Minimal Debian Etch install with X and open-vm-tools

World wide mirror sites (link)
After installing the base system, do the following.

For main Debian repository

hostname:/# nano -w /etc/apt/sources.list

#more entries from here of course from /etc/apt/sources.list
deb http://ftp.debian.org/debian etch main contrib non-free
deb-src http://ftp.debian.org/debian etch main contrib non-free
deb http://www.backports.org/debian etch-backports main contrib non-free

Hongkong is best for my case too:

#more entries from here of course from /etc/apt/sources.list
deb http://ftp.hk.debian.org/debian etch main contrib non-free
deb-src http://ftp.hk.debian.org/debian etch main contrib non-free
deb http://www.backports.org/debian etch-backports main contrib non-free

Notice that we added backports URL in sources.list. That's where open-vm-tools are currently hosted.

Continue with installing the rest of the software:

:/# wget -O - http://backports.org/debian/archive.key | apt-key add -
:/# apt-get update
:/# apt-get install less

 Depending on your Debian version, do install xorg related packages.

	Debian Sarge 3.1	Debian Etch
	apt-get install x-window-system-core	apt-get install xorg

Note: Based from this url , the above package is for compatibility only from Debian 3.x. Etch should instead use xorg package.

hostname:/# apt-get install gnome-core
hostname:/# apt-get install gdm msttcorefonts gdm-themes
hostname:/# reboot

After reboot, you should now be in graphical mode. Next step is to open-vm-tools.

:#/ apt-get install open-vm-source
:#/ module-assistant prepare open-vm
:#/ module-assistant auto-install open-vm
:#/ apt-get install open-vm-tools
:#/ reboot

 Install additional applications, like:

:/# apt-get install synaptic
:/# apt-get install firefox
:/# apt-get install gnome-themes
:/# apt-get install gnome-art

~ts~