Not a newbie but never really started either.

[hokeypokey31]

I've been through numerous distributions thus far and determined that installing a program on Linux is purely a magic trick and I'm no magician. It took me weeks to recover from the concussion I received trying to install abiword on Mandrake 9.0 which I never managed to accomplish. I can deal this with for the most part because the software packaged with each distro is generally second to none.

Here's my dilemna. I've determined that a debian management distribution is the way to go from what I've read. I enjoyed Mepis but I didn't like KDE that much. Mandrake offered me choices of GUIs at log in and Mepis didn't. I prefer Gnome for the most part so I downloaded and tried Gnoppix. Gnome 2.6.? was awesome but the screen was only 640 by 480 in the center of the screen with blue pinstripes. Mandrake and Mepis at least didn't have screen resolution issues.

Shewww I'm long winded. Does Knoppix give me a choice of guis? All I'm seeing thus far is KDE this and KDE that. KDE is great as is Gnome and I want the choice between the two on a debian managed system.

[CrashedAgain]

Knoppix comes with KDE, XFCE, icewm & a couple of others but not Gnome. However, I gree that Debian/apt-get is the easiest way to install things. Like you, I have greyed more than a few hairs trying to install things on Mandrake...in my case trying to upgrade MDK 9.2 to KDE 3.2. Which is one of the big reasons I'm back with Knoppix, it's one of the easiest ways to get a Debian system install.
Put your left leg out, hokey-pokey, you should be able to install Gnome without much problem. You will have to modify a few xsession startup scripts to get away from having Knoppix use KDE but that shouldn't be too hard & there are lots of willing non-KDE users here to help you out.

[hokeypokey31]

I don't currently own a copy of Knoppix 3.6, the only distributions I currently own are Gnoppix 0.8(sad, so very sad) and Simply Mepis RC4. The RC4 is a slick piece of work very nicely done but no gnome. To get you guys to assist me in placing gnome into a debian-kde default distribution I'll have to get a copy of 3.6 right or could you help me get gnome into my Mepis. Yes I realize this is the knoppix.net forum but they are cousins of sorts. I'd continue with Gnoppix but the screen resolution issue overwhelms me. I managed to fix it with Mepis the last time by flashing the bios with the latest but that update has no effect on Gnoppix. The copy of Mepis I own has a second software disc that includes all of the libraries for gnome which I attempted to install once but had no luck in doing so.

[shah]

Gnoppix might comes with this utility : kxconfig
Try it in root konsole.
:D :D

[hokeypokey31]

I'll try that and keep you posted. I still want to entertain the thought of installing Gnome into Mepis or if need purchase a copy of Knoppix 3.6 then install it there.

[CrashedAgain]

I don't currently own a copy of Knoppix 3.6, the only distributions I currently own are Gnoppix 0.8(sad, so very sad) and Simply Mepis RC4. The RC4 is a slick piece of work very nicely done but no gnome. To get you guys to assist me in placing gnome into a debian-kde default distribution I'll have to get a copy of 3.6 right or could you help me get gnome into my Mepis. Yes I realize this is the knoppix.net forum but they are cousins of sorts. I'd continue with Gnoppix but the screen resolution issue overwhelms me. I managed to fix it with Mepis the last time by flashing the bios with the latest but that update has no effect on Gnoppix. The copy of Mepis I own has a second software disc that includes all of the libraries for gnome which I attempted to install once but had no luck in doing so.

Installing Gnome should be easy; just 'apt-get install gnome'. (apt-get update to update your package s list first). Check with the gnome website to what are the actual packages you need.
I suggest also you install a graphical package browser-installer such as synaptic so you can 'go shopping' for packages. I use kpackage but you are trying to get away from KDE.
The maybe more difficult part is figuring out how to get gnome to be the default desktop in mepis. Since it is (I think) a knoppix derivative, it may have similar startup scripts, they will be in /etc/X11,possibly (like Knoppix) /etc/X11/Xsession.d/45xsession.
Once you find it, edit the script to make gnome the default desktop.

[hokeypokey31]

I have all the packages on the 2nd disc so I need to apt get them but I have no idea how to modify the script. I truly enjoy Gnome, it's not windows like and it's easier to me.

[shah]

run this command in root konsole with your cdrom in cd drive:
apt-cdrom add

This will add list to your /etc/apt/sources.lst

Then proceed with installation using apt-get update and apt-get install.
If you have synaptic or kpackage, it will make it easier for you to install gnome because you can see what you want.
:D :D