Subject: Debian 1.1beta problems

From: Mark Phillips <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 12 Jun 1996 02:27:39 +1000

Hi,

I have recently installed debian (1.1beta) for the first time, my
previous system being Slackware 3.0.  I have had a number of problems
and would appreciate some help.

* My machine name is "destiny" and when trying to rlogin from destiny
to destiny I get the following problem:

> rlogin destiny -l root
destiny.phillips.com.au: Network is unreachable

could the problem be that in the installation setup, I specified my
machine as a nameserver - should I have not done this?

* Why do I automatically get an xterm coming up when I start X?  It
didn't happen with Slackware.

* I've installed color-ls but I still don't get color?  The same
for X.

* Why is pppd not setuid root, like the PPP-Howto says it should be?
Is the PPP-Howto the best document to read about PPP for debian - or
is there some debian specific documentation?

* Why is there no ppp-off script?

* When using dselect to install some software, I got a conflict
between cpp and gcc.  This doesn't make sense does it?  Surely you
need both?

* Is it true that dselect automatically updates to newer versions of
packages (if a newer version appears in the directory structure and
you run dselect)?  What do you do if you want to reinstall the same
version of a package - can you do it? (for example you might want to
re - set it up)

* I had some errors when doing a man:

Updating index cache for path 'usr/man'.  Wait...man can't open
/usr/man/man2/modules.2: No such file or directory
man: warning:/usr/man/man2/create-module.2 bad symlink or ROFF '.so'
request
...
...
... and more messages like this

Well that's enough problems for now.  Thanks in advance for your help.

Mark Phillips.

---

From: Syrus Nemat-Nasser <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 11 Jun 1996 19:36:05 -0700 (PDT)

> * I've installed color-ls but I still don't get color?  The same

color-ls must be set up to work.  The command "eval `dircolors`" will
enable it.  Read /usr/doc/color-ls/color-ls.README and/or man color-ls
and dircolors.

It is left to the system administrator whether to enable color-ls as the
system-wide default.  I just put enable it from my personal .cshrc file.

Luck.  Syrus.

----------------------------------------------------------
Syrus Nemat-Nasser <[email-masked]>    UCSD Physics Dept.

---

From: Rob Browning <[email-masked]>
Date: 11 Jun 1996 21:36:45 -0500

Mark Phillips <[email-masked]> writes:

Not sure about all your problems, but...

> didn't happen with Slackware.

This is the default for debian when you don't have your own
~/.xsession.  /etc/X11/Xsession is where this happens.  If you have
your own ~/.xsession then whatever's there will have control.

> between cpp and gcc.  This doesn't make sense does it?  Surely you

gcc provides cpp, so installing cpp if you already have gcc is
redundant, that's what dselect is telling you.  cpp is provided as a
separate package for systems that don't need to compile, but need the
preprocessor for other things.  (Some programs use cpp to preprocess
their own config files).
 
> version of a package - can you do it? (for example you might want to

I'm not real familiar with dselect (although I've been meaning to look
at it), so it's quite possible dselect will handle this, but you can
also always use the lower level command line tool, dpkg, for manual
tweaking.  See man dpkg.  You can install a single package via 
"dpkg --install foo.deb".

--
Rob

---

From: Rick Hawkins <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 11 Jun 1996 22:01:43 CDT

> "dpkg --install foo.deb".

deselect will default to updating, yes.  

At the very top of the scroll-list will be a section indicating that
there are installed packages for which newer versions are available.
THey are all selected (*).  YOu can hit = on this line, which will apply
"hold" to all of these packages (then again, why not update them?
there's usually a reason for the update).

using dpkg, you can downgrade as well; check the options on this. (dpkg
--help)

rick

---

From: Syrus Nemat-Nasser <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 11 Jun 1996 23:35:01 -0700 (PDT)

> I can help with a this one:

Maybe one of these days I'll remember that English is my native language.

> system-wide default.  I just put enable it from my personal .cshrc file.

Yah--what I just said.  [Bleep]!  Wish I could blame this one on late
night fatigue :-).

---

From: Rob Browning <[email-masked]>
Date: 12 Jun 1996 12:21:49 -0500

David Gaudine <[email-masked]> writes:

> This does work.  Since I don't know how to find the configuration
> programs for some package, I use dselect to remove the package and
> then to reinstall it.  I assume there's a better way, but this does
> work.

There's nothing too terribly wrong with that, but often a package will
tell you about it's config programs during the install process.
Failing that, or if you forget what it told you, you can also either
try reading the docs in /usr/doc/packagename, or more directly, try
"dpkg --listfiles packagename".

--
Rob

---

From: David Gaudine <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 12 Jun 1996 10:26:27 -0400

From: Rob Browning <[email-masked]>

   > version of a package - can you do it? (for example you might want to

This does work.  Since I don't know how to find the configuration programs
for some package, I use dselect to remove the package and then to reinstall it.
I assume there's a better way, but this does work.

---

From: Kevin M Bealer <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 13 Jun 1996 06:21:26 -0400 (EDT)

> "dpkg --listfiles packagename".

If you have the package on your drive, you can just dpkg -i (package).

Dselect uses options to prevent it reinstalling packages that are already
in... A "reinstall" options along with install;remove;purge would be nice...
(but it's not real critical).

dpkg -i (already there package)  is good when you are dealing with
"essential" packages and so on.  (the manual attention is good for base
packages anyway :) )

-------
BTW I'd like to say I really like the new "[S]elect" screen in dselect...
Especially the new/broken packages at the top.
=======

[email-masked]
You have new mail in /dev/null

---

From: Amos Shapira <[email-masked]>
Date: Sat, 15 Jun 1996 18:55:52 +0300

Mark Phillips <[email-masked]> write:
|I created my own .xsession, but still got an xterm.  It seems that
|_both_ /etc/X11/Xsession and ~/.xsession get run - is this right?
|Does this mean that the only way to stop the xterm automatically
|coming up is to edit /etc/X11/Xsession?

Not so.

/etc/X11/Xsession should run xterm (and attempt to run window managers
mentioned in /etc/X11/window-managers only if .xsession doesn't exist
_or isn't executable_ (look at lines 70-72 at /etc/X11/Xsession) OR
/etc/X11/config doesn't have a line which begins with
"allow-user-xsession" (which must be the default).

I'd suspect you forgot to make your .xsession excutable ("chmod +x
~/.xsession")

Cheers,

--Amos

--Amos Shapira                    | "Of course Australia was marked for
133 Shlomo Ben-Yosef st.          |  glory, for its people had been chosen
Jerusalem 93 805                  |  by the finest judges in England."
ISRAEL             [email-masked] |                     -- Anonymous

---

From: Mark Phillips <[email-masked]>
Date: Sat, 15 Jun 1996 08:36:59 +1000

>your own ~/.xsession then whatever's there will have control.

I created my own .xsession, but still got an xterm.  It seems that
_both_ /etc/X11/Xsession and ~/.xsession get run - is this right?
Does this mean that the only way to stop the xterm automatically
coming up is to edit /etc/X11/Xsession?

Thanks for your help,

Mark Phillips ([email-masked])