Re: Opening and/or setting up XFree86 in Debian sarge
george5@georgesbasement.com wrote:
For the umpteenth time I'm attempting to set up a Linux-based
PC
<snip>
That got me to the command prompt. No sign
of a GUI anywhere ...
Making progress. Excellent.
Then I got the system to recognize the network (Linksys router,
DSL modem, WXP laptop also on the router) and to my astonishment,
I managed to "complete" the installation of various packages
via the Internet connection. I even FTP'd XFree86's binaries
and installed them.
More progress. Good.
But, if XFree86 came from somewhere other than Debian's repositories, I
suggest you get rid of them. You'll find that using only the Debian
repositories makes maintenance of your system much easier.
However, in spite of looking all over the place for the secret
way of starting XFree86, I haven't a clue how to obtain a GUI.
Basically you need to install X. There are several ways; some might
suggest using 'tasksel' or the task selection option in 'aptitude' to
select an entire desktop configuration. I personally prefer to be a bit
more selective (without being too granular) by using the following command:
aptitude install x-window-system icewm
which should get you a basic X system working. If you want something a
bit more glamorous, you can install KDE or Gnome in addition to or
instead of icewm. (Just add "kde" and/or "gnome" to the line above, like
"aptitude install x-window-system icewm kde gnome", or run a separate
instance after the first one finishes, such as "aptitude install kde".)
Still stuck at the command prompt. No browser, nothing.
Just for kicks, install a text-mode browser:
aptitude install links lynx
or
apt-get install links lynx
('aptitude' is probably preferable to using 'apt-get' for most folks;
you can google for the pros and cons of each; other tools that could be
used are dpkg (more low-level and labor-intensive), dselect (older and
generally considered to be more confusing), synaptic (requires X, so
can't use it yet), and maybe a couple of others that slip my mind)
Then fire it up with something like "links www.slashdot.org".
Of course, once you have X working, you can "aptitude install
mozilla-firefox" or galeon or use KDE's Konqueror, etc.
--
Kent
Reply to: