whats up with debian?

[s134k]

hey all,
I have just installed Debian Linux. I boot into it, everything loads successfully, it prompts for my "Debian Login:", I enter my username and hit enter, and then it prompts for my "Password:". the problem is, is that when I press enter after I type in my username, the keyboard is suddenly disabled. I cannot enter my password . I once got some message, saying something about the keyboard timing out, and something about an "AT" keyboard (I think it was "AT").

I am just wondering if anyone has an idea of what is going wrong here. the keyboard seems to work, but then it doesn't. almost like the Enter command from the keyboard input into the OS corrupts something. but that can't be the case, because how could I get through the installation without "Enter" (I remember using it, it worked fine)?

any help here would be greatly appreciated! thanks in advance!

EDIT: if this isn't a good spot for this question, mods feel free to move to appropriate forum. I just noticed a "Debian / Ubuntu" specific forum (sorry ).

[Compunuts]

Well, it greatly depends on what type of hardware you have.

But generally this kind of entry in /etc/X11/XF86Config-4 file,

Section "InputDevice"
        Identifier      "Generic Keyboard"
        Driver          "keyboard"
        Option          "CoreKeyboard"
        Option          "XkbRules"      "xfree86"
        Option          "XkbModel"      "pc104"
        Option          "XkbLayout"     "us"
EndSection

This would be as generic as you can get.

HTH ..

[s134k]

oops. it seems that the password just doesn't get displayed on the screen. when I enter the correct one I get what looks like a command line, and when I enter the incorrect one I get "Incorrect login" (or an error something like that).

gonna have to do some more reading at debian.com. I figured I'd have somewhat of a Desktop environment after login (as some books say that I have that use RedHat), but maybe its not that simple with Debian. anyways, lol, sorry for such the n00b question .

thanks for the reply anyways Compunuts.

[stryder144]

After you have successfully logged in, try typing startx and hitting enter. If you have installed KDE, Gnome, xfce, this should be started at startx. If not, please do the following: cd /etc/X11. If you can cd into that directory, type the following dpkg-config xserver-xorg. This will set your xorg up.

If you haven't installed KDE/Gnome and xorg, you will need to install those. Type in sudo apt-get update, sudo apt-get dist-upgrade, then sudo apt-get install xserver-xorg. Do not hit Y for yes to installing. Check the optional install items and see if any of those are ones you would like to add. If so, sudo apt-get install xserver-xorg 123 456 (the numbers represent the additional install items). Do a google search for how to properly install the window manager/desktop of your choice. I installed window maker by typing sudo apt-get install wmaker (I think).

If you have any further questions or if I've messed something up (I'm at work), feel free to PM me or post the question(s) here.

Cheers