Linux NOOB needs help!

[Sharpie]

I'm a linux noob that wants to install debian. I have resorted to FC4 first however my ethernet does not work for some reason. After isntalling Debian i was able to get ethernet to work (I know because it downloaded updates). So with that said i would like to finish installing debian.

I have installed the base system and the packages for GNOME, the question is how do i get it to boot into GNOME and not the command prompt? Does anyone know of a good noob walk through for configuring a linux system?


Thanks in advance.

 

[earthman]

Debian probably isn't the best "noob" system, but unless I'm mistaken, whether it boots gui or prompt is determined by your runlevel in inittab (in /etc I think, don't quote me on that.)It's been awhile since I configured one of these. Have you looked at linux.org for a howto?

 

[n0cmonkey]

It is the /etc/inittab. Change the default level from 3 to 5, I think. Whether it boots up gnome or not is something else entirely. You might need to make sure gdm is being run in /et/rc5.d.

 

[sourceninja]

My suggestion is if you want to get a feel for debian, and make it easy on you, try ubuntu. Get a nightly build of the new beta of breezy (their newest release which should come out Oct. 10th) and try it out. It works great and it even has a liveCd if you can about that sorta thing. You can learn the debian way, and you wont have the knowledge gap you have now. Then after you learn more, if you still want to move to debian or its like.