hi i have installed debian for the first time using netinstall. i downloaded and installed X and gnome and on reboot it hung(goes blank and nothing happens). here is my messages log

May 12 23:00:12 coron syslogd 1.4.1#17: restart.
May 12 23:00:12 coron kernel: klogd 1.4.1#17, log source = /proc/kmsg started.
May 12 23:00:12 coron kernel: Inspecting /boot/System.map-2.4.27-2-386
May 12 23:00:13 coron kernel: Loaded 18328 symbols from /boot/System.map-2.4.27-2-386.
May 12 23:00:13 coron kernel: Symbols match kernel version 2.4.27.
May 12 23:00:13 coron kernel: Loaded 523 symbols from 20 modules.
May 12 23:00:13 coron kernel: Linux version 2.4.27-2-386 (horms@tabatha.lab.ultramonkey.org) (gcc version 3.3.5 (Debian 1:3.3.5-13)) #1 Wed Aug 17 09:33:35 UTC 2005
May 12 23:00:13 coron kernel: BIOS-provided physical RAM map:
May 12 23:00:13 coron kernel: BIOS-e820: 0000000000000000 - 0000000000080000 (usable)
May 12 23:00:13 coron kernel: BIOS-e820: 00000000000f0000 - 0000000000100000 (reserved)
May 12 23:00:13 coron kernel: BIOS-e820: 0000000000100000 - 000000001dfec000 (usable)
May 12 23:00:13 coron kernel: BIOS-e820: 000000001dfec000 - 000000001dfef000 (ACPI data)
May 12 23:00:13 coron kernel: BIOS-e820: 000000001dfef000 - 000000001dfff000 (reserved)
May 12 23:00:13 coron kernel: BIOS-e820: 000000001dfff000 - 000000001e000000 (ACPI NVS)
May 12 23:00:13 coron kernel: BIOS-e820: 00000000fec00000 - 00000000fec01000 (reserved)
May 12 23:00:13 coron kernel: BIOS-e820: 00000000fee00000 - 00000000fee01000 (reserved)
May 12 23:00:13 coron kernel: BIOS-e820: 00000000ffff0000 - 0000000100000000 (reserved)
May 12 23:00:13 coron kernel: 479MB LOWMEM available.
May 12 23:00:13 coron kernel: On node 0 totalpages: 122860
May 12 23:00:13 coron kernel: zone(0): 4096 pages.
May 12 23:00:13 coron kernel: zone(1): 118764 pages.
May 12 23:00:13 coron kernel: zone(2): 0 pages.
May 12 23:00:13 coron kernel: ACPI: RSDP (v000 ASUS ) @ 0x000f8070
May 12 23:00:13 coron kernel: ACPI: RSDT (v001 ASUS A7N266VM 0x42302e31 MSFT 0x31313031) @ 0x1dfec000
May 12 23:00:13 coron kernel: ACPI: FADT (v001 ASUS A7N266VM 0x42302e31 MSFT 0x31313031) @ 0x1dfec100
May 12 23:00:13 coron kernel: ACPI: BOOT (v001 ASUS A7N266VM 0x42302e31 MSFT 0x31313031) @ 0x1dfec040
May 12 23:00:13 coron kernel: ACPI: MADT (v001 ASUS A7N266VM 0x42302e31 MSFT 0x31313031) @ 0x1dfec080
May 12 23:00:13 coron kernel: ACPI: DSDT (v001 ASUS A7N266VM 0x00001000 MSFT 0x0100000b) @ 0x00000000
May 12 23:00:13 coron kernel: ACPI: Local APIC address 0xfee00000
May 12 23:00:13 coron kernel: ACPI: LAPIC (acpi_id[0x00] lapic_id[0x00] enabled)
May 12 23:00:13 coron kernel: Processor #0 Pentium(tm) Pro APIC version 16
May 12 23:00:13 coron kernel: ACPI: LAPIC_NMI (acpi_id[0x00] high edge lint[0x1])
May 12 23:00:13 coron kernel: Kernel command line: root=/dev/hdb5 ro
May 12 23:00:13 coron kernel: Found and enabled local APIC!
May 12 23:00:13 coron kernel: Initializing CPU#0
May 12 23:00:13 coron kernel: Detected 1470.012 MHz processor.
May 12 23:00:13 coron kernel: Console: colour VGA+ 80x25
May 12 23:00:13 coron kernel: Calibrating delay loop... 2936.01 BogoMIPS
May 12 23:00:13 coron kernel: Memory: 480020k/491440k available (1069k kernel code, 10908k reserved, 459k data, 96k init, 0k highmem)
May 12 23:00:13 coron kernel: Dentry cache hash table entries: 65536 (order: 7, 524288 bytes)
May 12 23:00:13 coron kernel: Inode cache hash table entries: 32768 (order: 6, 262144 bytes)
May 12 23:00:13 coron kernel: Mount cache hash table entries: 512 (order: 0, 4096 bytes)
May 12 23:00:13 coron kernel: Buffer cache hash table entries: 32768 (order: 5, 131072 bytes)
May 12 23:00:13 coron kernel: Page-cache hash table entries: 131072 (order: 7, 524288 bytes)
May 12 23:00:13 coron kernel: CPU: CLK_CTL MSR was 60031223. Reprogramming to 20031223
May 12 23:00:13 coron kernel: CPU: L1 I Cache: 64K (64 bytes/line), D cache 64K (64 bytes/line)
May 12 23:00:13 coron kernel: CPU: L2 Cache: 256K (64 bytes/line)
May 12 23:00:13 coron kernel: CPU: AMD Athlon(TM) XP 1700+ stepping 01
May 12 23:00:13 coron kernel: Enabling fast FPU save and restore... done.
May 12 23:00:13 coron kernel: Enabling unmasked SIMD FPU exception support... done.
May 12 23:00:13 coron kernel: Checking 'hlt' instruction... OK.
May 12 23:00:13 coron kernel: Checking for popad bug... OK.
May 12 23:00:13 coron kernel: POSIX conformance testing by UNIFIX
May 12 23:00:13 coron kernel: enabled ExtINT on CPU#0
May 12 23:00:13 coron kernel: ESR value before enabling vector: 00000000
May 12 23:00:13 coron kernel: ESR value after enabling vector: 00000000
May 12 23:00:13 coron kernel: Using local APIC timer interrupts.
May 12 23:00:13 coron kernel: calibrating APIC timer ...
May 12 23:00:13 coron kernel: ..... CPU clock speed is 1470.0212 MHz.
May 12 23:00:13 coron kernel: ..... host bus clock speed is 267.2764 MHz.
May 12 23:00:13 coron kernel: cpu: 0, clocks: 2672764, slice: 1336382
May 12 23:00:13 coron kernel: CPU0<T0:2672752,T1:1336368,D:2,S:1336382,C:2672764>
May 12 23:00:13 coron kernel: ACPI: Subsystem revision 20040326
May 12 23:00:13 coron kernel: ACPI: Interpreter disabled.
May 12 23:00:13 coron kernel: PCI: PCI BIOS revision 2.10 entry at 0xf1b20, last bus=2
May 12 23:00:13 coron kernel: PCI: Using configuration type 1
May 12 23:00:13 coron kernel: PCI: Probing PCI hardware
May 12 23:00:13 coron kernel: PCI: ACPI tables contain no PCI IRQ routing entries
May 12 23:00:13 coron kernel: PCI: Probing PCI hardware (bus 00)
May 12 23:00:13 coron kernel: PCI: Using IRQ router default [10de/01b2] at 00:01.0
May 12 23:00:13 coron kernel: Linux NET4.0 for Linux 2.4
May 12 23:00:13 coron kernel: Based upon Swansea University Computer Society NET3.039
May 12 23:00:13 coron kernel: Initializing RT netlink socket
May 12 23:00:13 coron kernel: Starting kswapd
May 12 23:00:13 coron kernel: VFS: Disk quotas vdquot_6.5.1
May 12 23:00:13 coron kernel: devfs: v1.12c (20020818) Richard Gooch (rgooch@atnf.csiro.au)
May 12 23:00:13 coron kernel: devfs: boot_options: 0x0
May 12 23:00:13 coron kernel: Detected PS/2 Mouse Port.
May 12 23:00:13 coron kernel: pty: 256 Unix98 ptys configured
May 12 23:00:13 coron kernel: Serial driver version 5.05c (2001-07-08) with HUB-6 MANY_PORTS MULTIPORT SHARE_IRQ SERIAL_PCI enabled
May 12 23:00:13 coron kernel: ttyS00 at 0x03f8 (irq = 4) is a 16550A
May 12 23:00:13 coron kernel: ttyS01 at 0x02f8 (irq = 3) is a 16550A
May 12 23:00:13 coron kernel: COMX: driver version 0.85 (C) 1995-1999 ITConsult-Pro Co. <info@itc.hu>
May 12 23:00:13 coron kernel: RAMDISK driver initialized: 16 RAM disks of 8192K size 1024 blocksize
May 12 23:00:13 coron kernel: Initializing Cryptographic API
May 12 23:00:13 coron kernel: NET4: Linux TCP/IP 1.0 for NET4.0
May 12 23:00:13 coron kernel: IP: routing cache hash table of 4096 buckets, 32Kbytes
May 12 23:00:13 coron kernel: TCP: Hash tables configured (established 32768 bind 65536)
May 12 23:00:13 coron kernel: Linux IP multicast router 0.06 plus PIM-SM
May 12 23:00:13 coron kernel: RAMDISK: cramfs filesystem found at block 0
May 12 23:00:13 coron kernel: RAMDISK: Loading 3692 blocks [1 disk] into ram disk... |^H/^H-^H\^H|^H/^H-^H\^H|^H/^H-^H\^H|^H/^H-^H\^H|^H/^H-^H\^H|^H/^H-^H\^H|^H/^H-^H\^H|^H/^H-^H\^H|^H/^H-^H\^H|^H/^H-^H\^H|^H/^H-^H\^H|^H/^H-^H\^H|^H/^H-^H\^H|^H/^H-^H\^H|^H/^H-^H\^H|^H/^H-^H\^H|^H/^H-^H\^H|^H/^H-^H\^H|^H/^H-^H\^H|^H/^H-^H\^H|^H/^H-^H\^H|^H/^H-^H\^H|^H/^H-^H\^H|^H/^H-^H\^H|^H/^H-^H\^H|^H/^H-^H\^H|^H/^H-^H\^H|^H/^H-^H\^H|^H/^H-^H\^H|^H/^H-^H\^H|^H/^H-^H\^H|^H/^H-^H\^H|^H/^H-^H\^H|^H/^H-^H\^H|^H/^H-^H\^H|^H/^H-^H\^H|^H/^H-^H\^H|^H/^H-^H\^H|^H/^H-^H\^H|^H/^H-^H\^H|^H/^H-^H\^H|^H/^H-^H\^H|^H/^H-^H\^H|^H/^H-^H\^H|^H/^H-^H\^H|^H/^H-^H\^H|^H/^H-^H\^H|^H/^H-^H\^H|^H/^H-^H\^H|^H/^H-^H\^H|^H/^H-^H\^H|^H/^H-^H\^H|^H/^H-^H\^H|^H/^H-^H\^H|^H/^H-^H\^H|^H/^H-^H\^H|^H/^H-^H\^H|^H/^H-^Hdone.
May 12 23:00:13 coron kernel: Freeing initrd memory: 3692k freed
May 12 23:00:13 coron kernel: VFS: Mounted root (cramfs filesystem).
May 12 23:00:13 coron kernel: Freeing unused kernel memory: 96k freed
May 12 23:00:13 coron kernel: NET4: Unix domain sockets 1.0/SMP for Linux NET4.0.
May 12 23:00:13 coron kernel: Uniform Multi-Platform E-IDE driver Revision: 7.00beta4-2.4
May 12 23:00:13 coron kernel: ide: Assuming 33MHz system bus speed for PIO modes; override with idebus=xx
May 12 23:00:13 coron kernel: NFORCE: IDE controller at PCI slot 00:09.0
May 12 23:00:13 coron kernel: NFORCE: chipset revision 195
May 12 23:00:13 coron kernel: NFORCE: not 100%% native mode: will probe irqs later
May 12 23:00:13 coron kernel: NFORCE: BIOS didn't set cable bits correctly. Enabling workaround.
May 12 23:00:13 coron kernel: ide: Assuming 33MHz system bus speed for PIO modes; override with idebus=xx
May 12 23:00:13 coron kernel: NFORCE: 00:09.0 (rev c3) UDMA100 controller
May 12 23:00:13 coron kernel: ide0: BM-DMA at 0xa800-0xa807, BIOS settings: hdaMA, hdbMA
May 12 23:00:13 coron kernel: ide1: BM-DMA at 0xa808-0xa80f, BIOS settings: hdcMA, hddMA
May 12 23:00:13 coron kernel: hda: ST3160021A, ATA DISK drive
May 12 23:00:13 coron kernel: hdb: SAMSUNG SP4002H, ATA DISK drive
May 12 23:00:13 coron kernel: blk: queue de825b60, I/O limit 4095Mb (mask 0xffffffff)
May 12 23:00:13 coron kernel: blk: queue de825c9c, I/O limit 4095Mb (mask 0xffffffff)
May 12 23:00:13 coron kernel: hdc: CD-RW IDE2410, ATAPI CD/DVD-ROM drive
May 12 23:00:13 coron kernel: hdd: Pioneer DVD-ROM ATAPIModel DVD-500M 010, ATAPI CD/DVD-ROM drive
May 12 23:00:13 coron kernel: ide0 at 0x1f0-0x1f7,0x3f6 on irq 14
May 12 23:00:13 coron kernel: ide1 at 0x170-0x177,0x376 on irq 15
May 12 23:00:13 coron kernel: hda: attached ide-disk driver.
May 12 23:00:13 coron kernel: hda: 312581808 sectors (160042 MB) w/2048KiB Cache, CHS=19457/255/63, UDMA(100)
May 12 23:00:13 coron kernel: hdb: attached ide-disk driver.
May 12 23:00:13 coron kernel: hdb: 78242976 sectors (40060 MB) w/2048KiB Cache, CHS=77622/16/63, UDMA(100)
May 12 23:00:13 coron kernel: Partition check:
May 12 23:00:13 coron kernel: /dev/ide/host0/bus0/target0/lun0: p1 p2 < p5 p6 p7 p8 p9 p10 p11 p12 >
May 12 23:00:13 coron kernel: /dev/ide/host0/bus0/target1/lun0: [PTBL] [4870/255/63] p1 p2 < p5 p6 p7 >
May 12 23:00:13 coron kernel: Journalled Block Device driver loaded
May 12 23:00:13 coron kernel: kjournald starting. Commit interval 5 seconds
May 12 23:00:13 coron kernel: EXT3-fs: mounted filesystem with ordered data mode.
May 12 23:00:13 coron kernel: Adding Swap: 2104472k swap-space (priority -1)
May 12 23:00:13 coron kernel: Adding Swap: 939760k swap-space (priority -2)
May 12 23:00:13 coron kernel: EXT3 FS 2.4-0.9.19, 19 August 2002 on ide0(3,69), internal journal
May 12 23:00:13 coron kernel: Real Time Clock Driver v1.10f
May 12 23:00:13 coron kernel: hdc: attached ide-cdrom driver.
May 12 23:00:13 coron kernel: hdc: ATAPI 40X CD-ROM CD-R/RW drive, 2048kB Cache, UDMA(33)
May 12 23:00:13 coron kernel: Uniform CD-ROM driver Revision: 3.12
May 12 23:00:13 coron kernel: hdd: attached ide-cdrom driver.
May 12 23:00:13 coron kernel: hdd: ATAPI 40X DVD-ROM drive, 512kB Cache, UDMA(33)
May 12 23:00:13 coron kernel: spurious 8259A interrupt: IRQ7.
May 12 23:00:13 coron kernel: kjournald starting. Commit interval 5 seconds
May 12 23:00:13 coron kernel: EXT3 FS 2.4-0.9.19, 19 August 2002 on ide0(3,70), internal journal
May 12 23:00:13 coron kernel: EXT3-fs: mounted filesystem with ordered data mode.
May 12 23:00:13 coron kernel: Linux Tulip driver version 0.9.15-pre12 (Aug 9, 2002)
May 12 23:00:13 coron kernel: tulip0: Old style EEPROM with no media selection information.
May 12 23:00:13 coron kernel: eth0: Macronix 98715 PMAC rev 32 at 0xb800, 00:80:00:80:00:80, IRQ 6.
May 12 23:00:13 coron kernel: SCSI subsystem driver Revision: 1.00
May 12 23:00:13 coron kernel: scsi0 : SCSI host adapter emulation for IDE ATAPI devices
May 12 23:00:13 coron kernel: pci_hotplug: PCI Hot Plug PCI Core version: 0.5
May 12 23:00:13 coron kernel: pci_hotplug: PCI Hot Plug PCI Core version: 0.5
May 12 23:00:13 coron kernel: usb.c: registered new driver usbdevfs
May 12 23:00:13 coron kernel: usb.c: registered new driver hub
May 12 23:00:13 coron kernel: usb-ohci.c: USB OHCI at membase 0xde879000, IRQ 10
May 12 23:00:13 coron kernel: usb-ohci.c: usb-00:02.0, nVidia Corporation nForce USB Controller
May 12 23:00:13 coron kernel: usb.c: new USB bus registered, assigned bus number 1
May 12 23:00:13 coron kernel: hub.c: USB hub found
May 12 23:00:13 coron kernel: hub.c: 3 ports detected
May 12 23:00:13 coron kernel: usb-ohci.c: USB OHCI at membase 0xdea1e000, IRQ 10
May 12 23:00:13 coron kernel: usb-ohci.c: usb-00:03.0, nVidia Corporation nForce USB Controller (#2)
May 12 23:00:13 coron kernel: usb.c: new USB bus registered, assigned bus number 2
May 12 23:00:13 coron kernel: hub.c: USB hub found
May 12 23:00:13 coron kernel: hub.c: 3 ports detected
May 12 23:00:13 coron kernel: hub.c: new USB device 00:02.0-2, assigned address 2
May 12 23:00:13 coron kernel: usb.c: USB device 2 (vend/prod 0x1241/0x1122) is not claimed by any active driver.
May 12 23:00:13 coron kernel: usb.c: registered new driver hiddev
May 12 23:00:13 coron kernel: usb.c: registered new driver hid
May 12 23:00:13 coron kernel: input: USB HID v1.00 Mouse [1241:1122] on usb1:2.0
May 12 23:00:13 coron kernel: hid-core.c: v1.8.1 Andreas Gal, Vojtech Pavlik <vojtech@suse.cz>
May 12 23:00:13 coron kernel: hid-core.c: USB HID support drivers
May 12 23:00:13 coron kernel: mice: PS/2 mouse device common for all mice
May 12 23:00:15 coron xfs: ignoring font path element /usr/lib/X11/fonts/cyrillic/ (unreadable)
May 12 23:00:15 coron xfs: ignoring font path element /usr/lib/X11/fonts/CID (unreadable)
May 12 23:00:17 coron Xprt_64: No matching visual for __GLcontextMode with visual class = 0 (32775), nplanes = 8

have you installed x-window-system when I installed via netinstall a month ago it failed to download and install that, thats caused problems trying to start xorg

The Xserver log file for Debian stable/sarge is /var/log/XFree86.0.log.
The Xserver log file for Debian testing & unstable is /var/log/Xorg.0.log.
The log messages you posted don't seem to be from either of these files.

Michael_aust has a good point -- if you haven't yet installed the x-window-system
package, then Xserver doesn't work.

forgot to mentione installing x-window-system will also download all the s fonts you need as xorg does not download them.

this log seems incomplete without any significant errors??? I can't tell. I have installed x-window-system but will recheck. thank for helping out.


XFree86 Version 4.3.0.1 (Debian 4.3.0.dfsg.1-14sarge1 20050901212727 fjp@localhost.localdomain)
Release Date: 15 August 2003
X Protocol Version 11, Revision 0, Release 6.6
Build Operating System: Linux 2.6.8-16.0508-2 i686 [ELF]
Build Date: 02 September 2005

This version of XFree86 has been extensively modified by the Debian
Project, and is not supported by the XFree86 Project, Inc., in any
way. Bugs should be reported to the Debian Bug Tracking System; see
<URL: http://www.debian.org/Bugs/Reporting >.

We strongly encourage the use of the "reportbug" package and command
to ensure that bug reports contain as much useful information as
possible.

Before filing a bug report, you may want to consult the Debian X FAQ:
XHTML version: file:///usr/share/doc/xfree86-common/FAQ.xhtml
plain text version: file:///usr/share/doc/xfree86-common/FAQ.gz

Module Loader present
OS Kernel: Linux version 2.4.27-2-386 (horms@tabatha.lab.ultramonkey.org) (gcc version 3.3.5 (Debian 1:3.3.5-13)) #1 Wed Aug 17 09:33:35 UTC 2005
Markers: (--) probed, (**) from config file, (==) default setting,
(++) from command line, (!!) notice, (II) informational,
(WW) warning, (EE) error, (NI) not implemented, (??) unknown.
(==) Log file: "/var/log/XFree86.0.log", Time: Sat May 13 21:58:29 2006
(==) Using config file: "/etc/X11/XF86Config-4"
(==) ServerLayout "Default Layout"
(**) |-->Screen "Default Screen" (0)
(**) | |-->Monitor "syncmaster753s"
(**) | |-->Device "nvidia"
(**) |-->Input Device "Generic Keyboard"
(**) Option "XkbRules" "xfree86"
(**) XKB: rules: "xfree86"
(**) Option "XkbModel" "pc104"
(**) XKB: model: "pc104"
(**) Option "XkbLayout" "us"
(**) XKB: layout: "us"
(==) Keyboard: CustomKeycode disabled
(**) |-->Input Device "Configured Mouse"
(WW) The directory "/usr/lib/X11/fonts/cyrillic" does not exist.
Entry deleted from font path.
(WW) The directory "/usr/lib/X11/fonts/CID" does not exist.
Entry deleted from font path.
(**) FontPath set to "unix/:7100,/usr/lib/X11/fonts/misc,/usr/lib/X11/fonts/100dpi/:unscaled,/usr/lib/X11/fonts/75dpi/:unscaled,/usr/lib/X11/fonts/Type1,/usr/lib/X11/fonts/Speedo,/usr/lib/X11/fonts/100dpi,/usr/lib/X11/fonts/75dpi"
(==) RgbPath set to "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/rgb"
(==) ModulePath set to "/usr/X11R6/lib/modules"
(++) using VT number 7

Is that all there is in that log file? If you do "more /var/log/XFree86.0.log",
can you scroll forward by pressing the "f" key or space bar?

strange but thats all there is to the log file.

I was just going through the files under 'root' and i can't find 'startx'. is that strange? I have 'x-window-system' installed and 'xdm' and 'gdm'.

sorry startx is there. but the display is still not coming up. but the Xfree86.0.log is still the same- it ends abruptyl at "(--) using VT number 7". Like the same one i have posted


here is my config file ( XF86Config-4 )

=======================

# XF86Config-4 (XFree86 X Window System server configuration file)
#
# This file was generated by dexconf, the Debian X Configuration tool, using
# values from the debconf database.
#
# Edit this file with caution, and see the XF86Config-4 manual page.
# (Type "man XF86Config-4" at the shell prompt.)
#
# This file is automatically updated on xserver-xfree86 package upgrades *only*
# if it has not been modified since the last upgrade of the xserver-xfree86
# package.
#
# If you have edited this file but would like it to be automatically updated
# again, run the following commands as root:
#
# cp /etc/X11/XF86Config-4 /etc/X11/XF86Config-4.custom
# md5sum /etc/X11/XF86Config-4 >/var/lib/xfree86/XF86Config-4.md5sum
# dpkg-reconfigure xserver-xfree86

Section "Files"
FontPath "unix/:7100" # local font server
# if the local font server has problems, we can fall back on these
FontPath "/usr/lib/X11/fonts/misc"
FontPath "/usr/lib/X11/fonts/cyrillic"
FontPath "/usr/lib/X11/fonts/100dpi/:unscaled"
FontPath "/usr/lib/X11/fonts/75dpi/:unscaled"
FontPath "/usr/lib/X11/fonts/Type1"
FontPath "/usr/lib/X11/fonts/CID"
FontPath "/usr/lib/X11/fonts/Speedo"
FontPath "/usr/lib/X11/fonts/100dpi"
FontPath "/usr/lib/X11/fonts/75dpi"
EndSection

Section "Module"
Load "GLcore"
Load "bitmap"
Load "dbe"
Load "ddc"
Load "dri"
Load "extmod"
Load "freetype"
Load "glx"
Load "int10"
Load "record"
Load "speedo"
Load "type1"
Load "vbe"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
Identifier "Generic Keyboard"
Driver "keyboard"
Option "CoreKeyboard"
Option "XkbRules" "xfree86"
Option "XkbModel" "pc104"
Option "XkbLayout" "us"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
Identifier "Configured Mouse"
Driver "mouse"
Option "CorePointer"
Option "Device" "/dev/input/mice"
Option "Protocol" "ImPS/2"
Option "Emulate3Buttons" "true"
Option "ZAxisMapping" "4 5"
EndSection

Section "Device"
Identifier "nvidia"
Driver "nv"
VideoRam 32000
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
Identifier "syncmaster753s"
HorizSync 28-64
VertRefresh 43-60
Option "DPMS"
EndSection

Section "Screen"
Identifier "Default Screen"
Device "nvidia"
Monitor "syncmaster753s"
DefaultDepth 24
SubSection "Display"
Depth 1
Modes "1280x1024" "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
EndSubSection
SubSection "Display"
Depth 4
Modes "1280x1024" "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
EndSubSection
SubSection "Display"
Depth 8
Modes "1280x1024" "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
EndSubSection
SubSection "Display"
Depth 15
Modes "1280x1024" "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
EndSubSection
SubSection "Display"
Depth 16
Modes "1280x1024" "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
EndSubSection
SubSection "Display"
Depth 24
Modes "1280x1024" "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
EndSubSection
EndSection

Section "ServerLayout"
Identifier "Default Layout"
Screen "Default Screen"
InputDevice "Generic Keyboard"
InputDevice "Configured Mouse"
EndSection

Section "DRI"
Mode 0666
EndSection

=========================================

There's usually a lot more info in the Xserver log file and there's
usually also some message telling why X fails to start. It's quite
puzzling that your Xserver seems to die before it has finished writing
the log file. That is most unusual.

In my Xserver log file the next reported step after starting virtual
terminal number 7 is a PCI scan but your Xserver log file doesn't seem
to reach that next step.

Before suggesting any further troubleshooting procedures I'd like to
learn how you configured your Xserver. Did you copy your
/etc/X11/XF86Config-4 from some other existing Linux installation
or did you create it just by answering the post-installation questions
that Debian asked you? Have you successfully installed and used
some other Linux distro on the same hardware?

You see, there are basically two main reasons why Xserver can fail
to start. Firstly, if your Xserver configuration is in some respect
incorrect, then tweaking /etc/X11/XF86Config-4 might fix the problem.
Or, secondly, your hardware may not be supported by Debian stable.
If the latter is the case, then upgrading your Debian stable
installation to Debian testing might fix the problem because Debian
testing has more up-to-date software than Debian stable. Of course,
if some component of your display hardware is not currently supported
by Linux at all, then there's not much you can do.

And then there's a third option: the problem may be not related to
X configuration at all. If this is the case, then we need to figure out
where the problem actually is. And that can be tricky.

Oh, and I have one further question: can you use the command line after
X fails to start or does the screen just stay black without giving you
the command prompt?

Hi I will try and answers most of the questions you asked. thanks for the detailed reply.

I have been running Kubuntu Breezy 5.10 on this same machine for sometime now.
I now use kernel 2.6.12-10-386 and KDE 3.5.0. I used to use 2.6.12-9-386

I created the XF86Config-4 using the post-install procedures. I used the "nv" drviers as well as "vesa", both dont seem to make any difference.
After several attempts at starting xserver i
removed 'x-window-system' and 'xdm' using apt-get
next i ran 'dpkg-reconfigure xserver-xfree86' and made changes to the XF86Config-4 through it (primarily tried different drivers- 'nv' and 'vesa' and made some changes to the horizontal and vertical monitor frequencies)
I also tried the monitor freqs that currently are in my working kubuntu xorg.conf file)

I then installed the 'x-window-system' back
None of this has made any difference to my xserver hang problem.

one of the last messages that i see before the screen goes blank is related to starting up of the xdm
The screen remains blank and i dont get a prompt after that. the keyboard num and caps lights dont work and the only way out is to restart.

The kernel that i am using under debian stable is the default 2.4.27-2-386

hope this info is adequate to troubleshoot

thanks

Yes, the problem is most likely related to Xserver. I thought it might be a Gnome related
problem but if xdm fails to start, then it's not a Gnome problem. Too bad the Xserver
log file doesn't tell why X fails to start. Well, hopefully you can switch to another
virtual terminal (with "Ctrl-Alt-F2") so you can use the command line tools (like apt-get
and so on).

Kubuntu uses Xorg that has better support for new display hardware than the XFree86 that
Debian stable uses. The good news is that if Kubuntu supports your hardware, it should be
possible to solve your Xserver problem also in Debian.

The lack of info in Xserver's log file is so puzzling that I'd suggest that you should
go straight ahead and upgrade XFree86 to Xorg to see if that fixes your problem. You have
basically two alternative ways to upgrade XFree86 to Xorg -- if you wish to continue using
Debian stable, you can get Xorg from backports.org. You might want to upgrade also your
kernel from backports.org because newer kernels usually add improved hardware support.

http://backports.org/instructions.html

The alternative upgrade option would be to leave the safety of Debian stable behind and
start tracking Debian's development branch, called "testing". If this is your choice, edit
/etc/apt/sources.list changing every instance of "stable" to "testing". Then run
"aptitude update" and "aptitude dist-upgrade". This should upgrade your whole system
from Debian stable to Debian testing, including the upgrade of XFree86 to Xorg.

After the Xserver upgrade, the command that can be used for reconfiguring Xserver would be
"dpkg-reconfigure xserver-xorg".

awesome!! its working now.

all i had to do was upgrade the kernel from
2.4.27-2-386
to
2.6.8-2-k7

then install
apt-get install x-window-system

and the run
dkpg-reconfigure xserver-xfree86

--------------------------------------
here is my complete XFree86.0.log for you to see
http://pastebin.com/717535

but i cant find my
XF86Config-4 under /etc/X11
thats new to me...can you please tell me why its not there?

Good to hear that you solved the problem.
No idea. It's funny that you can start X even without the config file. You could try the
"dexconf" command as root. That's the command that's supposed to be automatically executed
at the end of "dkpg-reconfigure xserver-xfree86" and it's supposed to write information
from debconf database to /etc/X11/XF86Config-4.

I'm having a very similar problem in Gentoo 64. I used X -configure to get a config file,
and when I did X -config /root/xorg.conf.new, it came up blank. No errors. Then I used xorgconfig,
same thing, no errors. I've used X -configure before, same hardware, and it worked. It's really annoying.
I have gentoo kernel 2.6.15-r5 and I'm installing the ati-drivers package now to see what I can do about this.

-Peter