I've just installed Sid successfully (a major accomplishment for me) with Gnome running.

How can I run a browser, Iceweasel or Epiphany, from a console command line (eg: tty2). Sorry, I'm an old QNX guy and we called them consoles.

I would like to get to the point of running all aps from command lines and doing away with the fancy desktops.

Thanks,
JP.

Do you mean running totally on the console, for example, without running the X-server at all or using a Desktop Environment? I don't think that is possible... at least not with Epiphany or Iceweasel.

There are, however, some command line only browsers, such as links and lynx, but I personally don't find them very useful, but that is not for me to judge:

http://lynx.browser.org/

http://packages.debian.org/unstable/net/links2

Links2 can actually run some graphics if you use the "-g" flag.

Just another tip. If you want to use a less fancy desktop, take a look into alternatives such as flux/black/openbox. They are really that great and if your Linux PC is the one you have on your signature, those light weight window managers will save you a lot of useful memory which could be used for something much more important than Gnome services...

Regards!

If you just want a window manager, try something like fluxbox, icewm, windowmaker, etc. In linux, you have to run the X server or you can't have any gui apps. You can keep a terminal open though and run all your commands from it.

I just want the x server but not the big hungry desktop (well, I'm hoping that it is the gnome desktop that eats up the resources).

I was thinking that I could write a little shell that said something like:

X this or that
iceweasel or opera or firefox

and bingo, away she goes.

JP.

Gnome definitely is hungry. You can try twm or fvwm.

aptitude install twm

There should be a way to make it open your favorite terminal program (aterm, xterm, eterm, etc) automagically when you startup...

After you do that, you may want permanently stop gdm (the graphical login manager) since that'll also eat resources. I typically use sysv-rc-conf (you'll have to install it) to enable or disable services for different runlevels. It's a command line ui that uses the arrow keys and space bar to set[*] for each service.

I found a way to start applications from the command line -- xinit. I did manage to start iceweasel with xinit iceweasel, but terminals (xterm, eterm, etc) seemed to fail to load. And of course, you can't move the windows around since you're not running a window manager.

I just found that xinit by itself from a command line will just open an xterm. Again, you can't move windows around so you can only really open one program at a time...

I'll try iceWM just for fun.

I did:

aptitude install icewm

and all seemed to go well. Now how do I run icewm instead of gnome?

Thanks,
JP.

Usually you just log out and then change the "Session" on the login screen.

EDIT: http://www.icewm.org/FAQ/IceWM-FAQ-3.html#ss3.3

That's too easy,

Thanks,
JP.

If you want to save even more RAM, shut down gdm/kdm/xdm (whatever graphical login was there) and use startx after you login to the console. You'll have to edit some files in your home directory to get icewm started, but it shouldn't be too bad.

http://www.icewm.org/FAQ/IceWM-FAQ-3.html#ss3.3

Why does everyone assume that X is the only display device? Its not, X is crappy and should be done away with, that said, there are no real alternatives. The best course of action (as already stated) is to just not use desktop environments, and instead install whatever software you want to create a desktop.

As for graphical displays, has no one ever heard of the framebuffer? Linux has support for it, and there are graphical programs written to make use of it, such as mplayer, and some image viewer i cant remember the name of. Dirctfb even provides a desktop of sorts. Sure, there arnt a army of framebuffer programs, but its still a plausible display device, and probably the best contender to X on the desktop.

edit: and yes, there are framebuffer web browsers, i think lynx or links support it. Anyones, at least of those "text mode" web browsers supports the framebuffer, and yes, even mouse support with gdm (is that its name?)

if you want a lightweight but fully fetured graphical enviroment i recomend XFCE
i ahev used it a lot on machines of all specs and like the ease of use and the speed on low end machines.