>>>>> "John" == Klaus, John <jklaus@hunterfan.com> writes:
Hi John!
Long posting ...
John> Dear Sir, I have tried and tried, did I say I tried, to get
John> Debian 2.1 installed and configured with Gnome on just one
John> machine at home. I find this to be a most impossible task.
OK, forget 2.1; 2.2r4 is the actual stable release with "woody" 3.0
coming "soon".
So stick with stable or get testing/woody/3.0 right now.
John> I know that I will be coming across as a smart-ass
John> cynic, but I have played by the rules here. I have done
John> everything I can think of outside of sending this e-mail. I
John> give up. Please help.
Calm down, no problem all the smart asses had a bad time, too.
John> I am a mechanical engineer by trade, and a hobbyist in
John> electronics and computers. I like the Linux philosophy and
John> the Debian philosophy. I would even like to contribute in
John> the future to support Debian and Linux. The problem I have
John> is contributing to what if I can't get installed what the
John> two books I have purchased tell me I can.
John> The two books I am speaking of are: (both books use
John> release 2.1)
John> Debian GNU/Linux 2.1 Unleashed by Sams
John> publishing
John> Debian GNU/Linux for Dummies.
Not really up to date, have a look at our web site.
You may check out as well Osamu Aoki's Debian Quick Reference:
http://qref.sourceforge.net/quick/
XCONFIG issues and the like are not debian specific, so try a google
search on hardware related questions.
John> Admittedly, I was able to get Xwindows configured with
John> the Dummies book. But, attempting to add Gnome, by the
John> book, only locked up my computer and left me to a reinstall
John> as my only recourse. I was unable to even log in to do any
John> kind of recovery.
Install a recent debian version (net ... as said above) Get all the X
related packages and all the gnome stuff too.
Configure X ...
Then create a file
/home/user/.xsession and put only
exec gnome-session
there and you are done with gnome.
Executing startx will let you enter the gnome world.
John> I never asked for this experience to be easy, and I do
John> like to learn new things, but I really feel that this might
John> be going a little too far.
It could be always worse - and it will ;-)
John> I am 37 years old, and my entire computing experience
John> now revolves around graphics. I use Pro-Engineer for my 3-D
John> design work on the job. The computers I use all have a
John> slick GUI versus an old command line interface. I am
John> dependent on a GUI.
Fine that's quite in the mood of recent postings here, always very interesting.
John> I don't believe the package manager is loading
John> "Enlightenment" for Gnome. I went back through the
John> "dselect" routine and enlightenment had not been installed.
Thats not the role of dselect. It installs the packages (and debconf
does some configuring) but you have to tune it.
You have to tell gnome what windowmanager you want.
John> I selected it and installed it. Oops, I now have to
John> reconfigure a, was working, Xwindows. Go figure, xf86config
John> won't configure Xwindows now, not into anything that works.
John> This is what I have:
John> 1) A mid-tower case. 2) An FIC PA2005 motherboard, with the
John> latest BIOS. 3) Intel 166MMX CPU 4) 64 Meg of 72 pin EDO
John> RAM 5) SiS 6326 4 Meg video card. 6) Sound Blaster PCI 512
John> Sound Card 7) Sony Vivitron 15 monitor. 31.5-64kHz vertical
John> 50-120Hz Horizontal 8) Hard drive 1 = 10 gig Western
John> Digital. Partitioned as follows:
So you have all the information you need
John> a.) Win 98SE 2925 meg
John> b.) Linux Swap 1025 meg c.) Linux Root 150 meg d.) Linux
John> Usr 3000 meg e.) Linux Var 2300 meg f.) Linux Tmp 500 meg
John> 1) Hard drive 2 = 30 gig Western Digital. Partitioned as
John> follows:
John> a.) Win 98SE
John> file storage 11502 meg b.) Linux Swap 2048 meg c.) Win
John> 98SE for dedicated swap 2048 meg d.) Linux Home 14402 meg
wow! How many users?
John> 1) PS/2 mouse 2) 101 key keyboard
John> The what I want list:
John> 1.) Stability. 2.) A user friendly load and
John> configure routine. 3.) Something I can record my LP's onto
John> and make CD's from. 4.) Something I can design my personal
John> electronics projects with. 5.) And, be able to run "Star
John> Office".
Star Office is not everyone's choice but that's up to you ...
John> Stability is paramount in this. I don't like to loose
John> my hard work any more than the next guy does. I am also so
John> sick of the Windose "Blue screen of death". I am trying the
John> dual boot for now, but I eventually want purge Windose from
John> my home, can we say "Forget the upgrade".
John> User friendly load and configure. Do you guys really
John> like to work this hard? I understand that knowledge and
John> experience play a role in how well and easily things happen,
John> but even this seems a little far-fetched.
No it isn't that hard ... Fetch a recent version ... Ceterum censeo, Cartaginem esse
delendam
John> All work and no play make Johnny a dull boy. The last
John> three on the list are for my own playtime. I know that it
John> is unlikely that Debian will have every little package I
John> need to handle numbers 3 & 4, but the alias package should
John> cover those.
alien?
Anyway we are at 8699 packages in unstable, so you most probably find
what you need.
John> John Klaus
John> jklaus@hunterfan.com
PD You may ask your questions one by one describing your
problems more in detail. Probably you'll get short and concise answers
that way and welcome in the DEBIAN World!
--
(Dr.) Michael Hummel
mailto: mh@seitung.net || molino@gmx.net
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