Hehe... good.



So, the new plan: post your ifconfig eth0 bit (which you are doing now), run the "xf86config" program and choose the following ansers:

mouse protocol type --> Auto
emulate 3 buttons --> No
mouse device --> /dev/mouse
keyboard --> Generic 101-key PC
keyboard country --> US
variant name for layout --> (press the enter key for default)
select additional XKB options? --> n
indicate the horizontal sync range --> option 6
indicate the vertical sync range --> option 1
Enter an identifier for your monitor definition --> (press enter key for default)
Do you want to look at the card database? --> type "yes"
Type the card number --> 17
Your card memory --> option 8 (32MB)
identifier for your video card definition --> (hit enter for default)
specify which color depth you want to use --> option 5
Do you want it written to the current directory as 'XF86Config'? --> type "yes"

After this, run startx and report back.



-zsejk

here's what happened

I typed ifconfig eth0 and this happened:

eth0: error fetching interface info: Device not found

Then i typed ifconfig and this happened

dummy0 Link Encap: Ethernet Hwaddr 00:00:00
inet addr: 192.168.1.1 Bcast: 192.168.1.255 Mask: 255.255.255.0
UP BROADCAST RUNNING NOARP MTU: 1500 Metric: 1
Rx Packets : 0 errors: 0 dropped: 0.........all zeroes
Tx packets : 20 errors: 0 dropped : 0.......all zeroes
collisions: 0 txqueuelen: 0
Rx bytes: 0 (0.0b) Tx bytes: 1280 (1.2 KiB)


lo Link encap: Local loopback
inet addr: 127.0.0.1 Mask: 255.0.0.0
UP LOOPBACK RUNNING MTU: 3924 Metric: 1
Rx packets: 8 .......
Tx packets: 8 .........
collisions: 0 txqueuelen: 0
Rx bytes: 560 Tx bytes: 560

and that's all. Any new advice?

ok, sorry i've been out of this for a while - i managed to crash X on my machine too

anyway. we need a few things to be able to troubleshoot some more. please type

dmesg

at the promt, and look through for anything relating to a pointing device, mouse, dhcp, eth0,eth1, or any errors. post pretty much anything you think will help (it'll be way too much to post the whole thing, unfortunately).

second, type

/usr/bin/X > /tmp/x.out 2>&1

then

cat /tmp/x.out

and post that here. that basically dumps any error messages generated when you try to start X into a file called x.out, which you can then browse at your leisure. i'm running win98 at the moment so i can't be 100% sure, but i don't think anything should appear to happen after the first command, it might just go to another promt. go ahead and type the second command.

ok. hmm. let's try that for now.
being able to edit text from the command line is very important in linux, so it's a good idea to learn the commands for whichever program you choose. i have a natural preference for emacs, but that's mostly because i've never tried vi so along those lines, here's a good intro to using vi (since you seem to have that installed already): http://www.fokus.fhg.de/linux/LDP/rute/node7.html

(if you look around the site, you'll notice there's a lot more there than just vi tutorial too)

ok, hope some of this works.

OK, here are some discrepancies in my version of xf86config and yours:

1. Mouse: no auto so i chose Ps/2 mouse
2. video card 17 is the ATI video card
3. Video card memory: there's no option 8, and all amounts are in Kb and it only goes up to 4096. So i typed 6(other) and put in 32000 Kb

Now I finished that, typed startx and here's the long message i got:

(II)VESA(0): 800X600 @60Hz
(II)VESA(0): 800x600@75Hz
(II)VESA(0):1024X768@60Hz
(II)VESA(0):Manufacturers Mask: 0
(II)VESA(0): Supported future video modes
(II)VESA(0):#0: hsize:640 vsize:480 refresh:85 vid:22833
(II)VESA(0):Supported Additional Video Mode:
(II)VESA(0):clock:56.2MHz Image size: 270X202 mm
(II)VESA(0):h_active:800 h_sync:832 h_sync_end:896 h_blank_end 1048 h_border: 0
(II)VESA(0):v_active:600 v_sync: 601 v_sync_end 604 v_blanking:631 v_border:0
(II)VESA(0):Serial No........
(II)VESA(0):Monitor name: dell e550
(II)VESA(0):Ranges:Vmin:5 Vmax:120 Hz Hmin:30 Hmax:54KHz
Pixclock max 70MHz
(++)VESA(0): DPI set to (100,100)
(EE)unloading /usr/bin/X11R6/lib/modules/libvgahw.a
(EE)Screen(s) found , but none have a usable configuration

Fatal Server error:
no screens found


That really sucked to type.

Let me know if this helps. Thanks

ok, well. if you edit the file by hand, you can enter "IMPS/2" as your mouse protocol, and add

Option "Buttons" "5"
Option "ZAxisMapping" "4 5"

which should get your mouse working, although this won't help until we actually get X working. now assuming that you entered the correct H sync and V refresh rates for your monitor, if it's still not working there's a good chance that the problem is with your graphics card. so...which ATI card are you using? do you know which chipset your motherboard uses?

I don't have an ATI card. Zsejk told me to choose card #17 in the list. I have a Matrox G450 Dual head which is not in the list I have. My motherboard is an Abit IC7-G using Intel 875p chipset with 800MHz bus. So now what should i try?

I'm sorry about your xf86config being different....



How about you go through it again, pick the Matrix Generic card in the card selection section (*chuckles*... it rhymes!) which should show up it the very first screen you get in that part, then pick a generic 1024 by 780 screen, with the lowest refresh rates (both vertical and horizontal). Then type the memory in again like you did, and run startx again. Don't worry about this thread being so long. We *will* get your X system to work, *and* your mouse (which should work if you edit your XF86Config file correctly, which we will do as soon as X actually works). After that we will get your internet to work, and only *then* will we stop posting.



-zsejk

(sorry this is a mistake post)

Sorry - i read through the problem you are having with your net connection. the interesting thing is that when you first did the installation and ran ifconfig -a only the loopback interface 'lo' was shown in the output.

Now i see that your network card eth0 is showing a strange message - the message shows that it is not recognised by the system (it should have a unique MAC address) yet it has an assigned ip /netmask. This could be a peculiar hardware issue.

Im no expert but it could be that your card is not supported by the operating system - Also when i installed linux i made sure that every possible program connected with 'networking' was to be started at boot time - this made sure that i did not start the system without an essential program. Someone here will now what the essential programs are so once you get Xwindows running you should take another look at the start programs for the card

sorry for rambling

Did all of that, and nothing worked. I typed editor XF86Config in the /etc/X11 directory and configured everything in there. Ran startx again and it wouldn't start. I hope I didn't screw anything up in there. I even tried editing XF86Config-4 . Nothing.

I hope youre right zsejk. Thanks for all the help.

neil, no worries, at this point any help is welcome. You're right though, before when i typed ifconfig only "lo" showed up. Now "dummy0" shows up as well. This happened after I reinstalled.

You know what fellas? I don't care about a GUI really. As long as my email and internet have a GUI it's all good. The rest of the time I can deal with a command prompt. So if we could maybe just focus on getting me connected to the internet that would be best, if that's even possible without Xwindows. I hope it is because I kind of even prefer typing in the terminal. I just want to be able to type a command and the browser opens, or email app or whatever. Is this realistic?

Well, for your internet to open you would need a working GUI. But yes, your internet first...



What's the output of:

dmesg | grep dummy0

Also: try typing that "dhcpcd -d" command again.... what happens when you type "dhcpcd -d dummy0" (as root)? If it says "command not found" again, I would really recommend switching to a different distro for now....



-zsejk

Ok zsejk.... dmesg | grep dummy0
only took me to a new prompt. No output. And dhcpcd -d dummy0 said command not found.

What distribution should i switch to? Where can I get it?
Do i burn the ISO images just like Debian and install from CD's? Can i reinstall it over what's there now? And keep my dual boot mode?

Let me know and Ill download the images today and install. I have plenty of CD's and I"m tired of debian. So , recommend something to me. Thanks

Well, being the Slackware addict I am, I of course recommend Slackware.



You can get it at ftp://ftp.mirror.ac.uk/sites/ftp.sla...kware-9.0-iso/ (they have a good download speed); get the slackware-9.0-install.iso file and burn it to CD like you did the Debian one. The CD should then be bootable.

You can install over Debian for sure; just use the partition you now have for Debian for the Slackware install, and leave the Windows partitiion as is.

Two points to keep in mind during installation:

1. make sure you select DHCP discovery.... if all goes well you should be connected to internet automatically after that. So, before you install, connect your modem and then during install have the installation software set up your internet connection for you

2. install LILO to the MBR (third option in that section of the installation)... it's the option that works best with a dual boot.

If at any time before, during, or after the installation you're unsure what to do or what to select, feel free to post a question here or email me (zsejk@earthlink.net).

Good luck!



-zsejk

i agree with zsejk - i started on mandrake and moved to slackware. it's a great, solid distro that provides all the gui niceties without sacreficing the stuff that makes linux great. just make sure that you install everything you can, i don't know if space is limited, but be very careful before deciding not to include some package. i would choose the newbie installation (which takes a lot longer) because you can see each package as it gets installed, and read a fairly lengthy description.

once you install LILO to the MBR, don't worry if windows doesn't show up immediately - it's a simple matter to edit /etc/lilo.conf and add an entry for a windows partition.

it's too bad that you've had such a hard time configuring - i've installed a total of like 5 times, and only had problems (other than my video card, which is another story!) once, which were fairly easily fixed. i'd wouldn't worry too much about your video card at first, go with a standard 1024x768 vesa config.

ok, enough rambling. sorry we couldn't figure out what was going on, but slackware is a great distro, i think you'll be happy.

Thanks y'all. I'll let you know when I start using slackware. I'm off to download the ISO files now. I'm off.....


....to be continued