How do you start debians gui ?
 

Im very sorry for this very newbie question but im lost.

I Just installed Debian on one of my spare computers to experiment with but i cant seem to get the gui start. I checked google and a few other sites and they all tell me to simply type startx . I tried typing startx but it gives me a unknown command error. Maybe the gui has to be configured first ? if so how would that be done.

Thank you all for your patients with this stupid question but your help is greatly apreciated.

Nicarlo

did you install X and a WM?

i dont believe so.. how would i go by installing it ?


thanks for your quick responce.

Not 100% sure but maybe you need the Xorg- X11 packages....Note that I work with FC.

Not much but we never know dude :)

Mart.

apt-get install xorg fluxbox(or gnome, xfce, kde, whatever WM you want)

Oh and if you want to boot into a graphical interface, then apt-get install gdm(kdm, or xdm will work too)

does that package come with debian or it is seperate ?

here is a big help page for Debian
http://www.togaware.com/linux/survivor/

Does what pkg come with debian?

that site is not really a big help.... anyyone else have any suggestions?

what are you talking about? I told you what to do!!!

Originally posted by bosewicht
apt-get install xorg fluxbox(or gnome, xfce, kde, whatever WM you want)

Oh and if you want to boot into a graphical interface, then apt-get install gdm(kdm, or xdm will work too)

How difficult is that?

Why didn't you install a distro that is more newbie friendly

sorry for asking over and over the same questions. i tired apt-get install gnone, xorg and etc.. but none worked. The last one you gave me apt-get install gdm seems to be working at the moment. Thanks alot for your help.

I know i should probably be sticking to a more user friendly distro but the whole purpose im doing this is to learn new ways and by doing that i need the help of great people like you.

After installing apt-get install gdm everything seemed to work well until i tried to execute the startx command once more. This time it actualy responds to its command but im getting a whole bunch of errors and the gui is not starting. im getting line2: /usr/bin/X11/X no such file or directory... any suggestions what to do from here ?

apt-get install gnome
check the spelling.

or you can try
type in apt-get install xorg
which should pull the xorg or xfree packages as well.

If you just install xorg or xserver-xfree86 you will still not have a desktop. You must install gnome, kde, whatever.

You want to learn, but part of the learning process is figuring things out. Installing and configuring X is easy. there are instructions on this site in the tutorials and all over the web how to do it.

I tried all the apt-get install and none work.. they all give me the same error either couldnt find package or Package gnome has no installation candidate.

I agree with you .. i should try to figure it out.. its not like i didnt try anything.. ive been reading for a few hours now on this stuff and nothing is a good read.

Anyway hope you can help me out once again.

try adding these lines to your /etc/apt/sources.list:

# Debian experimental
deb ftp://ftp.debian.org/debian/project/experimental main
# GNOME 2.10 pending packages
deb http://pkg-gnome.alioth.debian.org/debian experimental main

so you need to su or sudo to edit that file. add the above lines to it. then try the apt-get install gnome.

It's stupid if debian doesn't include gnome in it's main repo

its doesnt seem to like this line

deb ftp://ftp.debian.org/debian/project/experimental main

i ran the update with the other one and it downloaded two new files but im still getting errors. Anymore suggestions ?

Yeah, i typed it in wrong, try this

# Debian experimental
deb ftp://ftp.debian.org/debian/project experimental main

alright.. that fixed that. Now im getting " you may want to run apt-get update ( which i did ) to correct these problems and the famous " Package gnome has no installation candidate"

any more suggestions ?

I have just installed Debian Sid (unstable) and here is my /etc/apt/sources.list,
To install an xserver, I did
To install gnome, I did
Pick a mirror near you from the Debian website.

thanks alot i finaly got it working.. apreciate all the help everyone gave me

Thanks alot :D

In general when you want to install something with Debian, search the sources for the exact name of the package (like in your gome case).
To do this, use: "apt-cache search"
e.g.
"apt-cache search gnome" will give you gnome related packages.
But often this gives you too many results, because it also searches the description of packages, so add grep to it, to only show those with "gnome" in the package-name, like:

apt-cache search gnome | grep gnome

then you'll see what packege you need, in your case gnome-desktop, and just do the usual apt-get install.

oh, how I love apt for its simplicity ...

anyway, just wanted to add this to the post, it was a great help to me, when I didn't really know the name of something I was searching, like a certain dockapp for my WM, then I can just search for "dockapp" or "clock" or whatever and it'll give me some results to choose from.
But you may always want to take a quick look at the related manpage, for many more options to append to apt-commands.

Thanks DefRay, I was looking for that kind of command. :)

Couldn't be easier with Apt. Installed base off CD, then did a apt-get install kde. Prior to that, setup ftp for source. All done :D

try apt-get install x-window-system-core
or
apt-get install x-window-system