Debian: what packages should I be looking for?

[Peep]

My laptop is doing well with debian unstable so far. The biggest thing that I've done is uninstall a lot of the knoppix stuff I'll never use, and install synaptic (which is very nice). Are there any other "must haves" that I should be looking for?

 

If anyone has a good "newbie to debian" link, that'd be great too. Most info I can find is several years old and not particularly useful since I already have a general sense of how linux works

 

thanks.

Edited February 9, 2004 by Peep

[Gowator]

peep

 

I guess the first thing is to add all the unofficial apt sources for dvd etc...

 

I use kpackage BUT the sheer number of packages is bewildering!!!!

 

I can post my sources.list tonite if you like!!!

[Peep]

i'd appreciate that, gowator. i found apt-get.org and that helps a bit with adding sources, but i guess there's no single tool like the "easy urpmi" to set things up?

 

apt-get is cool to play with, but i have to learn to be careful when mixing up different sources... i installed some things from stable onto sid, then did a dist-upgrade and it uninstalled KDE and a lot of other things. it was pretty easy to fix, though. live and learn :)

[Gowator]

me too :D

oops

 

actually, now you reminded me I think thats what I found then cut/paste into the sources....

takes quite a while though ...so Ill still post it cos you can always edit out what you don't use.

 

the sheer number of packges though is daunting...

you more or less need to know what your looking for before you try and find it.

(least I aint found an easier way)

[Gowator]

peeps, here it is in cut and paste form

don't forget the apt-get update!!!!!

ENJOY :D

 

deb http://smarden.org/pape/Debian sarge unofficial

deb-src http://smarden.org/pape/Debian sarge unofficial

 

# Security updates for "stable"

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

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

 

# Stable

deb http://ftp2.de.debian.org/pub/debian stable main contrib non-free

deb http://ftp2.de.debian.org/pub/debian-non-US stable/non-US main contrib non-free

 

# Sources

deb-src http://ftp2.de.debian.org/pub/debian stable main contrib non-free

deb-src http://ftp2.de.debian.org/pub/debian-non-US stable/non-US main contrib non-free

 

# Testing

deb http://ftp2.de.debian.org/pub/debian testing main contrib non-free

deb http://ftp2.de.debian.org/pub/debian-non-US testing/non-US main contrib non-free

 

# Sources

deb-src http://ftp2.de.debian.org/pub/debian testing main contrib non-free

deb-src http://ftp2.de.debian.org/pub/debian-non-US testing/non-US main contrib non-free

 

# Unstable

deb http://ftp2.de.debian.org/debian unstable main contrib non-free

deb http://ftp2.de.debian.org/debian-non-US unstable/non-US main contrib non-free

 

# Sources

deb-src http://ftp2.de.debian.org/debian unstable main contrib non-free

deb-src http://ftp2.de.debian.org/debian-non-US unstable/non-US main contrib non-free

 

# Experimental

deb http://ftp2.de.debian.org/debian ../project/experimental main contrib non-free

deb-src http://ftp2.de.debian.org/debian ../project/experimental main contrib non-free

 

# Mozilla

# GNOME 2.0

# deb http://www.gnome.de/debian/ ./

 

# KDE 3

# deb http://ktown.kde.org/~nolden/kde stable main

# deb-src http://ktown.kde.org/~nolden/kde stable main

# We get packages from testing/unstable for now

 

# cdbakeoven

# deb http://coyote.asoc.euitt.upm.es/mud/debian/ ./

 

# XFree 4.2/4.3

#deb http://people.debian.org/~branden/packages sid/i386/

#deb-src http://people.debian.org/~branden/packages sid/source/

# deb http://www.penguinppc.org/~daniels/sid/i386 ./

# deb-src http://www.penguinppc.org/~daniels/sid/source ./

 

# Java

deb ftp://ftp.gwdg.de/pub/languages/java/linux/debian woody main non-free

deb-src ftp://ftp.gwdg.de/pub/languages/java/linux/debian woody main non-free

deb ftp://ftp.gwdg.de/pub/languages/java/linux/debian unstable main non-free

deb-src ftp://ftp.gwdg.de/pub/languages/java/linux/debian unstable main non-free

# deb http://people.debian.org/~sgybas/jdk13

 

# LyX & others (now in debian/unstable)

# deb ftp://ntama.uni-mainz.de/pub/debian unofficial/

# deb-src ftp://ntama.uni-mainz.de/pub/debian unofficial/

 

# Evolution

#deb ftp://ftp.ximian.com/pub/debian stable main

#deb-src ftp://ftp.ximian.com/pub/debian stable main

 

# Blades Repository (pppoeconf & co)

deb http://people.debian.org/~blade/testing ./

deb-src http://people.debian.org/~blade/testing ./

 

# Wine CVS snapshot

# deb http://people.debian.org/~andreas/debian wine main

# deb-src http://people.debian.org/~andreas/debian wine main

 

# deb cdrom:[Debian GNU/Linux 2.2 r3 _Potato_ - Official i386 Binary-1 (20010427)]/ unstable contrib main non-US/contrib non-US/main

[Gowator]

er peep, is that what you wanted ???

[Qchem]

rpm

 

 

Sorry, had to be done!

[Peep]

thanks, that helps. i'll compare that to mine :)

 

i wanted to make sure there wasn't a "must have" that i was missing. that's the good and bad about switching a machine from mandrake, it seems--you have so many choices under debian of what to use because there isn't a set of "drake" utilities that are automatically installed and things aren't customized as much. but it's a lot more work figuring out how to configure things--i'll just play around and figure it out :)