Debian is a community driven GNU/Linux distribution first announced 1993. It is well known for its package management system APT and large number of packages. Many other distributions are influenced or originate from it, like Ubuntu or Knoppix.
4
votes
4answers
145 views
Is it possible to determine what is inside Debian package without installing it?
I need a markdown library for development - based on package names I could not understand which one I should install...
den@playground:~$ sudo aptitude search markdown
p html2markdown ...
4
votes
3answers
146 views
How can I run a command for a list of packages?
I tried to install Gnome 3 on Debian Testing following this explanation. However, this didn't work and left me without any graphical user interface.
At the moment I try to fix that and I realised ...
4
votes
3answers
267 views
What would be a good choice for an elastic file system (for adding storage at a later date)?
I'm currently running a Debian 6.0 server with EXT3, but I'd like to move over to Arch. It's being used as a file server right now with a 1TB drive in it (of which 650GB in it is used). What I'd like ...
4
votes
3answers
542 views
How to list currently not installed packages?
I'd like to output a list of all currently not installed packages (they are visible in Synaptic for example) using only shell commands. How do I do this?
Thanks!
4
votes
3answers
2k views
What's the currently recommended way to install node.js on Debian?
I've found a few different methods on the web, but some of the articles are quite old, and I'm concerned that the methods they describe have been superceded.
Can anyone tell me what the currently ...
4
votes
5answers
2k views
/etc/resolv.conf changes during reboot
My ISP asked me to use custom nameserver settings. I have placed these in /etc/resolv.conf. Unfortunately, every time I reboot the computer, the contents of this file is changed. To connect to the ...
4
votes
1answer
558 views
The difference between deb versus deb-src in sources.list
I don't understand the difference between these two lines in my sources.list, please explain:
deb http://mirror.optus.net/debian/ testing main contrib non-free
versus
deb-src ...
4
votes
3answers
2k views
apt-get - autoremove wants to uninstall Gnome
As empathy 2.30 in Debian Wheezy didn't meet all my preferences I tried out empathy 3.1 from experimental, using the command:
apt-get -t experimental install empathy
I had to find out, this version ...
4
votes
1answer
1k views
How to make a distro be fullscreen on VirtualBox?
I'm running Debian as host and I fail to get Debian, Ubuntu, and Fedora guests to be fullscreen. Changing video memory didn't help.
NOTES:
I haven't tried any other distro
I didn't create WinXP ...
4
votes
2answers
131 views
When is it safe to disconnect my external HDD?
In Windows, there's an option to "safely remove hardware".
Ignoring the fact that it almost always fails, and that most of the time I simply have to plug the device out, I get the initiative behind ...
4
votes
2answers
66 views
Determining the Password Status of a User
I have a debian box that I connect to via SSH. I have removed the password from the users root, and my personal account using the instructions here, and set up a public/private key pair so I can log ...
4
votes
3answers
348 views
Debian + KVM: Which version to use? Stable or “new”?
I have Debian 6.0.4 (Squeeze) x64. Nowadays I use KVM stable package from apt-get.
Could you recommend me using a compiled newest or newer version instead of using the old one KVM package from Debian ...
4
votes
1answer
364 views
How can I access a directory outside a chroot from within it?
I have a user which is chrooted to her home directory, but I want her to also be able to manage files within /var/www. As such, I did the following:
root@server:/home/username# ln -s /var/www www
...
4
votes
2answers
2k views
Can't find smbfs package in Debian Wheezy
In squeeze there was a package smbfs for mounting samba filesystems. In wheezy this is no longer present. What is the new package name? Is there a general formula to solve problems like this?
4
votes
5answers
959 views
How to clean up unnecessary files
Please suggest me any particular unnecessary file that I can clean to back everything to normal condition(temporarily). (i.e. any log or archieve or anything ). My var/log has only 40MB and Home ...
4
votes
3answers
3k views
How to add repository from shell in Debian?
In Ubuntu one can add a repository to apt-get via the following command -
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:yannubuntu/boot-repair
As Ubuntu is based on Debian code base, I was expecting that the same ...
4
votes
1answer
806 views
Aptitude on Debian 6.0.4 “media change” to CD ROM
I've just installed Debian 6.0.4 on VirtualBox, and I'm trying to install g++. So, into the terminal I typed:
aptitude install build-essential
But it's trying to get the package from disk:
Media ...
4
votes
1answer
912 views
Which shell should I learn for FreeBSD and Debian?
I have read many articles that say the official shell in FreeBSD is tcsh, and in Debian, its dash. However, when I either echo $shell (FreeBSD) or env in Debian, it says that the shell is csh in the ...
4
votes
2answers
2k views
How do I temporary change my keyboard layout on Debian? (no X)
How can I quickly change my keyboard layout between US and German?
setxkbmap does not apply here, as I only have an SSH shell.
Persistent changes via
dpkg-reconfigure keyboard-configuration
...
4
votes
4answers
2k views
I have an ATI Radeon HD 6300 series video card; what do I use, radeon or radeonhd driver?
I want to install the correct driver for my video card under Debian and I don't know which to install, xserver-xorg-video-radeon or xserver-xorg-video-radeonhd?
I've also read some of the ...
4
votes
1answer
1k views
rc.local - not all commands are executed
I have following lines in my rc.local
#!/bin/sh -e
#
# rc.local
#
# This script is executed at the end of each multiuser runlevel.
# Make sure that the script will "exit 0" on success or any other
# ...
4
votes
2answers
5k views
Why is Debian's root shell colorless?
Are there any security concerns? What is the best way to enable it?
4
votes
2answers
246 views
conceal home folder completely - is ecryptfs the right choice?
On my Debian-Testing-System, I want to completely conceal the home folders. That means, I not only want the data to be encrypted, but I also want to preclude determining any (or most) information from ...
4
votes
1answer
644 views
Why did adding the Debian testing repository create so many package dependencies?
I have Debian 6.0.4, and I'm running an outdated Geany text editor package. There's no newer version available in the current stable repository, so I added testing packages to sources.list:
#debian ...
4
votes
3answers
2k views
Why is the US international keyboard layout on Debian different?
Edit: I realized that the "problem" was not only in Ubuntu but in Debian itself and Ubuntu just inherited it, so I had this migrated from Ask Ubuntu
I have been using Linux on and off for 10 years, ...
4
votes
3answers
1k views
Swap usage too high?
I have a debian sid box, freshly installed about a month ago, with no desktop apps running at the moment.
Any command I try to run (via ssh) makes the hard disk work very hard. The system worked ...
4
votes
1answer
268 views
How to configure swap space after system instalation?
I've installed Debian Wheezy and after installation completed, I realized that I forgot to set the swap memory. So now, how can I configure the swap space?
4
votes
1answer
106 views
How do I install Ubuntu/Mint on top of Debian?
I have a basic dual setup with Linux Debian and Windows 7 (Grub is my bootloader). However, since this machine will be donated to a friend that does not know a lot about computers, I would like to ...
4
votes
1answer
1k views
I cannot install new packages: “Could not get lock /var/lib/dpkg/lock”
I am new to Linux (installed Ubuntu for the first time yesterday), and have never dealt with any unix-based OS. I started using Linux for the sole purpose of collaborating code with my partners via ...
4
votes
3answers
113 views
Using apt or aptitude to get version information about an uninstalled package?
I'm looking to install a package, but I'd like to make sure that I can't get a more recent version than, e.g., a PPA.
Is there an aptitude or apt-get command that will enable me to input a package ...
4
votes
3answers
476 views
Crontab job not emailing on failure
I have a cron job on Debian:
1 * * * * /home/paradroid/bin/myscript.sh >/dev/null
There is an installed and configured MTA, and I have received emails when the script has a syntax error, so I ...
4
votes
1answer
1k views
How to reinstall apt on Debian?
I accidently removed apt-get from my Debian system by issuing:
dpkg --force-depends --purge apt
How can I reinstall it?
4
votes
2answers
548 views
Why is exim4 listening on port 25?
Am I misinterpreting the results of netstat -anp --tcp --udp | grep LISTEN wrong, or does the output mean, that the process exim4 is listening to the outside on port 25:
tcp 0 0 ...
4
votes
1answer
428 views
How do I get DVDs to play in Debian?
I just installed Debian Live and movie or video DVDs do not play. Totem gives me this error:
Could not read from resource.
Opening the disk in VLC has no response. How can I play DVDs?
4
votes
3answers
147 views
What are the different debian package repos?
I know about the ones at http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian/dists/README, but there are other ones such as:
security.debian.org
backports.debian.org
archive.debian.org
How many are there? Is there a ...
4
votes
2answers
2k views
How do I start Xvfb on startup on Debian?
I’ve got a Debian web server that I’m using for occasional screen-scraping via Selenum and Python.
I use Xvfb as a virtual X server for Firefox to run on when being controlled by Selenium. Given that ...
4
votes
1answer
991 views
Why can't I use arrow keys in terminal on Debian 6? (nonroot)
When I am on a non-root user I cannot use ↑/↓ to list my previous commands, and if I am typing I can't use ←/→ to say, add in a directory or to correct the ...
4
votes
1answer
531 views
Automate installation of VirtualBox Guest Additions via command-line
How can I install VirtualBox Guest Additions from a Bash script, in a unattended way?
Whenever I run apt-get -y install dkms virtualbox-guest-dkms from the terminal I'm presented with a interactive ...
4
votes
2answers
417 views
Map IDE drive to /dev/hda
I run a small home server with one IDE drive (for the system) and a few SATA drives (for a software RAID).
The IDE drive used to be at /dev/hda and the SATA drives at /dev/sd*. After a power outage ...
4
votes
1answer
262 views
Disabling Web camera
My Eee PC comes with a Web cam, which I never use. How can I ensure that it is effectively disabled, so that no software can use it?
4
votes
1answer
1k views
How to update Debian kernel to latest in backports
I have a machine running Debian stable, and I'd like to update the stock kernel to the latest kernel available in the backports repository. There are many kernel-related packages and virtual ...
4
votes
3answers
9k views
Problem to launch java at Debian: “error while loading shared libraries: libjli.so”
I'm trying to launch java:
$ java -version
java: error while loading shared libraries: libjli.so: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory
$ ldd ...
4
votes
1answer
301 views
Block keyboard on debian
I would like to block the keyboard for a kiosk-based application implemented on Linux. The keyboard could be blocked with "nohup cat /dev/tty0" on some Linux distributions, but it's not working on ...
4
votes
3answers
2k views
Automount USB drives with no GUI requirement (halevt replacement)
For minimal installations of Debian, I have been using halevt to enable automounting of USB drives. Halevt is reliable and requires no configuration aside from installing the package. Now, halevt has ...
4
votes
2answers
4k views
How to make Mutter default window manager
I'm running Debian Squeeze and removed Metacity in favor of Mutter. How do I avoid having to run mutter --replace each time I start Xorg (GNOME)?
4
votes
1answer
2k views
How to ensure the bluetooth is switched off after boot up?
Please show me which magic button to press for the case where I'm tired of manually switching off the distracting bluetooth light on my laptop after every boot-up.
4
votes
2answers
497 views
upgrade xdebug without using apt?
I'm running debian 5.0.6 and have installed xdebug 2.0.3 via aptitude. Now I want to install PHPUnit, and when trying to do it through pear, I get the error that PHPUnit wants a more recent xdebug
...
4
votes
2answers
133 views
Trying to do arithmetic in Perl rename tool (Debian)
Supposed I have five mp3 files:
01-trackfoo.mp3
02-trackbar.mp3
03-trackbaz.mp3
04-trackabc.mp3
05-trackxyz.mp3
Now I give a quick listen to the files (just mplayer on console will do the trick) ...
4
votes
2answers
1k views
How do I fix broken libxml2-dev dependency on Debian using apt?
When I run sudo apt-get upgrade on my Debian Squeeze install, I get the following error:
You might want to run 'apt-get -f install' to correct these.
The following packages have unmet dependencies:
...
4
votes
3answers
443 views
Reset dselect selection before package installation
I was looking through the list of packages with dselect, but pressed Return twice by mistake, thereby making it confirm and quit the [S]elect option.
When I go to the [I]nstall option, it's now ...
