Debian Text only install

[Calum]

how do i install debian in a text only (no GUI) way? my video card is not compatible with whatever GUI debian tries to open during the install, and i'm wondering what to type at the very first prompt to get it to install textually.

thanks in advance.......

[creedon]

You must have an unusual card; I've never had a problem setting up X; but if you feel you must, simply don't configure X- then you'll have text only, or better still, don't even install the X-window packages.

[flap]

I don't think Debian has graphical installer, does it? I can't really remember but surely there are instructions on-screen when you get to the prompt?

[Pantso]

Eh, since when does Debian have a graphical installer? I recently installed Debian 3.0 in text mode only with no option for a graphical installation. I'm confused.   :confused:

[Calum]

thanks, but neither of those are too helpful to me. here is the full story:

i have a SiS630 video card on this particular computer which was broken in red hat up to 7.2 and mandrake up to 8.2. I just installed freeBSd too and LUCKILY it has a text only install as default. X failed in much the same way as with Debian (when you try and startx you get nothing but a black screen and must ctrl-alt-backspace to see the 'x has crashed' message) when i tested it but running xf86config and selecting the SiS620 driver worked fine (there's no SiS630 driver in FreeBSD 4.7 like there is in mandrake 9 and red hat 8).

Now when i try and boot from the debian CD the following happens:

i get the lovely TEXTUAL starting screen telling me i can choose what type of install i want to go for, eg i can type different things depending on whether i want support for older kit, newer kit, minimal kit, bog-standard kit, whatever BUT there's no way to specify a text only install as far as i can see.

When you install mandrake or red hat, the FIRST screen you see offers you a GUI installation or a textual installation. if you choose the GUI install, they try and run X, if that fails, they try and run X via the framebuffer, if that fails, you get a non GUI install regardless. This choice is NOT given to me on the first screen of Debian and hence the following happens:

i try and start the installation by selecting the default or one of the other preset things that you type in, and then hit enter. the screen goes black. I immediately recognise the symptoms of X trying to work with my inherently faulty video card (this is a known hardware bug that some distros have worked around, i hasten to add, not a fault with freeBSD or Debian, although it was pretty easy to get it going in freeBSD).

I am flummoxed and flabbergasted to hear that debian does not offer a non-X install. this means that if your video card doesn't work with X right out of the box, you can't install debian! useless! i really didn't think, what with its reputation, that debian could allow such a huge error. also, i am highly surprised to hear that it has no text based install considering how all the GUI freaks moan about how bad its install process is, i assumed they were just bitching about the lack of a gUI!

anyway, are you sure there's no way to install debian without having a video card that works with X out of the box? i just simply cannot believe that this is the case.

[flap]

No, we're saying the opposite of that, i.e. that it *has no* graphical install, and *only* has a text mode install.

[Calum]

quote:Originally posted by Panos:
Eh, since when does Debian have a graphical installer? I recently installed Debian 3.0 in text mode only with no option for a graphical installation. I'm confused.    :confused:  

hey! this reply and the one before it came in after i wrote that post of mine above, well i assumed it had a graphical installer since the symptoms of X not working have happened all too often before on this laptop when trying to install various linuces.

So if it's a text only install, why am i getting this problem with the black screen???????

[Calum]

quote:Originally posted by flap:
No, we're saying the opposite of that, i.e. that it *has no* graphical install, and *only* has a text mode install.

!!!!!!!!!! we're all posting at once!!!!!11

i know that now! i was typing while you were posting.

all i want to know is how to get it to NOT have that horrible black screen. i get a prompt that looks like this:

Code: [Select]

and whatever i type, the screen goes black, and you can't ctrl-alt-f*, you can't ctrl-alt-backspace, you can't ctrl-c, you can't see anything except blackness. this is exactly what happened on red hat 7.0 when you tried to startx. red hat would install okay, but this would happen when you try to startx, and it's a video card problem. BUT I AM NOT DOING startx HERE! i am TRYING to boot the debian installer.

this was always an annoying problem because unlike a real server crash, the system doesn't actually figure out that X isn't working, and you just get a frozen black screen - the end.

it sucks.

no ideas then?

[Pantso]

After the boot prompt and if you pressed Enter, you should be able to see the kernel booting and immediately after the Debian text installer. Since the kernel does not even boot then I would assume that there's something wrong with the CDs you're trying to install Debian from. As you wrote, even if a distro's installer fails to detect your graphics card or controller (in your case the SiS chipset), it would automatically choose the VESA framebuffer driver and continue with that.

[ February 03, 2003: Message edited by: Panos ]

[flap]

Try the same thing on another machine and see if you get any further.

[Calum]

quote:Originally posted by Panos:
After the boot prompt and if you pressed Enter, you should be able to see the kernel booting and immediately after the Debian text installer. Since the kernel does not even boot then I would assume that there's something wrong with the CDs you're trying to install Debian from. As you wrote, even if a distro's installer fails to detect your graphics card or controller (in your case the SiS chipset), it would automatically choose the VESA framebuffer driver and continue with that.

[ February 03, 2003: Message edited by: Panos ]

i do see it start to boot, then the black screen you see when you startx comes up but the screen stays black. I have seen this before with this video card, the kernel has booted under that black screen i am sure of it.

will take flap's advice and post again tomorrow.
thanks for your help, chaps!

[Pantso]

Sorry, for not mentioning earlier but you could just type text at the boot prompt, but I don't know if it'll work with Debian.

[Calum]

ok:

results were EXACTLY as i expected.

booted debian install disk from other machine, works like a charm. i see kernel booting, screen goes black for a second BECAUSE THAT'S WHAT HAPPENS WHEN AN X SERVER STARTS and then i see the kernel booting up and all the start messages scrolling down the screen beneath a picture of Tux holding what looks like a paintbrush. he is obviously some sort of GUI, and i do not see him on the dodgy video card machine even though i know he is there. Next, screen goes white for a split second (dead giveaway there's an X server) and then i get what looks like a text based install. I suspect it is NOT a text based install. it just does not feel like a proper text based install of linux. i think it is an X based install that looks like a text based one.

SO how do i install debian without needing an X compatible video card????? this is driving me nuts.

[Pantso]

Does typing

Code: [Select]

at the boot prompt do anything?

PS I also posted that at void's forums a couple of minutes ago.

[flap]

It's using the framebuffer device. I don't know how you'd tell it not to, though.