Installing Debian

[Gaspacho]

Hi there so I managed to install Debian finally but got few questions cause it doesnt look as I would like it to look. I installed KDE. Do I have to install KDM too? How do I make Debian to boot and to switch to KDE automaticlz without need to write startx? What video drivers should I choose for my nc6120 laptop..the graphic card si intel 900 I think. Thx

[oaul]

Im no expert but i believe that KDM is exactly what you seek. KDM is nothing more than a graphical login interface to replace your login prompt.

For your video drivers use the i810 driver. If you are running sarge (and thereby use XFree86) than i dont think i can help you.
If you are running etch (which has xorg) do:
# apt-get install xserver-xorg-video-i810
than just replace whatever is listed as the 'Driver' in xorg.conf with 'i810'.

On a side note getting everything to work on a laptop in sarge is a nightmare. I would recommend upgrading to testing (etch).

[Gaspacho]

How do I upgrade form sarge to etch? Thx

[oaul]

Kernel: I would highly recommend upgrading to a 2.6 kernel as the new versions of Gnome (witch is included in etch...) are very reliant on a 2.6. Also a side note if your laptop has an 'atheros' chip ($ lspci | grep -i atheros) than you will need a version *earlier* than 2.6.19.
That said, check out this site for exactly how to upgrade. Its really not that hard and it will definitely pay off.

Upgrading is cake. You can search for instructions, but basically all one has to do is:
kill x (ctrl alt f1)
stop gdm (# /etc/init.d/gdm stop) ***EDIT: I think KDM can be stopped in a similar way but dont quote me...***
edit /etc/apt/sources.lst, replacing all 'stable' with 'testing'
# apt-get update
# apt-get dist-upgrade
Wait a while...