How install KDE with Woody/testing? (2)
Thanks Rob!
Rob, Ivan, anyone: Any further suggestions here?
Rob Weir wrote:
> > What is the best way to install Debian testing/(woody packages) & KDE, when
> > the install is to 2001 HW, and is done entirely through a 56K modem? (So,
> > an important consideration is minimizing the ammount of data DL'd.) (Also
> > important is getting the X drivers for the video HW.)
> >
... Second:
> > 1. Install base system.
> > 2. Do dist-upgrade.
> > 3. Install X.
> > 4. Install KDE.
>
> The second option, most definitely.
> Once you get into dselect, ^C out of it and edit your
> sources.list to point to testing. apt-get update && apt-get -fuy
> dist-upgrade and I had a basic woody system. Fire up dselect again and
> actually choose all the packages you want to install.
I tried something like this - I did the dist-upgrade, but didnt use -fuy.
I then ran dselect and let it install sone packages it wanted to.
I then ran tasksel, selecting to install:
1. X
2. GUI - (a combination of GNOME & KDE)
but, something(s) must not have worked properly, because :
1. I never got the GUI based X config screen (to config mouse,
vid card, monitor, refresh rates). I did get some text mode questions
about these items. I answered them, and it accepted the answers.
2. Neither startx nor start-kde work - they both complain about being
unable to open an X display, I think.
3. When I reboot, the login comes up in text mode, not GUI mode. One of
the last lines from the boot messages is about starting some Gnome thing,
but no mention is make of KDE in those messages.
Questions:
1. Is there a program run by the package installer that will come up to
help me configure X? If yes: Do you know the program's name?
If no, what program should I run to configure X?
(I suspect the answer above is yes, so then:) Is that configure program
a GUI based config program? What is it's name? XF86Setup?
I searched for XF86Setup - it isn't on my system. But, xf86config is.
I used xf86config to generate a config file.
Is that the best way being used to configure X? Should that be run
automatically at some point by the package installer, or am
I supposed to run it on my own?
2. At some point after doing the apt-get dist-upgrade I got a question about
which interface type to use for package configuration:
slang, dialog, text, (& 2 others, I think). I tried slang one time,
but got errors about slang & perl during package installation, IIRC.
Which interface type should be chosen at this question? (I think
slang is definitely out, but I want to ensure that the best X config
program runs, and I suspect that that is the GUI based config program,
not just some text questions. The GUI based config program at least
allows immediate verification that the mouse is working, and that a
GUI screen is capable of operating with the video hw.)
3. I have NOT, at any time, put the KDE deb line into sources.list.
Is that the correct way to do this procedure?
Somewhere I recall Ivan writing that putting the KDE deb line into
sources.list was only necessary for potato,
and that with woody (See *1) the KDE deb line in sources.list
is unnecessary because the KDE packages are included as part of "woody".
Is it correct to leave that KDE deb line out of sources.list?
*1 Woody, at this time, presumably in practicality means testing,
since "woody" doesn't really exist yet (there are just
packages in "testing", "woody" won't exist until those packages, and other
stuff are released, some months from now))
> If you're on a
> 56k line (like I am), be prepared for a long wait; it took about 20
> hours of downloading for me to get a fairly complete setup with
> KDE2.1.1 (the latest at the time) and the Debian GNOME packages.
4. Is there some way to avoid having to DL the Gnome packages? (If they
aren't necessary, I'd prefer to not dl them over a 56K modem.) I
didn't see a "KDE only" tasksel option. (Should I use dselect,
not tasksel?) Is there some way to get "KDE only" to appear
as a tasksel option?
> > PS: any gotchas or tips or things to watch out for?
> It was a while ago, but one thing I do remember is to make sure you
> use debconf rather than debconf-tiny, which seems to have some issues
> with perl 5.6.1.
5. How do I ensure I am using debconf, not debconf-tiny?
Where can I find out more about debconf? I searched for it under
documentation on the Debian website, but there was no info there.
Did I miss something? Do I have to read the source? Or, basically -
in a sentence or two, what should I know about debconf?
Thanks Rob.
PS. In rerunning xf86config severall times, (without rebooting) I have somehow
managed to get part of a Gnome login screen showing up in a 640x480 window. I
haven't been able to enlarge it (ctrl-alt-+ ?), nor get back out of it to my
basic text display. (ctrl-alt-bksp just resarts the login screen.) I think I'm
gonna do another reinstall from scratch (I've kept a copy of my DL'd deb archived files
on another partition, do I don't have to DL the debs, at least!) with the tips you've
sent me so far, and see if I get any further.
One problem I seem to be having is getting xf86config to use a SVGA ability,
not just a 640x480 vga size. Any thoughts? (SuperProbe did find out a
model name for my card (SiS 630 AGP (PCI Probed)), but that wasn't on the
list provided for xf86config, so xf86config just defaults to a "vga" driver.
If you would reply with any answers to the above, I'd appreciate it!
I'm thinking I mught use the answers to put together a tip sheet for new
installers of KDE that maybe Ivan could put on the Debian/KDE page.
Thanks.
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