Debian cookbook or how I started working on the official wiki
In light of the recent release of the official http://debian-handbook.info/get/now/ I want to share the intermediate result of my own efforts in this direction.
As I realized that the overdue modernization of IT infrastructure at my work no longer fits only with the legacy schemes from Microsoft, at the end of 2010 I began an intensive study of the capabilities of OpenSource. The main objective was the practical implementation of Linux. The choice fell on Debian for a number ofobjective subjective reasons. Returning to reality, the Napoleonic plans for the advent of the Linux era within one state institution had to be rejected, but despite this, the study of Debian did not stop and continues to this day.
Then what came of it.
Choosing a knowledge base.
Gradually, I encountered the problem of storing and processing the information received. The fact is that a huge array of grains of valuable information is very much distributed across various network resources - blogs, websites, forums, etc. The strong swollen section of bookmarks in the browser quickly ceased to cope with such a task and I began to search for a more flexible solution. It all started with a doc file on the desktop, which then moved to Google docs. Then there were thoughts about launching my own blog or publications on specialized sites, but these options, solving some problems, were added by others.
In the end, I settled on the official wiki.debian.org.
Problems.
As it turned out, the unique properties of OpenSource development principles have a downside - this is the lack of a single comprehensive universal source of information about Linux. So I came to the conclusion that you need to find (or create) for yourself your own resource for your tasks. Further, the study was complicated on average by the inevitably low quality of presentation of the material. For example, read man to the tmux multiplexer. For example, I could not find in these kilobytes of English text a question for the answer HOW to start selecting text for further copying. There is an answer in man, but I quickly found it in Q&A Habr, thanks to comrade Sov1et. Subjectively, the highest quality source was the wiki ArchLinux. The next problem (for me) turned out that the latest versions of man and howto are always in English. So I discovered Google Translate and started learning English in parallel. The most difficult (and still unresolved) problem was the loss of interest in theoretical material after solving a practical problem.
My attitude to work.
The fact is that I never attributed myself to IT geniuses who quickly grasp the subject area and who thanks to this quickly solve the problem. As it turned out, an excessive deepening in the topic for medemanded unreasonably high time costs. I’d better spend my free time with my child and wife. As an example in Debian, the Realtek 8168/8111 network card did not start in my laptop. Recipes for the solution were found, but required compilation and other unreasonable gestures. I discarded such options until better times and just used a different network card. Such a principle directly influenced the way of presenting information - briefly, with a minimum of theory and a maximum of practice, as in laboratory work. What I did not check for myself, I did not post on the wiki. Subsequently, even had to revise the structure of the sections from the division "by program" to the division "by task".
And the second one. In the study and study of the material, I adhered to the principle of minimalism. The system should have only what I need, only the software that I consciously installed “Just in case, it can come in handy or everyone puts it like that” - this is not for me. This created an extra heap of problems, but I'm sure I'm moving in the right direction. For example, I was always perplexed by the fact of the package dependence of the kde environment on mysql-server (as far as I know in Arch this senility is not). I like Kde for its beauty and often unique software, but killing 150 meters of RAM for PIM storage is strategically wrong for me (even in a 4GB system). Such is the principle.
Why Debian? (subjectively in descending order)
1.Many articles, wiki and howto (including materials on Ubuntu)
2.Large competent community.
3. Technical Enterprise level stable version.
4.Big functional package base (curses installer, database of all packages on the site, automatic installation).
6. The possibility of a fully automatic custom installation of the distribution on bare metal without “crutches”.
8. There is no need to “cut” anything out of the distribution kit in the minimal version of the installation (to theamen in the Ubuntu garden , it was decided).
9. Many developers build binary packages for Debian.
10. Independence from major IT players (Google, RedHat, Canonical, etc.)
11. Logical stability of the project itself, time-tested. \
12. Very busy systems use Debian.
What I want to achieve.
The principle is simple - in practice, get a stable universal platform based on a package distribution that fully implements the capabilities of both hardware and software. I know that this can be achieved (if we discard the limited support for hardware manufacturers and the mainstream directions from Windows), I just haven’t found yet / haven’t checked how to do this in each specific case. There is a lot of information, but much less proven. To do this, I started filling out the wiki.
Results of work.
Main section
Remote installation section A
bit of iron
+ a number of edits in other sections, for example ,
Resolution here .
Today the Russian section of the official wikinoticeably behind in design and content from the standard (for me) wiki.archlinux . I do not call for a banal copying of the material, but for the year of subscribing to update the root section, I received no more than 10 notifications. When it is necessary it is possible (and necessary) to peek at Arch. But unfortunately, many, accumulating valuable material do not always share it. And if this happens, then the material is often duplicated on a variety of resources or disappears altogether for a variety of reasons. Therefore, if you have something to add, join the official wiki and start not only taking, but also giving it to the OpenSource community competently. I hope my humble example inspires someone and the wiki will be at least a little better for both beginners and professionals.
Thanks for the participation to comrades PavloRudyj and IlyaZhelyabuzhsky, to everyone who helped me in Q&A Habr and to numerous authors of useful articles on the Internet.
Special technical thanks to my first Gentoo distribution. It was with him that I began my acquaintance with Linux.
UPD 11/16/2013. It has been a year since I switched to Ubuntu LTS. Reasons: Much more PPA than Debian. Ubuntu is corny faster and easier to learn. Already apply for work. It is important to observe 2 conditions - only a clean installation and only security updates. As soon as I complete the basic Linux study, I will probably go back to Debian, but only for ideological reasons.
I don’t work on wiki anymore, all knowledge is accumulated in a post-installation script for network installation. I'm going to make an article on the script
As I realized that the overdue modernization of IT infrastructure at my work no longer fits only with the legacy schemes from Microsoft, at the end of 2010 I began an intensive study of the capabilities of OpenSource. The main objective was the practical implementation of Linux. The choice fell on Debian for a number of
Then what came of it.
Choosing a knowledge base.
Gradually, I encountered the problem of storing and processing the information received. The fact is that a huge array of grains of valuable information is very much distributed across various network resources - blogs, websites, forums, etc. The strong swollen section of bookmarks in the browser quickly ceased to cope with such a task and I began to search for a more flexible solution. It all started with a doc file on the desktop, which then moved to Google docs. Then there were thoughts about launching my own blog or publications on specialized sites, but these options, solving some problems, were added by others.
In the end, I settled on the official wiki.debian.org.
Problems.
As it turned out, the unique properties of OpenSource development principles have a downside - this is the lack of a single comprehensive universal source of information about Linux. So I came to the conclusion that you need to find (or create) for yourself your own resource for your tasks. Further, the study was complicated on average by the inevitably low quality of presentation of the material. For example, read man to the tmux multiplexer. For example, I could not find in these kilobytes of English text a question for the answer HOW to start selecting text for further copying. There is an answer in man, but I quickly found it in Q&A Habr, thanks to comrade Sov1et. Subjectively, the highest quality source was the wiki ArchLinux. The next problem (for me) turned out that the latest versions of man and howto are always in English. So I discovered Google Translate and started learning English in parallel. The most difficult (and still unresolved) problem was the loss of interest in theoretical material after solving a practical problem.
My attitude to work.
The fact is that I never attributed myself to IT geniuses who quickly grasp the subject area and who thanks to this quickly solve the problem. As it turned out, an excessive deepening in the topic for medemanded unreasonably high time costs. I’d better spend my free time with my child and wife. As an example in Debian, the Realtek 8168/8111 network card did not start in my laptop. Recipes for the solution were found, but required compilation and other unreasonable gestures. I discarded such options until better times and just used a different network card. Such a principle directly influenced the way of presenting information - briefly, with a minimum of theory and a maximum of practice, as in laboratory work. What I did not check for myself, I did not post on the wiki. Subsequently, even had to revise the structure of the sections from the division "by program" to the division "by task".
And the second one. In the study and study of the material, I adhered to the principle of minimalism. The system should have only what I need, only the software that I consciously installed “Just in case, it can come in handy or everyone puts it like that” - this is not for me. This created an extra heap of problems, but I'm sure I'm moving in the right direction. For example, I was always perplexed by the fact of the package dependence of the kde environment on mysql-server (as far as I know in Arch this senility is not). I like Kde for its beauty and often unique software, but killing 150 meters of RAM for PIM storage is strategically wrong for me (even in a 4GB system). Such is the principle.
Why Debian? (subjectively in descending order)
1.Many articles, wiki and howto (including materials on Ubuntu)
2.Large competent community.
3. Technical Enterprise level stable version.
4.Big functional package base (curses installer, database of all packages on the site, automatic installation).
6. The possibility of a fully automatic custom installation of the distribution on bare metal without “crutches”.
8. There is no need to “cut” anything out of the distribution kit in the minimal version of the installation (to the
9. Many developers build binary packages for Debian.
10. Independence from major IT players (Google, RedHat, Canonical, etc.)
11. Logical stability of the project itself, time-tested. \
12. Very busy systems use Debian.
What I want to achieve.
The principle is simple - in practice, get a stable universal platform based on a package distribution that fully implements the capabilities of both hardware and software. I know that this can be achieved (if we discard the limited support for hardware manufacturers and the mainstream directions from Windows), I just haven’t found yet / haven’t checked how to do this in each specific case. There is a lot of information, but much less proven. To do this, I started filling out the wiki.
Results of work.
Main section
Remote installation section A
bit of iron
+ a number of edits in other sections, for example ,
Resolution here .
Today the Russian section of the official wikinoticeably behind in design and content from the standard (for me) wiki.archlinux . I do not call for a banal copying of the material, but for the year of subscribing to update the root section, I received no more than 10 notifications. When it is necessary it is possible (and necessary) to peek at Arch. But unfortunately, many, accumulating valuable material do not always share it. And if this happens, then the material is often duplicated on a variety of resources or disappears altogether for a variety of reasons. Therefore, if you have something to add, join the official wiki and start not only taking, but also giving it to the OpenSource community competently. I hope my humble example inspires someone and the wiki will be at least a little better for both beginners and professionals.
Thanks for the participation to comrades PavloRudyj and IlyaZhelyabuzhsky, to everyone who helped me in Q&A Habr and to numerous authors of useful articles on the Internet.
Special technical thanks to my first Gentoo distribution. It was with him that I began my acquaintance with Linux.
UPD 11/16/2013. It has been a year since I switched to Ubuntu LTS. Reasons: Much more PPA than Debian. Ubuntu is corny faster and easier to learn. Already apply for work. It is important to observe 2 conditions - only a clean installation and only security updates. As soon as I complete the basic Linux study, I will probably go back to Debian, but only for ideological reasons.
I don’t work on wiki anymore, all knowledge is accumulated in a post-installation script for network installation. I'm going to make an article on the script