In Debian, as in life, things don’t always work as you might expect or want them to.

Debian GNU/Linux: Guide to Installation and Usage by John Goerzen and Ossama Othman is part of the HackerNoon Books Series. You can jump to any chapter in this book here. Troubleshooting

B. Troubleshooting

In Debian, as in life, things don’t always work as you might expect or want them to. While Debian has a well-deserved reputation for being rock-solid and stable, sometimes its reaction to your commands may be unexpected. Here, we try to shed some light on the most common problems that people encounter.

B.1 Common Difficulties

This section provides some tips for handling some of the most frequently experienced difficulties users have encountered.

B.1.1 Working with Strangely-Named Files

Occasionally, you may find that you have accidentally created a file that contains a character not normally found in a filename. Examples of this could include a space, a leading hyphen, or maybe a quotation mark. You may find that accessing, removing, or renaming these files can be difficult.

Here are some tips to help you:

◼ Try enclosing the filename in single quotation marks, like this:

less ’File With Spaces.txt’

◼ Insert a ./ before the filename:

less ’./-a strange file.txt’

◼ Use wildcards:

less File?With?Spaces.txt

◼ Use a backslash before each unusual character:

less File\ With\ Spaces.txt

B.1.2 Printing

One common source of trouble is the printing system in Debian. Traditionally, printing has been a powerful but complex aspect of Unix. However, Debian makes it easier. An easy way to print is with the package called magicfilter. magicfilter will ask you a few questions about your printer and then configure it for you. If you are having troubles printing, give magicfilter a try.

B.1.3 X Problems

Many questions revolve around X. Here are some general tips for things to try if you are having difficulties setting up the X Window system:

◼ For mouse problems, run XF86Setup and try the PS/2, Microsoft, MouseSystems, and Logitech options. Most mice will fit under one of these. Also, the device for your mouse is /dev/psaux for PS/2 mice and a serial port such as /dev/ttyS0 for serial mice.

◼ If you don’t know what video chipset you have, try running SuperProbe; it can often figure this out for you.

◼ If your screen doesn’t have a lot of color, try selecting a different video card or tell X how much video RAM you have.

◼ If your screen goes blank or has unreadable text when you start X, you probably selected an incorrect refresh rate. Go back to XF86Setup or xf86config and double-check those settings.

◼ xvidtune can help if the image on the screen is shifted too far to the left or right, is too high or low, or is too narrow or wide.

◼ xdpyinfo can give information about a running X session.

◼ XF86Setup can set your default color depth.

◼ You can select your default window manager by editing /etc/X11/window-managers.

◼ /var/log/xdm-errors can contain useful information if you are having trouble getting xdm to start properly.

As a final reminder, try the XF86Setup or xf86config tools for configuring or reconfiguring X for your hardware.

B.2 Troubleshooting the Boot Process

If you have problems during the boot process, such as the kernel hangs during the boot process, the kernel doesn’t recognize peripherals you actually have, or drives are not recognized properly, the first things to check are the boot parameters. They can be found by pressing F1 when booting from the rescue disk.

Often, problems can be solved by removing add-ons and peripherals and then booting again. Internal modems, sound cards, and Plug-n-Play devices are especially problematic.

Tecras and other notebooks, and some non-portables fail to flush the cache when switching on the A20 gate, which is provoked by bzImage kernels but not by zImage kernels. If your computer suffers from this problem, you’ll see a message during boot saying A20 gating failed. In this case, you’ll have to use the ‘tecra’ boot images.

If you still have problems, please submit a bug report. Send an email to [email protected]. You must include the following as the first lines of the email:

Package: boot-floppies
Version:version

Make sure you fill in version with the version of the boot-floppies set that you used. If you don’t know the version, use the date you downloaded the floppies, and include the distribution you got them from (e.g., “stable” or “frozen”).

You should also include the following information in your bug report:

architecture i386

model your general hardware vendor and model

memory amount of RAM

scsi SCSI host adapter, if any

cd-rom CD-ROM model and interface type, i.e., ATAPI

network card network interface card, if any

pcmcia details of any PCMCIA devices

Depending on the nature of the bug, it also might be useful to report the disk model, the disk capacity, and the model of video card.

In the bug report, describe what the problem is, including the last visible kernel messages in the event of a kernel hang. Describe the steps you performed that put the system into the problem state.

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This book is part of the public domain. John Goerzen and Ossama Othman (2004). Debian GNU/Linux : Guide to Installation and Usage. Urbana, Illinois: Project Gutenberg. Retrieved https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/6527/pg6527-images.html

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