Scheduled Maintenance: We are aware of an issue with Google, AOL, and Yahoo services as email providers which are blocking new registrations. We are trying to fix the issue and we have several internal and external support tickets in process to resolve the issue. Please see: viewtopic.php?t=158230

 

 

 

HOWTO: Install X Window System and a Desktop Environment

Share your HowTo, Documentation, Tips and Tricks. Not for support questions!.
Message
Author
User avatar
llivv
Posts: 5340
Joined: 2007-02-14 18:10
Location: cold storage

to leafs or not two leafs

#16 Post by llivv »

Scotti
I think your tutorial is an "excellent one", period.(s)...

Note: sarge "XFree86" has been twicked extensively for use in debian (I think that is a Quote from the Debian reference manual) although I'm not positive I read it there.

meaning: if you download XFree86 source from
The XFree86 Project site, and install it on your debian system, it will not add "all" (the same defaults to the files) that you would have if you use the deb packages one gets by using apt.

And my opinion concerning a GUI (Windowing system) for XFree86:
for a new debian user Gnome or KDE are probably the easiest to install + the most tested + the easiest for the more experienced in this forum to give help to others having problems with there systems (for whatever reasons).
Of course, Etch is using Xorg and I will assume the same is true for Xorg, until I read different in the debian Etch documentation.

abstar
Posts: 2
Joined: 2007-03-14 02:46

#17 Post by abstar »

if i installed gdm. do i have to install x-window-system-core?

thanks

Scotti
Moderator Team Member
Moderator Team Member
Posts: 305
Joined: 2005-11-08 01:13

#18 Post by Scotti »

abstar wrote:if i installed gdm. do i have to install x-window-system-core?

thanks
Yes. If you want any sort of GUI environment you have to install x-window-system-core. It is the base package for all GUI software.

abstar
Posts: 2
Joined: 2007-03-14 02:46

#19 Post by abstar »

if i installed x-window-system-core, do i have to instal x.org

what is different between xserver-xorg and x-window-system-core xserver-xfree86?

thanks

Scotti
Moderator Team Member
Moderator Team Member
Posts: 305
Joined: 2005-11-08 01:13

#20 Post by Scotti »

abstar wrote:if i installed x-window-system-core, do i have to instal x.org

what is different between xserver-xorg and x-window-system-core xserver-xfree86?

thanks
When you type the command: apt-get install x-window-system-core, it installs everything you need to get the x server up and running, including xorg. It is a "virtual package", so that you don't have to type (or know) which packages are exactly needed. It does the hard work for you. :)

Xfree86 is older. Xorg is newer. That's the main difference. ;)

anti23
Posts: 4
Joined: 2007-03-22 03:09

#21 Post by anti23 »

frenchninja wrote:Thanks Scotti for writing this. Lately it seems that every second or third post on this forum is 'I got a black screen and no GUI'. Hopefully with a search, folk can get onto this guide first and save themselves some time.
im sorry but i didnt see a solution for that.

i actualy searched. found tons of threads but none ended iwth a solution.

i had that problem with gentoo and with debian now.
i get the gdm start message and so on and hten its blank
i can use str+alt+f1 to get to a console but what is the problems solution now ???

User avatar
Pobega
Posts: 833
Joined: 2007-01-04 04:30
Location: New York

#22 Post by Pobega »

anti23 wrote:
frenchninja wrote:Thanks Scotti for writing this. Lately it seems that every second or third post on this forum is 'I got a black screen and no GUI'. Hopefully with a search, folk can get onto this guide first and save themselves some time.
im sorry but i didnt see a solution for that.

i actualy searched. found tons of threads but none ended iwth a solution.

i had that problem with gentoo and with debian now.
i get the gdm start message and so on and hten its blank
i can use str+alt+f1 to get to a console but what is the problems solution now ???
Try another DM; XDM and WDM come to mind.

anti23
Posts: 4
Joined: 2007-03-22 03:09

#23 Post by anti23 »

since i wanted kde over gnome anyway and i read i can do "tasks=standard, kde-desktop" i decided t install debian newly.

so i did all thestuff with that and went out for the day, when i came back everything was done. install grub and reboot. same problem.

just this time its not gdm but kdm.

my suse here has kdm and it works all fine. i also had the same problem with the gentoo install where it was IN the install when X was started.

should i still try Xdm or something ? im desperate. i thought about trying kbubuntu but what i didnt like about suse was that its so massive.. so id rather get debian and only install what i want :(

anti23
Posts: 4
Joined: 2007-03-22 03:09

#24 Post by anti23 »

noone else an idea? obviously its independent from the DMs... im desperate, since i cant get any X running under debian which makes it useless for me :((((

frenchninja talks like there was an obvious solution to the problem but i still cant find it, am i stupid ? :P

User avatar
AgenT
Posts: 477
Joined: 2007-01-21 01:25

#25 Post by AgenT »

When you say blank screen, what do you mean? Does it kick you into the virtual terminal with a login prompt? If you literally get a blank screen with nothing on the screen, what does pressing ctrl+alt+del do?

Sounds like a problem with your video card or monitor. Xorg may be trying to use the wrong driver for it which may happen is the hardware has issues with identification, or it may not be supported. Post your video card specifications. Be specific. If you can, give the output of lspci. Attach a copy (or copy/paste it - just use the forum code tags around it) your /etc/X11/xorg.conf file.

And 5 or so people having your issue is not even close to "a ton" or "a lot" of people.

anti23
Posts: 4
Joined: 2007-03-22 03:09

#26 Post by anti23 »

more liek 20, 1-2 each page at least.
im mega busy right now and have to fly home for easter but ill see what i can do.
and blank screen as in blank screen. nothing. screens off :)
its a laptop. i can still switch to other consoles though which takes 1-2 seconds though to activate screen again.

reconfiguring xorg didnt help but i might try installing a proper ati driver first and then see what happens. kinda annoying though since it seems to be a rather common problem as that ninja already posted. ill give feedback/ask more once i have time to try. thx

User avatar
GMouse
Posts: 280
Joined: 2007-03-02 22:28
Location: Ohio, USA

#27 Post by GMouse »

Shouldn't x-window-system-core be pulled in as a dependency of any window manager or DE?

User avatar
chealer
Posts: 680
Joined: 2005-09-24 16:11
Location: Kebekia, Kanada
Has thanked: 2 times
Contact:

#28 Post by chealer »

No.

User avatar
GMouse
Posts: 280
Joined: 2007-03-02 22:28
Location: Ohio, USA

#29 Post by GMouse »

chealer wrote:No.
Ok...can you tell me why? I'm confused.

User avatar
chealer
Posts: 680
Joined: 2005-09-24 16:11
Location: Kebekia, Kanada
Has thanked: 2 times
Contact:

#30 Post by chealer »

Yes. Desktop environments are X clients. x-window-system-core provides a X server. There is no requirement that the X server be on the same machine as the X clients.

User avatar
GMouse
Posts: 280
Joined: 2007-03-02 22:28
Location: Ohio, USA

#31 Post by GMouse »

Ahhh. Ok.

Thanks.

Lou
Posts: 1739
Joined: 2006-05-08 02:15

#32 Post by Lou »

Scotti wrote: When you type the command: apt-get install x-window-system-core, it installs everything you need to get the x server up and running, including xorg. It is a "virtual package", so that you don't have to type (or know) which packages are exactly needed. It does the hard work for you. :)

Xfree86 is older. Xorg is newer. That's the main difference. ;)
That was the case with Sarge, nowadays you don't need x-window-system-core. It was used to smooth the upgrade from Sarge to Etch. Now, if you do a fresh installation of Debian, installing 'xorg' will suffice.

luigi@debian:~$ apt-cache show x-window-system-core
Package: x-window-system-core
Priority: optional
Section: x11
Installed-Size: 44
Maintainer: Debian X Strike Force <debian-x@lists.debian.org>
Architecture: all
Source: xorg
Version: 1:7.1.0-18
Depends: xorg
Filename: pool/main/x/xorg/x-window-system-core_7.1.0-18_all.deb
Size: 18468
MD5sum: 46cbbd8e6e0a4a1e035689237e9e803d
SHA1: aa3bdd1b45066349d8ccf3ac425f67a4f0987a5e
SHA256: be9d0d312486916270c78263df1ffa88895af0b366d003e80c527108b17bda1f
Description: transitional package for Debian etch
This package is provided to smooth upgrades from Debian 3.1 ("sarge") to
Debian etch. It may be safely removed from your system. It depends on the
xorg package which is the new metapackage for installing the X Window System in Debian.
Devuan Jessie - IceWM - vimperator - no DM
KISS - Keep It Simple, Stupid

User avatar
chealer
Posts: 680
Joined: 2005-09-24 16:11
Location: Kebekia, Kanada
Has thanked: 2 times
Contact:

#33 Post by chealer »

Scotti wrote: When you type the command: apt-get install x-window-system-core, it installs everything you need to get the x server up and running, including xorg. It is a "virtual package", so that you don't have to type (or know) which packages are exactly needed. It does the hard work for you. :)
BTW, x-window-system-core is a metapackage. Virtual packages are something else.

Scotti
Moderator Team Member
Moderator Team Member
Posts: 305
Joined: 2005-11-08 01:13

#34 Post by Scotti »

Lou wrote:That was the case with Sarge, nowadays you don't need x-window-system-core. It was used to smooth the upgrade from Sarge to Etch. Now, if you do a fresh installation of Debian, installing 'xorg' will suffice.
Update made. Thanks for the info.

User avatar
Skoapy
Posts: 7
Joined: 2007-05-13 14:33

#35 Post by Skoapy »

I tried

# apt-get install gnome

and I got a message saying there were unmet dependencies and to try # apt-get -f install to which I recieved the message try apt-get upgrade which I tried and it said I already had the files so there were being ignored.

What can I do to install gnome properly?

Post Reply