debian + X windows = ABSOLUTELY NOTHING!

[cotfessi]

I'm tired. I'm tired of reading posts on this and other boards and HOWTOs and it not going as it says it should. For the last 2 weeks I've been trying to install Debian Potato. Here is the hardware on the target system:

- PII 300mhz
- 256 ram
- SIIG PCI ULTRA ATA66 Ide controller card
- ATI Rage 128 AGP card w/32mb ram
- 17gb HDD
- 20gb HDD
- Standard issue CDrom
- 3com 359x NIC with an ADSL

My goals for my linux box is a stand alone machine with SMTP and Apache. I would like to run X with the Enlightenment Window Manager. That's it. Nothing too fancy

Here's what I've done so far(after multiple, MULTIPLE attempts):

1. Built myself all the floppies so I could install the base -- I have an .iso CD but it couldn't find my udma66 card, but the floppies do.

2. I setup exim

3. I added my second HDD

4. I installed and configured my PPPoE connection to get my internet run.

5. I've built a little firewall script using ipchains and have checked the machine uing nmap and it seems ok.

6. Now is where I really get stuck - trying to get x installed.

I have the refresh rates of my monitor and all the specs on my video card. After grabbing Craig's big sources.list and commenting the ones that didn't appear to be working, I ran the folowwing:


"apt-get install task-x-window-system" which was largely unsuccessful. I was not presented with the configuration files that I thought that I would. I thought that maybe the setup files were installed anyway, but nope! I looked for XF86* on my machine and couldn't find anything.


So, I reinstalled everything(didn't want to get tripped up on something stupid) and ran dselect and tried to select the following:

xf86setup - and tried to follow all of the dependency/conflict resolutions that dselect gave me... and nothing.

Maybe this should have been posted in rants, but there is a question in here. What the hell is wrong with me? I must have reinstalled my base system about 10 times in the last week because everytime something doesn't work, I'm not sure how to back out of trouble.

I don't think that my hardware is too non standard. I'm using that big sources.list that floats around this board every now and then, and I'm selecting everything that dselect tells me to. I've tried to eliminate any errors due to me being a dumbass.

Does anyone have any suggestions on a better way to get X installed???? I'm really at the end of my rope here. I've tried about four times now to get things installed but alas, I still see the CLI staring back at me. I really like debian(the little bit that I've seen) and I don't want to go back to microsoft which leaves me no other option other than throwing the whole damn machine out the window... look out below!

:mad:

[Gaccm]

are u using the 2.4 kernel? tisk tisk, should have read the manual :) ati rage 128 cards are screwy and require the 2.4 kernel to work (oh, X version 4.0.x wont work wit hati rage 128 cards btw [i am very lucky, i randomly grabbed a card for my lin box and it was a ati rage pro turbo])

[cotfessi]

?? Just to make sure that I'm not totally crazy I put in a Mandrake 7.2 CD and ran it straight through in under an hour... and boom X came up no problem! I know that Mandrake uses the 2.2 kernel... why should this be a problem using debian?

[chadm1967]

Gaccm:

Where exactly did you get your info on this? I'm running Red Hat 7 (with the 2.4 kernel) on one PC with an ATI Rage Pro card and Debian Potato on another PC (with the 2.4 kernel) and, you guessed it, an ATI Rage Pro card. Both run just fine. I think it just takes a little tinkering to get them to work properly.

cotfessi:

I'm not exactly sure how to help you with this but I'll do a little research and see what I can find (actually, a hardcore Debian user will probably answer this before I get a chance).

:D

[bigskinnee]

I would say got to the XFree web site download the latest binary and run their install script. It worked great on my Debian box.

[newmad]

cotfessi -

I've been doing a potato install this weekend, Libranet, with the 2.2 kernel. I have a ATI Xpert 2000 32M AGP (uses the Rage 128 chipset), and it works

*under Drake 7.2 (2.2 kernel as well as under 2.4 that I upgraded it to), and

*under Libranet (with this distro you can compile it in at install),

BUT

*it won't work worth a d&^m under RedHat 6.2.
I tried it 3 or 4 times, soon as I got to X configuration during install, my screen went crazy. Tried default refresh rates, custom refresh rates, generic Rage 128 setting, Rage 128 AGP setting, none of it worked.

You aren't alone. :)
But, the card will work under the 2.2 and 2.4 kernel in a Debian install. Haven't tried XF86 4.0 yet though, maybe that's your sticking point? Just a thought...

[Gaccm]

hmm... i guess i'm wrong, i had read in some doc for X that Ati Rage 128 cards had probs, and i remeber while compiling 2.4 that it has an option you need to turn on if you have a ati rage 128. but newmad seems to have 2.2 and X working so i guees i'm wrong. (it might have been for X 4.0 when it came out, i'm sleepy know, bye bye)
did u try downloading the binaries? its a simple (albiet unconventional) install and easy to rm -rf if you want.

[cotfessi]

if i install the binaries by downloading them from the xfree86.og site, how will that affect my apt-get? if I try to upgrade at some point, will it upgrade X even though it wan't originally installed via the debian package system??

[mjb0314]

This site might help you out: http://avis.lightband.com/david/rage128-howto.html

[ColdPack]

You can get the latest version of X by using apt-get and pointing it to the debian ftp sites. The latest X may be in the unstable tree or something, but it's there. That will ensure you get all the X crap you need and apt will know it's there so you won't have future problems with upgrading.