Failed to start the X server (your graphical user interface)
 

I knoww that this problem was discussed in more than one forums, but I could not find what should I do with my case

Running FC7. I installed several packages last night. Today, when I booted up the computer, I got this message:

I tried Ctrl-Alt-F1 where I get the X server failure and go to a command line.

Then, I used :

Code:

---

sudo dpkg-reconfigure xserver-xorg

---

But it did not work

http://forums.fedoraforum.org/showthread.php?t=161959

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=403322

Any recommendation what should I start for troubleshooting ?

Hi,


dpkg-reconfigure is not a feature of fedora, its for debian and its childs :)


You should start by checking the xorg log, do this in the console:

And post the results.

whatever the xorg failure is, it should be in that log. With that, we'll know where the problem is at.




Regards

hi Acron
cat /var/log/Xorg.0.log | grep EE

Can you post you xorg.conf?

What packages did you install? (if you remember..)


Or your xorg.conf is erroneously configurated or you're missing some packages, one of them will be xorg-x11-drv-mouse

If is just a bad configurated xorg, from the console you could try this (as root):

Check if you can back to X (you won't have a loaded desktop, only a graphical environment with a mouse, is normal and is just a test)

If the test works, then you can do this:



Regards

Normal upgrade using Yumx, which normally I conducted every two days

When I run this command : Xorg -configure

And when I run this command
The output was long , part of it :
Fatal sever error:
failed to initialize core devices

cat /etc/X11/xorg.conf

If you have a graphics card on your system then i think the problem is not of xserver but of clashig hardware!

i also had the problem while installing my first linux distro and i fixed it by going into the bios and disabling the onboard graphics.

I have got Laptop Toshiba with onboard graphic card only

Reinstall xorg-x11-drv-mouse



Regards

at the cli, type in "startx" without the quotes.

# Xorg -configure
# mv xorg.conf.new /etc/X11/xorg.conf
# startx

It did not work

That's normal because that last error you showed was that xorg didn't find the mouse, without it or a keybord, X won't show up because startx won't try to fix the mouse problem ;)

Didn't the reinstallation of xorg-x11-drv-mouse help at all?

The error still is that xorg doesn't find the mouse?

If the mouse problem continue, then, you could try changing the path in the InputDevice section (Mouse0). Maybe using /dev/misc/psaux

What kind of mouse is? PS/2, USB?



Regards

I was about to ask about that,,,Are you saying I have to download a xorg package again and install it ?if so, how can i access the net from the linux box ?

Please advise

Well, not all the xorg package, just the mouse driver.

Something that I don't really understand is your question about getting in the net, I mean, even though you can't access the X server, you still have access to a console and you've already to have the net interface up because that has nothing to do with having an X desktop or not.

But assuming that for a weird reason you don't have connectivity without Xs, you can still download the package from here:

Just replace 'your_achitecture' for the one that match your system.

There you'll find the xorg-x11-drv-mouse and then you can take it to your system using and usb, a CD or whatever. Then, install it with rpm like




Regards

It did not help me to resolve the problem

Ok,

The error is still the same? (Xorg is not able to detect your mouse. Edit the file and correct the Devices.)

Did you actually try changing the path of the mouse device in the xorg.conf?




Regards

Yes, I did , but it was not helpful.


USB Logitech Optical wired mosue

Try with this mouse configuration:
If that work, then you can make a symlink between /dev/mouse and /dev/mouse0 in case that some update change settings to default in the xorg.conf





Regards

Although I used what you have suggested, and it did not work.

Comparing between the one that I have got originally, and the one that you suggested

yum remove xorg-x11*

then

yum install xorg-x11*

It did not resolve the problem

Ooops...yup, 'Option' was needed there....;)


Backup the xorg.conf (mv /etc/X11/xorg{.conf,.conf.bak}) and then run system-config-display from the console



Regards

I have been receiving these messages recently:
Now I can see nothing on the screen it is all balck

Read this:

http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...63#post1998263

and this:

http://www.unixguide.net/linux/faq/09.24.shtml

Check the program that is respawning, it seems that is bad configured or is broken, you can post the init line here if you get lost on what to do

Another solution will be, for now, change the default level to 3 so, it doesn't try to autostart the X, then, from the console you can try startx which will give you information usefull for debuggin the problem



Regards

Since I can not access the Linux box, would it be useful if I do it that from knoppix ?

Wait, please, let's make clear something because is the second time you bring this up.

What do you mean with "I can't access my linux box" ?

For what I've understanded from the beginning, the only problem your linux box has is that you can't access the X systems, the graphic desktop....but, nothing have been said that indicate that you can't access to your linux box, something like that will be like "I can't boot because a kernel panic" or "grub is giving me an error 17 file not found" or something like that.

I say it again, even if you don't have access to the X server, you still have access to the cli of your linux box, by that I mean that you can press Ctrl + Alt + F1 and login throught the console. By doing that, you can do any modification you want to config files, including xorg.conf, inittab, etc...

From the cli, you should have access to file editors like nano or vim or vi or joe or emacs or something similar, editors that do not need of an X system running to perform the actions you need to.

Starting by that, you should being able to use some editor from the cli to change the default init in the inittab file.

Answering your question, yes, you can do that from a livecd like knoppix, but as I said, you should still have access to your linux box because the problem is only with the X server, and linux isn't made only by that.




Regards

That is right , but recently I have run into the below problem, that I had already posted in my previous reply.

have you tried system-config-display??? thats the command line display config tool for fedora and redhat

Alright, what I wanted to clarify is for instance, this scenario:

-> Grub is loaded
--> You select the kernel
--> That kernel boots Ok
---> Is that time where you will spect to see the graphics
---> All is black, but if you press Ctrl + Alt + F1, you have access to the cli

If that's not the case, even pressing Ctrl + Alt + F1 keeps showing just a black screen, then yes, you're complety free to use the knoppix livecd

And yes, there's also system-config-display but Xorg -configure usually configure the default specs right without to much problem.



Regards

Exactly this is my case.

Now I booted linux box through knoppix live CD, I mounted the root partition (sda7) for the linux box like this :
Just for the testing purpose, when I tried to browes through /etc/X11/xorg.conf by
using Knoppix live CD, content of this file is different from the same file when I accsessed it through linux OS. Is this what suppose to be ?

Please see the output for /etc/X11/xorg.conf when I accessed through knoppix,
and compare with the previous output

Because, unless you chrooted to the /mnt/sda7 partition, you're seeing knoppix's xorg.conf file.

If you want just the output, use:



Regards

Yes, thanks this was my mistake,,,,now I am able to see the login and password for the linux OS (unlike before).

I changed the default run level from 5 to 3,,,,now I have got no problem to access the linux box (That means I can see the prompt for the login and password).

I tried your suggestion again
But still no success.

Try this:


Modify the xorg.conf to read this dev:

Or, after xorg-x11-drv-evdev is installed, use system-config-display



Regards

Whay about a protocol shall i leave to read as: "ImPS/2" or as "auto" ?

Yum tells me it is already installed.

-bash: system-config-display: command not found

Understandable, but, it could be broken or damage after the update, evdev provides several improvements for usb core pointers, so, it wouldn't hurt reinstall it, like

As for the system-config-display, install it:



Regards

I did remove and install and then install system-config-display

Then when i run : system-config-display

It gave the below error message
Now I can see little bit of the screen, but it then disappears.

Hmmm....wait, what you were gonna de-install and install was xorg-x11-drv-evdev, you told that system-config-display wasn't on the system :P


If you reinstalled the evdev drv, then since system-config-display is falling, you could try again with Xorg -configure, then, you try that configuration with:

Normally, Xorg -configure put the xorg.conf.new in the /root directory, but could be not the case in your system so, be sure to indicate the right path while using the Xorg -config.

If there are any errors, will be logged.




Regards

I tried this , and it did not work.

I am new to Linux and finding the learning curve pretty steep. I have fadora 8 installed and am getting the "failed to start x server" after doing updates. I ran "cat /var/log/Xorg.0.log | grep EE"and here are the results:

(II) Loading extension MIT-SCREEN-SAVER
(EE) intel(0): detecting sil164
(EE) intel(0): Unable to read from DVOI2C_E Slave 112.
(EE) intel(0): Unable to read from DVOI2C_E Slave 236.
(EE) intel(0): ivch: Unable to read register 0x00 from DVOI2C_B:04.
(EE) intel(0): Unable to read from DVOI2C_E Slave 112.
(EE) intel(0): tfp410 not detected got VID FFFFFFFF: from DVOI2C_E Slave 112.

Any help would be appreciated!