Re: xwindows wanted

[Kent West <westk@nicanor.acu.edu>]

André Bell wrote:
> 
> >login to your system and type XF86Setup, this will take you through the
> >graphical X setup. After your done you can just type startx to run X.
> 
> I type XF86Setup and it says
> bash: XF86Setup: command not found :(
> 
> Maybe I need to reinstall debian ???

Reinstallation is seldom necessary in the Linux world (unlike
other OSes we are familiar with). However, I recommend
installing/reinstalling several times using several different
computers and several different methods (floppy, ftp, hard disk,
etc) just for the experience.  But if you just want to get your
system working, forget reinstallation; fix the problem instead
(which in most cases, as a beginner you won't know how to for a
while).
 
> I'm getting a lot of 'bash: <command>: command not found' messages even for
> stuff that IS in the subdirectories.  Maybe they need to be in /usr to be
> found???

Not everything listed is a command. And not every command can be
run by just anyone; sometimes you'll need to be root. And
sometimes the command might not be in your path (just like DOS's
path environment variable), so you'll need to explicitly give the
path or change to that directory first.

And the number one reason you can't find the command: you're
running it as root from the directory where the command is. This
is a security feature (I won't go into it now). Basically, root
can not run a command from the directory in which the command is.
For example, if there's a command, "foo", that's in the "/etc"
directory, you can not "cd /etc" and then run "foo". Instead,
tell the system to go up a directory level and come back down to
find the command, like this: "./foo". Then the command should
work.