EasyStreet wrote:
I have installed Debian 3 on 2 computers. I have not been able to get the GUI to work on either system. How do I go about troubleshooting the problem. I am guessing that X Windows needs to work before either KDM or GDM. I remember inputting some information during the install process about screen frequency and resolution. Could this be the place to start?
Most problems are either video- or mouse-related. The first place to start is to not use kdm/gdm/xdm/wdm. You can Ctrl-Alt-Fx (where x=1, 2, 3, 4, 5, or 6, in most cases), log in, and as root run "/etc/init.d/[x|g|k|w]dm stop" (using the correct letter - Ctrl-Alt-F7 to make sure the login GUI is gone, then Ctrl-Alt-Fx back). Now start X manually with "startx". When (if?) it fails, you should see a lot of text on the screen (Shift-PgUp to scroll up); somewhere in that text you should see the reason for failure (ie "No screens found", "Can't find PS/2 mouse", etc.). You can capture this text with "startx 2>startx.log".
Kent