The Debian Sarge Install did not give me an option for which desktop I wanted to load.

It automatically loaded Gnome. WHY?

How do I get this thing changed to the KDE desktop?

Hi,

This seems rather unusual, to say the least. You have to start Kdm to use KDE. And from there you can launch any other window manager. I login on the KDE screen and then choose fluxbox, cause it is quite faster. Didn't you use aptitude to get
your stuff installed? You can choose anything you want from there.

I'm sorry, but the Debian Sarge Net Install limits your choices during the installation.

Once the installation was completed Debian Automatically boots up to Gnome. There is no such thing as a "Kdm". By the way: What is a "Kdm"?

What key sequence can be used to stop the booting into the Gnome Desktop?

How do I get out of Gnome so I can run the base-config program?

Right now all I can do, to stop the boot sequence, is to hold down the ctrl or alt or ctrl+alt keys and hit other keys until it stops booting. But, even then the base-config program will not work because the boot sequence was interupted. In Windows all I have to hit is F8, F5 or ctrl+c to break the boot process.

Normally I think if you installed debian sarge and choose for a desktop environment it installs both gnome and kde but gnome is the default and it uses gdm as graphical loginmanager. So you should choose kde under sessions when you log in. At least this was the way it worked under rc1 and rc2 so I think it will be still the same with rc3.
Or if this isn't the way it works for you can you explain a little bit more. Do you have to log your user in or are you automatically logged in? And is kde installed already or not? (I believe it will be installed if you 've chosen for a desktopenvironment during the install).

Greets,
Sabazios

The system automaically boots to the Debian Gnome Desktop Manager with a field for inputing a Username.

Across the top are four tabs:

Session
Language
Actions
Theme

How would I get to a command line so I could actually use APT?

Thanks

Ok so you can choose kde or gnome in your Gnome Desktop Manager under session and then just log in. To work with apt you just have to open a shell (konsole or gnome terminal,...)or you can also use synaptic which is a graphical way to work with apt (so maybe this will be easier if you don't know the exact name of packages). So after you logged in in gnome or kde.
Hope this helps.

Greets
Sabazios

Thank you,

But, I wish to uninstall / remove the applications I am not going to use such as GRUB and GNOME.

From a Terminal I used the command "apt-get remove gnome-panel" but it did not remove GNOME. It tried to install some other packages with an error of Unmet dependencies. On boot-up it still loads the GNOME Desktop Manager.

And it tells me it can't find the package GRUB, to uninstall it.

If it can find all of this stuff to do an install, why can't it find it to do an uninstall?

Gnome-panel is only one of the packages of gnome and Gnome Desktop Manager(gdm) is not the same as gnome. It's only a login-manger like kdm. You can use gnome without using gnome itsel but probably you will like to use kdm. So if you install kdm it will asks you if you want to use that over gdm I think. But I would advice you to use synaptic for now (it's already installed) and this will makes it more easier for you for now. Did you run apt-get update already? Because it's not normal you can't install something because of dependencies errors? Apt is really great and shouldn't give any dependencies errors. But I don't know if you may remove grub. It's the bootmanager so I think it's needed to boot so don't remove it yet untill you are sure it's ok to remove. Maybe someone else wil know this. Be carefull with removing packages you don't know.

Succes
Sabazios

I don't know what, or how to get to, this synaptic you mention.

I am using LILO as my Boot Loader and do not need GRUB - GRUB, with Ext3 fs, just kept giving me errors or locking up each time I tried to install this Debian Sarge.

Maybe I'll try to run the apt-get update in the morning. Do I have to specify the individual packages like everything else?

I might be better off just removing the Desktops until I get my web server set-up and running.

I'd suggest that you type aptitude in the terminal window. This should launch a keyboard-navigable program that helps you with package management. It shows what packages are currently installed and what packages are available. But first you should spend some time exploring the aptitude program. It has an in-built help screen that you can see by typing the question mark (and you can get out of the help screen by pressing Enter).

Basically you move the highlighted area in aptitude with the arrow keys and Enter. You get back to previous screen by pressing q (and pressing q several times ends the aptitude program). The help screen shows all the other shortcuts.

You can remove packages by moving the highlighted area upon some package name and then marking it to be removed by pressing the minus mark. And you can mark packages to be installed by pressing the plus mark. Then you can watch the planned changes by pressing g. If you're happy with the planned changes, pressing g again will execute all changes.

You can update the package database by pressing u.

You should study the help screen and the shortcuts for some time before you actually remove or install any packages with aptitude. Also pressing F10 (the function key) lets you explore the menus in aptitude and maybe you should go through all the menus to see what options there are.

Aptitude takes a little while to learn but once you become familiar with it, it's very fast and useful program. Give it a try.

Thank you so much for the need information on using aptitude in the Terminal window.

When I tried to access the Help function for aptitude all I kept getting was the Help screen for the Terminal Window.

I thought the q button meant to quit aptitude, not go back a screen. And I saw nothing that told me to use the minus and plus keys for marking packages to be removed or install. From the very scimpy instructions I could not figure out how the g key was supposed to be used to download/remove/install the selected packages.

I will have to revisit it in the morning.

Again, Thanks

I've been constantly surprised that no-one has written a really GOOD tutorial about using aptitude, because it's a very useful program and I guess many people use it. Personally, I just checked the help screen often and moved the highlighted area -- and slowly it just somehow started to make sense. I guess most people just learn it by using it. Anyway, here's some sort of attempt to explain aptitude and its usage:
http://doc2.inf.elte.hu/doc/aptitude/html/en/

Thank you for the link. I am printing it out now.

I had printed out the APT HOW TO document but it only tells you what commands to use from the command line.

When I was in a Desktop and was using a Terminal all the Help function would bring up was Help on the Terminal screen.

AndeAnderson:
There are more ways to skin a cat, you can type 'expert' at the boot prompt at the beginning of the installation, it will ask you more questions, but you'll have more choice.

You can install the base system, skip the 'install packages' section, finish the basic installation, and with apt-get or aptitude install the pakage 'gnome-core' or 'gnome-desktop-envrironment' and 'gdm', and you're set. Obviously, you have to install 'x-window-system', etc =)

The Debian Sarge Net Install does not present a Boot Prompt except for a splash screen which says "Hit Enter to begin".

Thanks for the other advice. I have already started another install from scratch and will not be loading any desktop environment. That will have to wait until I have the other factors taken care of, like my web server set-up by Friday.