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Re: Debian 2.0




On Tue, 25 Aug 1998, Liran Zvibel wrote:

> > and FX86Setup is supposed to still work though, right? it didn't...
> 
> One problem I could think of is that you didn't have the svga(I'm not sure
> whwether it uses the svga or vga16 server) server installed, but since you
> said that you had all the servers installed, it muct be another thing...

VGA16 is a must for XF86Setup, the dependencies in both Debian and RedHat
show that fine. it's just that XF86Setup that came with Deb 2.0 didn't
make the final symlink to the right Xserver binary, and I suspect it's
because there was an actual binary file in it's place (/usr/X11R6/bin/X
was a 4.5K file, I am guessing a wrapper). it DID create the config file
OK though, since, like I said, removing that binary and symlinking to
XF86_SVGA worked perfectly.

> > someone from SVLUG sugested to me off-list. XDM is started by init on most
> > distros I've seen, that's why I went to look in inittab first.
> Fair enough. I think that in this part knowing too much isn't good
> either... I think that for the nwebie, changing a line in a regular config
> file  is easier then trying to understand inittab. Moreover, the

as much as I love knowing exactly what happens in each little config file,
I wish someone (RedHat? Debian?) will finally integrate all those little
annoying settings to a consistant unified control panel GUI so linux
newbies will have an easier time too. SuSE is making good steps in that
direction, but their mechanism also overrides too many things and they
step over changes you made in the files yourself.

RedHat at some point tried to implement the entire install procedure in
Xwin (Ver 3.X) but it failed horribly because many chipsets made XF86
crash at even VGA16 modes at the time, and they also neglected the text
mode install to the point it was almost useless in many situations. now
that they started (read: still have a long way to get it right)
integrating linuxconf which is also accessed from the commandline, maybe
it's time to return to the dual-mode install (choose between console or
X). no practical use whatsoever, but it'll be good for public relations.

> I still don't understand what is the problem with the way Debian handles
> runlevels.

well, we all agree that runlevel 1 is the equivalent of Single user mode
in SunOS (or maybe all BSD systems?), and runlevel 6 is (usually) reboot.
in all redhat (and if memory serves, also in slackware) versions, runlevel
2 was like a "low functioning, diagnostics but maintaining minimum
environment for the users", finally runlevel 3 is full-featured running
system. Redhat skips runlevel 4 for some historical reasons I guess and
runlevel 5 is running XDM on the console (I turn off local console usually
for servers, and only run XDM for logging in through XDMCP from windows
machines (achkkkk)