Hi all,

Last night was my first debian install, system did great, got KDE and Gnome both running. And using Expert26, not the new installer. Even the old way isn't THAT hard, just long.

Anyway, I have 3 questions:

1. KPPP - my user doesn't have permission to run. I temporarily got around by chmod 777 /usr/bin/kppp, which allowed my user to launch kppp, then it wouldn't connect, and did a chmod 777 /etc/ppp/, which allowed KPPP to connect right up. I know this isn't the best (security-wise) way to do it, but I didn't know what else. I tried to add my user to group DIP, but that didn't do it, even on a reboot. Can someone tell me how I should do it properly, then how to return my settings to what they should be?

2. X-windows. When X first fires up, it makes the screen hang with a horrible interference pattern, like it used to do when x wasn't configured right. After a couple of seconds, I see the icon appear, and then it clicks and gdm shows up just beautifully. KDE and GNOME both look fine, then when I exit out, it clicks and looks bad, then goes to the console. I don't know if this is a normal part of x starting and stopping, or if I don't have it set right. It's a matrox millennium 2000 vid card, so I had to use VESA. Any thoughts?

3. Gnome: when I log in, it tells me that I don't have a hostname or ip address and wont work correctly. I don't have any of the networking set up because I'm on a dial up connection, so I don't need it. Do I need to set something up to "fool" it?

Thanks so much! I know I'll have zillions more questions, but so far, Debian is FAST. And solid...

1. kppp - Changing /usr/bin/kppp to -rwsr-xr-x should allow a user to run kppp and provide
some security, since only root can write to the file. Do chmod 4755 /usr/bin/kppp. If this doesn't work, use
chmod 755 /usr/bin/kppp. You might try starting kppp from a terminal. Regarding /etc/ppp; chmod 755 is what
mine is.

2. Xwindows - If you don't have the proper driver, try vga. CAUTION: Since you have a working Xserver,
back up the configuration file first. Copy the file /etc/X11/XF86Config-4 to your home directory or
rename it old_XF86Config-4. Now if you mess up your configuration you can copy or rename this file
to the original location. To try a different driver, as root, enter the command 'dpkg-reconfigure xserver-xfree86'.

3. Check in /etc/hosts and /etc/hostname to see if you have a hostname and ip address.If you are using
Gnome, you might want to set up dial-up with 'pppconfig'. See 'man pppconfig'.

I hope this will answer some of your questions.