I've just installed Debian Linux. During setup I chose to install the desktop environments (using CD 1) KDE and Gnome. However when I boot up it just goes into the basic command prompt environment. How do I load up KDE and how do I get debian to boot up into that by default? (starts thinking he should've chosen RedHat as that is supposed to be easier on beginners). By the way I know all the basic commands for the command prompt (cd, ls etc.) just need to know what I need to run and what I need to edit to get KDE working.

[ 02-16-2003, 03:28 PM: Message edited by: Vaskez ]

Im not familiar with debian, I prefer redhat or one of its relatives. in particular debian has a different package manager. So, I cant give precise commands here, since I only know RPM, and Linux standard paths are tricky at best.

The first thing to check is the X server. Find out how to use the package manager, and check to make sure X is installed. (he usual one is XFree86) Then go to wherever in hell it keeps its binaries/scripts ( /usr/bin/Xfree86.... ?) and run the configure script (normaly type ./configure instead of just configure, this is a safety measure associated with being root). I dont have enough HDD space to install Linux on my system at the moment so I cant be exact, but its pretty self explanatory. Or at least should be. If your using an older distribution you may have XFree86 2.xx, which has trouble with some video cards, esp Nvidia ones. XFreee86 3.xx shouldnt have any trouble though.

When thats done, there should be another script to start it.

After that do the same for KDE/GNOME. I prefer KDE2 myself, but all KDEs are system hogs, so youll get better performance from GNOME.

If you get this far, load up your configuration utility. There should be a util that will let you configure startup scripts sensibly. IIRC, you need to start X and KDE/GNOME at all runlevels >3 <6 . And ,make sure X is in before KDE/GNOME in all startups, and vice vera in all shutdowns.

Hmmm thanks but even after using dselect (Debian's package manager) to install a couple of hundred programs I couldn't find xfree86. Bah! No wonder everyone is scared of Linux and sticks to Microsh1t. Well looks like I'll be waving goodbye to Debian for now and downloading Redhat as I hear that's more user-friendly. Maybe Debian is not meant for Linux beginners :D even if they study computer engineering :(

Luckily I am not hard-disk space challenged with 100GB :D

[ 02-16-2003, 05:51 PM: Message edited by: Vaskez ]

dselect handles package dependencies automatically, if you've installed KDE/Gnome then you have X installed as well.

The Debian Wlakthrough should help you out.

Yeah I eventually found it with dselect but now when I boot up it tries to run KDE (I think since it says "initialising K destop manager") and then the screen goes black and after like 20 seconds it goes to the command prompt. Something is wrong. I'm gonna whipe the entire partition from Windows and then run the installation again, using the guide from Sir K. (thanks :D )
First time I did it without any guide.

Hmm ok Debian reinstalled and now I got x-windows to start with the window maker environment. But I couldn't get my net access going during the install: it didn't find my ADLS modem. Any ideas on how I can get my ADSL modem to be detected? I need the net access to set the net up as a source for apt so I can download KDE or Gnome *sigh* all this better be worth it.

One of the few problems with linux is that there aren't drivers for everything. But communications is important these days, so you have a fair chance. Search all the usual places. Debian probably have a forum as well, which is worth a shot.