X wont work on my comp? Mandrake 8, read..

[Yuffie]

Mandrake wont load XWindows =[ , It takes me straight to the console, I NEED A GUI    Does xwin require a vid card?

My system spec =

500 mhz Celeron
512mb 100 mhz SDRam
No video mem (1 mb from mainboard, iunno)
Intel 810 chipset
66, 100mhz system bus..
HMM, what else? iunno (=

Please reply with a solution, or ask questions.

[Master of Reality]

you need a video card (i'm pretty sure)
did you install X windows or KDE when you installed mandrake?

[Yuffie]

i installed KDE and Gnome, but it asks for XWindow libraries or something at the end of the install.. Iunno. :[

[iancom]

I've always had problems with the i810 on-board graphics and Linux. Last I tried (with Mandrake 8.1 and RedHat 7.2) neither worked with anything other than 16-colour VGA. Not Nice. Fortunately these were test PC's at work and I got round it by simply not using those ones for my GUI linux projects!

Have you tried Mandrake 8.2?

In theory if it's let you install KDE it would have installed all the necessary dependencies including X, xdm, the font server etc etc. It should also boot to the GUI with xdm by default, so if it's going straight to the command line (init 3) then something's really wrong. Try logging in as root and typing "init 5" which should take you to the graphical login.

If it doesn't even go to a VGA screen, try logging in as root and running "Xconfigurator" to reset your settings. Go for normal VGA at 640x480 to start with, just to make sure it works.

If that works, re-run Xconfigurator and go up one level 800x600 and try again. You might be able to get it up to your desired resolution, but if you go up in stages you'll know the highest one that works.

Good luck!

[Calum]

well my integrated video card was a bunch of shite, and i needed to download a fix (the SiS630 chipset, it was) to sort it out.
X would run, but would freeze the screen on black.
btw when you do get to the prompt, did you try typing "startx" to see if X would run?
that's what i did to get my hideous black screen phenomenon.
Anyway, i suggest searching on Google with the name of yr chipset and the word 'linux' in the wuery. Chances are you will find a bunch of people with the same problem, and a few with solutions...

[davebrock]

also, what exactly are the error messages you get when you try to start X? I can't tell you the hours I've wasted, when all the problem I had was an "incorrect mode" X can be 'painfull' :-( but when it works.......wow