If things still don't work, you might try following my advice early on. I'm not convinced you have done an successful upgrade to Etch. I'm not denying that an upgrade is possible, but you are a newbie. Windows experience has no bearing here. The easiest and surest thing is to do a reinstall from scratch. If you get the opportunity during the install, make sure you are using either the nv or vesa video drivers. You may need to manually activate one of those drivers after the install is complete. Once you have a desktop of some sort working, than it's time to start fighting with the nvidia drivers.

Thanks again JimBass, i tried apt-get install linux-image-2.6.18-3-686 and got:

The following NEW packages will be installed
busybox initramfs-tools klibc-utils libklibc linux-image-2.6.18-3-686
0 upgraded ...

bleh . . it's scrolled off now, it said something about 5 new and 2 not installed.

It asked me to confirm i wanted to download another 75MB of crap, so i said Yes and it's off again.

Infact its done . . . maybe it was asking me if it was ok to use another 75MB of disk space i guess

Ill just give it a reboot and then ill slap on another uname -r

hahahahaha! OH MY GOD i have a desktop, ive never been so excited about so little. My USB mouse and keyboard have decided to start working too (i have been using a crappy old ps2 keyboard)

Listen guys i cant thank you enough for your help. Windows may be 100 times maybe a 1000 times easier to get running than Debian but I have infact enjoyed getting to the end of this ordeal. I know for a fact that Microsoft wouldn't have given me anything like the free voluntary advice i have had from you. I guess i can finally get in my Linux experience now and make up my own mind about what system i want to write software for.

I'm pretty sure ill get stuck at the next hurdle and i have no idea how to use anything right now, but i will direct any other questions at another thread.

Thanks again (can i buy you a beer JimBass?)

:study:

Wow!

I'm making this post with my flashy GNOME desktop and my epiphany web browser. Its like christmas . . it's nice and glossy aint it!

KK im on with figuring out how to get my GeForce drivers going and then ill have to figure out how to get my wireless network card installed (using ethernet into the mobo at the moment) and then i want to try and get PHP/Apache running locally.

Thanks again (p.s any newbie advice would be cool, like how to zoom out so you can see all windows and stuff)

I live in Brooklyn and don't drink, but if you get to NYC you can buy me a diet pepsi anytime.

Now, we need to be certain what you are running. I believe at this time you should be on a 32 bit kernel, in which case you'll install the regular 32 bit nvidia driver. We'll need the output of uname -r and also ls /usr/src.

Peace,
JimBass

Well done DebianDummy, to be honest, you didn't exactly pick the easiest of distros to start with - Ubuntu/Kubuntu might have been less stress, though it doesn't really matter.

If your background is Windows then you might feel more at home with KDE though - Hey! if you have plenty of disc space install both and then you can just change sessions from the login screen.

the world is your oyster (some oysters are better than others - and the konqueror oyster IMO is far more tasty and nutritious than the Ephiphany/Nautilus one :D ).

regards

John

Good work. My computer experience, in both programming and system admin, is that it amounts to extended periods of head-banging frustration replaced by utter ecstasy when suddenly, it works. Enjoy the ecstasy, because now the next step is to restart the cycle.

uname -r

2.6.18-3-686

and there is nothing in usr/src

this may be a pretty crappy newbie question but is there an easy way to stop the xwindow thingy running because im guessing i need to be at command line to install the driver i have for my GCard.

Ok, then we need to get you the kernel sources to make the install work. Even with already having the driver, it needs the kernel sources to install.

Try this Maybe only one of those will work, but whatever. You need the kernel text source living in /usr/src for the driver install.

peace,
JimBass

You don't need the sources, just the headers ... aptitude (or apt-get) install linux-headers-2.6.18-3-686

And to get to "single user mode" ... telinit 1

I really am a :newbie:

Does that mean i need to move a text file to /usr/src? Does your commands cover this or do i need to do something else?

No, I was wrong. As rickh said, you only need the kernel headers, so do that apt-get install kernel-headers-$(uname -r) and you should be set.

/usr/src is where the kernel itself gets compiled from source. All the inner workings of the linux kernel can be read and edited should you need to down the road.

Peace,
JimBass

E: Couldn't find package kernel-headers-2.6.18-3-686

It's not kernel-headers-2.6.18-3-686
It's linux-headers-2.6.18-3-686

NvidiaGraphicsDrivers - Debian Wiki
http://wiki.debian.org/NvidiaGraphicsDrivers

Is the simplest and pretty much the only correct Debian way to install Nvidia drivers.

aptitude install linux-headers-2.6.18-3-686 nvidia-kernel-source module-assistant nvidia-settings nvidia-glx gcc
Then run:

# m-a update

# m-a prepare

# m-a auto-install nvidia