Tech4rce microsystems wrote:
Woody is really old now; you probably would have done better to have started with Sarge (Testing).I'm a linux newbie, and having problems installing Debian "woody".I go through the installation procedure (no problem there), I check the boxes for "X window system, Desktop system, and C -C+ ( should be basic enough I think). I then select my video card (ATI Rage 128), monitor (17-19 inch), VGA (simple settings), I choose the gdm as the default destop manager. Reboot the system, now comes the problems. System tries to start gdm but says that it can't, because it's not configured properly (?) I've re-installed the system and packages over and over trying different settings but it's always the same problem that pops up.
However, no hurt; you can upgrade easily if you're on the network. Just edit your "/etc/apt/sources.list" file to point to "sarge" instead of "stable" (except for the security line, which needs to stay at "stable"). Then run "aptitude update" followed by "aptitude dist-upgrade".
If you want to run even newer software, change your "sources.list" file to point to "unstable" instead of "sarge" before running the aptitude commands.
I've even skipped the X window system on settup, downloaded the New XFree86-4.4.0, and ran through the setup. Reboot - now it comes up with missing "glide"package.Unless you know what you're doing, you'd be better off to stick to official Debian packages.
Understandable. As mentioned, Woody is old, and had a reputation for being difficult to install. The advantage of Debian has typically not been in ease-of-installation, but rather in ease-of-maintenance, cross-platform (hardware) support, configurability, and adherence to Free Software principles.I'm very put off with this distro of Linux at this point.
Whether you upgrade to Sarge or Unstable, or not, you should be able to get X working. First, is to undo the downloading of the "New XFree86-4.4.0" and get back to standard Debian packages, whatever that takes.Can anybody help me??
Next, don't use GDM or XDM or KDM or WDM until you have X working; it'll make trouble-shooting easier. You can use various methods for disabling gdm; I'd suggest either uninstalling it ("aptitude remove gdm") or temporarily adding "exit 0" as the first executable line in the "/etc/init.d/gdm" script.
Now try starting X manually with "startx". What errors do you get? You may also want to look in "/var/log/XFree86.log" for hints. Typically the most common error is that a mouse (input device) is not found/initialized, or that no usable video modes were found. Sometimes, if no obvious error is found, it's because no X client is found, in which case the X server starts, can't find any clients, and then shuts down. An X client in this case would usually be some sort of window manager such as wmakeror icewm, or an environment, such as KDE or Gnome (these environments aren't technically X clients, but rather contain clients).
Sometimes fixing the problem is as simple as running "dpkg-reconfigure xserver-xfree86" and reconfiguring the mouse or video settings. Sometimes, especially with the older X in Woody, "downgrading" from the "proper" video driver to the "svga" driver will get you on the road to progress.
Hopefully this email will get you started on the way to getting X working for you.
-- Kent