Moved to Debian (but cant proceed from Command prompt)

I downloaded and burnt a Live CD for Knoppix 4.0.2 and tried to boot my system from the Live CD, everything works just fine. All my hardware is automatically detected and it automatically takes me to the GUI interface just like Windows would do. Amazingly easy. I had no idea that Linux could be such a hassle free OS. I just popped in my CD and everything worked just as they should. I then decided to go full fledged with Linux.

I then downloaded debian GNU/Linux 3.1 r0a "Sarge" and burnt the CD 1 (i386-binary) and installed it on a partition of my Thinkpad T20 laptop.

I can now boot in Debian and go to the command prompt but cannot go to GUI by typing "startx" at my normal login (not root login). I cannot startx even from root login. Can anyone in Knoppix user forum help? (I posted the same question in the Debian forum yesterday but no one responded. I am guessing Debian forum is not as active as Knoppix.)

I also tried startKDE but that also didnt work. BTW I had chosen Desktop Environment while configuring...so I am guessing that all GUI programs are installed on my harddisk. Any guidance to this complete idiot at this time will be appreciated. How come Debian cannot automatically take me to the GUI interface on booting like Knoppix? I must be doing something wrong. I have spent considerable amount of time on this and dont want to give up. If someone can tell me what I am missing, I will be grateful.

No idea what commands to use or which directory to go to in order to find KDE. Not sure whether Debian is recognizing my video card. But if Knoppix can detect all my hardware automatically and since Knoppix is based on Debian, shouldnt Debian also recognize my hardware automatically?

Another thing. While configuring in Apt Configuration screen, I see a message saying "cannot access security updates" because it couldnt access security.debian.org. It also asks me to investigate it later. Is it something because my PPPOEconf is not setup? Does it have something to do with my GUI not working? The purpose I converted to Debian was to mostly web browse. But I cannot do that now without GUI. Can someone please help?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by bokaroseani

I then downloaded debian GNU/Linux 3.1 r0a "Sarge" and burnt the CD 1 (i386-binary) and installed it on a partition of my Thinkpad T20 laptop.

I can now boot in Debian and go to the command prompt but cannot go to GUI by typing "startx" at my normal login (not root login). I cannot startx even from root login.

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When I installed Debian Sarge from CD 1, I ended up with a system that booted to the GUI login screen. I have to log in as a user (not root, root insn't allowed to log in here), with an account that I created during the install process. Do you have any insight on what choices you made during the install that may be giving you a different setup than I? Did you elect to install the normal desktop environment (if you installed a server environment, for example, maybe you didn't even get the GUI installed).

One nice thing about having the full CD #1 rather than installing "over the Internet" is that you have all you need right there, you can reinstall without having to pull everything across you internet connection again. I suspect that this is just a plague of riches; Debian gives you many different types of systems that you can install and you may not have chosen exactly what you want. I would suggest reinstalling, and taking careful notes about what choices you made so that if you do have a question you can post your choices and a Debian user may be able to tell you their suggestions.

Thank you very much. I was blindly following a manual for Sarge installation that I found on the internet which I now realize might have made me skip installing the GUI part. As per your suggestion, I am now reinstalling Debian Sarge from my CD again, this time just following whatever the installer prompts me to do rather than type all the different commands that I was using following the website I was following. I will let you know how it goes once I boot it using this new installation. Thanks for your prompt reply.

Ok...I reinstalled Debian again this time documenting each and every selection I made in the process.

I used the same CD for Sarge and booted from the CD and installed it on a separate partition. (One partition runs Win XP). It asked me to install GRUB boot loader to the master boot record when it found that the system has an existing operating system (WinXP). It later asked me to configure Exim v4 (exim4-config window) where I chose "no configuration at this time". It asked me the kind of environment I would like to install and I chose "Desktop environment".

Still KDE is not loaded. When I boot and login as root and type "dpkg-reconfigure xserver-xfree86" I get the following message:
Package 'xserver-xfree86' is not installed and no info is available.

I ran the code "aptitude update" and then "aptitude install kde" which returned (among other things):
"No candidate version found for kde
No packages will be installed, upgraded, or removed.
0 packes upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
Need to get 0B of archives. After unpacking 0B will be used.
Writing extended state information... Done
Reading Package Lists... Done
Building Dependency Tree
Reading extended state information
Initializing package states... Done
Reading task descriptions... Done"

I also tried the code "aptitude show kde". It returns:
"Package: kde
State: not a real package"

So it seems xserver-xfree86 is not installed and I cannot install it. Any suggestion as to what I should do next. Is it because my CD installer doesnt have the xfree86 on it?

I also tried:
1 - edit the file .xsession residing in your home directory:
Code:
nano .xsession

2 - insert the text
Code:
exec startkde
to it, then save the file and exit nano.
3 - Now execute:
Code:
startx

But it returns:
"-bash: startx: command not found"

I'm not finding a question in your last two posts. I suspect that you want to know why KDE isn't installed and loading. I don't know, all I can say is that it certainly loads and installs for me. You say that you chose the desktop environment setting, but that's all I know about your install (other than you are trying to dual boot with MS), so I couldn't even go back and try to duplicate your install if I had the time.

I have installed Debian both in dual boot and stand alone systems without seeing this problem. When I do a dual boot I do not personally choose to let the Linux boot loader install to the MBR, I make it install on the Linux partition and then use XOSL or SBM to boot whichever system I want, but I know of no reason why you would have problems installing the Linux boot loader to the MBR. Heck, I use XOSL even with Linux only, I just find it keeps my options open and saves me from fooling with grub or lilo issues.

You may need to wait until someone with more Debian experience than I comes across this post and can spot what you are doing. I expect that Underscore will know what has gone wrong in your install, and that there must be a few others here who will catch it too. But even they may need a bit more feedback than just that you chose the desktop install.

BTW, I am getting lots of error messages and messages saying some processes failed while booting in Debian:

While calculating module dependencies it says "hda: dma_intr: status=0x51 (DriveReady SeekComplete Error)" and {addrmarknotfound}
and similar messages many times.

And somewhere while booting it says "Missing Kernel or usermode driver...." I couldnt write all the messages it gives while booting but I can see that not everyting is working right. Does this help one of you experts to diagnose the problem?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by bokaroseani

BTW, I am getting lots of error messages and messages saying some processes failed while booting in Debian:

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It's not at all clear (at least to me) if you are getting thee errors when you boot the CD to install Debian, or if the CD boots and seems to install cleanly, but that you then get the error when you boot Debian from the hard disk. And again I'm not likely to be the one with the answers, but knowing the above will likely help the experts.

I am getting the errors after I have installed and gone throught the first-time configuration of the Debian system and then restarting this time to boot from the Hard-disk. Thanks for giving me continuous feedback and company while I struggle on this. I am starting to re-install Debian from the same CD and this time will be more descriptive in writing my notes so that the experts can tell me where I am making mistake. Thanks again for your support.

try apt-getting one of the xservers or perhaps the window manager or desktop environment of choice.

apt-get install xserver-xorg
or
apt-get install xerver xferr86
or
apt-get install x-window-system
or
apt-get install xfce4
or
apt-get install kde
or
apt-get install gnome.

HTH

I am getting the errors after I have installed and gone throught the first-time configuration of the Debian system and then restarting this time to boot from the Hard-disk. Thanks for giving me continuous feedback and company while I struggle on this. I am starting to re-install Debian from the same CD and this time will be more descriptive in writing my notes so that the experts can tell me where I am making mistake. Thanks again for your support.