[ Closed ] exact debian like crunchbang.

Perhaps he just wants to have a Debian base instead of Ubuntu. I'm in the same camp, and plan to make my own CrunchDeb sometime in the future. I'm not quite sure that I like the way Ubuntu is heading, especially after seeing 9.10 and reading about 10.04. Ubuntu is becoming bloated and convoluted, and since CrunchBang is about the exact opposite, why not make it Debian-based instead?

sleepsleep, in my effort to understand why CrunchBang is so great, I've come to believe that a lot of it is the collection of scripts corenominal wrote - for example, openbox-logout, system-update, and others - that take advantage of Openbox's love of keybindings. So poke around in /usr/local/bin, rc.xml, and menu.xml to find these scripts and make sure you have something similar in your install. These scripts create the functionality of CrunchBang, and IMO that's why the community loves it so much. I used this approach to Crunchify my iMac G3 (it's powerpc, so no official #!), and while I don't use a lot of the same packages, I ended up with an install that has the same feel of CrunchBang.

It's just what I'm used to. I'd like to one day try out many of the major distros, but I want to figure out Debian first.

Last edited by jollysnowman (2010-01-01 16:20:00)

Thanks gutterslob, will do!

@sleepsleep - I would open the script file and read the comments and commands.

To simply the process of building your CrunchBang-like install:

1. Install a base like Ubuntu, Debian, Arch, etc

http://www.psychocats.net/ubuntu/minimal

http://crunchbanglinux.org/forums/topic … ian-setup/

http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Beginners_Guide

2. Install xorg, openbox, and any programs you want. This list may help you:

http://crunchbanglinux.org/wiki/applica … ll_edition

3. If you want the setting like CrunchBang just grab config files (from a #! installation/live cd) such as the Openbox (rc.xml, autostart.sh, menu.xml), tint2 (tint2rc), and conky (.conkyrc). Then put them in your new installation.

Below is a copy of my original Debian build notes prior to creating the install script. As anonymous has said it's basically the same thing and is just a longer process.

I hope you find it useful

Debian Testing build notes Nov 14, 2009

for 64bit install (with 32bit notations)

Begin with Testing netinstall image for you architecture http://www.debian.org/devel/debian-installer/ (burn image on lowest speed)

Boot and commence the text based installer. The steps are fairly straight forward and if you’ve used the Ubuntu alternate or minimal install CD before you’ll feel right at home.

From the package selection options choose ‘Standard System Utilities’ and ‘Laptop’ (if required) only

Once complete reboot and login as root

First task is to edit the sources.list

nano /etc/apt/sources.list

Mine looks like:

# deb cdrom:[Debian GNU/Linux testing _Squeeze_ - Official Snapshot amd64 NETINST Binary-1 20091109-21:36]/ squeeze main

deb ftp://ftp.debian.org/debian/ testing main contrib non-free
#deb-src ftp://ftp.au.debian.org/debian/ testing main
deb http://security.debian.org/ testing/updates main non-free
#deb-src http://security.debian.org/ squeeze/updates main
#deb ftp://ftp.debian-multimedia.org testing main

Don’t uncheck the multimedia repo until its keychain is added later on.

Save sources list then update

apt-get install update

Now install a basic X desktop to see if things are working okay

apt-get install xserver-xorg-core xorg alsa-base alsa-utils gdm snmp xfce4 ttf-bitstream-vera ttf-dejavu terminator wicd wireless-tools thunar-archive-plugin xfce4-screenshooter geany

Once completed reboot. All going well you should be greeted with the gdm login screen and a screen that looks something like this

Now install the rest of the system to your liking

First add the debian-multimedia repo and keychain using the install instructions here – http://debian-multimedia.org/ . Now go back and uncheck the debian-multimedia repo in /etc/apt/sources.list

Start a terminal, change to root, then update

su
apt-get update

Now you are ready to install whatever packages you like

The following is my default set based on XFCE. Iceweasel is missing because I wanted a later version (explained below) but if you’re happy with 3.0.1 add it in now. Included here are a couple of intel wireless firmware packages that I regularly need (see wireless notes at the end of this howto). Remove them if you don’t need them.

apt-get install vlc gimp hpijs tint2 conky inkscape scrot xfburn audacity gftp lame gtkpod-aac w64codecs exaile xchat lame gtk2-engines-murrine geany xscreensaver-gl-extra cups-pdf ristretto evince system-config-printer lxrandr firmware-iwlwifi firmware-ipw2x00 catfish gthumb iceweasel

*change w64codecs to w32 codecs for 32bit installs

Flash and Java -I like to install flash and java separately but you can do it all in one go with the previous installs if you like

apt-get install flashplugin-nonfree
apt-get install sun-java6-jre

Printing – if like me you want a system without synaptic you’ll need to install system-config-printer without recommended packages. So remove it from the list of packages to be installed above then install it later with:

apt-get --no-install-recommends install system-config-printer

You may also need hal-cups-utils if you have usb printer . If you only have network printers you can give this a miss.

apt-get --no-install-recommends install hal-cups-utils

ntfs – If you have a dual-boot machine you may also need libntfs-3g54 an ntfs-config if you want to read and write to that partition

Openoffice 3.1
I’m not sure what version of openoffice is in the repos. I still prefer to install it with this method on any deb based system http://crunchbanglinux.org/forums/topic … eorg-debs/
* Edited here to work without sudo

First you will need to download the debs for your system from the openoffice org website. Make sure you download a Linux DEB package. Go to http://download.openoffice.org/other.html . I downloaded the English US package but you may want another. I assume they will work just as well.

Once you have this package downloaded navigate to it in thunar and then untar it.(Right Click–>Extract here) Navigate into the folder that is created, then into the DEBS folder and then open a terminal in that folder. You can do this in thunar by right clicking in the folder and choosing ‘Open in Terminal’.

Then within the terminal change to root

su

then simply run this command

dpkg -i *.deb

When this is finished run the command

cd desktop-integration

then run the

dpkg -i *.deb

command again. This will install the debian desktop-integration package which will give debian menu entries.

Other Issues
When Terminator starts the first time it doesn’t generate a config file at ~/.config/terminator/config

I needed to manually create this file then add my favourite config details (tango palette and transparency)

scrollbar_position=disabled
force_no_bell=true
background_color=#000000
foreground_color=#ffffff
font=Mono 9
palette=#2E2E34343636:#CCCC00000000:#4E4E9A9A0606:#C4C4A0A00000:#34346565A4A4:#757550507B7B:#060698209A9A:#D3D3D7D7CFCF:#555557575353:#EFEF29292929:#8A8AE2E23434:#FCFCE9E94F4F:#72729F9FCFCF:#ADAD7F7FA8A8:#3434E2E2E2E2:#EEEEEEEEECEC
enable_real_transparency = True
background_type = 'transparent'
background_darkness = '0.7

'

Volwheel: if you are a tint2 user like me then volwheel is a necessity

I couldn’t find a working Volwheel deb for Debian so I used the current crunchbang package and installed it this way.

Download the deb

wget http://crunchbang.net/packages-9.04.xx/pool/main/volwheel_0.2.6-1crunchbang1_all.deb

Open a terminal, change to root then install with dpkg

su
dpkg -i volwheel*.deb

you will get some error messages about missing dpendencies. Fix this by running

apt-get -f install

Dependencies should install and volwheel will finish configuring

A few notes about Wireless
The module for the Atheros card on my 64bit system is built into the default kernel. To get wireless working with wicd just run in a root terminal

su
iwconfig

This will tell you where your wireless card is located. i.e. wlan0 or eth1 etc

Then add this information (i.e. wlan0) to wicd’s preferences – Preferences – General Settings – Network Interfaces

On my old 32 bit thinkpad with an Intel card I had to install the kernel module separately from the non-free repos after the initial install. A quick search at http://wiki.debian.org/WiFi and packages.debian.org should help you find the module you need. Once installed follow the procedure above to find where the card is located and add it to wicd’s preferences.

That’s all – enjoy

THanks, I found your post informative, and helpful.

You mention Ice Weasel, but, I thought that the OP wanted a CrunchBang distro equivalent...???I don't recognize Ice Weasel on my distribution, just firefox.

I am more interested in Ice Weasel, that's why I mention it....

Your effort was much appreciated....
CAI ENG

Thanks, I didn't realize that it is identical to firefox....

Sorry for reviving an old thread but I am interested in getting a default Openbox installation (on Debian Squeeze) to look and feel pretty much like Crunchbang, can anyone tell me if this information is present anywhere?

I would like to know how to do that since I will be trying to install Openbox on other distributions too and would like to achieve a similar user experience.

Thanks.