On Mon, 25 Dec 2006, Michael Fothergill wrote: > So I am now interested to try out gnome rather than xfce4 on the old PC when I > install Etch.....
I wouldn't. With that kind of hardware, a window manager would be much better. Something like icewm, fluxbox, etc. > But I have a few questions. > > If I upgrade from Sarge to Etch, will it automatically replace > Xfree4.3.0 with xorg? Yes. I just did it and it was a mess, i had to go to Sid and then go down to Etch. Later on, i went back to Sid and then Sidux but that's another story. :) > I have looked at the docmentation on etch testing but although it > talks about a lot of other things I couldn't find a list of commands > to install the common packages used in a desktop install. APT-HOWTO http://www.us.debian.org/doc/manuals/apt-howto/index.en.html The best thing for an old box, is to do a minimal install, skip the pakages section, and after you're thru, install what you need. Example: # apt-get update && apt-get dist-upgrade # apt-get install xserver-xorg-core menu aterm <your favorite wm> sudo zip unzip bzip2 <your favorite firewall> mutt elinks xfe xzgv xchat mozilla-firefox etc, configure your firewall and reboot, login, startx and you're in like Flynn. > In the case of Sarge I know that apt-get install gnome kde works for the > window manager and apt-get install x-window-system work fine. KDE and Gnome are "desktop environments" NOT window managers. Each one uses a different window manager, kwin and Metacity respectively. If you can't live without Gnome, install 'gnome-core' which is lighter and will help your old box. > But my worry is that Etch may contain other packages that require a somewhat > different > set of commands. Nah. > I could just wipe Sarge and install Etch from scratch to get around this > problem, but I would like to try and make the upgrade work. Try the dist-upgrade first, you might get lucky and the bugs might be squatched or youcan always start from scratch. greetings, macondo __________________ KISS Protocol: Keep It Simple, Stupid PII 266 128 MB RAM - Ratpoison - Sidux -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]