You have not configured X so no xconf file. You need to change to the hard drive and not stay on the cd. In order to do that you have to know where the hard drive is mounted. For example if the hard drive is mounted at /mnt/hda you would type cd /mnt/hda then move on with the above changes and commands. Debian is Debian man. Does not matter if it is version 10 or 11 same commands should work.

Can you boot into a gui when running the disc? Might be easier for you to edit the files in like kwrite, then save them.

1 members found this post helpful.

@OP.
Try this.
Boot into your ubuntu install CD and go into the shell.
From there mount your ubuntu partition and change into it
(f.e: cd /mnt/sda1). Then type:
The path portion of the prompt should change from
to
. From there you can follow the steps AuroraZero outlined in the post above your's. After you finish, type exit twice and reboot.

1 members found this post helpful.

Hi AuroraZero,

I will try these things most likely tonight, my dog died last night after our last posting, and I have to work today

Check my last post edited from last night for clarification, also because I'm not really sure what it used to boot from, pretty sure it was the Hard Drive, but I am sure you can school me on that a bit.

But I will keep at it, and reply back soon.
AGAIN, THANK YOU AuroraZero For helping me and learning with me
NK9sBoo

Hi AuroraZero,

Sorry for the few days away, was dealing with my dog situation, I now am able to log in as root after booting up Linux -b, and MY KEYBOARD WORKS with no CD in the drive, had to re-partition and re-install everything, strange thing is though, when it went through "select and install software" I selected "graphical desktop environment" and "basic system" just like last time, I tried to run "dpkg-reconfigure /etc/X11" and it is telling me package "/etc/X11" is not installed, so I tried "apt-get install /etc/x11" and it says:
"W: not using locking for read only lock file /var/lib/dpkg/lock"
"E: unable to write to /var/cache/apt/"
"E: the package lists or status file could not be parsed or opened"

I am getting somewhere obviously, what with the keyboard working correctly now, but I still can't seem to figure out exactly where that somewhere is exactly

Anyhow, what am I doing wrong? the penguin hates me?

THANK YOU AuroraZero in advance for your next reply, which I will be eagerly awaiting
NK9sBoo

Did you update apt-get? Try at-get update and see what happens. If that doesn't work try the next step. Then run an fsck and fix all it says to fix. From what I see and can find you may have an error on the hard drive and that is causing it to boot read-only. Then do the next step after the fsck.

"E: unable to write to /var/cache/apt/"

Make sure the file had read write permissions. chmod 755 /var/cache/apt should do it.

"E: the package lists or status file could not be parsed or opened

Hopefully once the file has read/write permission this will go away.

Hi AuroraZero and all who have tried to help me,

I will try your above suggestions and report back, my state before trying your new reply is:

I am now able to open aptitude and it is giving me the same messages as in my previous post. I cannot change the configuration file. Anyone know how to fix this in aptitude or in any way I can?:

E: /root/.aptitude is readable but not writable; unable to write configuration file.
W: Not using locking for read only lock file /var/lib/dpkg/lock
E: Unable to write to /var/cache/apt
E: The package lists or status file could not be parsed or opened.
W: Could not lock the cache file; this usually means that dpkg or another apt tool is already installing packages. Opening in read-only mode; any changes you make to the states of packages will NOT be preserved!

Another note of interest is that apt-get is telling me package "/etc/X11" is not installed, but aptitude says it IS, maybe this will also help you to help me, not sure but thought it was worth mentioning. Just for additional info, my base system was installed from an .iso image which I downloaded and burned on another Mac running Leopard, did not seem to have any problem with .iso CD, all additional software was downloaded and installed from a mirror. aptitude 0.6.3 says: --- Installed Packages (1243) and "X11" IS on the list.

THANK YOU IN ADVANCE FOR ANY AND ALL HELP!
SPECIAL THANK YOU TO AuroraZero FOR GETTING ME THIS FAR!
NK9sBoo

apt-get update produced:
W: Some index files failed to download, they have been ignored, or old ones used instead.
W: Not using locking for read only lock file /var/lib/dpkg/lock
E: Unable to write to /var/cache/apt/
E: The package lists or status file could not be parsed or opened.

fsck produced:
fsck from util-linux-ng 2.17.2
e2fsck 1.41.12 (17-May-2010)
/dev/hda3: clean, 131510/809424 files, 901126/3232422 blocks

/dev/hda3 -clean produced:
Permission Denied

chmod 755 /var/cache/apt produced:
chmod: changing permissions of `/var/cache/apt': Read-only file system

am I doing it wrong? I really think the penguin hates me!

THANKS AGAIN AuroraZero, you are my Linux Lifeline!

No you are not doing it wrong and the penguin does not hate you lol. You may have to do a complete reinstall. Something has messed up when you installed and now the kernel makes the files system read-only to protect it and you.

I would completely wipe any trace of the old setup and redo it from scratch. That way you know for certain that you have a good install.

LOL! Thank You AuroraZero!

I did that, or at least, I thought that was what I did yesterday, and that was how I resolved the keyboard issue, I started at the beginning of the installer and re-partitioned the entire hard drive using guided partitioning of the entire disk, then continued through the questions, the CD then installed software for about 1.5 hours, then it asked me if I had another CD to install additional software from, I answered no. It then asked if I wanted to install additional software using a mirror, I answered yes. I then selected "graphical desktop" and of course did not touch the [selected] "basic system software" selection. then told it to proceed. I then waited around 4.5 hours while it downloaded 1095 files, when it was done installing, it ejected the CD, told me it was time to boot into my new system, so I hit return and it booted up to runlevel 2 and the screen went black as I expected it to do, so without being able to see, I could not get the machine to shut down except by holding in the power button. Next I re-booted into Linux -b and guess what, the keyboard worked. So that is how I got to where we are now. My questions are: 1. Is there something special I should do before or during re-partitioning that may help? 2. I used the mirror at ftp.us.debian.org, should I use a different one? 3. Do you think maybe my CD is not doing it's job properly or I have the wrong one? I downloaded and burned that .iso image on my iMac G5 running Leopard, I chose the download for 32-bit powerPC and what it says the CD is on aptitude is //[Debian GNU/Linux 6.0.3 _Squeeze_ Official powerpc Binary-1.
4. Before re-partitioning should I specifically do something like ask it to write random data on the entire drive first? or put in my mac OS CD and re-format, then go back to Debian CD and re-partition? Any thoughts you have about these questions?

THANK YOU SO MUCH AuroraZero FOR ALL YOUR HELP!
I'll be awaiting your next reply before attempting to re-install
NK9sBoo

It is possible the download of the files is corrupted somehow. Can you download the entire cd set and install from that? I am thinking that is the problem.

I would just use fdisk and completely remove those partitions. Reboot then remake the partitions. That way we know for certain there is no data on those partitions. You can do a random write but destroying the partitions, remaking them, then formatting them should be enough.

You should not have to do anything but destroy the partitions. I know it seems a lot to go through to run linux but it is well worth the effort in my book.

OK, yes I can burn a full set of .iso CD's on my other Mac, no problem, do I need them all? or just the first 2? or 1 and another one other than 2? I ask this because they seem to recommend just the first and then using the mirror, I also noticed aptitude says that the offcial powerpc squeeze release is ignored when I try to run update. As far as it being a whole bunch of work to use Linux, I have no problem with that, I am eager to learn it, Apple is leaving behind all the PPC processors as far as OS is concerned, and I want to learn how to make mine run Linux. I have been through this sort of thing with Mac OS too, but I just know better how to manipulate things in Mac OS because that is what I have used all my life. I don't mind the work and appreciate all the time you are spending with me to make it happen. My only constraints are my Satellite IP will FAP me if I get to 100% download usage in 30 day rolling calendar, an install like yesterday seems to use about 8% and I'm not sure what the CD images use, I am at 72% today, but that is for me to worry about, not you. Having explained all that, I did not have my heart set on Debian, I just used it because it seemed to be the only one that is still being updated for PowerPC, if you have a better idea and want me to try some other distro, I will be happy to give it a shot, I just want to have the graphical desktop and be able to use browsers and mail and maybe a word processor of some sort, and whatever else I get into from there on.

THANK YOU SO MUCH AuroraZero! YOU ARE AWESOME!
I will wait for one more reply from you before attempting re-install.

I also have a G3 and G4 setting around. I have not done much with them other then to boot them up and see them run. I would give this a shot here http://archlinuxppc.org/ if I was going linux on them. I may still do that as a machine for my shop. The g3 would not use much space but give me a powerful enough unit to do what I need to.

Thank you so much, I'll check that out before proceeding, otherwise if I use that type of Linux, pretty much do all the same as you suggested for re-install of Debian, but using CD I burn from there? And you think it will be more user friendly or easier?, I'll be all over it.

THANKS AGAIN AuroraZero!
I look forward to hearing back AGAIN Sorry!
and I'll post a reply after checking out your link too.
NK9sBoo

No biggie man do not be sorry. Arch in my book is more user friendly especially for a first distro. A lot of support and updated often. Yes do the steps above and use the cd you burn from there instead. Should be a much easier process.

OK, I'm gonna try it as you suggested, even though I did read on the arch site that they recommend Debian for first time users, although it seems they may have that in an older manual, and that all may have changed by now, worst case: I am no worse off than I am now

And, I'll probably be asking you questions about Arch soon, but hopefully it will all go smoothly