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change my runlevel so i can get a desktop and stuff, not just a command line

Assuming you installed a window manager, you could enter "startx" to bring it up. ( This assumes X windows is installed. )

If you want to default to booting up to a graphical login, you can edit your /etc/inittab. Read the comments at the start of the file. They will explain which run level to use. On SuSE, Mandrake, Red Hat and others, this would be run level 5.

This is what the relevent part of my /etc/inittab looks like:
# The default runlevel is defined here
id:5:initdefault:

Again, be sure to read the table in the comments at the start of the file. You system may be different than mine.

On my system, the two common run levels are:
# runlevel 3 is Full multiuser with network
# runlevel 5 is Full multiuser with network and xdmh

This is taken from my /etc/inittab file, so you have an idea what it should look like in yours.

I just installed debian from the netinst floppies, ntohing else has been downloaded.

You will need to install the X-windows system (XFree86 or Xorg). There are a number of window managers that you can choose to install, if you don't want to install KDE or Gnome. Without the x-windows system, you won't have a desktop.

Quote:

Originally posted by jschiwal
Assuming you installed a window manager, you could enter "startx" to bring it up. ( This assumes X windows is installed. )

If you want to default to booting up to a graphical login, you can edit your /etc/fstab. Read the comments at the start of the file. They will explain which run level to use. On SuSE, Mandrake, Red Hat and others, this would be run level 5.

This is what the relevent part of my /etc/fstab looks like:
# The default runlevel is defined here
id:5:initdefault:

Again, be sure to read the table in the comments at the start of the file. You system may be different than mine.

On my system, the two common run levels are:
# runlevel 3 is Full multiuser with network
# runlevel 5 is Full multiuser with network and xdmh

This is taken from my /etc/inittab file, so you have an idea what it should look like in yours.

you are confusing the newbie with fstab and inittab.

newbie: /etc/inittab is what u want to look at for runlevels (but go a bit deeper and look at the scripts being called) /etc/fstab is what your system will mount, or make available for mounting, at boot.

cheers!:)

Is it /etc/fstab ? If not mistaken it is suppose be /etc/inittab. If you are running lower configuration install light weight desktops.

-Prasanta

OK...here we go....

First of all, this is Debian, not Redhat, so runlevels are somewhat different...

Runlevel 0: Shutdown
Runlevel 1: Single User
Runlevel 2-5: Multi-user
Runlevel 6: Reboot

The default runlevel for debian is 2.

I know in Redhat, the default graphical runlevel is 5, but in debian the switch between console and graphical login is the addition of gdm in /etc/rc2.d/, typically at S99.

If all you have done is install from the basic disks, you probably still need to install Xfree86 (or x.org), gnome or KDE, and GDM or KDM. Those packages are listed below (package type: package name):

Xfree86: xserver-xfree86
X.Org: xserver-xorg

Gnome: gnome
KDE: kdebase

GDM: gdm
KDM: kdm

To get these installed, you can do the following:

$ apt-get install <package-name>

apt will handle all of the dependencies quite handily.

Thanks for catching my mistake. I don't know why I kept typing in fstab when I meant inittab. I made the appropriate edit.

I didn't assume his /etc/inittab would use the same runlevels, and pointed out that he would need to read his.