Debian User Forums

Today I installed Debian on a P][. I didn't select anything in the desktop environment chooser in the hopes of getting a basic desktop configuration, but the installer crammed GNOME 3 down my computer's throat.
/endrant
I think Debian should include at least one WM in its installer. All the options currently available are way too bloated for old computers (except for LXDE perhaps).
I couldn't install anything else on that box because booting from CD is like playing the ball and cups game and booting from USB is not an option for that computer

How did you install? Using what method.

Look at e.g. https://saidkhorramshahgol.wordpress.co ... tallation/

Doesn't need to be fluxbox, could be e.g. jwm.

Pelly wrote:Today I installed Debian on a P][. I didn't select anything in the desktop environment chooser in the hopes of getting a basic desktop configuration, but the installer crammed GNOME 3 down my computer's throat.
/endrant
I think Debian should include at least one WM in its installer. All the options currently available are way too bloated for old computers (except for LXDE perhaps).
I couldn't install anything else on that box because booting from CD is like playing the ball and cups game and booting from USB is not an option for that computer

That menu us a little confusing. You got Gnome because you selected "Debian desktop environment" and didn't specify one of the others. You have to not un-select it, and then install Xorg and your windows manager later. I have a minimal Openbox system setup that way, in a VM.

Pelly wrote:I think Debian should include at least one WM in its installer. All the options currently available are way too bloated for old computers (except for LXDE perhaps).

I don't think anything but cli and midnight commander should be default, so we're both mad. But you could file a bug with 'wishlist' severity, and ask that an option for "No Desktop" be included, or made more clear. I don't know about a WM option, that would start a fight probably. I don't think the debian installer people look on here for suggestions much.

I couldn't install anything else on that box because booting from CD is like playing the ball and cups game and booting from USB is not an option for that computer

If you can read this you have a very large screen

If you follow the link I gave, you first end up with no Desktop Environment, Windows Manager or Xorg and then add what you want...

bw123 wrote:If you can read this you have a very large screen

I completely missed that text until I saw your response...... I do not have a really large screen, but I do have a Ctrl button and a scroll wheel

i agree with SUGGESTION
- i was in a similar situation once or twice.
the biggest problem imho is that the "desktop environment" option does not specify which - how hard can it be to add that information at the very least?

adding whole desktop environments as options also means a lot of work - they'd have to be configured somehow to work with the debian installer?

this goes to an even greater extent for the wm option - anybody who created a wm only environment from a netinst knows that involves much more than just installing the window manager.

debiman wrote:this goes to an even greater extent for the wm option - anybody who created a wm only environment from a netinst knows that involves much more than just installing the window manager.

Yeah, I started doing that with Debian 9 the other day. I had forgotten that it took some work to get it the way I want, and promptly decided that I had better things to do, and deleted the vm.