Debian Linux

Debian uses .deb binary packages and you manually install and uninstall them using dpkg tool.

dpkg has lots of options but maybe the most important or used ones are:

-i

Installs and configures a package

-r

Removes the package but keeps the configuration files on your systems, thus you may reinstall it later and does not need to configure it again

-p

Purges a package, meaning it will remove the package and also all configuration files

How to use it

If you want to use the fastest mirror to download the .deb files you may need to upgrade or update your Debian machines, you have to remember that not always your nearest server is the fastest one, and that could be because not only the distance the server is from you but also the network congestion is a factor when talking about network speed.

For instance, your ISP may have a direct satellite connection to another country, and thus your nearest server should be in that country, to avoid you the hassle to get that info, Debian give you some tools, I will touch two of them here.

If you have more than one PC using Debian or Ubuntu, you know that upgrading them makes most of the time download the same files more than once, and that is not good for your bandwidth.

I usually forward my requests to my Squid (in my office) and to my Personal proxy Polipo at home, it works, but apt-cacher may be a better approach as the way it decides if a file stays or is erased from the cache is more appropriate for .deb package than in Squid or Polipo, as they are optimized for web surfing.

Well, after that introduction, lets go to the interesting part of the post.

Some months ago I have posted an article showing how to use audacity to edit mp3 files with Linux, this time it is almost the same but we will use our Linux Operating system command line to do that.

We are going to see two different options:

1. mpgtx

To install this program under Debian

sudo aptitude install mpgtx

Now if you want to trim a mp3 file into 10 pieces just enter this command

mpgtx -10 input.mp3 -o output

The Debian menu systems really saves you a lot of time, when you are trying to find a new installed software.

Yes you can run the applications from the command line, as I was doing these days on my Laptop with Fluxbox, but if you are using Debian or Ubuntu you can automatically create the menus using the Debian Menu System.

To install it (if you are using Debian might be installed)

sudo aptitude install menu

There are six different runlevels in Linux, there could be more than six, but for compatibility reasons six are the default.

I have used RedHat and Debian based Linux, more specifically Fedora and Ubuntu and Debian itself, I have noticed that there is a difference in the runlevels on this different Linux distributions.

Well but first let's define the runlevels:

Runlevels in Linux are seven and they are:

- 0 = halt
- 1 = single user
- 2 = CLI, multi-user, no net
- 3 = CLI, multi-user, networked
- 4 = open
- 5 = GUI, multi-user, networked
- 6 = reboot

After one year of the release of Debian Etch the Security support for Sarge is going to be terminated as previously announced, as informed three days ago in the Debian page.

Here is part of the announcement.

Continuing with my Lightweight Debian configuration, today I wanted to add sound and music to it, I have 4 Gigs of MP3, and I needed to hear them.

I always prefer to use the package manager instead of compiling from sources, mmh maybe compiling is more creates more efficient programs, than using binaries, but in that case, we better use Gentoo or Sabayon, but if we are using Debian/Ubuntu, or Centos/Fedora, I still think is better to use binaries.

If you want to keep always the latest available copy of Skype on your computer, not having to check the skype home page every time, you may want to use the skype repository for Debian, which also works for Ubuntu, Check this How to

First add this line to your /etc/apt/sources.list

deb http://download.skype.com/linux/repos/debian/ stable non-free

which can be done with this command:

sudo echo "deb http://download.skype.com/linux/repos/debian/ stable non-free" >> /etc/apt/sources.list

As I have mentioned in previous posts, I use to work on Desktops PCs, one in my office and one in my Home, I use my Laptop (an old IBM T30) only when I travel, and as I like to travel light, this also goes for my Laptop, so here I will show how do I configured my Laptop with Debian Lenny, and just the necesary software for my job while abroad.

First, I made a list of the necessary software:

- Firefox
- Thunderbird
- Word Processor
- Spread Sheet
- Skype
- MSN chat client
- MP3 player
- Vmware

This is for work and fun, now lets install first the system

We the Linux users, are always interacting with Windows users, and one of the most difficult part of that interaction is the exchange of documents, that they create and edit mostly with Microsoft Office, and we use Open Office, and I think that even if they use OpenOffice, they will have access to the system's fonts, so, we need MS fonts installed in our Linux Operating System, in order to look at the documents in the same way they are looking at it.

This is really good about Debian, its 3.1 version (old Stable) is still getting updates, and maintained, which are great news for all those servers which are still using the old Sarge.

You can get the new updated CDs from here

Debian has released another security upgrade to the Etch which is now release 2 so Debian Etch is now Debian 4.0r2

These updates are basically security updates, and does not constitute another Debian version, all you need to do is:

apt-get update

apt-get dist-upgrade

With AptOnCd you can backup and restore your .deb packages and store them in a CD or DVD or just in an ISO image in your USB Drive.

aptoncd, will help you still be able to use apt, aptitude or synaptic even, with no, or poor Internet conection.

The Debian project founded on 1993 by Ian Murdock was named that way because of the three first letters of his wife's name Deborah and his own name Ian Debian. Later on 1996 Bruce Perens took the command of the project, it appears that he worked at that time in Pixar and since that year all the next Debian releases came with a code name of one character of Toy Story

Maybe a lot of people already know this, but I will write it down here, in case anyone forget it, or of somebody does not know already.

To upgrade the Linux Debian Stable Etch to testing Lenny, just need to follow these two steps.

I have wrote a long time ago about Looking Glass a Sun/Java 3D Desktop for Linux, yesterday I installed on my Debian Etch, using now my latest ATI drivers.

Installing it on a Debian Linux box is really easy, lets see how to do it.

When you need to compile software on Linux you should take care of the dependencies, if they are not satisfied you will not be able to compile and use the software.

If you are doing this on Debian or Ubuntu, you may have apt-cache to help you.

Today I was trying to be sure that if I upgraded my Debian Etch to Lenny I was going to be able to install OpenArena from repositories.

To do that I changed in my

/etc/apt/sources.list

all Etch words for Lenny.