Stop Microsoft
Operating Systems => Linux and UNIX => Topic started by: Maniaman on 11 January 2003, 02:40
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I recently swapped the video card in my Linux box.
Now when I boot, it keeps saying it's passed an undefined mode number. I choose 0. Afterwards it boots and stays at the command line. when I try to manually start X the screen goes blank for about 30 seconds and comes back to the command line with this message:
(EE) No devices found
Fatal server Error:
no screens found
The old video card is in use in a different comp.
Distro: Mandrake 9.0
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This is probably a stupid suggestion, but did you run /usr/X11R6/bin/xf86config when you added the new card?
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actually I never. I kept trying to run /etc/X11/XF86config
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I ran what you told me to, Now, how do I get X to use that configuration file? It keeps using /etc/X11/XF86Config-4
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do
[ January 11, 2003: Message edited by: Calum ]
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Now I'm having a new error pop up...
Fatal server error:
AddScreen/ScreenInit failed for driver 0
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well there's something in your new XF86Config-4 that's not right then. if i were you i would run xf86config again and play around with the settings. try using default values and so forth instead of giving your exact make and model numbers. I have an ATI rage graphics card and it needs to be a generic card in the XF86Config, if i use the correct video card setting it has display problems.
remember to keep your old XF86Config-4 files and not overwrite them. The one you had before will now be at /etc/X11/XF86Config-4.old so if you do that 'mv' thing again, you will overwrite it. every time you change your XF86Config-4 file, rename the old one to something different, like XF86Config-4.crapcolours or XF86Config-4.blackscreen or whatever. This way you haven't deleted your old one if you want to roll back to it.
I don't know much about the XF86Config file to be honest, i sorted mine out by trial and error, which is as good a method as any in my opinion, as it lets you get your hands alittle dirty as it were. no doubt somebody else will come on here to help though...
good luck!
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quote:
I ran what you told me to, Now, how do I get X to use that configuration file? It keeps using /etc/X11/XF86Config-4
At the end of xf86config, it will ask you "do you want me to write it to /usr/some/where/etc. Answer no. Then answer no to the next two questions. When it asks you where I should wirte it, enter in the file location that is specific to yor vendor. I haven't used Mandrake a whole bunch, so I am not sure where they put their config file.
What kind of card did you get?
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if it's xfree 3.x it's /etc/X11/XF86Config and if it's xfree 4.x it's /etc/X11/XF86Config-4
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quote:
Originally posted by Calum:
if it's xfree 3.x it's /etc/X11/XF86Config and if it's xfree 4.x it's /etc/X11/XF86Config-4
In Red Hat 7.3 with XFree v4 they used that scheme, then in 8.0 they went back to XF86Config (without the -4) even though they are still using XFree v4. Very confusing. The only thing I can figure is they shipped both v3 and v4 then where now they only ship v4 so they went back to a non version specific name for the config file.
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I still haevn't had any luck :(
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it may be a file called xf86cfg and its a graphical X config program
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That fixed most of it. It's still making me log in from command line, and using KDE as the default window manager. Any ways to fix this without rebooting?
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Yeah, edit the /etc/inittab and change the initdefault to 5, then type:
# telinit 5
which should bring up a graphical login that should allow you to select which of the available desktop environments you wish to use. This graphical login will come up again each time you reboot (if you reboot).
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When I try opening that it tells me Permission Denied. Even when I'm logged in as root
Also... Now my resolutions are all messed up. I entered startx as my normal username and it loaded with a huge resolution...
[ January 14, 2003: Message edited by: usr/bin/Maniaman ]
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If you have a huge resolution (I.E. you can scroll the mouse off of the desktop to see the rest of the screen) you probably answered yes to 'Virtual Desktop.' Run the config program again, and answer no to that question.
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I can now load X. But I'm still having problems. I still have the huge resolution and virtual desktop is not enabled. I did manage to change the resolution from 800x600 to 1024x786. That didn't change the sizes of anything. It only screwed up my colors... I figure I'll run xf86cfg again. Any way to kill X and get back to the command line? ctrl+alt+backspace restarts X...
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Ctrl+Alt+F1, to get back to X use Ctrl+Alt+F7.
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Thats just sticking me at a Blank Screen...
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Yet again, I'm glad I use OSX :D
sorry, had to say it. I'll shut up now.
EDIT:
On a related problem, my RedHat 8 box is apperantly out of commision, When my bro. attached a new monitor to it, X threw him into a hardware configuration App. in which he entered the wrong monitor type. Now X wont start at all, and there is seemingly no way to access the .conf file. Just a blank screen.
Any ideas?
[ January 17, 2003: Message edited by: psyjax: plain 'ol psyjax ]
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You can use Ctrl+Alt+F1-F6 to get a virtual terminal. Ctrl+Alt+F7 (otherwise known as tty07) is the terminal reserved for X.
Why you have a blank screen on tty01 is beyond me. You might have to adjust your default run levels in /etc/inittab. Make sure your default run-level is at 5 (multiuser level.) That way, you will have virtual terminals where you can screw around with the X config file, and not have to reboot everytime.
You still haven't told us what kind of card you are using. Some cards are not supported under X, and you have to manually load drivers. I had to do this on a friend's machine that was using some Trio 3D piece of shit.
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actally, it depends on the init config which terminal XFree86 is on. i know on some of the BSD's i have used, it was ctrl + alt + f5. as for the resolution, it automatically using the highest resolution it can. i don't know howto setup a default resolution lower then the highest one avialable.
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When the computer boots with X, the "/etc/inittab" file should reserve one tty for the console (for just these situations). In slackware it's tty06 ([Ctrl] [Alt] [F6]); in red hat it might be 5. try them all. X Windows opens itself on 7 when run (at least in linux), probably because it's the next number availible.
Now for X itself. Have you tried to set the card driver to "unsupported VESA"? it might at least be usable. If on the other hand what you have is usable (except for the fact that the default res is too low), then there are several lines that need to be dealt with in XF86Config;
For referencing, the name has to be the same one referenced inside the screen section: (quoted again for clarity)
hope this helps;
just FYI, the relavent lines at the bottom of "/etc/inittab" (for slackware) are
It is saying that consoles 1-5 are open for runlevels 1,2,3, and 5, but only console 6 is open for 1,2,3,4, and 5. slackware uses runlevel 4 for booting into X... redhat uses 5 (or is that 3?), so adjust accordingly.
[ January 17, 2003: Message edited by: beltorak ]
[ January 17, 2003: Message edited by: beltorak ]
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X workd for the most part now. I'm still stuck with KDE and command prompt login. When I try to open /etc/inittab it tells me Permission Denied (I'm logged in as root) I could just reboot and fix it but I dont want to loose my uptime (http://tongue.gif)
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so what are the perms on that file: "ls -l /etc/inittab"? it's odd that you don't have any perms on it as root....
as for the default wm -- check your home directory. there should be a file: ".xinitrc". That is the control script that runs when you "startx". It might be a symlink, in which case it should point to one of the scripts in "/etc/X11/xinit/xinitrc.$wm". If you want to save it, move it to something like ".old.xinitrc" and do "ln -s /etc/X11/xinit/xinitrc.gnome .xinitrc" to set your default wm to gnome. It should take effect when you "startx".
when you get your write perms back to /etc/inittab you can make the changes necessary to kick you into runlevel 5 upon boot. failing that, this can be used as an ugly workaround:
Save this as "/etc/init.d/rc3.d/S99telinit5", and don't forget to "chmod ug+x S99telinit5".
and HEED the warning in the header. For most boot loaders you can pass the "single" option to the kernel at boot time to boot into runlevel 1 -- it might be wise to try this out first....
Also, since i don't have a SysV type setup, i might be wrong about that "/etc/init.d/" directory. It might be "/etc/rc.d".
have fun
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It says root was -rw-r--r-- rights to /etc/inittab
According to bash .xinitrc doesn't exist in any of the mone directories...