Teaching myself Debian

BoomAM

BoomAM

BoomAM

Soldato
Joined
5 Jul 2003
Posts
16,206
Location
Atlanta, USA
Morning all,
As a little side project, im teaching myself Debian off an old laptop at work.

First order of business, repositories.
Default Debian install doesn't include ANY beyond the updates one from Debian themselves. I've googled about for some good repository lists and whatnot, but they are all different and none of the ones ive tried either A) work or B) have any software on them! :(

Can anyone recommend a good sources.list to use?

Also, how to i install a driver for the WiFi card?
As said, stock Debian install practically nothing (disappointing), so whilst the installer sees the WiFi card, it wont actually do anything with it, telling me it needs a firmware driver on a USB stick, which ive given it, however it does nothing with that either.

Thanks in advance all.
 
No need to go searching for random repositories. You'll be able to get 99.9% of software from the official Deb repos.

As for WiFi, google Debian + make & model.
 
KIA said:
No need to go searching for random repositories. You'll be able to get 99.9% of software from the official Deb repos.
Click to expand...
Yes, but as said, they arnt actually listed anywhere!
Theres articules in the official debian wiki about the structure of them, but nothing about what they actually are!
No worries now, trial and error lead me to the URLs i needed.

As for WiFi, google Debian + make & model.
Click to expand...
Same as above. Tells me very little info. And none of the info about HOW to do.

The problem is that if Debian cant connect to a mirror on its install, the base system installs practically nothing! Once the URLs were in and it could grab some more packages, most of the functionality returned, including the ability to install a driver without faffing about!

My only trouble now is Cacti. Keep getting 404 errors...
 
lspci and lsusb are good starters for finding the wifi card.

<snip>
12:00.0 Network controller: Atheros Communications Inc. AR9285 Wireless Network Adapter (PCI-Express) (rev 01)
</snip>

that is what mine shows for my wifi, and once you know that then there are loads of websites to help.

Debian isnt the must beginer friendly, i would have said use ubuntu/mint and learn how to fix things once your break them.

Apt sources http://www.debian.org/mirror/list find your local mirror :)
 
Last edited:
Nunzio said:
Apt sources http://www.debian.org/mirror/list find your local mirror :)
Click to expand...
Thanks,
No UK sources listed unless im being daft?

Cacti sorted as well now. :)
All up and running.:cool:

current sources list:
## Debian security updates:
deb http://security.debian.org/ squeeze/updates main contrib non-free
deb-src ftp.gb.debian.org/debian/ squeeze/updates main contrib non-free

## Debian.org:
deb ftp.gb.debian.org/debian/ squeeze main contrib non-free
deb-src ftp.gb.debian.org/debian/ squeeze main contrib non-free

## Debian Official Repository Mirror squeeze:
deb ftp://debian.oregonstate.edu/debian/ squeeze main contrib non-free
deb-src ftp://debian.oregonstate.edu/debian/ squeeze main contrib non-free
deb ftp://debian.oregonstate.edu/debian/ squeeze-proposed-updates main contrib non-free
deb-src ftp://debian.oregonstate.edu/debian/ squeeze-proposed-updates main contrib non-free

## Debian UK mirror:
deb ftp.uk.debian.org/debian/ squeeze contrib
deb-src ftp.uk.debian.org/debian/ squeeze contrib
Click to expand...
However it errors on a lot of those....

Annoyingly, i used this: http://debgen.simplylinux.ch/
And it generated this for me
deb http://ftp.uk.debian.org/debian stable main contrib non-free
deb-src http://ftp.uk.debian.org/debian stable main contrib non-free

deb http://ftp.debian.org/debian/ squeeze-updates main contrib non-free
deb-src http://ftp.debian.org/debian/ squeeze-updates main contrib non-free

deb http://security.debian.org/ squeeze/updates main contrib non-free
deb-src http://security.debian.org/ squeeze/updates main contrib non-free

##Third Parties Repos
##Debian Mozilla team
http://backports.debian.org/debian-backports squeeze-backports main
##Debian Multimedia
deb http://www.las.ic.unicamp.br/pub/debian-multimedia/ stable main
##Ajenti
http://repo.ajenti.org/debian main main
##The Opera .deb Repository
http://deb.opera.com/opera/ stable non-free
##Google Chrome
http://dl.google.com/linux/deb/ stable non-free main
##deb-multimedia.org
http://www.deb-multimedia.org squeeze main non-free
Click to expand...
However apt-get update errors on ALL of the third party repositories.
And the repositories at the top return similar errors to this:

W: Failed to fetch http://security.debian.org/dists/squeeze/updates/non-free/binary-amd64/Packages.gz Cannot initiate the connection to 8080:80 (0.0.31.144). - connect (22: Invalid argument)


Ideas?
 
Last edited:
you need to add "deb" before the repository location if it supplies binary packages, or "deb-src" if it supplies source code.

e.g.
Code: 
##The Opera .deb Repository
[COLOR="Red"]deb[/COLOR] http://deb.opera.com/opera/ stable non-free
 
Evilpaul said:
you need to add "deb" before the repository location if it supplies binary packages, or "deb-src" if it supplies source code.

e.g.
Code: 
##The Opera .deb Repository
[COLOR="Red"]deb[/COLOR] http://deb.opera.com/opera/ stable non-free
Click to expand...

Tried that, doesnt work.
The second sources.list, what needs correcting on that?

Im also getting a lot of these:
W: Failed to fetch http://security.debian.org/dists/squ...64/Packages.gz Cannot initiate the connection to 8080:80 (0.0.31.144). - connect (22: Invalid argument)

Any ideas on that too?
 
Last edited:
That looks like it cant reach it. Can you do a lookup on security.debian.org?

$ host security.debian.org
security.debian.org has address 149.20.20.6
security.debian.org has address 128.31.0.36
security.debian.org has address 128.101.240.212
security.debian.org has IPv6 address 2001:4f8:8:36::6
security.debian.org has IPv6 address 2607:ea00:101:3c0b:207:e9ff:fe00:e595
security.debian.org mail is handled by 10 chopin.debian.org
 
BoomAM said:
W: Failed to fetch http://security.debian.org/dists/squ...64/Packages.gz Cannot initiate the connection to 8080:80 (0.0.31.144). - connect (22: Invalid argument)

Any ideas on that too?
Click to expand...

I've just checked that repository and it does exist, and the file is accessible. So there is no issue there.

I've done a quick google about the error message and the only reference I can see are to people who have a proxy configured. Check your environment variables and confirm your proxy settings.


edit:
We use a Linux box at work with setting similar to these for the proxy:

Environment variables:
Code: 
http_proxy=http://user:password@ipaddr:port/
ftp_proxy=http://user:password@ipaddr:port/
https_proxy=http://user:password@ipaddr:port/

/etc/apt/apt.conf:
Code: 
Acquire::http::proxy "http://user:password@ipaddr:port/";
Acquire::https::proxy "http://user:password@ipaddr:port/";
Acquire::ftp::proxy "http://user:password@ipaddr:port/";

The "user:password@" sections are optional.
 
Last edited:
Evilpaul said:
I've just checked that repository and it does exist, and the file is accessible. So there is no issue there.

I've done a quick google about the error message and the only reference I can see are to people who have a proxy configured. Check your environment variables and confirm your proxy settings.


edit:
We use a Linux box at work with setting similar to these for the proxy:

Environment variables:
Code: 
http_proxy=http://user:password@ipaddr:port/
ftp_proxy=http://user:password@ipaddr:port/
https_proxy=http://user:password@ipaddr:port/

/etc/apt/apt.conf:
Code: 
Acquire::http::proxy "http://user:password@ipaddr:port/";
Acquire::https::proxy "http://user:password@ipaddr:port/";
Acquire::ftp::proxy "http://user:password@ipaddr:port/";

The "user:password@" sections are optional.
Click to expand...
Ive just brought the system home, no proxy is set, and still the error occurs. :-(
 
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