I just intalled Debian linux, however I am a total newb and have no idea how it works. I am at the point where I can boot up and log in as different users. I want to know how to get a visual desktop like windows or mac has. It is pissing me off seeing all the white box letters and a black screen of death.....how do I get such a desktop???

at the shell type "startx"

Black screen of death...no...blue (or black) screen of death only refers to the frozen error message screen when an OS crashes. Not just the command line. Some of us like that.

You don't have an X window system installed, which is why it isn't "pretty". Of course to a large minority of folks here, the CLI interface you don't like is the perfect enviornment to do most everything.

Short answer to your question, is to do this as root ---- apt-get install x-window-system

You need to know several things though, not necessarily intuitive, like the refresh rate on your monitor and such. If you had used the search function before you posted this, you most likely would have found this article:
http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...hreadid=224547

If you read the initial post, and follow some of his links, you'll have all the info you need to set up an X windows system on your fresh Debian install.

Peace,
JimBass

THANK YOU!!!! however when i type startx into the shell to get it to start up it tells me "fatal server error: no screens found" and then "x connection to :0.0 is broken (explicit kill or server shutdown)" what am I supposed to do???
Please respond

There would have been a more informative error message in there somewhere. Find it and let us know. In the meantime, have you run xorgconfig?

no but I will in just a bit

Tell you what MadAd19, you unfortunately haven't started with the easiest distro in the world !

Debians very good, but as it doesn't have much in the way of a graphical installer, it can be a real pain, especially if it's your first "visit" to linux.

Like for instance, the error above, usually suggests either unconfigured X server (the graphical one) or possibly that it won't start the driver for your graphics card.

Hell you definitely get 10 out of 10 for effort (charging straight for debian). I mean, you could have easily gone for Ubuntu, which is debian based and has graphical installer, or maybe knoppix, again debian based but while you're checking stuff out, you could have run it from the CD without the need to install it, then if you liked it, you could have just installed it to your hard drive and then it would have been a relatively straight forward thing to tell you how to change the "apt-sources list" and then you'd be getting all/any packages that you may want/need from the debian sources (as opposed to knoppix ones).

So have you tried to see what you get with checking your logs ?

Do and you should see a list a bit like this
but probably with not quite so many entries. The important one for looking at what's occuring graphically, is Xorg.0.log which you may have to be root to read/access (depends on the system and/or installation settings).

Oh and I don't know what editor debian installs with by default, but to see the file you could try
Oh and yes, my examples are ones that show that I used the Xorg X server, you may find that you /var/log shows you are using XFree86 X server, if so you'd just use that after the /var/log/ - I think (memory reduces with age ) that it'd be (or possibly XF86Config.0.log).

It has a small guide of how to read/understand what it's telling you at the top, stuff about [II], [WW], [EE] and so on which should guide you to what you "might" need to know about whats (not)happening with your system.

Keep up the good effort - excellent (I was much more cowardly when I started with this linux thing - and it still stresses the hell out of me when things happen/go wrong that I don't understand - ha, that'd be most things!).

regards

John

p.s. In the code suggestions I've included a # which means that I think you might have to be logged in as root whereas in the quote of my system you'll see the $ prompt, because I could list this logged in as user.

run xorgconfig and configure your stuff.

First off--forget all of the previous advice if you're a newbie. You shouldn't have to start off without a GUI, not even with Debian.

You have two really good options:

1. Install Debian Sarge instead of whatever older version of Debian you're trying to install. Debian Sarge's installer is EASY, and it'll install the GUI software by default (with a graphical login and everything). However, the default installed suite of software is a bit spartan. Debian Sarge is currently "Debian Testing"--you'll find the .iso files named Debian Testing rather than Debian Sarge.

or

2. Install a Knoppix variant. The brand new version of Mepis is one good option; Kanotix is another one. The install is about as easy as possible, and you can even use your computer during the install! There's nothing like playing Frozen Bubble to make the install seem to take less time. The install doesn't take all that long either, compared to most other distros (including Debian Sarge). You'll get a lot of good software installed and tweaked and configured for you by default. This is good for a newbie.

Knoppix/Mepis/Kanotix are all Debian based, so your hard drive install is more or less a Debian install. You can use what you learn from them when you later on move on to "official" Debian.

my signature

How is mandrake? I tried to install that but then I got the screens error too....It looks swank though.....
And thanks for all the help, until 3 days ago I never heard of linux, so starting up has been relatively smooth thanks to this forum....

By the way I gave up on Debian and tried mandrake (supposedly esier) and I want to make that work rather than debian.... I can't possibly config Debian because I don't know all the technical jargon it asks me..... Im just working on the Mandrake config...... Also, I tried to get the sarge torrent, because regular downloading sucks, and THERE ARE FIFTEEN Im not going to download 15 cds so what is going on.....I just want the normal torrent....with 5 cds or something....

There is no "normal 5 cd's" with Debian. Debian is unique and it takes the cake (15 cakes).

Good luck with Mandrake.

PS.
When you decide to try Debian Sarge out again, remember, you can install everything you need with only the first CD. The other CD's are for people with no internet.

If 15 CD's is too much, try Mepis. It's just one CD, but still has most of the software a newbie needs thanks to file compression (other Knoppix variants use file compression also).

Alternatively, if you have a fast internet connection, almost all of Debian Sarge can be downloaded on the fly. In fact, this is the prefered method of downloading/installing Debian Sarge. It's really easy--just download the "minimal CD", it's just one CD and the .iso is only about 160megs.

I've done 3 Sarge installs so far, all of them using this method. I also downloaded the first Debian CD, and found that installing via that was absolutely identical to using the "minimal CD" (I chose the default method of installing software which was over the Internet, rather than from the CD). I NEVER considered downloading all 15 CDs. I ONLY downloaded the first CD, and NEVER found a reason to need any of the others.