Weird Desktop Environment Issues
 

Hello I'm new to these forums and also new to Linux/Debian

I have encountered some issues I hope someone can clear up for me.

I downloaded the debian i386 3.1r2 netinstaller image and installed it, went throught entire installation process. When asked what packages I wanted to install I selected "Desktop Enviroment" It downloaded about 520MB of files and installed. When i rebooted, I was preseted with a Login GUI and could select from GNOME or KDE. It was working 100%. Totally perfect. (even though its in vmware) However been a n00b I messed up with adding new applications later as Im a noob at linux, and so decided to reinstall a clean install of debian, on clean drive, bootloader etc.. (im using virtual os software btw)

I downloaded the new CD ISO's of 3.1 r3 i386 (the 2 first ISO's) as I thought having the ISO's I would not need to download hugh amount of files every install. I went through exact same process to install except when it came to installing packages after apt scanned both ISO's for packages, I choose "Desktop Enviroment", however when ready to install it immediatly threw up an error and returned to the base-config menu so I don't know what the error was. i tried this several times to no success. I thought maybe the first 2 ISO's didnt have all necessary files so then i got the DVD ISO 3.1 r3 i386.

Again up to the point of selecting "desktop enviroment", it installed!! but when ever I boot, i do not get the GUI logon like in the first case. I get a shell, so at the shell, i enter "startkde" it says not found, and "startx" brings up some really old basic looking GUI, not like GNOME or KDE, someone said it could be X-Window or something?.

My question is how can I install the "desktop enviroment" thats the same as the netinstall 3.1r2 with GUI logon screen and choice of GNOME and KDE from the ISO images as im gonna mess up linux setup alot from learning stuff and downloading linux setup from the internet every install is not practical as I have a 2Mbit line which never really sees 2mbits ! and also I have a bandwidth cap limit every month thats quite low.

If anyone else has encountered this and has a work around, it would be greatly appreciated.

Before you do a startx you have to tell the system what desktop evironment you want. With xorg you do it via: to get to the kde or gnome environment
But debian uses the old xfree till the next release I don't know if it works for that too. To get the system to start to the graphic login screen you have to install a desktop manager, which is kdm for kde and gdm for gnome. There is a good instruction here http://www.gentoo.org/doc/en/kde-config.xml
but it is for xorg not xfree. So try to goole for this things (kdm gdm and xfree) or maybee try another distro wich is more newbie-friendly like ubuntu or kubuntu

As Indkoeti already said, you might be better off with Ubuntu / Kubuntu. "Debian Stable" is currently a bit old (AFAIK around December there will be a new "Debian Stable" release with up-to-date software).

If the GUI doesn't start up, you can try running kdm or gdm; it _should_ already be configured to start KDE or Gnome. To make sure that KDE is completely installed, you can run (as root) "apt-get install kde".

If you don't want Debian to download much stuff over the net, you could try to install it from DVD without any net connection at all (pull out the internet cable :) . AFAIK, if Debian detects a working internet connection during installation, it will download online updates automatically, and also will automatically download packages from the net if they are not on DVD.

Thanks, but I tried installing of both the DVD and first 2 CD ISO's and I got no GUI login at boot up. I did automatically when i did the net install. Im just curious as to why this is.

First question is have you installed kde? The login manager for kde is kdm and to install both do as root apt-get install kde kdm .

I assumed these were installed as they were installed selecting "Desktop environment" by the net install, however doing the same install from the DVD ISO and selecting "Desktop Environment" i dont get the gmd at bootup like i did before. startx or startkde do noting also.

From what you say in your first post it appears that the X enviroment is installed if you are getting a gui with startx. If startkde, as root, is responding with not found then kde is not installed.
I do recommend reading the Debian post install sticky at the top of this forum.

yes gui is 100% when i install debian from the net-installer but not when i install from the cd/dvd iso's

So have have you tried to install kde as I suggested above? A pure Debian install assumes some prior knowledge of what the user wants. This allows the user to make the decision as to what they want installed on the particular box. This allows for a lean installation without all the unnecessary programs that you will probably never use. It also means the box is quicker.
I understand how confusing this seems at present coming from an environment where there were no choices but as you get to know more you will really appreciate it. Once you have a gui going I suggest installing synaptic which which enable you to use the apt repositories more intuitively.

nearly same problem, no GUI on 2nd installation of Sarge
 

Damo2K seems to have precisely the same problem I have experienced.
I installed Sarge 3.1 R3 for the first time and selected "Desktop Environment" and immediately got the Gnome login on reboot.

Then I experimented with compiling the kernel but got into trouble and thought it would be better I would install the system new, but although I selected "Desktop Environment" there is only a shell login with this new installation and with manually installing the environment I was only able to start twm with the command "startx".

I have to add I am quite unexperienced, but a colleague of mine who is our admin has also simply no idea.

I retried to install Sarge five(!) times because I thought I was stupid and oversaw some option.

Ahh - I selected "Desktop Environment" with the space bar, so that there appeared an asterisk between the two brackets. So I am quite sure I *really* selected this installation option.

Now I am quite frustrated.

Wilhelm

So wheupke which desktop are trying to install? It sounds like you are using dselect on the installer which is very complex and I would not recommend it to any newbie. If you want a menu driven package installer install aptitude (apt-get install aptitude) and then as root do aptitude. A very good gui package installer is synaptic.

I selected "Desktop Environment" during the installation from the DVDs. I did not select a special desktop, but as far as I understand it, KDE and Gnome are both installed by selecting it.

I never used dselect.

If I am right, aptitude is used to install additional software after the first installation run. I tried that, too, by running "apt-get install gnome gdm", but this was obviously not enough.
I ended up with pure twm and nothing else (no menus, no icons, only the pop-up menu of twm).

What helped me was the network installation. This works exactly as I expect it and like the very first installation from the DVDs. So I am happy now, but on the other hand I am puzzled what I did wrong with the DVD based installation. And I am quite sure that I did not oversee something, as I tried it five times. In the second to sixth run from the DVDs it did not ask me much questions, in contrast to the first DVD based installation run and the network based installation run.

I hope this clears up the problem I have seen.