Weblog entry #10 for e5z8652
See all weblog entries made by e5z8652.
So I set up a brand new Lenny system yesterday. At the end of the installer I left just the basic system selected, deselecting "desktop environment" because I don't like Gnome all that much.
All is nice and well, and today I log into my sleek new system and instead of installing KDE components a group at a time with apt-get, which is a pain because I always forget some font package or something, I decided to cheat and issue a quick "tasksel install kde-desktop". I leave it be and go work on another system while it churns though installing KDE.
After everything finishes up I start kdm, enter my username and password, and look at the nice Gnome desktop.
WTF?
I did *not* say "tasksel install kde-and-gnome-because-I-like-them-both" and I did *not* install the default desktop environment because I knew that was Gnome.
Sigh. Lesson learned -- uncheck everything during the install and stick to apt-get.
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I'am a Gnome user myself so that does not bother me that much, but yeah - it seems there is only a 'install desktop environment' or 'dont install one' tasksel options.
Why don't we have at least 'install Gnome' 'install KDE' 'install XFCE' 'no desktop env' options in the 'network install CD' is beyond me... Is that really so hard to script?
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Too much choice/too many options is sometimetimes overwhelming and not a good thing for a new user - look at Ubuntu.
More advanced ones will usually skip the tasksel bit.
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I must confess that I always install the base system without X. Once that works fine and I can reach the network properly I pull things down manually one at a time with aptitude. You are correct, it's easy to forget things or get the sequence wrong but I've found it better than letting the system "automagically" install things as it never seems to get it right.
I'd have to say that Debian actually does a good job and the meta-packages aren't that bad, it's just that I'm really picky. However I do feel you pain, install "X" get "Y" sometimes is frustrating...
--
"It's Not Magic, It's Work"
Adam
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