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.

Hmm, if you can boot to the command prompt, from hd, then you should be able to install whatever packages that were transferred to the hd from the cd rom or install them from the cd as a source.

Try: apt-get update, so that the installer can update the package list from whatever sources it has in the /etc/apt/sources.list file. Then try to apt-get install kde etc. Post back the output of that operation as well as the output from: dpkg -l .

Ok...let me try one more time to reinstall Debian once again... hope this time it works. And I will try to document my installation process better...hopefully.

1) I insert the image CD for Debian 3.1 r0a i386-binary-CD1 and restart the computer.
2) It gives the Debian screen from the CD and asks me to press ENTER to boot from CD.
3) It loads the installer and then it asks me to choose language. I choose English.
4) It then asks me to choose country, territory or areas. I choose United States.
5) It then asks me to select a keyboard layout. I select American English.
6) It then asks me to configure the network by entering the hostname for the system. I enter hostname as my last name.
7) It then asks me to enter the domain name. It already recognized my university domain name through which I have access to internet. I just select what the system has identified as my domain name.
8) Then it asks me to enter the partitioning method. I choose Manually edit partition table.
9) It shows IDE master (hda) - 12.1GB Hitachi_DK23AA-12B. and #1 primary as 4.4GB ntfs and #2 primary as 7.3GB ext3 and #5 logical 348.3MB swap. I remove the last two partitions. And get FREE SPACE in pri/log as 7.7GB. I then automatically partition the free space. It asks me the partitioning scheme: I select "All files in one partition (reco for new users). I then select "Finish partitioning and write changes to disk".
10) It then detects that I have MS windows XP Pro on my machine. So it wants to know whether I want to install the GRUB boot loader to the MBR. I say “yes�.
11) Then it says Installation is complete and asks to boot from hard disk. I enter on “Continue�.
12) Then it takes me through the Debian base system configuration. It first asks me whether the hardware clock is set to GMT. I hit “No�. It asks me to select the time zone. And then it asks me to enter the root password. And then setting ordinary user name and password. I enter all that.
13) Then it asks to choose the method apt should use to access the Debian archive. I had been selecting “cdrom� as apt source for all my installations previously and put the Debian installation CD back in the drive. But I realized that the other packages are actually on CD 2 to CD 14 and I had not downloaded those CDs. So this time I select http as my source for apt. I used a site from UC Berkeley to download within United States as my http site to download the applications.
13) It then prompts me to make a selection for Debian softwares to install. I select “Desktop environment�.
14) Mail configuration: I asked it not to configure it at this time.
15) It then asked me in the “configuring libpango1.0-common� window to configure automatically, I chose Yes.
16) It then downloaded all the software and selected and unpacked them and then installed them. At the end it of it, I get the login prompt. I again login using my ordinary username and try to run startx but it says “Command not found�.
17) I then log in to root and run the code: apt-get install gnome
18) It again download a whole host of programs and installed them and again gave me the login prompt. I logged in using my ordinary username and tried to run gnome-terminal but it gave a message “(gnome-terminal:1255) Gtk-WARNING **: cannot open display�

Even now I can see some errors while Debian boots from Harddisk. Its something like "hda: dma_intr: status=0x51 (DriveReady SeekComplete Error)" and {addrmarknotfound} and input {failure}.

Any clue where I am making a mistake?

Hi Rusy,

I am totally new to this command line operation. CAn you please let me know how to copy and paste the output of the two commands you ask me post? I did run the command "dpkg -l" and got a list that is not in one screen. I lost the ones which are at the top of the list. How do I save all the outputs? Can you help me figure out how to save all that so that I an post it? The list has softwares such as usbutils, util-linux, vino, w3m, wamerican, wget, whiptail, whois, xfree86-common, xlibmesa-gl, xlibmesa-glu, xlibs, xlibs-data, xml-core, xscreensaver, yelp, zenity, zlib1g. Just to remind you, I had run "apt-get install gnome" and not "apt-get install kde" this time.

BTW, I got the following as the output from "apt-get update":
Hit http://linux.csua.berkeley.edu stable/main Packages
Hit http://linux.csua.berkeley.edu stable/main Release
Reading Package Lists... Done

Thanks for your help. I feel like giving up on this now but can't really do it.

Anirban

you can usualy make a textfile by using the > sign. like this

Code:

---

dpkg -l>packagelist.txt

---

this is just the dpkg -l with output redirected to create a new file called packagelist.txt.

As to getting several pages of text, using the | sign (that pipes output to the next program) and another programe called a pager, pagers are programs that shows output one page at a time, comon pagers are; more, less and most. so typing

Code:

---

dpkg -l|less

---

and using page up/page down keys will alow you to look trough that mass of text.
if you want to use a "searchword" like KDE or GNOME. you can use a comand called grep.
like this,

Code:

---

dpkg -l|grep kde

---

now just things containing kde will show up in output.
you can even combine them, for example like like this

Code:

---

dpkg -l|grep kde|less

---

have fun
OErjan
EDIT if you want to learn basics of the comandline http://floppix.com/index.html has a great lab page that will teach you the basics fairly quickly.
here is the direct link.
http://floppix.com/labs.html
/EDIT
PS
if you have a console open in X (graphic environment) you can copy/paste with the mousewel or both right/left button simultaniously. works in textmode aswell but... limited.
DS

OK, looks like progress.

The apt-get update output tells us that you're online and have a package repository from which you can download and install apps. The dpkg -l output is just the list of packages available for installation. As O'Erjan suggests there are a couple of ways to play with it, I usually just dpkg -l nameofpackage to see if what I'm looking for is installed or available.

At this point you should be able to go ahead and use apt-get to install an x window server etc as in my earlier post.

A couple of suggestions. Use the fine manual that is installed, for example type: man dpkg etc., also if you want hang out in command line learn how to use a editor that operates in command line mode. vi or nano.

Finally, if you just want a debian based distro with a gui there's a ton of them out there that install from cd or the internet, but rolling your own is also a great way to learn this stuff if you have the patience (and a forum to turn to for help).

Good luck.

Thanks. I feel I am learning although slowly but steadily. I did try the edit thing using nano. And also played with the manual (man dpkg etc.). I have a few more specific questions:

1) After looking through the manual pages (using the code "man dpkg" for example) how do I get back to the command prompt?

2) I again installed kde using apt-get. After that I went to my ordinary user login (not root login) and typed "startx". The following is the output:
----------------------------------------------------------------
Using authority file /home/anirban/.Xauthority
Writing authority file /home/anirban/.Xauthority
Using authority file /home/anirban/.Xauthority
Writing authority file /home/anirban/.Xauthority

xinit: No such file or directory (error 2): no server "X" in PATH

Use the -- option, or make sure that /usr/x11R6/bin is in your path and that "X" is a program or a link to the right type of server for your display. Possible server names include:

XFree86 XFree86 displays

giving up.
xinit: No such file or directory (error 2): unable to connect to X server
Xinit: No such process (error 3): Server error.
-----------------------------------------------------------
What does this mean?

3) When I type "dpkg -l|grep kde" in root, I do see all the kde files. Also I typed "dpkg -l|grep xfree86" and it returned the following output:
------------------------
ii xfree86-common 4.3.0.dfsg.1-1 X Window System (XFree86) infrastructure
------------------------
So i see that xfree86 is there installed. Why then the error message at "startx" above?

Another thing... I used aptitude and then looked for GNOME among the installed packages. I then pressed "g" and it gave one program to install within GNOME (kdeartwork or something like that). I again pressed "g" and while processing it gave some message saying there was error in something...

hda: read_intr: status=0x05 {DriveReady SeekComplet DataRequest Index error }
...
copy: Input/output error
dpkg-deb: subprocess paste returned error exit status 2
dpkg: error processing /var/cache/apt/archives/kdeartwork-theme-icon_4%3a3.3.2-1_all.deb (--unpack):
short read in buffer-copy (backend dpkg-deb druing './usr/share/icons/slick/48x48/mimetypes/person.png')
Errors were encountered while processing:
/var/cache/apt/archives/kdeartwork-theme-icon_4%3a3.3.2-1_all.deb
E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)
Ack! Something bad happened while installing packages. Trying to recover:
dpkg: dependency problems prevent configuration of kdeartwork:
kdeartwork depends on kdeartwork-theme-icon (4:3.3.2-1); however:
Package kdeartwork-theme-icon is not installed.
dpkg: error processing kdeartwork (--configure):
dependency problems - leaving unconfigured
dpkg: dependency problems prevent configuration of kde:
kde depends on kdeartwork; however:
Package kdeartwork is not configured yet.
dpkg: error processing kde (--configure):
dependency problems - leaving unconfigured
Errors were encountered while processing:
kdeartwork
kde
Press return to continue

----------------------------------------------------
How do I get rid of this error in configuring kde? Can anyone help?

Also while booting, I get an error message:
"missing kernel or user mode driver pciehp"

How bad is that?

looks like you not connecting to an x-server, either it isn't installed or isn't configured.

To see if the x server is running type ps -A | grep x* , you shoud see something about xfree86 and/or x-session manage

Also try Try dpkg-reconfigure xserver-xfree86.

Do everything as root until until you've succeeded in getting an x-session going.

I would do this:: apt-get install x-window-system, then apt-get install x-server-xfree86, then dpkg-reconfigure xserver-xfree86, then apt-get install kde. Then startx., If you get messages that a package is already installed just proceed to the next step.

To get out of the manual i usually hit ctl-z which is probably not the right way.

to exit a man page just hit q.
an I agree with previous speaker. you seem to have a missconfigured X. try reconfiguring it.