Just a few notes .. Thought I would try an install as if I was a typical debian newbie.. And take notes along the way.
Installed Debian Base. Did an 'apt-get update','apt-get upgrade' I find I can't do anything unless I can edit/look at files so I did a quick 'apt-get vim less' Now, I added the nolden source, and did another 'apt-get update' Okay, now I decide I need mail, so 'apt-get kmail' Hmm, okay in theory kmail can work like that, but as a user on a personal pc, it won't so did an 'apt-get xserver-svga' and went through the dpkg. Hmm, still can't get a window environment, the usual way, so did an 'apt-cache search startx' and it showed xbase-clients, so that makes sense and I do an 'apt-get xbase-clients' and noticed a problem with missing fonts so also did an 'apt-get install xfonts-base xfonts-100dpi xfonts-scalable xfonts-scalable-nonfree' Tried to run startx and it complains that there is no /etc/X11/Xsession. This looks to be a problem 'It should just work now' At this point, it might frustrate a newbie, but okay, I do a 'man startx' I see that 'xinit' can start a session as well. Hmm.. Try that .. I get a no Xterm found.. Looking at the man page for xinit it says that that is the fallback default. If it is the fall back default shouldnt' have that been installed? Okay, at least I can fix that easy. 'apt-get install xterm' Hey, I now have a window, and I can type in kmail. ooooh.. It fires up. But nothing seems to work correctly, and I can get/recieve mail, and can't resize the windows etc. Okay, it slowly sinks in that I need a better window manager Hmm.. maybe that's why I am missing Xsession. Okay, I see that, so lets get the kde window manager. 'apt-get install kdebase' Darn, no file called Xsession yet. Okay, but reading a little more I see that the file used to start KDE is called startkde, and doing a quick 'man startkde' reveals nothing, as the man page is not complete. Looking more carefully at the man pages for xinit and startx, I see that I can put a command in .xinitrc in my home directory, and it shoudl get called, so I add in 'startkde' to that file, and boom, up it comes. At this point, though.. I still have no /etc/X11/Xsession, and I am sure that this is a work around. As well, for some reason the backspace doesn't work in X, (works as delete) In conclusion, I can see some little things that should be fixed up yet so that people do not run into problems. Logs also show problems with a missing xftconfig as well. Primarily, I think that if kdebase is installed, it should ask if you want to make it the default window manager, and then deal with everything, so that a person knows they can just type in 'startx' and they will have a working KDE Just a few thoughts, in case it helps everyone, we forget the problems that newbies have after a while. --"Catch the Magic of Linux..." -------------------------------------------------------- Michael Peddemors - Senior Consultant LinuxAdministration - Internet Services NetworkServices - Programming - Security Wizard IT Services http://www.wizard.ca Linux Support Specialist - http://www.linuxmagic.com LinuxMagic is a Registered TradeMark of Wizard Tower TechnoServices Ltd. -------------------------------------------------------- (604)589-0037 Beautiful British Columbia, Canada
