I am using HP laptop (2.0GHz, Core 2 duo, X86) and i have installed debian amd64. I have created 3GB swap.

it starts fine and stops at text mode. when i type startx. it tries but it comes up with an error message saying something like this;
start x loading problem
perhapse your vedio card is not configured.

i have downloaded the first dvd of amd64 and burnt it.

am i installing the right download for my intel laptop? what is wrong?

If there is no ia64 version available, then the architecture is probably ok.

login at the CLI
#su
#dpkg-reconfigure xserver-xorg

Don't even consider IA64 ... dumb suggestion.

You don't say what release you are using, These days it should be Lenny. If you installed Etch, start over.

You may need to separately install xorg, gnome-core and/or gdm. Depending on what video card you have, you may need some firmware. 3 GB swap is pure silliness.

You gotta give basic info if you want help. For the record, Debian is not the most user-friendly distribution. Mint, Mephis, even Ubuntu would probably install with all your hardware working even if you don't have a clue why it happened.

i was actually downloading the one you said but some one in this form suggested that i am downloading the wrong one. do you think i need ia64 version for my arch.?

If it is a 64-bit intel computer, then that is the right one.
Get the latest version-4.0 of the distro course. If it is a 32-bit one, then it is wrong.

Yes reduce the swap to ~1.5GB

Amani, for whatever reason is feeding you a line of total bulls--t.

I now routinely install the 32-bit version, regardless of architecture. I have found various little glitches with the 64-bit distros, and I have no need for anything 64-bit.

32-bit software is not "wrong" on a 64-bit machine.

I am fedora user for a quite some time and want to try debian. yes i have downloaded etc. exact would be debian-40r5-amd64-DVD-1

the other i.e. debian-40r5-ia64-dvd-1 is almost downloaded as well. according to your thread i should not use ia64 one and not even the stable version?

please check this link where i was sugessted http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...822/page2.html


My vedio card is Nvidia Geforce8400Mgs. how do i install the above mentioned pakages using cli?

i have opened the url which you have given for the lenny one. the same options are there. which one should i download amd64, i386 or ia64?

32-bit software can be better at times on a 64-bit machine, but 64-bit distros do not prevent them from being installed. The final choice depends on the list of desired software.

Use the amd64 one of course. I did not see your processor.

You are simply wasting time and bandwidth downloading DVDs. All you need is the 150MB netinstall disk. I recommend the AMD64 version. I originally moved from Fedora to Debian (a long time ago). You have to forget a little bit of what you already know. The Debian Way is different. At the very beginning, there is no reason to download massive amounts of data to get a complete distribution. Here is my howto for installation by Debian newbies. It's not pleasant if you dive blindly in without a general idea of how Debian works.

Definitely use rickh's howto.
I can say from personal experience it works!

Regards.
The trooper.

That's not very Debianish, just do a dist-upgrade.

I don't do re-installs, ever.

How many times does someone have to tell you that ia6 will NOT run on your CPU ?


Debian Ports
It is indeed a waste of time, to download the ia64 DVD, unless you have an old Intel Itanium processor in your system.


And actually starting over on a new install, on new hardware, with a new chipset, is not a bad suggestion. The newer kernel in Lenny will have an easier time detecting your hardware during install than the Older Kernel in Etch. I actually like using the daily netinstall iso build for lenny on new hardware. It's worked flawlessly on hardware that the standard Etch and Lenny install isos failed on.