[New User Alert] I've just, sort of, completed my first installation of Debian and I'm ready to start asking questions.
Installation is Woody 30r1 from the .iso images with apt-get configured to use CDs and also http, so I ended up with quite a bit of stuff automatically fetched from the security site. Anyway..... 1) Can anybody suggest any obvious reasons why I was not offered any of the X setup screens during the original installation? Following advice read elsewhere on this list, I attempted: dpkg-reconfigure xserver-xfree86 but this complained about X not being fully installed - not that I'd seen any message to this effect during base installation. I'd have expected a fairly prominent warning about something as fundamental as X not installing. So, in accordance with further instructions on this list, I installed X manually: apt-get install xserver-xfree86 followed by apt-get install kdm (not sure if kdm was essential but it was recommended) After that, when I rebooted, KDE started but I couldn't do anything with it. The mouse couldn't get more than about an inch away from the bottom left hand corner and none of the keyboard shortcuts listed at kde.org were being actioned. 2) When faced with such a fatal problem in X, how does one persuade Debian to boot to a console display given that you obviously can't edit any of the configuration files. 3) I played with Mandrake a couple of years ago, and I seem to recall there being separate entries in LILO for KDE or TEXT sessions, can anything similar be achieved in Debian? I think it was something to do with runlevels. I managed to sidestep the problem on this occasion by SSH'ing in from a Windows PC (3 cheers for the installation routines configuring the network) then running dpkg-reconfigure xserver-xfree86 and trying a different set of keyboard/mouse options. Interestingly I was asked a slightly different series of questions than I was when I first configured X. 4) Does anyone know which driver I should be selecting to support a MS Trackball Explorer. At present I have it as a basic PS2 mouse so I lose the use of the wheel, the extra buttons etc. I originally tried the iexplore driver but that clearly wasn't what I wanted and, given the mess it got me into, I'm kind of reluctant to apply trial-and-error to any of the others. 5) Unrelated to the foregoing, is there an apt-get command (or any other command) that basically says "go and get all the security patches applicable to anything I've got installed" such that I can keep the system up to date? Thanks in advance, Andrew Borland (UK) -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
