How many Sarge disks do I need?

[blackbelt_jones]

Let's see if I can be concise about this.

I'm fed up with the damnable SID repositories, and I want to go back to Sarge, but in order to get PPPOE to work with Sarge on this system, I need to install a new kernel.

My question is: How many of the fourteen Sarge CDs do I need to burn in order to give me all the compilers and development tools I need to compile and install a new kernel? Does anybody know? I doubt that it would require all of them.

[Icarus]

If you've got a halfway decent internet connection (even dial-up I'd suggest this, maybe even more) get the minimal FTP install disk. It's something like 50MB and will allow you to install what you need and only download what you need.

a lot easier then downloading 14 700MB CDs

[deathadder]

I'd go with Icarus, if you really want to download a CD, the first will give you everything you need to compile a new kernel. Its normally how I do mine, then apt-get everything from a FTP server afterwards.

[blackbelt_jones]

Well, like I said, I need the new kernel to get PPPOE to work. Don't ask me why, but this is my experience on this computer. Without PPPOE, I can't get online to download anything. Otherwise, I would certainly use the debian installer-disk. I'm a huge fan.

This is why all I really care about is getting enough disks downloaded and burned to compile and install a new kernel, cause once I got that, I can download everything else I need.

[hard candy]

How about using a live cd to boot up the computer and then download what you need. Which Debian based live cd would be best, I have no idea.

[blackbelt_jones]

The Debian System that I'm currently using was installed from Kanotix, but Kanotix uses the SID repositories. So does Mepis. I just can't handle the SID repositories, at least until I learn more. (Friends, I follow my own special learning curve!.)

The last time I upgraded from the SID repositories, I lost use of my X server, for crying out loud! So I'm going back to Sarge. Of course, Stable Debian is always a little out of date... that is, until it becomes severely out of date... but I have another Linux system on my other hard drive, and that's going to be more current, if I ever need the latest apps. RIght now, that's SUSE 10.0, but I hear Fedora Core 5 is available now-- so, if I get Sarge working woith the new kenerl, I might move all my data over there and take a look at FC 5.

I've downloaded seven of the fourteen Sarge isos, and I'm burning the seventh as I type. That really ought to have everything I need for compiling a new kernel.

[je_fro]

Dude.....no need to do all that. You can install sarge from 4 floppies.

[mrrangerman43]

Or you only need the 1st cd.

[blackbelt_jones]

I'm not sure how many of you understood the question. I find it hard to believe (though maybe it's true) that four floppies would have all the applications that I need and want (including make xconfig, thank you very much) to install a new kernel...

HOWEVER, here's what I didn't realize...

It just hit me that as long as I have a SUSE system on the same computer, I don't really need any compilers or make applications at all on my debian system, do I? It seems to me that I can compile and install a new kernel in debian from SUSE, using SUSE tools with no problems whatsoever.

Indeed, that is what I am attempting now, so I can have access to online support while I do the compiling. I seem to have forgotten everything I ever knew about compiling a kernel, although I have done it successfully a number of times. Bummer.

[mrrangerman43]

You only need the 1st cd to install a working debian base install. As far as compilling the kernel, download a kernel image from here

http://packages.debian.org/stable/base/

copy the image to debian /usr/src/ and then from CL dpkg -i kernel-image-whatever.deb

[blackbelt_jones]

Okay, well here's what I did:
Compiling the kernel from SUSE didn't work, so I used apt-get with the disks that I had burned to install the qt development packages I needed to configure my kernel with make xconfig. Believe it or not, that took disks 3, 4, and 5! Don't ask me if that all was necessary, I just did what apt-get told me to do.

[je_fro]

did you chroot from your suse install to your debian / to do it?

[blackbelt_jones]

nope... just did it from sarge install in the usual way.