> >>> (substitute the username for $USERNAME) when run as root.
> >>>
> >>> HTH
> >>>
> >>>>> Thanks for the help. I will see if I can figure out how to fix some
> >>>>> of the other issues I am having, if not I will ask more questions.
> >>>>> Thanks for all the help.
> >>>>>
> >>>>>
> >>>>> Joshua
> >>>>>
> >>>>> On Sun, Aug 15, 2010 at 11:52 AM, Damon L. Chesser <damon at damtek.com <mailto:damon at damtek.com>>
> >>>>> wrote:
> >>>>> On Sun, 2010-08-15 at 01:50 -0400, Joshua Roberts wrote:
> >>>>> > Well, I have installed Debian with Lxde. I like the openbox
> >>>>> desktop.
> >>>>> > But here begins the work. I may need to reinstall to make
> >>>>> my life
> >>>>> > easier. I chose to not allow root login on this machine.
> >>>>>
> >>>>>
> >>>>> You still have root access, IIRC (I have never dissallowed
> >>>>> root logon my
> >>>>> desktop, what's the point?) you just need to su to root then
> >>>>> run
> >>>>> "visudo"
> >>>>>
> >>>>> add a line that says this:
> >>>>>
> >>>>> $USERNAME ALL=(ALL) ALL
> >>>>>
> >>>>> substitute your username for $USERNAME. visudo takes the same
> >>>>> commands
> >>>>> as vi. Save, log out, log in, test with sudo ifconfig
> >>>>>
> >>>>>
> >>>>>
> >>>>> > It also seems that I, joshua the user, am not allowed to
> >>>>> access the
> >>>>> > sudo command. I am not in the sudoers file. First I have
> >>>>> seen that.
> >>>>> > From what I have read I am going to need to boot into a live
> >>>>> CD and
> >>>>> > edit the file. Or I can do a minimal boot into /bin/sh and
> >>>>> then mount
> >>>>> > some stuff that I need to edit the file. Either way it
> >>>>> seems like it
> >>>>> > is going to be some work.
> >>>>> >
> >>>>> > Does anyone have any tips about how to best accomplish this
> >>>>> task of
> >>>>> > giving myself sudo access without a huge headache. Maybe I
> >>>>> am just
> >>>>> > really tired because the instructions for the sudo file look
> >>>>> really
> >>>>> > confusing. Even worse than Xorg or Xranr. Anyway, I am
> >>>>> giong to bed.
> >>>>> > I will fight with it some more another day. Until then I
> >>>>> will have to
> >>>>> > live with what I have since I cannot install anything else.
> >>>>> >
> >>>>> > Yeah for me. I managed to F up my first real linux
> >>>>> install. ( After
> >>>>> > this experience I do not really count Ubuntu as a serious
> >>>>> linux
> >>>>> > install.)
> >>>>>
> >>>>>
> >>>>> my first Debian install (potato?) took me 30 days to get X up
> >>>>> an
> >>>>> running. You are doing fine (and Linux is getting
> >>>>> exponentially better
> >>>>> and easier to configure).
> >>>>>
> >>>>> >
> >>>>> > Joshua
> >>>>> >
> >>>>> > On Fri, Aug 13, 2010 at 7:45 PM, Rev. Johnny Healey
> >>>>> > <rev.null at gmail.com <mailto:rev.null at gmail.com>> wrote:
> >>>>> > Ubuntu is debian unstable unstable.
> >>>>> >
> >>>>> >
> >>>>> > On Aug 13, 2010 10:47 AM, "jrtroberts"
> >>>>> <jrtroberts at gmail.com <mailto:jrtroberts at gmail.com>>
> >>>>> > wrote:
> >>>>> > > I have decided to stop using ubuntu and Try Debian
> >>>>> directly.
> >>>>> > Not sure
> >>>>> > > how that will affect my linux experience, but I do
> >>>>> not see
> >>>>> > it being all
> >>>>> > > that bad.
> >>>>> >
> >>>>> > > _______________________________________________
> >>>>> > > Ale mailing list
> >>>>> > > Ale at ale.org <mailto:Ale at ale.org>
> >>>>> > > http://mail.ale.org/mailman/listinfo/ale
> >>>>> > > See JOBS, ANNOUNCE and SCHOOLS lists at
> >>>>> > > http://mail.ale.org/mailman/listinfo
> >>>>> >
> >>>>> >
> >>>>> > _______________________________________________
> >>>>> > Ale mailing list
> >>>>> > Ale at ale.org <mailto:Ale at ale.org>
> >>>>> > http://mail.ale.org/mailman/listinfo/ale
> >>>>> > See JOBS, ANNOUNCE and SCHOOLS lists at
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> >>>>> >
> >>>>> >
> >>>>> > _______________________________________________
> >>>>> > Ale mailing list
> >>>>> > Ale at ale.org <mailto:Ale at ale.org>
> >>>>> > http://mail.ale.org/mailman/listinfo/ale
> >>>>> > See JOBS, ANNOUNCE and SCHOOLS lists at
> >>>>> > http://mail.ale.org/mailman/listinfo
> >>>>>
> >>>>>
> >>>>>
> >>>>> --
> >>>>> Damon
> >>>>> damon at damtek.com <mailto:damon at damtek.com>
> >>>>>
> >>>>>
> >>>>> _______________________________________________
> >>>>> Ale mailing list
> >>>>> Ale at ale.org <mailto:Ale at ale.org>
> >>>>> http://mail.ale.org/mailman/listinfo/ale
> >>>>> See JOBS, ANNOUNCE and SCHOOLS lists at
> >>>>> http://mail.ale.org/mailman/listinfo
> >>>>>
> >>>>>
> >>>>>
> >>>>
> >>>
> >>>
> >>> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >>>
> >>> _______________________________________________
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> >>> http://mail.ale.org/mailman/listinfo/ale
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> >>>
> >>>
> >> _______________________________________________
> >> Ale mailing list
> >> Ale at ale.org
> >> http://mail.ale.org/mailman/listinfo/ale
> >> See JOBS, ANNOUNCE and SCHOOLS lists at
> >> http://mail.ale.org/mailman/listinfo
> >>
> >
> >
> >
>
--
Damon
damon at damtek.com
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