Situation Update... I went ahead and started from scratch. And _this time_ I remembered to enter bf24 at the boot prompt in order to install Kernel 2.4. Anyway, This time around, I was given the option to format the partitions as either ext2 or ext3 (last time, ext2 was the only option, meaning it wasn't really an option.) Also, there were plenty more choices for modules to add to the kernel, and I had no trouble whatsoever getting the NIC to work. It was so much nicer being able to do an FTP install instead of having to swap between 8 different CDs.
Now, after the install was done, and without rebooting; I logged in and ran gdm. I was rather disappointed that there is no way to log in via gdm as root (I really do prefer to do that at this time rather than log in as a regular user and then su to root, since there seems to be no way to work from the desktop as root even after going to a terminal window and doing su and quitting out of any of the window managers just brings me back to the gdm login with no way to quit to a command prompt. WTF is up with that?.) With X running, I noticed that the screen was flickering really bad. I thought it might be due to incorrect frequency settings for the monitor, but I checked, and they were correct: Hz - 31.5-82 / V - 50-150. So, unable to do any configuration from within the graphical interface, I hit CTRL-Alt-F12 then logged into a text-based terminal as root (is there any way at all to get back to the desktop after doing that?) and ran dpkg-reconfigure xserver-xfree86. I entered all the correct bits of data, then rebooted; and found myself right back where I started before I did my reinstall. gdm tried to run and then I finally got an error saying that the X-Server couldn't be started, and would I like to try to run the configuration program again? I selected yes and gave the root password, which brought me into twm (I think it was), and a graphically-based X configuration program. I struggled through it using the keypad, since for some ****-up reason, the mouse (just an ordinary 2-button PS/2 mouse) wouldn't work. The last thing I did was try to configure the mouse, and I was immediately apparently dropped out of the configuration program and taken to the twm desktop. I exited out of twm and was immediately brought back into twm (Why can't I ever ****in exit to a command prompt?) And now, the system is locked up tight. No mouse response, no keyboard response, nothing. All I could do was power down. So, if anyone can decipher what I just posted, could you please tell me _how the hell_ I get this working? These are all very common components that have been proven to work fine in other Linux distros as well as Win-98. What is it about Debian that makes it a complete struggle and an exercise in total frustration every step of the way? __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Free Pop-Up Blocker - Get it now http://companion.yahoo.com/ -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
