>> but, something(s) must not have worked properly, because :
>> 1. I never got the GUI based X config screen (to config mouse,
>> vid card, monitor, refresh rates). I did get some text mode
questions
>> about these items. I answered them, and it accepted the answers.
>
>normall. Debian (i don't think) has a gui X configurator. Maybe progeny
>does.
>
Actually, XF86Setup is a GUI X configurator, for X3.3.6, no X4.x.x and
Debian does have a .deb for it. I seem to remember the last time I played
with 'Pure' Debian, it was not included in the X packages, but you can
apt-get install XF86Setup and it will install, and should start up as part
of it's post-install configuration. It's not very advanced, but I've found
it to be much better for setting up X than xf86config. You use the keyboard
to set up your mouse, and once you've got that verified to be working, you
use the mouse to set up everything else. You can even verify that your
video setting will work before commiting the settings. As far as setting up
the GUI login, you have three choices:
xdm, the original X login. Works, but it's not very pretty.
gdm, The Gnome login. Much nicer, and rather well behaved in a Debian
evironment. I've found that it will automagically reconise new
desktops/window managers when you install them and give you the appropiate
options for login.
kdm, The KDE login. Similar to gdm, but not a well behaved, yet. It seems
it does not reconise other dsktops or window managers. These must be added
by hand. This is why I still use gdm, even though I only use KDE.
One thing to watch for is, each of these conflict with the others, so you
can only install one. apt-get installing task-kde does not cause any
problems, but if you use dselect to install task-kde, it will try to remove
gdm to install kdm. The advantage of using dselect is it will notify you of
suggests and recommends, apt-get will only install the requires. apt-get is
fine for installing a few small programs, but for a large package like KDE,
I would recommend using dselect, select task-kde, then carefully check
through all the suggests and recommends that dselect gives you to be sure
you're getting what you want. I prefer to then quit out of dselect, once
I've selected the packages to install, then run apt-get -s dselect-upgrade.
the -s will 'simulate' the upgrade and you can check through what is going
to be installed, upgraded and removed before commiting to anything. to
recap my suggestions:
Install a base system, but only select a minimal system from the task
select screen.
Let dselect install this minimal install.
Re-run dselect and select task-kde for install. This will take you through
page after page of dependancies, but should pull ALL the X packages in with
it. It will also mention the recommends and suggests for your approval.
You might want to be sure to select XF86Setup for the GUI X config tool.
Once all depends are cleared up, dselect will go back to the main screen,
at this point quit out of dselect.
Use apt-get -s dselect-upgrade to see what apt-get will fetch. It will
start by telling you what new packages have been selected and what packages
are to be removed, allong iwth a summary of how many packages are to be
upgraded, added and removed. It won't tell you what is to be upgraded,
though. This is why you use the -s option. It will list ALL the actions the
apt-get will go through including fetching the packages, unpacking them and
then configuring them.
Once you are happy with what apt-get wants to do, run the same command
without the -s option. apt-get will ask if you want to fetch all these
packages, say yes, and then just wait for it all to down-load. You can even
interupt this process with ^C and re-start it again later, apt-get will
re-start from where it left off, even in the middle of down-loading a
package. Once apt-get has fetched all the packages it needs, it might run
debconf to set up a few packages, then it will unpack and install and
finally configure the packages for you. At some stage it should configure X
for you and ask you if you would like to boot directly into X. If you make
sure to install XF86Setup, you should get the GUI X config tool as well.
Hopefully this will get you a fully working KDE system. But YMMV!
Cheers,
John Gay
