Unable to start Debian KDE

[BobS0327]

I have almost no experience with Linux in general and Debian in particular. I've just installed a Debian distro on an old P2 box. The install appears to have been done successfully, except I cannot load a GUI desktop using startx. I keep getting the following message:

Xsession: Unable to start * -- No "/Root/.Xsession" file, no "/Root/.xsession" file, no session manager, no window managers and no terminal emulators found; aborting

I guess I have to install and/or configure something. Everything else on the the install appears to work fine.

Anybody have any suggestions on how to resolve this problem?

Thanx for any assistance offered.

[Jaqui]

try, as root, init 5
that should give you an xserver login screen.
if you still get errors then part of xfree didn't install.

[BobS0327]

I had already installed a XFCE4 desktop and it works. Ufortunately, I can't get rid of it. I tried installing gnome but the install failed.

BTW, this is probably a user error since this is my first Linux install

Thanx

Bob

[Jaqui]

I was able to get debian to install a gui, only after I did a network install from a mirror site.
when I used the cdroms [ I have all 14 ] it fails installation of any software outside of the base system.

[BobS0327]

I finally got a GUI desktop functioning properly after 3 reinstalls, a total of 4 install tries all together. It was just a matter of finding the right ftp site and twiddling with the monitor settings.

Each install was about 6 hours. So it took me 24 hours to finally get a desktop.