icic... thats good, thanks!

just curious, why is it that when i did apt-get update, apt-get dist upgrade, and subsequently upgraded the kernel, this package wasn't upgraded together?

The description for this package in the link above reads:
Mainstream PCMCIA modules 2.4.27 on PPro/Celeron/PII/PIII/PIV
or pcmcia-modules-2.4.27-1-686
Package not available

erm... "Package not available"?


Regards,

Edwin

Package is available as I have gone via the browser and got a download.
Some important things here;
1. your sources.list should be pointing to stable or woody and this is in testing (Sarge)
2. you should only alter your sources.list to testing to get things like a new kernel as mixing packages can lead to serious instability.

To answer your question an upgrade and a dist-upgrade will never upgrade your kernel as it the base of your system. The choice to upgrade the kernel is an individual one.
When you installed woody you could have installed the 2.4 kernel using the switch bf24 in the very first stage of the install.
You can install the pcmcia package by downloading via your browser and moving it to either /usr/local/src or /usr/src and then cd to the directory and then use the command dpkg -i package_name.deb. Doing this means not having to alter your sources.list.

Hihi, thanks, but i still don't quite understand what went wrong (as in how come the pcmcia package wasn't downloaded)...

Review of steps which i took:

First i modified sources.list to point to the testing (sarge) release.

Then i did the following commands:
# apt-get update
# apt-get dist-upgrade
# apt-get install kernel-image-2.4.27-1-686

Then i modified lilo.conf to point initrd to the new kernel image.

Then i ran
# lilo

and rebooted the system.

hmm... what did i miss out?



btw, regarding your point about mixing packages...

since i did
# apt-get update
# apt-get dist-upgrade
after i modified sources.list to point to testing,

i'm not mixing packages right, since i upgraded the whole distribution?



then again, like you said, some things such as the kernel are not upgraded during dist-upgrade... i am in fact mixing packages, since some packages are upgraded with dist-upgrade and some aren't?

oh dear... i'm confused...

Since you did a dist-upgrade after pointing to testing your system should now be sarge not woody anymore. Can you confirm that you had a download of around 500MB? If you want to use a package from a higher flavour eg as in this instance you only do apt-get update since you want to update the packages cache on your own system. With an updated cache you can now apt-get a specific package like the kernel. If you do apt-get dist-upgrade then you upgrade all packages to the distribution specified in sources.list.
There is another quirk of apt. If you do an apt-get update and then upgrade you may see a certain number of packages held back. At that point you can do a dist-upgrade since there are new updated versions of the packages available.

You sound like a pretty intelligent person and should get on well with Debian. If I might make some suggestions from own experiences.
This contains some very useful and important information on Debian. Since APT plays such a big and important role within Debian read it carefully.
Second I personally keep a file of printed stuff like the APT document. When I do things on the system I use a text editor to record what I did and save it as little howto's on my system and also print them and keep them in my file. As you work with the system and configure so many things you tend to forget what you did. Well I do (maybe my age) and having a record of how I did it is extremely important to me when I have to do it again and cannot remember what I did or why I did it. Also very useful when someone else has a problem here and you can just cut 'n paste the answer into the forum reply.

Yup, that's right! > 500MB it was...



Sorry, but i don't quite understand this point...


Thanks and Regards,

Edwin

If you upgrade package x and it says package y was held back, when you do a dist-upgrade package y will then be upgraded.

ic... and package y was held back because it is part of the new distribution? therefore only when u do dist-upgrade will it be upgraded? Is this reasoning correct?


Regards,

Edwin

Yup... when the dust settles on this and I manage to get the wireless LAN card working, i do intend to print out this whole tread.


Regards,

Edwin

I have several folders on my hard drive full of notes! What I started doing not long after beginning with computers was take what I had done and write it up into tutorials. That way I would know how to do it the next time. I did it in html and put them on the web so others might get help. I still have a lot of notes I need to arrange.

I think it is good practice keep track of all changes you do to a computer, keep backups of config files, and write down the steps you took to get something to work. And then, I think it is a good idea to find some way to share that information.

Btw, i have a question...

Since packages inside the base section isn't upgraded together when i do a apt-get upgrade or apt-get dist-upgrade, and i have to do a seperate apt-get install for these packages,

how do i ensure that i do not miss out important packages (such as the kernel-pcmcia-modules-2.4.27-1-686) when i upgrade distribution?



and btw, the previous issue:
is package y held back because it is part of the new distribution? therefore only when u do dist-upgrade will it be upgraded? Is this reasoning correct?


Thanks and Regards,

Edwin

This is a peculiar one because most installations are on PC's they don't need pcmcia support. They way to find out is through the page I posted above. If you go here and search for the package it lists what is required and what is recommended. When you get more into the system then it is worth while compiling your own kernel and headers to make the system more streamlined.


usually an upgrade is to fix bugs and a dist-upgrade package is one that has been reworked and is in effect a new version. Generally you don't see them much in Woody but mostly in Sarge, as you are now and Sid.
Another word of warning now - do not try to downgrade your system now (i.e. point sources.list to stable) as it will probably break it. You have upgraded to Sarge which will probably become the new stable version very shortly anyway.

OK, i've done it the simple, but stupid and roundabout way...
since i had no useful data, what i did was to start from scratch with my debian 3.0r2. Yup, i reinstalled everything... :P

ok... now i'm back to kernel 2.2.20-idepci

i have modified sources.list to sarge,
i've done apt-get update, upgrade, and dist-upgrade.

so what i need to do now is to install the new kernel and the new pcmcia module...

but before i do that,

before i did the upgrade and dist-upgrade, linux boots to the black-and-white console terminal where i login, then i have to type startx and KDE was launched.

but after i did the upgrade and dist-upgrade, it boots me into GNOME from the start, with the fanciful login screen.

what conf file do i change, and how should i change it, so that i boot to a b&w console terminal, instead of straight into GNOME?


Thanks and Regards,

Edwin

Pity you didn't mention this as you could have installed a 2.4 kernel while you were at it by using the switch bf24 on install. The login screen has a button on bottom right, sorry cannot remember what its called but select that and it will give you the various options, one being the consol login.

There are like three buttons on the login screen, which gives some menus:

Language:
Last
System Default
POSIX/C English

Session:
Last
Default System Session (Which turns out to be GNOME, i tried)
GNOME
Failsafe GNOME
Failsafe Terminal

Actions:
Shutdown the computer
Reboot the computer
Suspend the computer
Run XDMCP Chooser
Configure the login manager (tried this as well, but can't find the appropriate option there...)


I don't think it lies in any of the above menus right?


Regards,

Edwin

That's quite unusual but I use kde. At that screen do Ctrl+Alt+Backspace and this should give a command line.