Re: problems with X
> When I do the Ctrl+Alt+F1, go back to the console mode, and work, none of
> the network functionality seems to work! i cant do a ftp or http etc.,
Does this mean that you have the network working when you're in X? What
are you using to be able to tell?
Of course netscape and other GUI based programs wouldn't work in console mode.
In linux the question of whether internet style networking itself works,
has nothing to do with whether your GUI is working happily. But if you're
not in a GUI, you'll need a text mode app to do the same things.
If you login as root at the text console, you can use apt and install
clients for the protocols you mentioned.
apt-get install ncftp
apt-get install lynx
(though I personally favor pointing at non-US and getting:
apt-get install lynx-ssl
...making adjustments to the apt system is easy, but as a newbie, you
might not want to do that until you've setup what you have already.)
lynx is a text based web browser which speaks both ftp and http. lynx-ssl
speaks https as well. (sadly, neither speaks javascript. You can view
graphics with them if you install mime support and zgv and have svgalib
setup properly too.) ncftp is a freindlier ftp client than "ftp".
You should also be able to ping hosts on your network, or if connected to
an ISP, ping hosts on the open internet. For instance, I like to check my
link by pinging www.yahoo.com.
> why is this so. I get the strong feeling that for a normal user like me
> who doesn't bother too much about setting up X (its configuration etc)
> GNOME is a much better alternatine. I am sure in GNOME there's no config
> files needed to set-up clients, or are there??
GNOME drives me crazy; it claims to make life easier, but if they haven't
thought of the checkbox or option I want, they don't bother to tell me
how to configure it any other way, and the docs fro GNOME apps ... well,
it'd be nice if they actually had some that weren't "using our dialog box
for dummies" style docs.
There are *always* config files. Even when GNOME or other dialog-box style
tools are available, if your system is going to remember the options you
pick, it has to write them down somewhere... and that's a config file.
Some of the beauty of a debian setup is that you have a better than average
chance that the default setup, or the fairly few questions it asks during
the install (if you have debconf set to let it ask you) are enough to
configure these things properly. That protects you from having to know
scary things like exactly which file to invade with a text editor to make
something behave better (or at all).
Unfortunately that defense also makes it difficult for you to know which
text file to invade if things don't go right. Being unfamiliar doesn't
help either; our packaging system can tell you which files are config
files for a given package, but you probably aren't at all sure which
package is misbehaving.
Myself, I'm pretty sure of that, because your descriptions of the symptoms
you see are so vague.
What exactly are you trying to do with the system, when it's done being
setup what do you expect of it? Because it will be a lot easier for us
to guide you toward a system that does that, if we know what it is.
I realize this one is going to be a little harder for you, but what have
you been *successful* in doing with your setup so far?
btw, your questions are not at all specific to laptops, so you may find the
archives of the debian-users list to be helpful, as well.
* Heather Stern * star@ many places...
> thanks all for the feedback so far.
>
> praveen kamath
Kamath:
> > > All--
> > >
> > > I installed debian 2.2potato on my laptop, I installed XFree86 and with
> > > that the ctwm window manager. ANd now I am not able to get into the
> > > console mode at all! when the computer boots up, it directly goes into the
> > > graphics(X mode). Is there anyway of stopping this from happening? is
> > > there )??
Hubert Chen:
> > Try Ctrl-Alt-F1 (or F2, F3, F4, F5, F6). That will give you a console.
> > Ctrl-Alt-F7 to switch back to X.
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