I''m very new to linux and trying to learn everything by experience here...but I''ve come to a bit of a hurdle. I''ve installed debian and have figured out how to load both windows and linux from grub using the command line. The problem is, the only command for linux I know is "kernel /vmlinuz root=/dev/hdaX/" Is there something I need to add to this so it boots a more visual version of linux?

Sounds to me like you don''t have X installed. X is the thing that has windows and graphics and stuff.
Do an "apt-get install kde-core", that should get everything you need for a basic KDE environment (including X). There are a number of alternatives to KDE, though (all of which use X). If you like KDE you can get a whole bunch more of it by "apt-get install kde". If this stuff is installed a normal boot should load it up automatically.

Hope that helped.

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Thank you, I thought the install seemed too quick.

I''ll try that now.

So I went to try that and the first thing is said was kde was already installed. Not knowing what else to do I reinstalled everything using an ftp server rather then the cds I used (except the kernel). This morning I went to boot linux and it showed the message (paraphrased)

Not loading GNOME: as it is not the default display manager (this makes sense, I choose kde)
Loading kde...done.
Not loading X: as it is not the default display manager.

Then it goes to the normal command line linux. How would I set X as the default? or is there somethingn else I need to do?

how about typing "startx" at the command line, which does pretty much what it says, starts X.

edit: that won't make it the default, so you'll have to do that each time you login. i don't know off the top of my head how to set the default login.

[edited by - necromancer_df on December 31, 2003 4:12:53 PM]

Tried that, it didn''t work: but I now know that it''s because it can''t find the driver for my video card.

I''m sure this is more of a complex project that any of you want to answer on the forum; so I''ll be researching this on my own. But if anyone has had this experience before (using a ATI 9600 pro) and wants to point me in the right direction, any help would be aprreciated.

Well, depending on what version of XFree86 you have, I can give you the URL to the latest ATI drivers, and you can download them from the command line (wget? I''m not sure, I''m pretty much a newbie too), and you can install them. It''s in an RPM, though, does Debian support that?

quote: Original post by Fibonacci One
Not loading GNOME: as it is not the default display manager (this makes sense, I choose kde)
Loading kde...done.
Not loading X: as it is not the default display manager.

What that actually was is closer to this:

Not loading GNOME Display Manager: ...Loading KDE Display Manager: kdm.Not loading X Display Manager: ...

The display manager bit is what''s meant to allow you to choose a window manager or desktop environment as well as a user (and to then type in your password). Regardless of which display manager, you should be able to login to any of the window managers or desktop environments you have installed (some don''t have "session scripts", so they aren''t listed, but the primary ones do).

quote: Original post by Fibonacci One
Then it goes to the normal command line linux. How would I set X as the default?

Well, like I just said, there''s no need to set xdm as your display manager (that''s just not your problem). However, if you did want to change what display manager you''re using, you do by going root in a terminal and typing dpkg-reconfigure one-of-those-display-managers and it''ll allow you to pick which one to use.

quote: Original post by Fibonacci One
Tried that, it didn''t work: but I now know that it''s because it can''t find the driver for my video card.

Yeah, that''s the real problem here, not the display manager deal. There are a couple solutions for your problem, but the easiest would be to install a version of XFree86 that builds in drivers for your video card (ATI Radeon 9600 Pro, you said): and XFree86 4.3 does just that.

Debian experimental has some XFree86 4.3 packages in it right now. You can install them like this:

1. Add "deb http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian ../project/experimental main contrib non-free" to a line in /etc/apt/sources.list (yes, leave the rest of the lines alone).


2. Run apt-get update


3. Run apt-get install -t experimental xlibs xserver-xfree86 x-window-system-core (a bit verbose just to make sure).

You must do all of that as root. Feel free to remove the experimental line from sources.list afterward. The XFree86 package''s debconf should hopefully set it self up correctly now that a usable driver is included (if it doesn''t, come back here and whine at me, I guess ).

quote: Original post by andromeda
It''s in an RPM, though, does Debian support that?

Only kind-of. Debian has a program packaged called "alien" that can convert between many package types (any combination between RPM, deb, LSB, Slackware tgz, and Stampede slp). It thinks it needs to be run as root (to put it a bit simply), but Debian also packages a program called "fakeroot" which allows a user to run a program and make it think it''s being run as root (as long as it doesn''t try to do anything that would require it actually be root, it works). Still, if the file location standards for the files in the RPM differ between Red Hat and Debian (or any other distribution), no package converter is likely to be able to guess their intentions (which is why there''s LSB, but not every distro or proprietary packager follows it well and very few perfectly).

Still, if nothing else, the files can be pulled out of the RPM and manually installed anywhere. If they''re compatible (don''t know how much the ATI drivers "touch"), they''ll work too (which is the real goal, I suppose ).

I tried what you suggested null and void. Took me some time to learn to use "vi", but after that it was a breeze.

When I used the command "Run apt-get install -t experimental xlibs xserver-xfree86 x-window-system-core" it said some packages could not be installed because of unmet dependencies.

x-window-system-core needs:
xlibmesa-dri
xlibmesa-gl
xlibmesa-glu
xbase-clients

xserver-free86 needs:
xserver common
libc6
zlib

can I just install these packages then try again? Do I need to add them one at a time or are these all a part of something else I need to add?

Thanks for your help.

edit:grammer

[edited by - fibonacci one on December 31, 2003 8:08:00 PM]