I just installed Debian Sarge and I found that I can't make it autoselect kde for startup, but when I boot kde it has most of gnome's(which I hate) visual characteristics and runs like it. What can I do to change these? Also, the screen won't resize past 800x600 which is really bad on a 19 in. monitor. Please Help!

I just installed Debian 3.1 Sarge and I can't get it to autoboot to kde. It lets you boot it once you get to a login screen but it has many of the gnome features that way. What can I do?
Also, I can't resize my screen past 800x600(really bad on a 19in. monitor). Please Help!

For the first apt-get install kdm and when the dialog asks choose kdm from the list as the default. For the second get the refresh rates ranges for the vertical and horizontal that are supported by your monitor (if you do not have the manual handy a quick Google search on the make/model number usually comes up with these) then dpkg-reconfigure xserver-xfree86 choose advanced then when you come to those questions put them in making sure that when you get to the resolutions you want to use that you select a higher one than the 800x600 as well. Now logout and use Left Control + Left ALT + Backspace keys at the same time to kill off and respawn the X server. If at the command line when doing then /etc/init.d/kdm start if you still had the gdm running then you would have wanted to have used /etc/init.d/gdm stop before the kdm command.

Your question is not clear. Assuming this is a new install when tasksel asked did you pick desktop system or installed pkgs individually? Sarge defaults to gdm and gnome but in login screen you can pick different desktop and choose it as default desktop. Man gdm will help.
You need correct horiz. and vert. ranges for your monitor model(from manual or google) or optimal settings for lcd and best video driver for your video card to get desired desktop settings. As root lspci will give useful info. Then dpkg-reconfigure xserver-xfree86 or XF86config or XF86cfg can then be used for better display setting. Review Debian Configuration Post Install at top of this forum. http://www.debianhelp.co.uk/ may be useful too. good luck.

What video card?
gdm? kdm? Sure you have kde installed?
Can we see your x config file?

We'd love to help, but not much to go on.

Do you mean that it won't let you auto login to KDE? And what do you mean by As for resizing your screen, try using dpkg-reconfigure xserver-xfree86 as root and have the specs for your monitor handy (refresh rates, maximum resolution, etc).

I'll get those as soon as I can, but I don't have access to my computer right this minute - however, I am sure it is not my video card as I was running knoppix 3.2 and it worked fine with res way past 1280x. My main problem with the boot is that when debian starts up, it pops up a screen that you choose what gui you want to use, and when you choose kde, it keeps all the gnome settings and programs(including config) and drops alot of the kde ones.

Do you need gnome? If not then you can remove it and that should solve the problem.Try this command:

I don't have an option on my boot screen to chose kde as the default login, and when I run it, it keeps most of the gnome config programs and drops most of the kde ones. As for the res support of my monitor, I ran knoppix with the kde desktop and it ran above 1280x .

During the install I chose to install the kde packeges and that didn't work, so I had it do autoinstall with the same results - however my friend knows a lot more about linux than me and he is helping me now so thanks for the help.

That fixed the problem - still don't know what it was though. Thanks for the help.

I had the same problem once, so I had to remove gnome ... I find it a waste having two different desktop managers. Get the one you like and stick with it.

gnome is a pain in the butt - almost as bad as the Win. gui.

LOL, there's nothing like Windows GUI

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