I just installed debian on my laptop and I am having a couple of issues.

1. How do I install stuff off the other 6 CDs? I didn't get many packages, and they all came off the first CD. I don't want all fo the packages but I want some that haven't been installed

2. Whenever it boots, it asks me to select my current network environment. I saw something about this during setup and chose the one that wouldn't ask me a question every time it boots. How do I make this go away.

3. When I installed I said I would like my default window manager to be gnome. I have changed my mind, I want it to be KDE. How do I change it

4. How can I configure it to shut down the hard disk after a certain period of no disk activity?

Any ideas?

Run apt-setup to add another CD source.

Try "dpkg-reconfigure kdm". It should have a dialog box that will allow you to choose kdm as the default wm.

1. do "apt-cdrom add" as root

2. ? maybe "dpkg-reconfigure [packet for networking]" 'll work.

3. if you'r using somthing like gdm you can choose the wm you'll use for the next session. if
not: see "man update-alternatives" (use "--display x-window-manager" then "--config")
to change the default wm or use dpkg-reconfigure like comp12345 opined.

4. the "hdparm" - utility provides a funktion to tell the drive after which amount of time to
spin down. anyway - if your b(p)dflush is writing/reading data from the drive it will never
spin down. in this case you might want to try the packet "noflushd" which will prevent the
kernel from doing so (read the documentation!).
if you have scsi drives you'll need scsi-idle and a patched kernel to spin them up again.

sl mritch.