slackware gui?
 

I installed Slackware 8.0, full, and when I started it, I got a command prompt. I thought that I would be presented with a GUI like Mandrake Linux's. I couldn't find any info on how to get to one, does anybody know how I can do this?

Slackware is a very good distro (IMO) to learn with. Basically, you're presented with very little. You must install everything (and almost always from the source, not using RPM files or DEB file - you'll find out about them later) and configure it yourself.

OK. First, you'll need to install/configure 'X'. This is probably already install, in which case, type: XF86Config (not sure about which letters are supposed to be capitals). If you've not already done so, you might want to either download or locate on the CD(s) where KDE/Gnome/BlackBox/IceWM/etc are. Install these.

There is a file that lets you boot straight into the GUI, but for the moment, once you've installed X and KDE/Gnome you will have to type: startx to get going. You may also like to try typing kdm or gdm. These (I think) are the graphical login managers for KDE and Gnome respectively.

Sorry I can't be of much more help than this, but I've yet to install a Slackware distro. Shouldn't be too much longer though.

here is some extra tips to get you going







the prog you will need is in /usr/X11/bin/ and is called xf86config







you will need to be root and make sure you know where the file it writes (XF86Config - that;s the name of the file) is saved. its best to run the prog from your home directory so that the file is written there as well.







type the following to do the above













then answer the prog's little questions. when it asks for the mouse just choose the generic ps2 mouse at first. you can change it to a intellimouse later (unless your mouse is named in the list such as with a logitech mouse that is weird and dodgy)







make sure you know your monitor's horizontal and vertical refresh rates and the supported resolutions it can handle at these refresh rates. this will be in the manuals for the monitor.







once you've done everything, copy the XF86Config file to /etc/X11/



(you should still be root)









exit from being root by typing exit.







then just do startx, as Thymox said and you should be laughing.







if you want it to always go into graphical mode then do the following (after the above)







become root then change to the /etc/ directory and fire up a text editor to edit the inittab file (use pico, its easy unless you want to cut your teeth on vi :D )









change the line that looks like this to look like the bottom one.









save by holding down the control key and o then exit by holding down control and pressing x





that should be it





HTH







Alex



P.S. kdm should be started to allow you to use a graphical login:D

Yikes eh? Slack is definately not Mandrake/SuSe etc...If you did the "full install" X is definately installed. Although sounding more difficult because it's a console based distro by nature, it's alot more powerfull and screams when it runs right. Don't worry about copying any XF86Config files anywhere. When you run xf86config and go through the setup, the file is created and placed where it should be. startx is the command to run after configuring X and to run X whenever you want. Like said above kdm and gdm are the login managers for kde and Gnome respectively. When you do all this, just log in as root. You won't have to "su" if you are already root, you can worry about that after you've created a user since there's no real security issue just after install. If you do want to create a user type adduser and use the defaults and you can use "su"(superuser) if you'd like instead. The /etc/inittab file as said above has the runtime level in it as per your desires to see the console when you boot up or GUI. In my opinion jed is quite a bit easier to use than vi/vim/pico/joe/jove. Just cd to /etc and type jed inittab and change the 3 to a 4 as described above. It's a killer distro and you'll learn alot fast, just gotta have the patience. Once you've gotten comfortable with how you like the GUI and so forth. Look into rebuilding the kernel to get it leaned up and running just the way you want it. This is just how I do it. Good luck, I had to through myself in here.. :)