Re: starting x

[cfk <cfk@pacbell.net>]

On Saturday 18 December 2004 17:42, Robert Vangel wrote:
> cfk wrote:
> > Gentlemen:
> > 	Its my turn to be a newbie to Debian, although I have used Red Hat for a
> > few years. Please bear with me and suggest how I may get my newly
> > installed "Sarge" to start X.
> >
> > 	I try the incantation "startx" from either a user or root command prompt
> > and get "command not found".
> >
> > Charles
>
> Perhaps `apt-get install xserver-xfree86' is needed

Dear Robert:

	Thank you for your kind reply. I was in the midst of reading apt-get's 
commands and options as I come up to speed on Debian.

	I did try 'apt-get install xserver-xfree86' and apt-get finishes very quickly 
saying:

	Reading Package Lists... Done
	Building Dependency Tree ... Done
	xserver-xfree86 is already the newest version.
	0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 1 not upgraded

Then I invoke startx from the root prompt and get

	-bash: startx: command not found

So, I did 'echo $PATH' and found /usr/bin/X11 was in the path, went there and 
saw there was no 'startx', but there was an 'X', which when run, gives me a 
modest blank X screen. Unfortunately, no menu or any right click mouse option 
such as 'open terminal'.

	I can go 'Alt-Ctrl-F1', F2 or F3 where F1 shows some error messages, F2 gets 
me back to the big blank X window and F3 gives me a new logon prompt with an 
inoperable keyboard.

At this point I am pressing the reset switch and starting over and hoping for 
a bit more advice.

Charles