apt how to prevent installation of a package
 

Hello I want to install gnome but i don't want to install gdm.

apt-get install gnome

installs gdm.

how can I prevent gdm to be installed. I guess the solution is apt pinning but i can't find out the exact way to do it.

if someone has a way, I will be very grateful.

thank you.

If you do not install gdm at all, then gnome will not get installed...that is it. You need to compile from sources.

The trick is simple really, gnome installs gnome-desktop-environment which in turn installs gdm doue to the dependencies on thse packages.

so the answer is, do not install gnome or gnome-desktop-environment

install gnome-core and the other gnome utilities you want.
it will take longer for you to add one at a time to get what you want, but it will work.

here are the various packages and the dependencies they install. you can cherrypick from the dependencies to get themes, utilities, games, etc..

http://packages.debian.org/etch/gnome-core
http://packages.debian.org/etch/gnome
http://packages.debian.org/etch/gnom...op-environment

Not only will it work, you'll be doing it "right." ... The Debian Way.

Use aptitude install -R gnome-core

my aim is that when i start the computer I don't want gdm to show up i want to be left in command line and do startx whenever i feel like. most of the time i don't have to launch x to do what i need.
I tried to renaming the rc3.d scripts but it didn't seem to work.

thank you for your help.

If that's what you want, why didn't you ask that? sysv-rc-conf should take care of it.

absolutely I just install gnome then set gdm to not start at boot time. a simple startx gets me into gnome. same method rickh mentioned.

If you really never want gdm, it's probably cleaner not to install it (rather than to install it and then shut it off with sysv-rc-conf). Installing the gnome-core package is a good way to do this. As far as I can tell, gnome-core doesn't include nor recommend gdm. That is, you don't even need to use the -R flag (= without recommended packages) in order to install it and keep gdm off your system.

This command would remove the monster meta-package gnome and replace it with the gnome-core base, all in one go: After that you may find that you need to install a few packages to supplement gnome-core individually, but it's worth it to keep all the cruft off your system.