Moving from command-line to GUI in Debian

**technossomy** · 11-09-2005

I have more or less installed a Debian i386 desktop distro, but all I have is the bash command line. I used a netinst CD for this, but I doubt whether the network hardware had been detected. It has a wireless dongle inserted which in all likelihood has gone undetected. Can I currently just insert the Ethernet cable (has ADSL at the other end) and access the Internet? What commands would I use for that?

Thanks in advance

Tech

**dduck** · 11-11-2005

hi there, welcome to Linux
so you're using Debian

You mentioned you have ADSL, normally that means that you're using a USB modem... If you do have the net connection already working then installing a window manager is simple:
"apt-get update", then(I use Gnome so) "apt-get install gdm", apt would find find the other software you need & install it for you.
when that's complete you can then use "gdm" that would boot you into Gnome.

Hope that helps

**technossomy** · 11-11-2005

Thanks for your response dduck, but it seems my problems are a smidgen larger than I initially anticipated. I can enter commands in the shell (bash), but very few actually operate as expected. For instance I can "man" most commands, but executing those commands usually leads to a "command not found". For instance "man ifup" gives me all the help I need, but "ifup -a" is command not found.

When I enter "apt-get update" I get an error message "Could not open lock file /var/lib/apt/lists/lock".

Thanks in advance for your guidance

Tech

**psic** · 11-11-2005

You must be root to run apt-get. This applies to many of the programs you might have tried. To become root, use:

Code:

su
<root password>

**technossomy** · 11-11-2005

Hey psic

That kind of works. Now it seems it couldn't find package gdm. Also ifconfig yields that only "lo" is up, and eth0 is not and it is unlikely there is a network connection. Any pointers henceforth?

I was just checking some tutorials, but none that were specific to my issue, but feel free to point one out.

Edited: just in case, I now have an ethernet cable inserted as well as the wireless dongle inserted.

Best

Tech

**psic** · 11-11-2005

Here's some good info on getting networking up and running under debian:
http://www.debian.org/doc/manuals/re...ateway.en.html
... look under 10.5, dhcp, it should do the trick. Getting the wireless working takes more doing, I got it to work on a laptop with Ndiswrapper (which takes a windows driver and wraps it so it can be used by linux):
http://ndiswrapper.sourceforge.net/

**technossomy** · 11-11-2005

Thanks again psic. I just opened the debian site, but as is happening often the last few weeks, there is a timeout on that site. I'll get working on that as soon as debian.org permits.

I have heard of ndiswrapper and will keep that on the roll as well.

Edited: found http://www.debian-administration.org/articles/254 which should explain more or less the same, is my overall hope.

Best

Tech

**technossomy** · 11-11-2005

Still struggling with this.

I have added the following to file /etc/network/interfaces:

Code:

# The primary network interface - use DHCP to find our address
auto eth0
iface eth0 inet dhcp

then restarted whatever I thought was the DHCP server by issuing:

Code:

/etc/init.d/networking restart

and obtained:

Code:

No DHCPOFFERS received
No working leases in persistent database
Failed to bring up eth0.

Then here:
http://lists.debian.org/debian-testi.../msg00033.html
I found that to manually specify an address, type the following as root:

Code:

ifconfig eth0 192.168.3.10 netmask 255.255.255.0

then add a default route:

Code:

route add default gateway 192.168.3.1

and when I ping 192.168.3.1, the destination host is unreachable.

So perhaps I do not have a DHCP service running at all? At this point I wouldn't know what to do. Any help much appreciated.

Best

Tech

**psic** · 11-11-2005

Are you sure your network card is working? What does ifconfig tell you? You might have to get that working first. Also, how did you connect with windows, did you have a static IP or dinamic?

**technossomy** · 11-12-2005

Hi psic

Thanks again for your response. The NIC was in excellent working order in the days when a WinME HDD was inserted. It was on a DHCP network, or rather: an ADSL modem which doubles as a DHCP router. I am currently using a clean HDD, ie single boot.

The handcopied results of ifconfig are:

Code:

eth0
Link encap&#58;Ethernet HWaddr 00&#58;10&#58;4B&#58;9D&#58;70&#58;B2
UP BROADCAST MULTICAST MTU&#58;1500 Metric&#58;1
RX packets&#58;0 errors&#58;0 dropped&#58;0 overruns&#58;0 frame&#58;0
TX packets&#58;1 errors&#58;0 dropped&#58;0 overruns&#58;0 carrier&#58;0
collisions&#58;0 txqueuelen&#58;1000
RX bytes&#58;0 &#40;0.0 b&#41;  TX bytes&#58;342 &#40;342.0 b&#41;
Interrupt&#58;11 Base address&#58;0x400

lo
Link encap&#58;Local loopback
inet addr&#58;127.0.0.1 Mask&#58;255.0.0.0
UP LOOPBACK RUNNING MTU&#58;16436 Metric&#58;1
RX packets&#58;16 errors&#58;0 dropped&#58;0 overruns&#58;0 frame&#58;0
TX packets&#58;16 errors&#58;0 dropped&#58;0 overruns&#58;0 carrier&#58;0
collisions&#58;0 txqueuelen&#58;1000
RX bytes&#58;1024 &#40;1024.0 b&#41;  TX bytes&#58;1024 &#40;1024.0 b&#41;

Hope this clarifies and thanks again for your anticipated guidance

Tech

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