xorgconfig/xorgsetup woes

zamoti · 10-26-2006, 09:19 PM

I've recently installed Slackware 11 on an old box in my basement. I've had problems in the past when setting up the video as the monitor I'm using is a bit dated. However, I was able to futz around with xorgconfig to get it working.

Now I'm faced with a system that boots into an unviewable state of affairs; I cannot see anything past the LILO boot screen. I just want to run xorgconfig to get the video straight but cannot. I've now got the specs for the monitor (did not have them during setup--paid the price) and know what to populate.

I've tried booting from the installation cd and modifying the xorg.conf file with what seems to be the proper info but it does not work. I'm not so much interested in attempting to use the xorg.conf file itself, but using the xorgconfig or xorgsetup tool. The reason is that I'm sure someone will ask me to post the contents of the file; as the computer will only boot to a CD, I don't have the hardware resources to get the file out of the computer short of hand-writing everything and retyping it. No floppy drive, no nuthin.

I've located the xorgconfig and xorgsetup files on the local drive after mounting it to a folder, but they won't run. Xorgsetup does absolutely nothing (no error messages) and xorgconfig cries about dependencies on libxkbfile.so.1 and won't run either. At this point I'm sure it would have been faster to just reinstall, but after this much time, I would like to learn something so I don't have to do this crap again.

Thank you.

chakkerz · 10-26-2006, 10:03 PM

try setting the inittab to default to runlevel 3, run startx and then look at the X log file to tell you what goes wrong and fix it from there.

IF you boot normal, once it's done booting press CTRL+ALT+F1 to get to a console, and log in, edit /etc/inittab save, and to save rebooting type init 3.

Good luck

hack124x768 · 10-26-2006, 11:13 PM

If its getting ugly right after the lilo prompt, its probably the vesa framebuffer driver at fault. If this is the case, edit your lilo.conf (/etc/lilo.conf) to not use the framebuffer, or better yet, to ask what mode to use. look for a line that says vga=___ (_ meaning what ever is there) and change it to vga=ask . Hope this helps.

chakkerz · 10-26-2006, 11:40 PM

uuuh good point. If you don't the see normal debug messages do what hack said.

if you can't get on boot of your install disk, mount your root and boot partitions to the CD mount point, chroot to there edit lilo.conf and run lilo again.

fotoguy · 10-27-2006, 03:29 AM

I've found with slackware some of my machine have a problem with the default drive chosen in the xorg.conf file in the graphics section:

Code:

# **********************************************************************
# Graphics device section
# **********************************************************************

# Any number of graphics device sections may be present

Section "Device"
    Identifier  "VESA Framebuffer"
    Driver      "nv"
    #VideoRam    4096
    # Insert Clocks lines here if appropriate
EndSection

You may need to change it to something generic to get it working, yours be default maybe different mine uses the nvidia driver, but changing to vesa driver may work as a generic aternative:

Code:

Driver      "nv"

To

Code:

Driver      "vesa"

zamoti · 10-28-2006, 09:16 PM

Thanks for all of the suggestions. I'll have to head down to the basement to give this POS a whack.

I appreciate all the help.

zamoti · 10-28-2006, 09:49 PM

I had a chance to try the proposed suggestions. However, they did not work. Fotoguy's change was already set and setting lilo.conf to "ask" did not produce any sort of prompting.

Just for more background, I've pounded out all of the color depth sections except for 16; for the one section that is left, I've removed all resolutions except for 640x480. And yes, it is running framebuffer.

Any further suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

fotoguy · 10-29-2006, 03:48 AM

OK I should've look a bit closer at your post, I see your not getting anything after the lilo prompt. The xorg.conf file doesn't have any affect until the xserver starts. It does sound like a problem within the kernel itself, most likely the vga or frambuffer settings. What kernel are you booting, the 2.4 or 2.6 kernel?

I had the exact same thing with slackware 10.0 when I used the 2.6.7 kernel, after lilo it would just give a blank screen, I ended up just using the 2.4 kernel and downloaded the latest 2.6 kernel and compiled it from source. If you are using the 2.4 kernel, maybe use the 2.6 instead, it may have better support for your hardware.

zamoti · 10-29-2006, 05:47 PM

I'm using the stock kernel; 2.4.33.3 is what slackware.org reports as the default. As for what's happening after I get booted, I know it's doing something--I can see what appears to be the Tux

up in the upper left corner and the blurry vision of text scrolling by. So it's not totally blank, but what appears to be the result of a video setting that is at a resolution that is higher than what the monitor supports. I know this monitor supports at least 800x600 as I've used it in the past.

Ideas?

Tinkster · 11-29-2006, 02:42 AM

Maybe a bit late now, but after the lilo.conf change ... did
you actually also RUN lilo? Lilo, unlike grub, doesn't read
configuration on the fly...

Cheers,
Tink