Re: No xterm (or equivalents) immediately accessible in default etch
On Sun, Oct 22, 2006 at 01:26:40AM -0400, Carl Fink wrote:
> On Sun, Oct 22, 2006 at 01:12:48AM -0400, Jameson C. Burt wrote:
>
> > We in Linux heavily use the command-line.
> > So, I was dismayed when my new Debian etch version displayed a Gnome
> > interface WITHOUT ANY XTERM (or GNOME-TERMINAL or KONSOLE)
> > and not even any immediate panel options for these terminals.
>
> Why did you install GNOME? I ignored tasksel and installed icewm/xdm
> instead, and xterm was right there.
>
> > THE XTERM (or its equivalent) SHOULD BE IN MY FACE
> > THE VERY FIRST TIME I LOGIN,
> > requiring at most a single obvious mouse click.
>
> Why are you screaming?
>
> The correct thing to do, I believe, is to file a wishlist bug against
> debian-installer.
I install a new Debian Linux a few times a year,
as I have since about 1995,
when I was at Purdue University where Ian hung out.
Before exim, I remember spending 120 hours over a few weeks
correcting and understanding the details of smail.
Since then, I have gotten lazy,
and am no longer willing to spend even 2 hours
on a narrow configuration detail like gnome-terminal (or xterm).
I tailor my Debian installations enough
(20 hours so far on my latest Debian installation).
I have finally tired spending time wholesale reconfiguring
to my own whims,
and I accept many defaults I formerly would not have accepted.
Recently, after my year-old Debian Linux crashed on two disk drives
in two weeks, I faced forensic work on my disk drives;
I relented to not reconfiguring with icewm, kde, or fvwm
as I have many times, each time feeling I missed the more thorough
considerations that Debian volunteers
put into Debian's default installation
(eg, the handling of USB, CD, and DVD mounts possibly outside /etc/fstab).
When tailoring a configuration,
one never knows how much time will get used in unforseen problems.
In analogy, I recall a car I purchased 30 years ago from an
Australian professor who, each time he started that car,
he first opened the hood,
then moved a clothes pin on the voltage regulator.
I bought a new voltage regulator
as I bought that car,
and I accept Debian's default Gnome installation
as I install Debian Linux.
For the first week of my current Debian installation,
I attended other issues with my Debian installation
(eg, no password authentication, only public key authentication in ssh,
thereby forbidding ssh access except to several computers between which
I must move keys with each new Debian installation).
A couple times in that first week of my latest Debian installation,
I briefly tried getting a gnome-terminal
readily available either thru Gnome's panel
or thru an acceptably quick menu.
Instead, for that first week, to get gnome-terminal running,
I kept going thru deeper menus as if I were using Microsoft.
In fvwm, I would have just added all my startups like xterm
(with about 10 options) into ~/.xsession .
In my current Debian installation,
I DIDN'T MIND SO MUCH THAT I DIDN'T IMMEDIATELY SEE A GNOME-TERMINAL
OR A TERMINAL ICON,
BUT WHEN THE PANEL OPTIONS OFFERED NO GNOME-TERMINAL
AND GNOME MENUS OFFERED NO TERMINAL AT MENU'S FIRST LEVEL,
I FELT SOMETHING WAS AMISS
[I'm not shouting, just emphasing the meat of this message].
But you folks have affirmed that this was by design,
so I'll quit being shrill.
I'll also accept your solution to start gnome-terminal
from a command-line using
alt-F2
Luckily, when done once,
Gnome usually saves even that effort, since
Gnome remembers the previous gnome-terminal application between boots.
--
Jameson C. Burt, NJ9L Fairfax, Virginia, USA
jameson@coost.com http://www.coost.com
LTSP.org: magic "mysterious and awe-inspiring even though
we know they are real and not supernatural"
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