Tim McDonough wrote: > In fact I cannot even find the startx command on the machine. There are several different ways to get the X window system running on machines. One of the really nice things about Debian is that it is a full framework for software management. You can install as much as you want or as little as you want. The startx script wrapper around xinit is an oldie but goodie. (However, I just always called xinit directly. Since I have my own X config I did not need startx to use the system configuration.) If you want to log into the text console and start X using it then you probably want to install the minimum X11 system. These would be most conveniently pulled in by the x-window-system-core meta package. apt-cache show x-window-system-core This metapackage provides the essential components for a standalone workstation running the X Window System. It provides the X libraries, an X server (except on the S/390 architecture), a set of fonts, and a group of basic X clients and utilities. Higher level metapackages, such as those for desktop environments, can depend on this package and simplify their dependencies. It should be noted that a package providing x-window-manager and a package providing x-terminal-emulator should also be installed to ensure a comfortable X experience. So I would pick these three with fvwm as my personal preference. The classic choice there would be twm. But others choose ones like kde/gnome for a fluff-and-glitter desktop environment. apt-get install x-window-system-core xterm fvwm And those higher level packages mentioned in the description would be things like kdm/gdm/xdm for a graphical login session manager. I prefer gdm currently for a good graphical login client. apt-get install gdm One useful tool for browsing through the dependencies is apt-cache. The useful commands are "show" to show the discription and headers. But "showpkg" will show reverse dependencies. apt-cache show x-window-system | grep Depends Depends: x-window-system-core, lbxproxy, proxymngr, twm, xdm, xfs, xfwp, xnest, xprt-xprintorg, xterm, xvfb As can be seen here x-window-system depends upon several things like xdm that I don't want installed. So it is not useful to me. But it depends upon x-window-system-core. Hmm... That should draw your attention. Let's look at x-window-system-core. apt-cache show x-window-system-core | grep Depends Depends: xserver-xfree86, xlibmesa-dri, xlibmesa-gl, xlibmesa-glu, xfonts-base (>> 4.0), xfonts-100dpi, xfonts-75dpi, xfonts-scalable, xbase-clients, xutils That is one way to be led to find xserver-xfree86 and other useful stuff. But at this point you probably want all of those so I would definitely install x-window-system-core at the least to get those. Bob
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