Debian Installation Problems

[Alaric]

Hello again guys,

Still haven't managed to install Debian (I think this will be my third set of attempts). New Problem though. I recently installed it on an old 266mhz 96M RAM computer planning on using it for a wireless web server. However, I made a few large mistakes. First, I bought a wireless PCI network card that apparently only makes drivers for windows (a belkin f5d7000). I managed to at least get the card recognized in Damn Small Linux using ndiswrapper and a dell driver, but I have been as of yet, unsuccesful in finding ndiswrapper in my debian installation to even give it a good attempt. Is it possible for me to get this card working or did I just waste $35 (yeah i am a cheap ass)? Anyway, my next big problem is that the monitor I'm trying to use with the computer has a 640x480 8bit limit to it (but it does support VGA). Is this enough to run debian at all? The final problem is that I'm not even sure if the installation is truly complete. I've never been able to boot into the X Server GUI. All I can do is run the command line, and I'm not so sure that it even attempts to load my network settings to get apt-get running (although it is possible). I did a net install with a second network card (wired) and its still connected, but I REALLY don't feel like sitting through another FOUR hours of Debian installation If I can't get this card working I think I'm going to have to return to win98 with my tail between my legs (It's an experimenting/Server computer). If you need anymore info I'll do the best I can, but I've only ever used linux very successfully on my XBox's Xebian (it came with a nice little auto installer that takes around an hour and a half to install). Please Help

[Zelmo]

For the wireless card, make sure you have the ndiswrapper-common and ndiswrapper-utils packages installed (and possibly ndiswrapper-source if you find that 'modprobe ndiswrapper' says there's no such module). The follow the instructions.

The monitor will work, but you'll find that some GUI elements take up a lot of screen space at that resolution; so much so that some apps/dialogs will be tricky to use. Just remember that you can hold down <Alt> to click and drag a window, in case you need to move it a bit just to see the OK/Cancel buttons. You might not have installed the X server yet, and the easiest way to do so is probably just to decide on what desktop environment you want (KDE, Gnome, or in your case, probably XFCE) and apt-get install it. It will pull whatever X software it needs as dependencies, and have you set it up once it's downloaded.

[Alaric]

ok, so I apt-get installed either KDE or gnome (couldn't find that other one you mentioned), how do I get the computer to run it every time the computer starts?

[Zelmo]

If you can get it to run manually, but it doesn't start automatically, do this as root:

# dpkg-reconfigure kdm

and it will ask you what to use as the default desktop manager. Choose either kdm or gdm; kdm is easier to manager if you're using KDE, and gdm is easier if you run Gnome. As long as one of those is configured, it will start your desktop environment at boot time.

[Alaric]

No, I don't know HOW to start it manually. However, I think I've got gnome trying to start every time that I turn on the PC. At the login screen it sits there and blinks the screen 4 times like its trying to do something but still just sits there at the command line. How do I find out whats wrong with the gnome installation (a.k.a why it blinks but doesn't start up the acutal gui)? Your help will be greatly appreciated...

[Alaric]

Actually, I just ran KDM manually from the command line, and it just blinks once then returns me to the command line.

[TheBigPhish]

What your screen is actually doing is probably attempting to start GDM/KDM to HOST the Xsession that you are seeing 'blink' 4 times at startup.

you need to run

dpkg-reconfigure xserver-xorg

(orXfree86 which ever you are using)


and pick the smallest screen res that you can support, a very basic set of VGA drivers, and configure that so it works. If you run the -reconfigure a couple of times and play with it, when you are done, you can just hit

(keypress) Control + Alt + BACKSPACE

to restart the Xserver session (if it is running) or just launch X with

startx

to start an Xsession.

What is going on is the server is barfing with the settings and booting you back to a shell session when it is done. KDM and GDM won't do diddly without a session to open, and with the misconfiguration you have going on, you need to solve that problem.

What kind of video card do you have? What kind of screen are you using? Check your resolution, your mouse config and all that fun stuff in the -reconfigure set...something in there is borking it all up for you.

[Alaric]

Hmm.. Thanks alot for your help, I'm getting closer. However, Now its only displaying HALF of the screen (the bottom hafl). I am no longer booted to the command line so how do I change whatever setting is causing the top half of the screen to be blank?