[nmglug] Installing X and KDE with Debian (still woody)

[micha]

A reply to Tim.

You need several packages to install X.
Assuming you are still not too familiar with gnulinux, or debian, you should
start with checking 'x-windows-system' and 'xserver-xfree86'.
(Assumed you've got a common i386 based machine).
Before that, make sure all checkboxes in the aptitude menu 'options' ->
'dependency handling' (or whatsoever) are checked (x).
You may like to change some later again, but for this task, leave it all checked.

To start your XSession, you either (1) need a 'display manager' like XDM or
KDM (the native KDE one),
or (2) you type in 'startx &'  after a textconsole login.
Considering you want to install incrementally step by step (which is a good
exercise too) ,
   recommend first to get X running from the text-login.
You need to ensure there's a windowmaker installed, too. 'twm' should be
default, but it's one of the most simple ones.
KDE ships anative one within it's session, it will be autimatically included.
My favourite is WindowMaker, i use it without any KDE or GNOME session (but
still can launch all their applications).
Enlightenment also is very nice, standalone. Those last three usually are kind
of unfamiliar to most new users.
Note that you need not to waste time to learn about them.  Just use one to see
if X works well, and find out how to exit.
If you can't,  press 'ctl'+'meta'+'F1' to go back to the text-console. On my
german keyboard, meta is called 'alt'.
But it should not be necessary, usually you get a 'root-contextmenu' by right
clicking on the background, and there's a 'quit' or 'exit'.
At any time you can press 'ctrl'+'meta'+'del' to shut down. Another
possibility is to log in as root and type 'halt'.

Go on installing KDE only after X is running well. There's a metapackage 'kde'
which installs most KDE stuff at once.
Note that in woody, there'S still only KDE 2.2.2. In testing (sarge) it's
3.1.2. For woody, backports of KDE 3.x.
Have a look at apt-get.org. I don't recommend backports, though.
Consider switching to Sarge right now since it's near to release (become the
new stable).
If you like to be more up-to-date anyway, point your /etc/apt/sources.list to
'testing', not 'sarge'.
You can do that by just replace any 'woody' with 'testing', and do an 'u'
update from aptitude, then check all upgradable packages.
This way, you still can manually modify (resize) the order. If you are
prepared to download it alltogether, you might try 'apt-get upgrade',
or enter the related menu entry in aptitude.


 > 1. What was I missing with the _apt-get install x-windows-system kde_?

Honestly, i don't know. x-window.system is a metapackage that should install 
any others as well.
Perhaps there was a problem with the available sources (network) ?
I must correct my suggestion. The core xfree-package is 'x-window-system-core' 
package which
co-installs other packages (like xserver-xfree86) automatically.

 > also need to install the xserver-xfree86 package?

Make sure it's included in your order.

 > do to have debconf reconfigure my entire xfree86 installation?

  dpkg-reconfigure xserver-xfree86


 > 2. I liked wmaker but I had a hard time figuring out the simple things...like
 > after I minimized a process/program, how do I get it back?  wmaker is fine
 > for me but not for my kids.  They like the KDE interface.  Not sure how they
 > would like Gnome.  I haven't used it since Redhat.

Gnome 2.2. or higher is as easy to use as KDE today. You can choose nice themes.
For windowmaker questions, look at windowmaker.org.
I'll preparing a newbie micro howto to be put up there, and i can send you the 
beta version so far.

 > 3. I've been interested in using Sarge but I wasn't sure how to do that. 
Thanks for the tip.  I've been using sid/unstable.  Do I just change unstable
 > to testing in my /etc/apt/sources.list file and do an apt-get update &&
 > apt-get dist-upgrade??

yes, for example. But that's a big deal (maybe > 1 GB doenload).
You also can use aptitude, do an 'u' and look for the 'upgradable packages' 
(virtual) folder.
But why. Sid is ok.


Watch out. gnu-linux is a fascinating adventure....

Have fun !