Re: debian install/xserver

Tony -

> I'm new to this list, so this may have been posted already, I dunno.
> But, how about setting up the xserver on a debian install?
> I've tried three times with different hardware configuratinos and have not
> successfully done this, yet, once.

   The Debian installer is the #1 complaint about Debian.  Even Debian 
maintainers at speeches state "everybody always complains about the 
installer".  The main problem about the installer is the lack of hardware 
detection during the install process.  The 2nd problem is the lack of a 
graphical interface during the install.

   I've said it before, I'll say it again: Debian was the most difficult to 
install of all the distributions that I've tried...  But once I've installed 
it, I've never had to install it again on that machine.

   I probably tried half a dozen times to install it before I succeeded the 
first time.  As a matter of fact I'm unable to install it on my mother's at 
the present time due to her having an HPT374 IDE controller, which the Debian 
install image properly detects but then fails due to "too many IDE devices".  
I have to figure out why that's happening.
   RedHat 9.0 properly detects her IDE controller and will install - but I'm 
really not happy with it and want to switch off of that ASAP.

   All I can say concerning the Debian installer and the lack of X-Windows 
auto set-up: it's a bitch of a problem.  If you yourself wanted to write a 
graphical installer that did the X-Windows setup: would you be able to deal 
with the liability?  If you make something, you know ahead of time that 
people are going to complain if it doesn't work for _their_ computer, and you 
cannot know ahead of time that it will work for sure - so do you just risk it 
and hope that it works and deal with the consequences?
   I think you get the idea.  It's a tough problem.
   So I never bitch about it, because as far as I'm concerned - it's partly my 
fault for not fixing it (even though I've never had anything to do with it 
yet).

   Knoppix is a Debian-based distro that has hardware auto-detection, and 
there's a script that you can run to have it install on the hard drive.
   Maybe you should give that a shot and see if you like that.  [I use it for 
an emergency boot CD.]

	- Chris

-- 
Chris Knadle
Chris.Knadle-15hjz6xD4c1Wk0Htik3J/[email protected]