[clue-tech] Ubuntu Installation

[David L. Anselmi]

A.T. Yuhasz wrote:
> As some of you know, I am a complete novice where Linux is concerned.
> 
> After many failures to install Edubuntu Linux 7.10 on my old Win 98 
> computer, I gave up and successfully installed Xubuntu. (This is a 
> dual-boot configuration.)

That doesn't sound like a complete novice.  You learn more from failures 
than successes. ;-)

> I would like to install some of the applications that are bundled with 
> Edubuntu.
> 
> Is it possible to somehow extract them from the Edubuntu install disk?

As Brian said, all the packages on the Xubuntu disk will show up in 
Synaptic.  But don't worry about the universe and multiverse 
repositories yet.  I don't think that will help without Internet access.

If Xubuntu doesn't have the package you want you can add the Edubuntu 
packages by putting the CD in and running "apt-cdrom add" from the 
command line.

> The computer in question has no internet access.

You can get a $10 (PCI) network card at Microcenter.  (Hawking was the 
brand I got but they may be different by now.  But they are still $10.)

Put it in the computer and Linux will recognize it.  Assuming you can 
plug it in to your switch/modem/router/whatever (where your Internet 
computer is plugged in) it may Just Work when you boot it.

(To get it to work with Win98 you need the drivers from Realtek and 
transfer them over and add new hardware and such like Windows magic.)

Then you can tell Synaptic to use the Internet for repositories (I 
assume it lets you pick a mirror somehow) and follow Brian's advice 
about other boxes to check.

> Can I download applications (packages), move them to the other
> computer (sneaker net) and install them from there?

You can.  The packages end in .deb and you install them with "dpkg -i 
<package>".  But that's hard because you also need the dependencies. 
Debian (which is the basis for *buntu) has a nice page for each package 
you can search through here:

http://www.debian.org/distrib/packages

and it links to the maintainer's page and bug reports, as well as 
listing all the dependencies with links to download things.  But I don't 
know of an easy way to find the straight packages from Xubuntu.

So try the CDs.  Then try the 'net with Synaptic.  Sneaker net should be 
a last resort I think.

Dave