how to get gnome on debian

[benny812]

Hi:

I did a Debian Sarge net install. I think I may have forgotten to download the desktop packages.

Can you please tell me how to install x and gnome? I can now only see a black screen with white text. Thank you for all your help.

[mrBen]

Debian doesn't, IIRC, start you in graphic mode by default. Login in and try running startx and see if it works.

Otherwise, as root, run apt-get install gnome-desktop-environment and it will probably included X as a dependency.

[happybunny]

if it doesn't include the X dependancy, just do apt-get install xserver-xorg first

[techwise]

apt-get install gnome

[benny812]

I think I have installed gnome, but now how do i actually get into the desktop? I am still seeing the black screen and white text. Thank you for your help :)

[happybunny]

type startx

or edit /etc/inittab and change the default:2:initblahblah to default:5:initblahblah

[benny812]

I did type startx, but it didnt work. What do you mean by blah blah can you give a more concrete example?

[happybunny]

type
dkpg -l |grep gnome (thats an lowercase L not a number 1)

does it list gnome?

If not, you don't have gnome installed.

what happens when you type startx?

try just typing xinit at command prompt. If you get a "gui" at least you have the X server installed and we can proceed from there.

[benny812]

doing xinit : returns command not found
doing startx: returns command not found
doing dkpg -l |grep gnome : returns command not found

something is wrong?

doing apt-get install gnome : returns gnome is already the newest version
doing apt-get install xserver-xorg : returns command not found

Thank you.

[knute]

apt-get install xbase clients

This will install both the commands xinit and startx along with several other packages.

http://packages.debian.org/unstable/x11/xbase-clients

HTH

[happybunny]

crap...sorry....its dpkg, not dkpg.

[benny812]

I did dkpg -l |grep gnome does list gnome, gnome is listed

i did apt-get install xbase-clients, but now when i do
startx i get /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/xinit/xserverrc: line 2: /usr/bin/X11/X: No such file or directory
/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/xinit/xserverrc: line 2: exec: /usr/bin/X11/X: cannot execute giving up.
xinit: No such file or directory (errno 2) : unable to connect to X server
xinit: No such process (errno 3): Server error.

[happybunny]

what about dpkg -l |grep xserver

It looks like you have gnome installed, but no XServer for it to connect to.

if dpkg -l |grep xserver returns nothing, do

apt-get install xserver-xorg

Not sure the effect of installing them out of order (gnome first, then x) but see what happens.

EDIT:

not to be to complicated, do :

apt-get install x-windows-system

instead of xserver-xorg.

[techwise]

do an "apt-get install gdm"

if you installed gnome, it would have installed X for you along with it.

do you have a "/etc/X11" directory? if yes, X is installed.

However your user may not have permission to run X. Do the GDM install and it will but a script in /etc/init.d that will start x and give you a graphical login on each boot.

M

P.S. it doesnt matter which order you do this in.

[happybunny]

a few pointers for you in one post:

Debian rocks....don't be discouraged by this setback. The apt package system is way cool.

In order to get a "gui" or windows manager (like gnome/kde/xfce etc), you need to have an x windows server to connect too. This is usually from the x.org foundation and until very recently was refered to by apt as x-window-system. This installed the "old" version of xfree86 for you.

However, the unstable version of debian now has availible the "new" xserver called x.org, refered to by apt as xserver-xorg. So depending on what debian tree you have listed in your /etc/apt/source-list (wheather it is unstable/stable etc) file will determine which X server is availible to you, and thus my previous post Edit.

I have no idea what the difference is, other than the config files used are different (XFree84-6 and xorg.conf(?)) respectivly.

During your debian install, these packages were obviously not installed. I have never installed gnome first, then x, so I'm not sure what will happen. At the very worst, you could apt-get remove gnome, apt-get install (whatever version of x), then apt-get install gnome afterwards.

typing xinit will launch the X Server all by itself, no gnome/kde/xfce, etc. Once that is successful, you know that X is installed OK. Then typing startx from the command line with gnome/kde/xfce installed, will launch X AND your choice of desktops.

[benny812]

how do i install x server then?

I have now reinstalled the base system.

[benny812]

how do i install x server then?

I have now reinstalled the base system.

[happybunny]

apt-get install x-window-system gnome

that will install X, then gnome with all the dependancies.

Some posters are saying that a simple apt-get install gnome will work also, since gnome has a dependancy on X, it will install X also. I have never done it like that, so i can't say either way.

[benny812]

I listen to you, happybunny, and did apt-get install x-window-system gnome, everything seems to have installed, x and gnome, however, when i do startx, i am greeted with a completely black screen.

Sigh, it's possible I may have configured something wrong.

I have an ati video card, 128mb. My monitor is a cheap, 6-yr-old DigiView 14" (no manual). Do you guys have any idea what's wrong?

Thank you for your help.

[Parcival]

I listen to you, happybunny, and did apt-get install x-window-system gnome, everything seems to have installed, x and gnome, however, when i do startx, i am greeted with a completely black screen.

Well, does the X-Server terminate itself and bump you back to the shell? If so, it would be good to know what error it shows there.

[happybunny]

Seems like maybe your refresh rates are wrong, or your x is using a higher resolution than your old monitor can handle.

The file you need to edit is /etc/X11/XF86Config-4, but there is a walk through which will edit it for you....but the name escapes me at the moment.....xf86config?

The file should have a section like:

Section "Screen1"
Identifier "Dell"
Device "ATI Technologies"
Monitor "Dell"
DefaultDepth 16
SubSection "Display"
Depth 16
Modes "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
EndSubSection
SubSection 24
Depth 24
Modes "1280x1024" "1280x960" "1152x864" "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
EndSubSection


X reads the file, finds the "DefaultDepth", then starts using the "Modes" for that depth, so in my example, it will be 16bits, at 1024x768, which "should" work for your monitor.

[Hayl]

how do i install x server then?

I have now reinstalled the base system.

have you bothered go to the Debian website and read any of their documentation or do you think it is fair to try to get people on here to waste their time regurgitating answers that you could have just as easily found/read on your own? Debian has very good documentation on how to use apt (their package management system) to install packages, in addition there are many posts here on how to use apt.

if you do not understand how package management on a specific distribution, or some other distribution-specific thing works, the logical place to look is at the documentation of the distributions, its self.

i'm not going to apologise that this sounds harsh but i _do_ hope you take it as advice, in the way it was meant when i wrote it, and hopefully you will take a look at the following links. learning to find information (that is readily available and does not require posting) on your own will only help you in the long run to quickly find solutions (and avoid flames).

How to ask questions the smart way (http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html#before)

Debian Documentation (http://www.debian.org/doc/)

[crow2icedearth]

simple the problem is probably because you didnt setup your x server. easy to fix
run xorgconfig as root give it your info and your video card ,etc

then make sure your xinitrc file has gnome in there to start.

[CoffeeMan]

I noticed that too, that X11 was not a dependency that APT got for GNOME/KDE, even though a DE/WM is useless without X.

[crow2icedearth]

once you have X you have to configure your video card and moniter. run xorgconfig
i usually tweak my xorg.conf file by hand because i have tripple moniters . :)
good luck with getting gnome setup .