[H-GEN] newbie setting up Debian

[Jonathon M. Abbott]

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On Thu, Apr 05, 2001 at 11:53:43AM +1000, Mark Venz wrote:
> I'm tring to get gnome (among other things) working on a debian install.
> 
> I've agt-get installed "gnome-session" and it has appeared to install everything
> ( after having to apt-get -f install)
> 
> The problem I'm having is I have no gnome - do have all the packages I require?
> Is the a meta package I need to install?

As sandra mentioned, the task-gnome-* packages are all gnome related.
For a basic gnome install, just apt-get install task-gnome-desktop

> Further to this I was able to log in via xdm, after I did the above, when I
> logged in I would be returned to the login screen.

Use your ~/.xsession file to control what happens in your X session. It applies to xdm and startx sessions equally.

Once you've got task-gnome-desktop installed just add the line 
exec gnome-session
to your .xsession file. (Create it if it doesn't exist.)

> I changed the default run level in /etc/inittab to 2, then entered startx and

AFAIK the default runlevel of debian is 2 anyway...

> recieved the twm test screen (3 different size xterms, a clock).
> I change the runlevel to 3 with no change.

...But all the the runlevels (except 0 and 6) are created equal. Change the default runlevel back to 2 for now.

> So the questions:
> How can start in X?

I assume you mean start xdm on boot.
Normally this gets set up when you install xdm, but if for some reason it didn't try:
cd /etc/rc2.d
ln -s ../init.d/xdm S99xdm

> How can I luanch into a advanced window manager?

Details given above.

> system details:
> Debain Linux 2.2 - I think the kernal is woody.

You can find what kernel you're running with `uname -r`.

> X -version 4.0.3

Hmm, how did you get 4.0.3 on a Debian 2.2 system?

Assuming you haven't done anything tricky like roll your own X, you should be able to find out what version is installed with
dpkg -s xfree86-common | grep Version

-- 
Jonathon M. Abbott                    s362814 at student.uq.edu.au
Cold, adj.:
	When the politicians walk around with their hands in their own pockets.

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