I'm new to Linux and I have a couple of Stupid Questions for the not

[ComputerWizKid]

First of all I installed Debian on an old Dell Inspiron 5000 that someone gave me. I managed to install firefox and keepassX but I want to install more software (That requires /Root Access but I don't know how to access my own root account :shocked: ) I tired to login on the blue Screen that says my name but it says system Admin Cannot login from this screen So where do I login?

 

[Nothinman]

I believe that root isn't allowed to log into X by default, this is almost always the way you want it anyway. When you run synaptic as yourself it should prompt you for the root password. Also you can setup sudo so that you can run any application as root with only your password, this is how Ubuntu is configured by default.

 

[Brazen]

Hmm, yeah I'm not too sure on how Debian handles the root acount by default, but I would guess it would be as Nothinman says. I only ever used Debian on gui-less servers and really Fedora and Ubuntu are the only Lini I've used X on (except for playing with Redhat like a decade ago).

You should have set a root password during installation, unless Debian changed that to be more like Ubuntu. But you will not use the root password. If you are prompted for a password when opening Synaptic, put in your current user's password.

Although I'm not sure if Debian setups up a user to use sudo by default (Ubuntu was the only distro that I knew of that did this by default for a long time). You may have to switch to root with 'su - ' and install from apt-get on the command line or use visudo to configure your user account with sudo access.

 

[imported_Uber]

You started with Debian?
When I was first interested in Linux, a Linux vet told me Debian rocked, but not to start with it.

 

[Nothinman]

Debian does rock and it's not nearly as bad as it used to be, infact the Ubuntu alternative installer is just a rebranded ncurses Debian installer. The set of default installed packages will be smaller and a few things won't be setup the same way by default but it's really not that bad.

 

[MedicBob]

synaptic is a good visual way to update/install/uninstall packages(programs).

It is probably installed already. If not a quick search on google will get you up with it.

Apt-get also works great, but is CLI, command line.

Be careful using the several different ways of managing packages, pick one and stick with it as you learn.

 

[DaiShan]

You should use aptitude from the command line, log in as yourself and su to root in an xterm then run aptitude install <package name> Debian prevents you from logging in to an X session as root for security reasons, but that doesn't mean you can't issue commands as root once you are logged in as yourself.

 

[forkd]

As a quick disclosure...Your first linux distro should depend on what you really want to accomplish/encounter. Ubuntu is an excellent distro for first time users because ease of use and compatability is great...even though it is debian.

I recommend synaptic package manager for your software/package management. It is a front end for apt. If you don't find it in the menu then open up a terminal, log in as root, update apt then install synaptic. Examples here.

These are the commands you will type in the terminal. but if there is a # sign in fron of my line it is just a note for you.


# the su command logs you in as superuser. It will require your password.

su

#the next command will update apt

apt-get update

#the next command will install synaptic

apt-get install synaptic

# the next command will start the program synaptic

synaptic


********************************************

While in synaptic you can view the packages in the top right box. Just highlight one and begin typing the name of the program you want....For example Firefox. When you see the firefox program click on the box next to it and select "install".

Then at the top of the program you will see a green checkmark labeled "apply"

Apply your changes and now firefox is installed. Do this for any programs you would like installed.

***********************************

If you want to have your debian machine running with all the nice multimedia bells and whistles a great program is Automatix. It will automatically install a lot of programs that can be challenging for a first time user.

have fun

 

[Brazen]

Originally posted by: DaiShan
You should use aptitude from the command line, log in as yourself and su to root in an xterm then run aptitude install <package name> Debian prevents you from logging in to an X session as root for security reasons, but that doesn't mean you can't issue commands as root once you are logged in as yourself.

The thing I don't like about aptitude though, is it automatically installs all the "recommended" packages and not just dependencies. This is the default behavior and you have to add an entry to a text config file so that aptitude will only pull in dependencies.

 

[Nothinman]

The thing I don't like about aptitude though, is it automatically installs all the "recommended" packages and not just dependencies. This is the default behavior and you have to add an entry to a text config file so that aptitude will only pull in dependencies.

It's also the default for apt now. And you can change the default for aptitude in the UI's preferences dialog.