EIOM Pri Section Package Description
_* Opt admin boot-floppie Scripts to create the Debian installation
_* Opt devel newt0.25-dev Developer’s toolkit for newt
_* Opt devel slang1-dev The S-Lang programming library
_* Opt devel slang1-pic The S-Lang programming library
I suggest running with the defaults for now; you will have ample opportunities to add more later.
Whatever you decide, press Enter to accept and return to the main screen. If this results in unresolved problems, you will be bounced right back to another problem resolution screen.
The R, U, and D keys are very useful in “what if” situations. You can experiment at will and then restore everything and start again. Don’t look on them as being in a glass box labeled “Break in Case of Emergency.”
After making your selections in the Select screen, press I to give you a big window, press t to take you to the beginning, and then use the Page Down key to look quickly through the settings. This way you can check the results of your work and spot glaring errors. Some people have deselected whole groups of packages by mistake and not noticed the error until too late. dselect is a very powerful tool; don’t misuse it.
You should now have the situation shown in Table 3.3.
Table 3.3: Expected Package Category States
+--------------------------------------+
| Package category | Status |
|------------------+-------------------|
| Required | all selected |
|------------------+-------------------|
| Important | all selected |
|------------------+-------------------|
| Standard | mostly selected |
|------------------+-------------------|
| Optional | mostly deselected |
|------------------+-------------------|
| Extra | mostly deselected |
+--------------------------------------+
Happy? Press Enter to exit the Select process. You can come back and run Select again if you wish.
Install
dselect runs through the entire set of packages and installs those selected. Expect to be asked to make decisions as you go. It is often useful to switch to a different shell to compare, say, an old configuration with a new one. If the old file is conf.modules, the new one will be conf.modules.dpkg-dist.