Debian Reference Osamu Aoki <[email protected]> Editor: David Sewell <[email protected]> ‘Authors’ on page 173 CVS, Thu, 3 Oct 2002 22:43:22 -0600 Abstract This Debian Reference (http://qref.sourceforge.net/) is intended to provide a broad overview of the Debian system as a post-installation user’s guide. It covers many aspects of sys- tem administration through shell-command examples. Basic tutorials, tips, and other information are provided for topics including fundamental concepts of the Debian system, system installation hints, Debian package management, the Linux kernel under Debian, system tuning, building a gateway, text editors, CVS, programming, and GnuPG for non-developers. Copyright Notice Copyright © 2001–2002 by Osamu Aoki <[email protected]>. Copyright (Chapter 2) © 1996–2001 by Software in the Public Interest. This document may used under the terms of the GNU General Public License version 2 or higher. (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/gpl.html) Permission is granted to make and distribute verbatim copies of this document provided the copy- right notice and this permission notice are preserved on all copies. Permission is granted to copy and distribute modified versions of this document under the con- ditions for verbatim copying, provided that the entire resulting derived work is distributed under the terms of a permission notice identical to this one. Permission is granted to copy and distribute translations of this document into another language, under the above conditions for modified versions, except that this permission notice may be in- cluded in translations approved by the Free Software Foundation instead of in the original English. i Contents 1 Preface 1 1.1 Official document ....................................... 1 1.2 Document conventions .................................... 2 1.3 Basic setup ........................................... 2 1.4 Basics of the Debian distributions .............................. 3 2 Debian fundamentals 5 2.1 The Debian archives ..................................... 5 2.1.1 Directory structures ................................. 5 2.1.2 Debian distributions ................................. 6 2.1.3 The stable distribution .............................. 6 2.1.4 The testing distribution .............................. 7 2.1.5 The unstable distribution ............................. 7 2.1.6 The frozen distribution .............................. 8 2.1.7 Debian distribution codenames ........................... 8 2.1.8 Codenames used in the past ............................. 8 2.1.9 The source for codenames .............................. 9 2.1.10 The pool directory .................................. 9 2.1.11 Historical notes about sid ............................. 9 2.1.12 Uploaded packages in incoming ......................... 10 2.1.13 Retrieving an older package ............................. 10 CONTENTS ii 2.1.14 Architecture sections ................................. 10 2.1.15 The source code .................................... 11 2.2 The Debian package management system ......................... 11 2.2.1 Overview of Debian packages ........................... 11 2.2.2 Debian package format ............................... 12 2.2.3 Naming conventions for Debian package filenames ............... 12 2.2.4 Preservation of the local configuration ....................... 13 2.2.5 Debian maintenance scripts ............................. 14 2.2.6 Package priorities ................................... 14 2.2.7 Virtual packages ................................... 15 2.2.8 Package dependencies ................................ 15 2.2.9 The meaning of “pre-depends” ........................... 16 2.2.10 Package status ..................................... 17 2.2.11 Holding back packages from an upgrade ..................... 17 2.2.12 Source packages ................................... 18 2.2.13 Building binary packages from a source package ................. 18 2.2.14 Creating new Debian packages ........................... 19 2.3 Upgrading a Debian system ................................. 19 2.3.1 Methods for upgrading a Debian system ..................... 19 2.3.2 Package management tools overview ....................... 20 2.3.3 dpkg .......................................... 20 2.3.4 APT ........................................... 20 2.3.5 dselect ........................................ 21 2.3.6 Upgrading a running system ............................ 21 2.3.7 Downloaded and cached .deb archive files .................... 21 2.3.8 Record-keeping for upgrades ............................ 21 2.4 The Debian boot process ................................... 22 2.4.1 The init program .................................. 22 2.4.2 Runlevels ....................................... 22 CONTENTS iii 2.4.3 Customizing the boot process ............................ 23 2.5 Supporting diversity ..................................... 23 2.6 Internationalization ...................................... 24 2.7 Debian and the kernel .................................... 24 2.7.1 Compiling a kernel from non-Debian source ................... 24 2.7.2 Tools to build custom kernels ............................ 25 2.7.3 Alternative boot loaders ............................... 25 2.7.4 Custom boot floppies ................................ 25 2.7.5 Special provisions for dealing with modules ................... 26 2.7.6 De-installing an old kernel package ........................ 26 3 Debian System installation hints 27 3.1 General Linux system installation hints .......................... 27 3.1.1 Hardware compatibility basics ........................... 27 3.1.2 Determining a PC’s hardware and chip set .................... 28 3.1.3 Determining a PC’s hardware via Debian ..................... 28 3.1.4 Determining a PC’s hardware via other OSs ................... 28 3.1.5 A Lilo myth ...................................... 29 3.1.6 Choice of boot floppies ................................ 29 3.1.7 Installation ....................................... 29 3.1.8 Hosts and IP to use for LAN ............................ 30 3.1.9 User accounts ..................................... 31 3.1.10 Creating file systems ................................. 31 3.1.11 DRAM memory guidelines ............................. 34 3.1.12 Swap space ...................................... 35 3.2 Bash configuration ...................................... 35 3.3 Mouse configuration ..................................... 35 3.3.1 PS2 mice ........................................ 35 3.3.2 USB mice ....................................... 36 CONTENTS iv 3.4 NFS configuration ....................................... 37 3.5 Samba configuration ..................................... 37 3.6 Printer configuration ..................................... 38 3.6.1 lpr/lpd ........................................ 38 3.6.2 CUPS™ ........................................ 39 3.7 Other host installation hints ................................. 39 3.7.1 Install a few more packages after initial install .................. 39 3.7.2 Modules ........................................ 40 3.7.3 CD-RW basic setup .................................. 41 3.7.4 Large memory and auto power-off ......................... 41 3.7.5 Strange access problems with some websites ................... 42 3.7.6 Dial-up PPP configuration .............................. 42 3.7.7 Other configuration files to tweak in /etc .................... 43 4 Debian tutorials 45 4.1 Information sources ...................................... 45 4.2 The Linux console ....................................... 45 4.2.1 Login .......................................... 45 4.2.2 Add a user account .................................. 46 4.2.3 How to shut down .................................. 46 4.2.4 Command-line editing ................................ 47 4.2.5 Very basic commands to remember ........................ 47 4.2.6 X Window System .................................. 48 4.2.7 Important keyboard commands .......................... 48 4.3 Midnight Commander (MC) ................................. 48 4.3.1 Install MC ....................................... 48 4.3.2 Start MC ........................................ 49 4.3.3 File manager ..................................... 49 4.3.4 Command-line tricks ................................. 49 CONTENTS v 4.3.5 Editor ......................................... 50 4.3.6 Viewer ......................................... 51 4.3.7 Auto-start features .................................. 51 4.3.8 FTP virtual file system ................................ 51 4.4 Further study ......................................... 51 5 Upgrading a distribution 53 5.1 Transition preparation (“stable” to “testing”) ....................... 53 5.2 Upgrade to “testing” ..................................... 54 5.2.1 Best upgrade practice using dselect ....................... 55 5.2.2 Deprecated upgrade practice using apt-get ................... 55 5.3 Woody configuration ..................................... 55 5.4 Optimized sources.list ................................. 56 6 Debian package management 57 6.1 Introduction .......................................... 57 6.1.1 Main tools ....................................... 57 6.1.2 Convenience tools .................................. 58 6.2 Debian survival commands ................................. 58 6.2.1 Install task with tasksel .............................. 58 6.2.2 Install system with APT ............................... 58 6.2.3 Upgrade system with APT