Thanks to everyone...
lspci and apt-cache search show that a lot of firmware and drivers are
missing.  I'm going to install Lubuntu and take it from there.
Robert

On 5 April 2014 16:52, Alexandre <ac586133@...> wrote:
> I suggest you to start off a Ubuntu-based system (if you prefer Debian-like
> systems), because it come with more, and more up-to-date hardware drivers,
> firmwares and microcodes that are needed to get your hardware running. Maybe
> LUbuntu or XUbuntu could be a great choice for you? Then, installing TDE is
> pretty simple, just by following the instructions provided on
> trinitydesktop.org
>
> Or you can fiddle around the web to find all the necessary blobs of
> firmwares and drivers to get Debian running as you want.
>
> Good luck!
> -Alexandre