Problems Installing Debian

Hello everyone. I am an amateur Linux user, though I have installed Debian millions of time in different computers including mine, the one with the problem :P. I recently downloaded the 2 DVDs of installation in the Debian official web page. I installed the first time and when everything got installed (I specify to only install Desktop Environment and Printer Server) I got to the prompt, I login and I write startx and it failed to start, it told me that the .xsession file was missing, ok I panic for 3 seconds then I copy the /usr/X11......intr (or something) and paste it in my home directory and then change the name to .xsession, this time startx just appear with a screen and the pointer could move but nothing more. Then I installed debian again, this time downloading the stuff, nothing from the DVD. When it was installing it had some problems with something (I don't remember) and now when I start the OS after doing some stuff the screen hangs up, is just black with the '_' at the top left corner.

Hardware Specs:

Pentium 4 3.0 GHz

1024 MB RAM

Geforce FX 5500

ASRock Motherboard

P.D.: I have installed Debian, SuSE and Mandrake before in this machine with no problems at all.

P.D2.: Also I have a new LCD monitor, but is a generic one. And before I had a REAL generic monitor, could this new monitor be the source of problems?

Thanks in advance.

Quote:

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Also I have a new LCD monitor, but is a generic one. And before I had a REAL generic monitor, could this new monitor be the source of problems?

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Absolutely. The wrong refresh rates and/or no hardware support can cause terrible problems in Xwindows.

--Th13

Well I installed it again. And again it doesn't found .xsession or .Xsession. I will connect my old monitor again to see. By the way what refresh rates would be addecuate? I have 75 Hz. Is it too much?.

Check the specs on your hardware. This will dictate refresh rate.

--Th13

As a general hardware troubleshooting tip................ with video problems start with 60Hz and maybe 256 colours and work up from there ;)

I will connect the old monitor again. The brand that made this monitors is really bad honestly, but it was a gift. Teorically it should work, but it doesn't. Thanks anyway for the help.

Ok, now I'm losing my patience. I did all the process again, but this time with the old monitor and the same happen again. Also in the middle of the instalation it had problems configuring something, I tried to install the missing spot again but everything looks fine to apt, so what is happening no?

P.D.: Antoher new piece of hardware is my wireless mouse and keyboard (Genius), but I did the installation with the keyboard perfect, and when I got a chance to see a pointer I could move it fine too, I don't think this the source of problems.

Please help.

finally SOMETHING i can help w/

what you need to do ... assuming that you've installed x in its entirety is to use debconf which is basically a means to reconfigure your system after everything is installed (and during)

a template would be

... dpkg-reconfigure packagename (as root of course)

so depending which x server you have installed you would so this

dpkg-reconfigure xserver-xorg

or

dpkg-reconfigure xserver-xfree86

after this follow the instructions

DON'T USE FRAMEBUFFER NO MATTER WHAT

by the way good choice on a distro ... but if you have problems w/ this you should really start w/ ubuntu and work your way up to more old-school distros

Is just that I love Debian :P. I know I am a newbie but I just love it. And thanks a lot.