Catch-22 - Help!

[Andy Kennedy]

On Wed, 28 Oct 1998, Jerry E. McGoveran wrote:

> I have a Debian installation in which the ethernet card driver is
> apparently not installed.  There were some errors at this stage of
> the installation process, but the screen drew and reset to the inst.
> menu too fast to read anything.  I finished the installation, and
> now I need to update the kernel and the drivers.  I can't compile a
> kernel (downloaded 2.0.35 src) because I don't have gcc.  I can't install
> the gcc package because I don't have network access in Linux - only under
> Win95.A

Gcc is available at sunsite.unc.edu and most of the mirrors.  Download it
w/ win95 and then use tar to "unpack" it.  

> My Linux installation has a 2.0.32 kernel with 2.0.34 drivers, and this is
> probably why the drivers don't work.  I'm using the 2.0.32 kernel because
> the 2.0.34 kernel wasn't working with my AHA2842 SCSI adapter.
> 
> Questions:
> 
> 1)  Can I get there from here?

Yes.

> 2)  How do I install a package assuming I can get the .deb files onto a
> mounted filesystem?  Dselect asks for a series of directory pathnames,
> and complains when it doesn't find various files and directories within
> them.

Why not just use the tar.gz files?  You do have tar/gz don't you?  Also,
these are available at sunsite.unc.edu.  Use 'make' to configure the
kernel.  If you have X-Windows, then you can use a really nice GUI.  Goto
the directory /usr/src/linux and type 'make xconfig;make dep;make clean'
_AFTER_ you have installed gcc.  The kernel 2.0.35 has an okay version of
aic7xxx, you may want to apply the patch.  

> 3)  Is there a direct way to update the kernel and/or drivers without
> having to compile a kernel or use dselect?

Notice above.

> 4)  Should I give up on Debian and go buy the RedHat CD and hope for better
> results?

Jumping out of the pot into the fire w/ RedHat (my opinion).

> 5)  Why did I want a Linux system in the first place?  :/

Linux is a very powerful OS, if you can use UNIX.  Your machine is
completely under your control w/ most versions of Linux.  RedHat is more a
install/setup themselves kind of people.  Some of the "usual" files are
replaced w/ RedHat dependant stuff.


Hope this info is (a) correct and (b) helpful.


wuff,
andy


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