40.50 Dell OptiPlex GX150 (Fairmond)

A trial run of Debian GNU/Linux 3.0 using the GNOPPIX GNU/Linux live CD was attempted (25 Sep 2003). Booted just fine but the install to hard disk is still under development. Also trialled both the sarge (testing) netinst and the sid (unstable) install CD-1, but both failed. So used Debian 3.0r1 to install and upgraded immediately to unstable.

40.50.1 GNOPPIX 0.5.4-1

GNOPPIX version 0.5.4-1 was downloaded:

wget ftp://source.rfc822.org/pub/local/gnoppix/gnoppix-0.5.5-2.iso

Then booted with:

credativ lang=en wheelmouse screen=1280x1024

Works just fine. Choose to install to hard disk from the icon. This allowed the disk to be partitioned and configured, but there were problems on reboot with the tty1 printing / as -. So use a traditional install.

40.50.2 Sarge Netinst 25-Sep-2003 16:16

Try the current testing netinst:

wget http://gluck.debian.org/cdimage/testing/netinst/i386/sarge-i386-netinst.iso

Simply boot then choose English (Australia), us keyboard, cdrom, load kernel modules, installer modules (none chosen), skip PCMCIA, find network and configure, configure static network: fairmont, act.cmis.stir.au, 125.83.72.15 125.83.72.1, 105.229.8.169, 255.255.255.192, 105.229.8.190, mirror http US ftp.us.debian.org sarge, hardware and kernel drivers, partition (/dev/hda1 / 36GB ext2, Swap 1GB), create filesystems, base install, ERRORS….

40.50.3 Sid 09/21/03 00:58:00

wget ftp://ftp.fsn.hu/pub/CDROM-Images/debian-unofficial/sid/sid-i386-1.iso

Failed again in the installation process. Not ready yet!

40.50.4 Debian 3.0r1

Boot using Debian 3.0r1 CD-ROM with:

boot> bf24

Choose en, English (United States), qwerty/us, partition /dev/hda (/dev/hda1 / 36GB ext2, Swap 1GB), initialise swap, initialise partitions, modules (kernel/net 3c59x), network (fairmond, 105.229.8.169, 255.255.255.192, 105.229.8.190, act.cmis.stir.au, 125.83.72.15 125.83.72.1), base system, bootable (lilo in mbr), create a boot floppy, remove floppy and CD, reboot.

After reboot set up GMT, Australia/ACT, no md5 passwords, enable shadow passwords, root password, normal user: kayon, remove pcmcia, no PPP, apt from cdrom (insert 3.0r1 CD), no tasksel, no dselect, continue with package installation with defaults, exim: 2, fairmond.togaware.com, none, none, none, mailhost.togaware.com, kayon.

Base installation is complete. Install discover in case some hardware can still be identified (like network cards).

Now set up the system. First, apt-setup to add other sources of packages, in particular, to add unstable, and then install wajig. Install grub (grub-install /dev/hda; update-grub), remove lilo, and reboot. Then upgrade the whole distribution to unstable. Use tasksel to install Desktop (fails with abiword/abiword-gnome conflict, so install gnome and x-window-system instead), Linux Standard Base, File Server, Unix Server, Java, C/C++, Python, LaTeX, Scientific. Might also need: cupsys acroread acroread-plugin rubber.

40.50.5 Fairmond Specification

The lshw command (abbreviated) gives:

Spec Details
Hostname fairmond \
Address 105.229.8.169 \
Netmask 255.255.255.192 \
Broadcast 105.229.255.255 \
Gateway 105.229.8.190 \
DNS 125.83.72.15,125.83.72.1 \
Domain togaware.com \

\end{tabular}



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