New user, a couple basic questions

[davecruz]

I'm very new to linux. I've used mandrake before and had no problems, it was all very easy to set up and use. I'm trying to get debian going right now. I downloaded the 2 dvds for the Sarge 3.1 64 bit release. I have an 80 gb hard drive that I'm trying to get this installed on. I have the drivers for my onboard ethernet on a floppy and managed to get a connection to the internet going. I just want to get a desktop environment installed. With Mandrake gnome and kde were included, but it doesn't seem to be the case with this debian installation. I've tried "apt-get install gnome" and it asked for me to insert the first dvd, downloaded some files from the internet, and installed (or at least it looked like it). If it comes to it, I have no problem reinstalling the whole os if somehow I can get it to install a desktop environment with it, I thought it would install most of the packages on the initial install...but no. Could someone please share their knowledge with a frustrated rookie linux user?

[TheBigPhish]

if yo uare doing a new install, or plan on doing a bunch more...(and have the bandwitdth) i would download the 188mb net install CD, which installs a barebones system, configures it, and then reboots itself and installs the whole shebang.

[davecruz]

Is there no way I can install the whole "shebang" off of the 2 dvds I downloaded? I do have the bandwidth though, I'll begin the download now. Is it easy to select everything that you want to install with the net install disk? is it all "get-apt ..." and stuff?

[Cryptofreak]

I have never installed it from the disks, I have always installed via the NET install. During the install after the reboot you should be given an option to install Desktop Environment. Also in the list are web server and print server. . . The Desktop Environment option will intsall KDE and GNOME automatically.

[ericrun]

Hey Dave, I installed off of the DVDs as well. What you probably need to do is run

apt-get install gdm

which will install the graphic logon, which, I think, will automatically run everytime you boot the machine. Alternatively, you can try running the command startx which will start your default gui, which I think would probably be gnome at this time.

[drakebasher]

Alternatively, you can try running the command startx...

Or maybe startkde or startgdm. With Debian, I was frustrated by a few things that are different from what I'd used before. Maybe try startkde as root (you'll then have to log in as regular user to get to the GUI).

[antidrugue]

Good luck on Debian!

The netinstaller is really the way to do it.

108 mb, that's all there is to it:
http://cdimage.debian.org/debian-cd/...a/i386/iso-cd/

And download "debian-31r0a-i386-netinst.iso".

When installing your system, you'll want to type linux26 (or expert26 if you're confident), because the default "linux" install a 2.4 kernel, which is really becoming legacy.

Check out my homepage at the bottom: (technowizah.com) there is a couple of HOW-TO there.

At the end of the install (once it has rebooted) just choose the default "Desktop" packages.

You may have to try it more than once, but it's worth every minutes of your time.

I knew _nothing_ about linux when I first installed Debian, so you can do it.