Hi all,

I'm a new Linux user. I played with Mandrake a little but found it tried to emulate Windows too much, so I'm trying Debian with hopes that I'll learn more about Linux. However it's not helping that I know next to nothing about Linux!

I set up Debian 3.0 standard (only 2.2 detected my network card, not 2.4) using tasksel on desktop managers/science tools/c c++ dev tools, and after it dlds the packages (around 600 mb) and installs, i get a console prompt. I've tried startx and exec startx but I can't get it to go into x mode. I have a feeling I'm missing something very obvious. I'm pretty sure it was installed because I had to answer some questions about true type fonts, and I saw gnome/KDE being extracted during the setup process.

Thanks for any help,

Edward

You need to set you XF86Config file. Use the program xf86config to set up X. Once you have it set up you can run one of the following (depending on what you installed):

/etc/init.d/gdm start
/etc/init.d/kdm start
/etc/init.d/xdm start

There a utility that will generate an XF86Config-4 file for you. You can either type xf86config and get a text based config script or dpkg-reconfigure xserver-xfree86 and get a ncurses based (dialogues) config app. You may have to manually tweak the file (/etc/X11/XF86Config-4) to get it to work just right but a lot of the time you should be able to get X working without too much trouble.

can't you just telinit or something to get into X? I mean I have red hat and assuming all went smoothly during installation, wont the above work in Debian too?

Hi,

Adz, I ran the config (that's a start!) but now I get


(WW) ATI: PCI/AGP Mach64 in slot 2:0:0 could not be detected!
(EE) No devices detected

Fatal server error:
No screens found after running startx.

I have a Radeon8500 on a Samsung LCD 191T. The Log file says XFree86 Version 4.1.0.1.

Do I need to get a new x? I would post the log/config file but I don't know how I'd paste it here without a normal browser :/. Basically in the deb-config I chose my graphics as ATI and did pretty much default for everything else.

Thanks for any help!

-Ed

I read a little more on the forum, and changed my X86Config-4 so my driver is "vesa" instead of "ati" but now its saying


(EE) xf86OpenSerial: Cannot open device /dev/input/mice No such device
...
No core pointer

Fatal server error:
failed to initialize core divces

I have a MS optical USB intellimouse, and I chose intellimouse from the menu. Did I forget something?

Post the pointer part of your XF86Config-4 file. Make sure that once you've declared it somewhere that you've actually called it somewhere else.

You'll need a newer version of XF86, like 4.3.0, for the radeon 8500.

As for the mouse problem, make sure your system can handle USB devices with either the correct kernel modules or the correct kernel compile options.

also: http://portal.suse.com/sdb/en/2001/0..._usbmouse.html