Re: Was: setting up network q, now no x

[Greg Wooledge <greg@wooledge.org>]

On Sat, Aug 12, 2023 at 06:37:30PM -0400, gene heskett wrote:
> I need X running so I can use firefox to go get and build the rest of the
> software I am building this thing to run.

Then why on earth are you installing a full Desktop Environment?

If you need to use Firefox to obtain files and then compile them, then
what you need are xorg, firefox-esr, build-essential, and some kind of
simple window manager.  twm would suffice, or fvwm, or whatever you're
comfortable with.  Hell, in theory you could skip the window manager and
just run "startx firefox" or something.  You'd be limited to a single
browser window, but that's not a crippling limitation.

Or, as an alternative, you could obtain the files from another machine,
and copy them over.  Then you only need build-essential, and NONE of the
rest.

(For a given value of "build", of course.  You may need other development
tools beyond build-essential, but we can't advise you on that without more
information.)

I would absolutely NOT install GNOME unless you need it for something
more than just launching a web browser.