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[SOLVED] Can you install Debian without DE and build GUI?

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RedPieDad
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[SOLVED] Can you install Debian without DE and build GUI?

#1 Post by RedPieDad »

Excuse me for being unable to phrase the question to a more technical level. I am fairly new to Linux.

I installed Debian with Gnome DE. I removed Gnome and all it's dependencies and am left with all minus GUI and my wifi drivers. I use a driver that is not supported but there are fixes available. My question is would I be able to get a compositor, display manager, and window manager without a DE? I was thinking of getting compton, lightdm, and i3-wm or the forked gaps. Would that be possible or would I need a DE to have a GUI?
Last edited by RedPieDad on 2018-10-18 02:20, edited 1 time in total.

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Re: Can you install Debian without DE and build GUI?

#2 Post by dilberts_left_nut »

Yes.
No.
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Re: Can you install Debian without DE and build GUI?

#3 Post by kedaha »

hi
You might try Dwm though personally I would just connect from my laptop using ssh.
DebianStable

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debiman
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Re: Can you install Debian without DE and build GUI?

#4 Post by debiman »

you don't even need a display manager (lightdm).
i have more than once installed openbox on top of a debian netinstall - it pulls in all the Xorg dependencies and basically just works (if you want to start with startx you need to install xinit, too). however, it is not a finished environment yet.

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Re: Can you install Debian without DE and build GUI?

#5 Post by None1975 »

RedPieDad wrote:Would that be possible or would I need a DE to have a GUI?
Yes. It is possible. Just install Debian with netinst. During the installation process, you are given the opportunity to select additional software to install. Just uncheck everything, except the “Standard system” task. It will install any package that has a priority “standard”. This includes a lot of common utilities that are normally available on any Linux or Unix system. You should leave this task selected unless you know what you are doing and want a really minimal system. After installing the system, reboot, login as root and install these packages:

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xorg, lightdm and i3
Voilà :D You have a fully working system.You can then configure the system the way you need it. Good luck!
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RedPieDad
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Re: Can you install Debian without DE and build GUI?

#6 Post by RedPieDad »

I tried it out. I did exactly this.

1. I used a flash drive for a netinstall.

2. booted into a shell and installed.

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apt-get install i3 lightdm xorg
and restarted.

3. Logged in from the greet screen. I had no wifi drivers for 8188ee realtek. Googled my driver for debian, found non-free repo. https://packages.debian.org/jessie/firmware-realtek and appended non-free to my

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/etc/apt/sources.list
4.

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apt-get install firmware-realtek
and restarted comp.

5. Drivers loaded. Then, I somewhat halpharzardly configured my WIFI. If anybody can help optimize or give better or appropriate settings, please do. I used

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iwconfig
saw my wireless card, "wlo1". I

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vi /etc/network/interfaces
, opened up and added:

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auto wlo1
iface wlo1 inet dhcp
            wireless-essid my_network_name
            wpa-psk my_psswrd
            wpa-ssid my_network_name
Saved and closed.

6. I restarted my network with:

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/etc/init.d/networking restart
7. Still did not work. I had to

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rfkill unblock wifi
For some reason there was a software block. I need to read about what that is more in depth. But that command worked. I was able to scan for wifi with:

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iwlist wlo1 scan
Found my wifi. I used

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iwconfig wlo1 essid my_network_name key s:my_passwrd
Restarted computer and my wifi worked. Now I'm getting the applications I want. Just wanted to add more keywords here just in case someone stumbles from the internet and has questions about a similar problem.

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debiman
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Re: [SOLVED] Can you install Debian without DE and build GUI

#7 Post by debiman »

so both the GUI and the WiFi work now?
great!

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