mount -o loop,offset=32256 debian.img ./mntpoint

This is completely wrong because the data start is not 32kb into the image file. To figure out where it starts you need to use the following commands:

]$ fdisk -ul debian.img
you must set cylinders.
You can do this from the extra functions menu.

Once you have this output you can see that the data starts at sector 2048 and since sector size is 512 on my image I need to set the offset to 512*2048. So the final working command is:

and we now have a mounted image file.

I’m a huge fan of Debian but there are some things that really piss me off. One is the way they have completely screwed the exim4 configuration. Exim4, if you are not an administrator or mail guru is not the simplest thing in the world to configure, it’s config file is fairly involved and you can do anything in it. Add DEBCONF variables to this and you have a complete nightmare configuration.I spent two days tracking this error down to the following:

DCconfig_internet=1

That was all I had to add to /etc/exim4/exim4.conf.template

Why this changed I have no idea. The setting I am using in /etc/exim4/update-exim4.conf.conf is

dc_eximconfig_configtype=’internet’

I really cannot make head nor tail out of this at all. I sometimes wish I had started learning Postfix instead of Exim but part of me thinks that it’s not Exim but rather the way it has been packaged up thats compicated.

$ grep vo_driver $HOME/.mplayer/gui.conf
vo_driver = “xmga”

It should read:

vo_driver = “x11”

stdin: is not a tty

I fixed it using the following entry in /etc/fstab

devpts /dev/pts devpts mode=0620,gid=5 0 0

I’m positive this is not the way I should have fixed it but it works!

I am not saying I know a better way to do it but it still pisses me off. Anyway to use a sane version of java I had to run the following command to get eclipse working again.

$:~# update-alternatives –install /usr/bin/java java /usr/local/sdk-5_05/jdk 1
$:~# update-alternatives –list java
/usr/lib/jvm/java-gcj/jre/bin/java
/usr/local/sdk-5_05/jdk
$:~# update-alternatives –remove java /usr/lib/jvm/java-gcj/jre/bin/java

I now have eclipse working again and tomcat installed. I was going to use jetty6 over tomcat but because Debian comes bundled with a binary tomcat distribution I have decided  to use it. This decision may cost me dearly later.

# enable programmable completion features (you don’t need to enable
# this, if it’s already enabled in /etc/bash.bashrc and /etc/profile
# sources /etc/bash.bashrc).
if [ -f /etc/bash_completion ]; then
    . /etc/bash_completion
fi

If it is not commented out then it is likely that name completion has been activated elsewhere. Comment it out and start a new shell to see if it helps.

_alias                         _lvresize
_apt_cache                     _lvs
_apt_get                       _lvscan
_aptitude                      _make
_args                          _man
_aspell                        _mkisofs
_aspell_dictionary             _modules
_available_interfaces          _mount
_bzip2                         _mplayer
_cancel                        _mplayer_options_list
_cardctl                       _nslookup
_cd                            _ntpdate
_cdrecord                      _ooexp_
_chgrp                         _openssl
_chown                         _openssl_sections
_chsh                          _perl
_command                       _perldoc………etc

Configuring man-db
This version of man-db is incompatible with your existing database of manual
page descriptions, so that database needs to be x rebuilt. This may take some
time, depending on how many pages you have installed; it will happen in the
background, possibly slowing down the installation of other packages. If you do
not build the database now, it will be built the next time
/etc/cron.weekly/mandb runs, or you can do it yourself using ‘mandb -c’ as user
‘man’. In the meantime, the ‘whatis’ and ‘apropos’ commands will not be able to
display any output. Incompatible changes like this should happen rarely. Should
mandb build its database now?

So far I have upgraded two machines and had the same trouble with ssh and xinetd both times. If I encounter any mmore trouble I will add more here.