Debian Installation :: Minimal System With Small Window Manager
May 15, 2010
I have installed the debian lenny base system in my old pc. I want only a minimal system with a small window manager like icewm and firefox to surf the web. What I need to write now in text mode to install this minimal system?
I'm trying to create a media box for my TV. I've installed a barebones ubuntu from minimal install disc. After that I installed xorg and XBMC. But my usb devices are not automounting. Is there a pacakage im missing? I've read that XBMC should be able to handle mounting of devices and that no window manager or desktop environment is needed to handle this.
I followed these two tutorials and my current install is 10.04 Lucid. http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?t=38473 http://wiki.xbmc.org/?title=XBMCbuntu
I want to know which packages from "x" set (slack 13,.1) have to be installed for X server to work. Requirements are really minimalistic. Only English language, no X development, no hardware acceleration, etc.
I did remake my minimal installation. My window manager produces no background picture else I did add someone. So i will do it using xorg-xli. I did find the (in other cases usual) xinitrc as /etc/X11/xinit/xinitrc but in only refers to an other script
and the other script (/etc/X11/Xsession) does not include some usuable steps to include easily supplementary starting commands.
I am setting up a thin client boot (over NFS) with x2go thinclient. So far everything works, the client boots over PXE, mounts the NFS dir on the server. But the x2go thinclient system does not install properly. I end up with a CLI prompt, to log in. It does not start X, not does it start the x2go client in a window managerless X session.
X2go is, in case you don't know it yet, a cool Linux X terminal session system, very much like Nomachines NXserver. I like it very much, since my experience, especially with freenx has not been good.
Now I am missing some Linux knowhow here: I know that after startup (the CLI part), the display manager is started (GDM or KDM), which starts the X server and shows the graphical login. Now since X2go does not properly setup and there is no documentation about the thinclient part, I will set it up myself.
I need the system to boot up, startx and then immediately start an X program (x2goclient), without having to log in before.
I found that putting a .xsession file in to the users home dir causes that script to be run when you invoke startx.But when I put startx in a script that runs as the last one in the runlevel (as in S05startx), it does not run at all.
What is the proper way to run X and a program on it directly, right at startup?
I have installed Debian Lenny on my AMD Phenom PC. Now I had installed it through debian-503-amd64-i386-powerpc-netinst.iso which I burned on a CD and installed on my Hard Disk. Now I would like to easily install x window and kde window manager on this system. Can anybody tell me 1. What exactly I will have to download extra. 2. How to install it on my system. 3. If necessary how to configure it.
I have recently acquired a micro-sized-PC (A Dell FX130) which comes with a VIA C7 processor, 1GB RAM and 1GB onboard flash. The only application I need is a web-browser, I will use the FX130 to access a (very limited) number of web applications and to download/print-html-to-PDF - putting files onto a USB thumb-drive. I want to encrypt the disk to guard against tampering, and to run a restrictive firewall.
When I try to install the i386 debian-7.7.0 image - I run into the snag that it won't let me use guided configuration for the 1GB flash drive... and - when I guess at a sensible partitioning... I find that I run out of space during the standard installs. I note, however, that a whole bunch of significant applications (which I don't need) are being installed.
I am sure I'm missing something - is there an easy way to do a "minimal" GUI install that would make it easy to fit (just) a web browser (Chrome - ideally) and dependencies onto a 1GB bootable flash drive in a 'Debian-standard' fashion?
xdm which refuses to load a window manager. I run Debian squeeze. xdm tries to execute /etc/X11/xdm/Xsession, which is actually an empty file, and fails with the error 'too many open files'. Afterwards xdm terminates the session and executes Xreset. Here the entries from the log:
Sat May 22 11:27:19 2010 xdm info (pid 2246): sourcing /etc/X11/xdm/Xsetup Sat May 22 11:27:23 2010 xdm info (pid 2246): sourcing /etc/X11/xdm/Xstartup Sat May 22 11:27:23 2010 xdm info (pid 2275): executing session /etc/X11/xdm/Xsession
[code]....
I was unable to find anything valuable concerning this problem. This is kind of annoying because I always have to switch to a console, stop X and startx X manually using startx. Then everything works out just fine. Unfortunately I am not yet that familiar with the setup process of X.
Fresh install without a desktop environment, I only selected "standard software utilities" from the software selection step of the installation process, nothing else is installed thereafter.
I cannot follow these instructions [URL] .... because "auto" and "iface" commands not found.
iptables isn't installed, but I want to install nftables since it's what iproute2 is to net-tools.
And it doesn't even have NetworkManager either and so far I found out ifconfig (net-tools) has been dropped in favor of iproute2, although that is just what Wikipedia says.
[URL] ....
"apt-cache search iproute2" revealed there is only iproute.
I just checked, net-tools is also installed, but ifconfig command not found?
I installed jessie 8.1 and wmii ( Version: 3.10~20120413+hg2813-8) and I use a basic wmiirc.
Code: Select all:~/.wmii-3.10$ ls -la wmiirc -rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 8033 août 1 17:28 wmiirc
If I want to run wmii the system says:Code: Select all:~$ wmii
wmii: fatal: another window manager is already running
Some information :
Code: Select all~$ update-alternatives --config x-window-manager Il existe 3 choix pour l'alternative x-window-manager (qui fournit /usr/bin/x-window-manager).
Sélection Chemin Priorité État ------------------------------------------------------------ 0 /usr/bin/wmii 60 mode automatique 1 /usr/bin/metacity 60 mode manuel 2 /usr/bin/mutter 60 mode manuel * 3 /usr/bin/wmii 60 mode manuel
I installed debian with minimal packages (without an any X components). Later I installed xserver-xorg-video-intel , xserver-xorg-input-mouse, xserver-xorg-input-kbd ... and other X components through apt-get. Created a Xorg.conf file.
On execution of X, I see black screen without cursor. What are the other minimal packages that I need to install in order to run any window-manager like openbox.. ?
In the murky world of X11, window managers, session managers and desktop environments I cannot seem to figure out how to achieve the following in Squeeze:
1. Leave Gnome installed, but prevent it from launching when typing startx 2. Have both X11 and my prefered default window manager (blackbox) startup when I type startx (or similar)
My ultimate goal is to leave Gnome installed but "dormant" and when I do a remote ssh -X be able to use X11 forwarding with blackbox.
Just upgraded to 10.04 and when I log into kdm to find nothing on the desktop. It seems the problem is that the window manager doesn't even load. kde-window-manager is installed but still nothing. What did this upgrade do and how can I fix the window manager?
I installed 10.4 on my Satellite Pro via CD replacing XP. Screen resolution is now only 800x600 which fills only 3/4 of available screen space and there are no greater options in System Preferences Monitors. It is also operating rather slower than the previous OS, maybe these two issues are connected? I have checked Administration for any required Proprietary Drivers. There is just one for a modem which is activated. During installation I aborted it then closed down and restarted, which may have affected the process?
This isn't a HUGE deal, just a little annoying. When I move the cursor to the edge of a window to resize it, i only get the resize arrow in a very small area and it takes me several tries to get it just right. Is there anyway to broaden the resize area threshold or something?
I'm setting up (have set up) Ubuntu after installing W7, everything working great - then realized that I have made the W7 partition too small. Nothing new installed yet, is it possible now to resize/enlarge that partition, without re-installing?
I tried to install Compiz on F9 Gnome and I added a startup entry (system, preferences, personal, session, startup programs). Now I can't log in to the gnome window manager, it logs in and then logs out again. I would like to remove the entry that I created in the startup programs, but I don't know which file to edit. Where the settings to the System > Preferences > Personal > Session > Startup Programs are stored.
I started the upgrade to 10.10 and now the upgrade process is trying to get some input in the orange window. Problem is I can't bring that window to the front because metacity crashed. When I try to start metacity from a console it dumps core. How do I continue the upgrade?
as per the title - after a hard disk failure got new disk and attempting dual boot of xp and 10.10 - had to burn 10.10 twice to get it to complete the install process, but thats another story - basically on logging in there is now gnome panels - i get my 'low battery' warning etc and the login music but thats it - it does work in 'safe mode' though - what can i do to correct this?ironically had exactly same problem on the upstairs desktop when upgrading to 10.4 but buggered if i can remember how i fixed it - even checked my previous posts on it.
I like to start Emacs as part of a login script and leave it running for the duration of my login session (which is typically weeks).
I have scripts to call emacs-client which will allow me to use a file-manager or Windows Explorer to locate files and right-click to edit them in Emacs.
I often end up with a lot of emacs windows (frames) open and I like to just be able to close them by clicking on the MS-Windows or KDE X button at the top-right.
The trouble is, if the window is the last one, this will shut down emacs which will lose all kinds of interesting history information.
As a work-around I use C-x 5 0 which won't let me close the last frame but this is often not as convenient as using the mouse
Does anyone know how to configure Emacs so that it can intercept the Window-Close button of the last frame to either request confirmation or simply disallow it?
On MS-Windows, disallowing closing of the last window may cause logoff to hang if emacs is still running but I'm not too worried about that.
I recently upgraded the motherboard/processor on my computer (as in quadrupled the processor and octupled the ram). The new board has a built in GPU (intel) and from searching the forums, I think this is part of the problem. Every time I boot up the computer, I need to open the Compiz icon and use it to reload the window manager before I see any title bars, borders, etc. 've tried the .bashrc hack (metacity --replace), but that doesn't do anything. In fact, whenever I open the terminal, I need to have two tabs open in order to use it, and when I close it all the borders go away again (even when I haven't done anything). Also, the onboard sound card (intel) doesn't work, but that's another task (I at least have a compatible card for that).
I'm fairly decent Linux admin (ok, i've been paid to do it for the last 10 years now, maybe better than fair), however this problem has me stumped. Ever since i dist-upgraded to 10.10 playing flash videos longer than a minute will *sometimes* lock up my window manager. I am unable to click on other windows, or links in current window. If i open a terminal after starting the video i can still run commands in the terminal after its locked up, but not use the mouse in any form at all.
I can get to tty1 or any other console, kill flash, kill the browser, etc. Until i restart gdm or kdm it is still locked up however. I have tested with both kde and gnome. Tested with kdm and gdm. Tested with firefox and chrome (both use different installs of flash plugin - chrome brings its own). I created a new user on the system to test enviroment, no luck there. I eventually reinstalled yesterday with a fresh 10.10, and still I am having this problem. It *often* happens, but not always. Always on videos longer than about a minute at a guess, i have not timed it. Only ever happens on flash videos - ie ..... etc.
trying to set up a very minimal X on my 10.04 64 bit version of Ubuntu running nothing but Open SSH and acting as a firewall/router, making a PPP connection. The reason, is that I want to set up KVM/Qemu and run a virtual machine. The virtual machine will have a graphical environment and will be connected to my TV so that I can watch movies, stream TV etc. using it. So far, I have done the following:
I have a Dell PC with Debian GNU/Linux lenny.sid that was working as a game server. After solving the problem with the login to the server the system comes to root. I tried startx command but the result was command not found. I could not find the .bin/bash_profile to edit it. I had in mind to #nano /etc/inittab
1:2345:respawn:/sbin/getty 38400 tty1 edit it to 1:2345:respawn:/bin/login -f "root" tty1 </dev/tty1 >/dev/tty1 2>&1
I did not do it since i had to edit the .bash_profile with startx command which I was not able to spot. Whereis could not find the file. I tried to apt-get install x-windows-system but apparently I have a problem with my internet cause it can not download from Debian repositories. I check with ifconfif and later ping and i had results so i might not have problem with the internet. Is it possible the server to be set up so the user can not get into the x-window system? Did they disable anything? Do I have to install xorg and if yes can anybody give me an idea how I can do it?
One of those things that make yo go "WTF?" After browsing the internet with Firefox, there appears a peculiar problem: if I move the pointer to a certain area of the screen, I can't click (left, right, middle) nor use mouse wheel. The area can be of variable size, but usually it's small, in the lower part of the screen, it's x dimension greater than y one (a horizontally placed rectangle). The problem doesn't go away when I restart Firefox (obviously it does when I reboot). It obstructs any window under it (I can't even click on the desktop where 'it' is). It's as if there is an invisible window that 'steals' focus when I move the mouse over it. I'm on 11.04, Classic Ubuntu (Gnome 2.3x).
A quick UPDATE: dragging an icon and dropping it on the said area behaves as if I dragged an item and dropped it where it doesn't belong (i.e. it just slowly returns to it's original position). Also, I tried killing it with Force Quit applet, but only my desktop reloaded.