Beginner Debian troubles

CyberSlag5k · 03-05-2005, 04:36 PM

I've posted this on a few different forums now but haven't really gotten much of an answer back. Perhaps I'm not asking the right questions... Anyway, here they are:

I'm having difficulty getting my Debian setup to boot to the console. It presently boots to gnome. I tried changing my default runlevel to 3, but that did not work. Is it possible that installing the system as a "single user" system could have something to do with it? It's possible that that's what I did.

Is it easy to switch the system over to a multi-user system? Could this also be preventing me from accessing the typical multiple console features of linux? What is the keyboard combo for that, by the way?

And what is the name of the file (and where is it located) that I alter to change what GUI startx boots to.

Also, debian auto-detected my mouse, but my scroll wheel does not work. How can I set this up? It is just a standard logitech mouse (about 6 years old, I might add).

And finally, I'm having trouble getting libraries installed for my programming projects. I've tried apt-cache searching and installing various libraries, but I can't seem to find the right ones for using OpenGL and SDL. When I compile with g++ it says it cannot find the headers, even though I've installed multiple packages, which I thought were correct.

Thanks in advance!

BTW, is it considered "Spamming" to post a question on multiple boards as long as they are of different forums? In other words, I posted this on <URLs removed due to board restriction> I waited a few hours before positng to a new board, perhaps I should wait longer or not even do it at all? What's the proper ettiquite?

dastrike · 03-05-2005, 05:12 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by CyberSlag5k I've posted this on a few different forums now but haven't really gotten much of an answer back. Perhaps I'm not asking the right questions... Anyway, here they are:

I'm having difficulty getting my Debian setup to boot to the console. It presently boots to gnome. I tried changing my default runlevel to 3, but that did not work. Is it possible that installing the system as a "single user" system could have something to do with it? It's possible that that's what I did.

Debian implements only the minimum amount of runlevels really. Runlevel 2 has "everything" running already.
See my replies in this thread about disabling the display manager, and thus preventing that X starts up automatically at boot: http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...hreadid=297373

Quote:

Is it easy to switch the system over to a multi-user system? Could this also be preventing me from accessing the typical multiple console features of linux? What is the keyboard combo for that, by the way?

Debian is a multi-user system. Just create as many user accounts you want to. The command for creating users is adduser
"Keyboard combos"? Are you referring to the virtual consoles by that? Press ctrl+alt+F1, or ctrl+alt+F2, ... and so on up to ctrl+alt+F6 to switch to the predefined 6 different virtual consoles. To get back into X (if it is running), press ctrl+alt+F7

Quote:

And what is the name of the file (and where is it located) that I alter to change what GUI startx boots to.

Try update-alternatives --config x-window-manager and choose what you want to use by default. If that for some reason doesn't behave quite as you like, you can also create a file called .xinitrc in your home directory, and start up the window manager/desktop environment from there (the ~/.xinitrc gets executed when X starts up when starting it up manually with startx) E.g. put exec fluxbox there to start up fluxbox.
If dealing with a graphical login presented by a display manager (but in your case it sounds like you don't want to use such), just choose there what session type you want to use (at least with kdm and gdm, as xdm does not provide such an option)

Quote:

Also, debian auto-detected my mouse, but my scroll wheel does not work. How can I set this up? It is just a standard logitech mouse (about 6 years old, I might add).

You should have gotten a question to "enable scroll events" or such during the X configuration. Unless you are using the ancient-nearly-obsolete Debian 3.0 ('woody', current stable release). (Debian testing ('sarge', the "soon" upcoming 3.1 release) is more suitable for desktop/workstations currently as 'woody' is just too old for it's own good)

Anyways, if you need to enable mouse scrolling manually, edit the file /etc/X11/XF86Config-4 and there edit the Section "InputDevice" for your mouse, you'll typically need to add these two lines to that section:

Code:

        Option          "Buttons"               "5"
        Option          "ZAxisMapping"          "4 5"

Quote:

And finally, I'm having trouble getting libraries installed for my programming projects. I've tried apt-cache searching and installing various libraries, but I can't seem to find the right ones for using OpenGL and SDL. When I compile with g++ it says it cannot find the headers, even though I've installed multiple packages, which I thought were correct.

The packages you need for OpenGL and SDL development are IIRC (it has been quite a while since I last time tinkered around with such, so I am not entirely sure)
xlibmesa-gl-dev
xlibmesa-glu-dev
libsdl1.2-dev
(that libsdl1.2-dev seems to depend on a lot of goodies, so by installing that you should get pretty much what you need)

CyberSlag5k · 03-05-2005, 07:30 PM

Thank you for your reply, dastrike. It was extremely informative. The system no longer boots to a GUI

I do have a few more questions though.

Quote:

If that for some reason doesn't behave quite as you like, you can also create a file called .xinitrc in your home directory, and start up the window manager/desktop environment from there (the ~/.xinitrc gets executed when X starts up when starting it up manually with startx) E.g. put exec fluxbox there to start up fluxbox.
If dealing with a graphical login presented by a display manager (but in your case it sounds like you don't want to use such), just choose there what session type you want to use (at least with kdm and gdm, as xdm does not provide such an option)

What is it that I am supposed to add to .xinitrc and where? Is it exec gnome-session by chance?

Quote:

Anyways, if you need to enable mouse scrolling manually, edit the file /etc/X11/XF86Config-4 and there edit the Section "InputDevice" for your mouse, you'll typically need to add these two lines to that section:

This is what is presently in XF86Config-4:

Code:

Section "InputDevice"
        Identifier      "Configured Mouse"
        Driver          "mouse"
        Option          "CorePointer"
        Option          "Device"                "/dev/psaux"
        Option          "Protocol"              "PS/2"
        Option          "Emulate3Buttons"       "true"
        Option          "ZAxisMapping"          "4 5"
EndSection
Section "InputDevice"
        Identifier      "Generic Mouse"
        Driver          "mouse"
        Option          "Buttons"               "5"
        Option          "SendCoreEvents"        "true"
        Option          "Device"                "/dev/input/mice"
        Option          "Protocol"              "ImPS/2"
        Option          "Emulate3Buttons"       "true"
        Option          "ZAxisMapping"          "4 5"
EndSection

I added the "Buttons" "5" in the second one. I didn't notice the first was there until just now and so I'll add it. When I do edit something like that, do I need to restart X? Anyway, does anything look suspicious there? I selected psaux because it was already highlighted and nothing really looked better. It's a USB mouse running through a PS2 converter which is connected to a KVM which is connected to a PS2 port (in otherwords it's connected to a PS2 port). Is it possible that all of those steps are swallowing up the scrolling function? I can still click the scroll wheel like a button to get firefox tabs and stuff. Just no scrolling.

Quote:

The packages you need for OpenGL and SDL development are IIRC (it has been quite a while since I last time tinkered around with such, so I am not entirely sure)
xlibmesa-gl-dev
xlibmesa-glu-dev
libsdl1.2-dev
(that libsdl1.2-dev seems to depend on a lot of goodies, so by installing that you should get pretty much what you need)

When I attempt to compile using g++, it still comes up with:

Code:

main.cpp:1:16: gl.h: No such file or directory
main.cpp:2:17: glu.h: No such file or directory
main.cpp:3:17: SDL.h: No such file or directory

I'm looking for packages starting with "lib" and ending with "-dev", right? My question isn't really how do I find these headers, but how to more effectively find any packages I want. I mean I would never think to look for something called xlibmesa, I don't really know what mesa is. So how does one find these things out? By experience?

Also, a question about permissions. I'd like to set all directories to have permissions 775. So I should go into my .profile file and add umask 002, right? That will make all new directories/files full accessible/modifiable to all users on my domain (and obviously root), and will give other uses read access to them. Good so far? Ok, assuming I am, how would I go through and add these permissions to all existing files and directories?

Thank you again for your help. I got a good response on another forum and learned a bunch from that, but your response has been the most helpful (and complete) response I've recieved thus far.

CyberSlag5k · 03-05-2005, 08:44 PM

Ahh crap, now I really broke it. I restarted and when I went to start up X again, I get errors a bunch of errors that look like this:

Code:

Warning: font renderer for ".pcf" already registered at priortiy 0
Warning: font renderer for ".pcf.z" already registered at priortiy 0
... #there are like 10 of these followed by:
Could not init font path element unix/:7100, removing from list!

Above that are three errors:

Code:

(EE) xf860OpenSerial: Cannot open device/dev/input/mice
                 No such device.
(EE) Genereic Mouse: cannot open input device
(EE) PreInit failed for input device "Generic Mouse"

But those three may have been there before (I recall seeing something like that back when X was still working).

I'm not entirely sure what I did to prmopt such a thing. One thing I did do was (as a friend recommended) this:

echo "exec /usr/bin/kdeinit" > ~/.xinitrc

When it did not work, I went into ~/.xinitrc and removed that line (which was the only thing in the file). I did some other stuff too, but I'm don't really recall all of it. Any suggestions?

Also what does the tilda (~) mean in that line? echo sends the "exec /usr/bin/kdeinit" to the file .xinitrc (through the > redirection operator), I surmised that, but what I can't figure out what the ~ is. Is it like a directory wildcard? Or maybe .xinitrc is a hidden file? Or the ~ says "for the current user"?

dastrike · 03-05-2005, 09:17 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by CyberSlag5k
Thank you for your reply, dastrike. It was extremely informative. The system no longer boots to a GUI

I do have a few more questions though.

What is it that I am supposed to add to .xinitrc and where? Is it exec gnome-session by chance?

If you want to start GNOME, then

Code:

exec gnome-sesson

in there should do fine for that.
The file .xinitrc should be placed in your home directory. The ~ in the path of the file evaluates to the home directory of the user executing the command - that is, your home directory.
So ~/.xinitrc is equivalent of /home/yourusername/.xinitrc
Pay also attention to the leading period in the filename. It means that it is a hidden file.

Quote:

This is what is presently in XF86Config-4:

Code:

Section "InputDevice"
        Identifier      "Configured Mouse"
        Driver          "mouse"
        Option          "CorePointer"
        Option          "Device"                "/dev/psaux"
        Option          "Protocol"              "PS/2"
        Option          "Emulate3Buttons"       "true"
        Option          "ZAxisMapping"          "4 5"
EndSection
Section "InputDevice"
        Identifier      "Generic Mouse"
        Driver          "mouse"
        Option          "Buttons"               "5"
        Option          "SendCoreEvents"        "true"
        Option          "Device"                "/dev/input/mice"
        Option          "Protocol"              "ImPS/2"
        Option          "Emulate3Buttons"       "true"
        Option          "ZAxisMapping"          "4 5"
EndSection

I added the "Buttons" "5" in the second one. I didn't notice the first was there until just now and so I'll add it. When I do edit something like that, do I need to restart X? Anyway, does anything look suspicious there? I selected psaux because it was already highlighted and nothing really looked better. It's a USB mouse running through a PS2 converter which is connected to a KVM which is connected to a PS2 port (in otherwords it's connected to a PS2 port). Is it possible that all of those steps are swallowing up the scrolling function? I can still click the scroll wheel like a button to get firefox tabs and stuff. Just no scrolling.

You should add them to the "Configured Mouse" one, also I recommend using the ImPS/2 protocol for that as well, as IIRC the PS/2 protocol doesn't support a scroll wheel.

This is how the mouse configuration looks like on my secondary workstation which has also a 6+ year old Logitech mouse with scroll wheel connected through the PS/2 port: (hm just noticed that I don't have the "buttons" "5" option there, ah well, works fine without it apparently)

Code:

Section "InputDevice"
        Identifier      "Configured Mouse"
        Driver          "mouse"
        Option          "CorePointer"
        Option          "Device"                "/dev/psaux"
        Option          "Protocol"              "ImPS/2"
        Option          "ZAxisMapping"          "4 5"
EndSection
Section "InputDevice"
        Identifier      "Generic Mouse"
        Driver          "mouse"
        Option          "SendCoreEvents"        "true"
        Option          "Device"                "/dev/input/mice"
        Option          "Protocol"              "ImPS/2"
        Option          "ZAxisMapping"          "4 5"
EndSection

Quote:

When I attempt to compile using g++, it still comes up with:

Code:

main.cpp:1:16: gl.h: No such file or directory
main.cpp:2:17: glu.h: No such file or directory
main.cpp:3:17: SDL.h: No such file or directory

I'm looking for packages starting with "lib" and ending with "-dev", right? My question isn't really how do I find these headers, but how to more effectively find any packages I want. I mean I would never think to look for something called xlibmesa, I don't really know what mesa is. So how does one find these things out? By experience?

Include them like this in your code:

Code:

#include <GL/gl.h>
#include <GL/glu.h>
#include <SDL/SDL.h>

Library packages tend to start with a "lib" in their name, and development packages tend to end with a "-dev" in their name.
You don't have to just guess the names to install stuff. You can either use apt-cache search some search terms or use the Debian's web based package search thingy to find the packages you want.

Quote:

Also, a question about permissions. I'd like to set all directories to have permissions 775. So I should go into my .profile file and add umask 002, right? That will make all new directories/files full accessible/modifiable to all users on my domain (and obviously root), and will give other uses read access to them. Good so far? Ok, assuming I am, how would I go through and add these permissions to all existing files and directories?

I haven't dealt so much with changing the default permissions, but yes I think that should do it...
As for changing the permissions for all files recursively in a directory and all it's subdirectoris:

Code:

chmod -R 775 /some/directory

should do the trick. Careful though, there may be files you don't want to have such permissions though, e.g. if you have some private encryption keys (e.g. ~/.ssh/id_dsa)

dastrike · 03-05-2005, 09:26 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by CyberSlag5k
Ahh crap, now I really broke it. I restarted and when I went to start up X again, I get errors a bunch of errors that look like this:

Code:

Warning: font renderer for ".pcf" already registered at priortiy 0
Warning: font renderer for ".pcf.z" already registered at priortiy 0
... #there are like 10 of these followed by:
Could not init font path element unix/:7100, removing from list!

Above that are three errors:

Code:

(EE) xf860OpenSerial: Cannot open device/dev/input/mice
                 No such device.
(EE) Genereic Mouse: cannot open input device
(EE) PreInit failed for input device "Generic Mouse"

But those three may have been there before (I recall seeing something like that back when X was still working).

I'm not entirely sure what I did to prmopt such a thing. One thing I did do was (as a friend recommended) this:

echo "exec /usr/bin/kdeinit" > ~/.xinitrc

When it did not work, I went into ~/.xinitrc and removed that line (which was the only thing in the file). I did some other stuff too, but I'm don't really recall all of it. Any suggestions?

Also what does the tilda (~) mean in that line? echo sends the "exec /usr/bin/kdeinit" to the file .xinitrc (through the > redirection operator), I surmised that, but what I can't figure out what the ~ is. Is it like a directory wildcard? Or maybe .xinitrc is a hidden file? Or the ~ says "for the current user"?

I can't really say much to this at the moment... The X log file can also be of assistance when trying to pinpoint the exact error. That log file is located as /var/log/XFree86.0.log

For what it's worth, here is the XF86Config-4 of my secondary workstation: http://misc.serios.net/files/deimos-xf86config4.txt. It might be of assistance when troubleshooting your config, but do not use my config file straight away as most certainly some/many details are different.

And as I explained in my above post, the ~ represents your home directory. And files whose names begin with a period are hidden files.

johnMG · 03-05-2005, 10:16 PM

> I'm having difficulty getting my Debian setup to boot to the console.

Rather than following dastrike's suggestion, to boot to console, I prefer to instead install sysvconfig, run it as root, and simply shut off xdm|gdm. No muss, no fuss, no uninstalling X stuff that you might later want. Just my opinion though.