Debian Etch 4.0r6 and a noob.

[TheInternal]

Hey everyone.

I've wanted to try linux and recently inherited an old box to experiment on with it. Sadly, Ubuntu wouldn't install after research and a few hours of trying, so I gave Debian Etch 4.0r6 a shot.

I added some new hardware, which made Debian not want to boot, so I did a fresh install to get my system running from the same CD-ROM ISO I had used previously.

On my previous install, I had managed to find some repository URLs that worked and had all the lib files and programs I wanted (gimp, open office, blender, BOINC) and all the dependancies. And yes, I'm on the Anandtech BOINC team.

Sadly, I no longer know what those URLs were nor am I confident in my ability to add them to synaptic (I think I may be messing up on the syntax when adding a custom URL in synaptic).

Could some recommend a few URLs and write them in a format I could copy and paste to synaptic? I was blown away by synaptic once I got it working the last install. After spending two hours searching for URLs, I've had no luck, sadly. The Google repository wasn't accessible, even after adding their key.

I've not yet learned how to do manual installs (tried, but it's not intuitive, and I want to get basics installed before poking at manual installs).

Pretty much all the documentation and guides opperate under the assumption that apt-get and/or repositories are working, but don't tell you what to do when they aren't!

 

[Brazen]

I can't imagine ever needing anything other then the default debian repositories.

 

[NoShangriLa]

Gimp & Open Office should be in the the default repositorie, and I'm not sure about blender, BOINC but you coul check the DFSG & Non-DFSG compatible Non-free repositorie for them. If you can't find it under those repositories, then try add "DEB [package path]" to the /etc/apt/sources.list

But my hunch is that you are not looking hard enought to find it.

Try the below in SU mode before editing the sources.list if it doesn't work then try it again after sources.list edit.

aptitude update

aptitude install [package name]

or

apt-get update

apt-get install [package name]

 

[Crusty]

Originally posted by: NoShangriLa

Gimp & Open Office should be in the the default repositorie, and I'm not sure about blender, BOINC but you coul check the DFSG & Non-DFSG compatible Non-free repositorie for them. If you can't find it under those repositories, then try add "DEB [package path]" to the /etc/apt/sources.list

But my hunch is that you are not looking hard enought to find it.

Try the below in SU mode before editing the sources.list if it doesn't work then try it again after sources.list edit.

aptitude update

aptitude install [package name]

or

apt-get update

apt-get install [package name]

Instead of guessing what the name of the package you can use apt-cache search [search string] to find packages to install first, and then use apt-get to install them.

 

[yelo333]

Originally posted by: TheInternal

On my previous install, I had managed to find some repository URLs that worked and had all the lib files and programs I wanted (gimp, open office, blender, BOINC) and all the dependancies. And yes, I'm on the Anandtech BOINC team.

I'm fairly positive all this stuff is in the main debian repos. After you run update in synaptic, look for the following packages:

gimp
openoffice.org
blender
boinc-client

Or, if that isn't working for you, try the following from the command line (as root):

# aptitude update
# aptitude install gimp openoffice.org blender boinc-client

That's all you should need to do.

 

[TheInternal]

*sigh*

apt-get update doesn't do anything. tried it a ton of times.

I've also tried running apt installs in terminal and root terminal to no avail. (programs aren't found).

I get a message saying "E: Malformed line 9 in source list /etc/apt/sources.list (dist)" when I do try to update.

there is only ONE default repository listed in the ISO debian distro in synaptic: http://security.debian.org/ (both a binary and a source version)

it doesn't contain the dependancues of all the programs I've tried to install, such as gimp, blender, boinc, and openoffice. I'm familiar with the search function, and I know how to look for packages. the problem is they either aren't there, or are missing some dependancies (.lib files mostly).

and I've not even been able to access that repository for the last 24 hours or so for some reason. I get a message saying:

E: Malformed line 8 in source list /etc/apt/sources.list (dist)
E: The list of sources could not be read.
Go to the repository dialog to correct the problem.
E: Malformed line 8 in source list /etc/apt/sources.list (dist)
E: Unable to lock the list directory

...when I try to refresh synaptic, with only the default repository in the list.

I've spent well over 12 hours on this, so I find it rather infuriating to hear someone say I'm not trying... googling, debian websites, reading forums, poking at different stuff.
This is, in fact, my furst and only forum/list mail post. I've gotten everything else done on my own.

I said I've never touched linux before, and it's frustrating to see the forum replies also opperating under the assumptions that the repositories listed in my debian ISO should be working.

They aren't.

I'll try single user mode. That's about the only thing I've not previously read to try.

... and yes, my connection is working. I typed all my entries to this thread from debian.

 

[TheInternal]

well, after slapping in a new processor and a reformat and reinstall, the repositories are working fine, and open office was installed by default. Perhaps I have a bad stick of RAM or something like that in this old clunker. still, it seems rather odd to me.I guess I'll have to run some extensive diagnostics.

 

[Crusty]

Doesn't sound like that at all, did you edit /etc/apt/sources.list by hand at any point? The error message you were getting indicates there was a syntax error in your /etc/apt/sources.list file. That file tells aptitude WHERE to get it's packages from, if it can't figure that out then you can't install any packages.

 

[yelo333]

First, I'm sorry if my post came off as condescending -- it was not intended in that way at all. I was just listing out the steps I would take if I wanted to install the software you listed. If my steps sounded simple, it's because those are the only steps I know about. I'm certainly no expert.

Glad to hear you got it working! If I were you, I wouldn't worry about hardware diagnostics at this point. As Crusty said, it does indeed sound like a syntax error in your /etc/apt/sources.list file. After you edit that file, it's a good idea to run an `aptitude update` to make sure everything still works. If not, then you can fix it while your changes are still fresh in your mind.

Oh, and feel free to post questions. This subforum really doesn't get enough traffic these days.

 

[TheInternal]

thanks for the replies guys, and no hard feelings yelo333 . As I've continued to slowly learn more from trial and error, I was able to finally get Ubuntu installed on the old clunker (which I have decided to name "Uggy", being an old beige box and all). I had to do a irqpoll and acpi=force to get the default installer to run properly, but after it did, things went nicely. My next linux project will probably be either A) learning how to manually install a package without a program manager (doing it command line, just to know how that works) or B) setting up the box as not just a dedicated BOINC box, but a router as well.

I'm guessing that it was indeed some sort of file corruption or whatnot that caused a glitch in the apt-get source list. I never edited it by hand, though I did try to add some URLs (that didn't work) via synaptic at one point on the second install. The first install and second install wouldn't apt-get update in the terminal. The third debian install seemed to work pretty well. Honestly not sure what changed on the installs. Perhaps I selected some additional packages on install that had more information/repositories?

I may make a new post for inquiries into where to start/what program to use for the linux router. I've never had a dedicated router (having used my main computer as a gateway, essentially) and only have (what I consider) a basic understanding of networking.

Once again, thanks for taking the time to reply.

On an unrelated note. That crappy old PCCHIPS 817L motherboard I'm using for Uggy was a retro flashback. I was wondering why the new XP 2000+ chip wasn't registering properly. Turns out I had to set a manual jumper for the CPU frequency. Sadly, the stick of 512MB OCZ performance DDR RAM wouldn't post (despite setting TONS of jumpers), so I had to stick with the paltry 256 MB of SDRAM (yes, the motherboard could do either/or).

I think I can safely say I don't miss manual jumpers much.