Mistake configuring X Window System; how do I get back to terminal?

audiorevolution · 05-20-2005, 01:28 PM

I'm configuring the X Window System after netinstalling Debian Sarge on my Apple PowerBook G3 500 'Pismo' (with an ATI Rage 128 AGP). Foolishly, I didn't research video card information, so I misconfigured it. Now my computer boots into kdm automatically, but the screen goes black and then slowly turns white. Is there any way I can boot back into the terminal and not kdm, so I can reconfigure this with the /etc/X11/XF86Config file? I know I was supposed to run lspci to find the video bus information or something, but I couldn't do that while setting up X.

koen plessers · 05-20-2005, 01:45 PM

Hello

On a pc keyboard you may have to use <Ctrl-Alt-Backspace> to break out of the X session. I just don't know what Ctrl and Alt are on an apple keyboard.

Bye

Koen Plessers

XavierP · 05-20-2005, 01:54 PM

Do <ctrl>-<alt>-<Fn> and switch to a terminal. Edit /etc/inittab so that instead of booting to KDM, it boots to a terminal.

hyllplan · 05-20-2005, 02:35 PM

<Ctrl-Alt-Backspace> will just restart X, and you will be back with the same problem

<Ctrl>-<Alt> and then press F1, F2 or up to F6, there you will have different terminalsessions, dont edit the inittab, edit and correct the /etc/XF86Config instead, and restart the box with 'shutdown -r now' or <ctrl>-<alt>-<del>.

!Or did you not get a recovery mode in the Grub startupmeny? That would bring you to singlemode, thats the stage beore X start up.

Or use Knoppix linux to boot up and edit the file, there are many options, no problema! :-)

audiorevolution · 05-20-2005, 05:02 PM

I found the problem. I need to identify the bus ID for my video card (as I'm running PPC, it needs to be entered, even though I only have one). I lspci'd and got "0000:00:10.0", but it said that's a decimal and I need to convert it into a hexidecimal. How should I do this?

hyllplan · 05-21-2005, 12:36 PM

10 decimal is A in hex but I think you should try:
BusID "PCI:0:10:0"
- Johan

audiorevolution · 05-22-2005, 02:06 AM

That worked. Thanks a lot. Now I have a new problem, though.

I'm running an Apple PowerBook G3 500 with an ATI Rage Mobility M3 AGP 2x (8MB) graphics card on PC:0:10:0.

Upon running startx, I'm met with the following error:

Code:

(==) Log file: "var/log/XFree86.0.log", Time: Sun May 22 02:42:17 2005
(==) Using config file: "etc/X11/XF86Config-4"
Skipping "/usr/X11R6/lib/modules/extensions/libGLcore.a:m_debug_clip.o": No symbols found
Skipping "/usr/X11R6/lib/modules/extensions/libGLcore.a:m_debug_norm.o": No symbols found
Skipping "/usr/X11R6/lib/modules/extensions/libGLcore.a:m_debug_xform.o": No symbols found
Skipping "/usr/X11R6/lib/modules/extensions/libGLcore.a:m_debug_vertex.o": No symbols found
Skipping "/usr/X11R6/lib/modules/fonts/lipspeedo.a:spencode.o": No symbols found
(WW) R128: No matching Device section for instance (BusID PCI:0:16:0) found
(EE) No devices detected.

Fatal server error:
no screens found

When reporting a problem related to a server crash, please send
the full server output, not just the last messages.
This can be found in the log file "/var/log/XFree86.0.log".
Please report problems to submit@bugs.debian.org.

XIO:   fatal IO error 104 (Connection reset by peer) on X server ":0.0"
          after 0 requests (0 known processed) with 0 events remaining.

It seems the problem is with the "R128" that is apparently identified with PCI:0.16.0, though I can find no configuration for that anywhere (in /etc/X11/XF86Config-4).