The default settings install "Debian Desktop Environment" which is MATE. I don't know of a way to just install a text only Debian system, which would be wonderful to do.
Years ago, the Debian Desktop Environment installed pdmenu and a graphical text desktop. Now it installs MATE and in addition there is also a selection for adding MATE, I suppose that installs the MATE Extras not in the "Debian Desktop Environment" mentioned here. I've installed without ticking off MATE also and had a working MATE desktop. I've had difficulty purging MATE and xorg from the system to make it text only but I've broken the system, so now I don't even try, I just leave the Xorg and MATE Desktop installed. I use is fbi and links2 web browser. I use them in console. They use framebuffer. But since I have xorg anyway I'm using MATE which works very well with orca screen reader. You set it up with "orca -s" in MATE terminal. It should be loaded and running for you, but to adjust settings run that command. To get login without starting MATE in the Graphical User Interface, as root: systemctl stop lightdm systemctl disable lightdm That will stop light desktop manager from running it's log in screen and you will have the regular text log in screen. Do your console stuff there, and if you want MATE just type "startx". I had problems with my /home settings not being compatible with Debian 11.2.0 which is the 2021-12-08 release. It still has problems with my soundcard during installation. It doesn't give me screen reader - but I continued with the installation and it actually did find my soundcard,it just didn't give me screen reader in console. After reboot, I had everything working OK console worked and orca in MATE worked. Not an accessible installation for me, I guess it was for you, did you use braille or was speach working for you - which must mean it's just my particular sound card, an Intel PCH ALC888. Best wishes to all,, Merry Christmas if you celebrate that holiday, which I do. David On Sat, Dec 25, 2021 at 2:32 PM Jude DaShiell <jdash...@panix.com> wrote: > > The firmware had a date of 2021-12-08 on it. > > > On Sat, 25 Dec 2021, D.J.J. Ring, Jr. wrote: > > > What iso did you use? > > > > I just tried the latest firmware full size regular and live DVD iso files > > and neither correctly detects my analog soundcard which I use. But since I > > can see, I just continued with the installation, and when I rebooted I had > > screen reader in console. > > > > However the same /home partition I was using for Buster somehow has > > configuration files which break Xorg so I had to make a new user. > > > > Ho, ho, ho! > > > > David > > > > On Sat, Dec 25, 2021, 13:16 Jude DaShiell <jdash...@panix.com> wrote: > > > > > I tried installing deb-multimedia.org and pub keys weren't available at > > > least not on debian so then I did apt remove --purge pulseaudio and an apt > > > autoremove after that and now multimedia players work correctly. This was > > > a base install, no desktop and pulseaudio was installed for some reason > > > I don't know. > > > > > > > >
