Linpus Lite LiveCD won't start X server during boot process
 

I'm trying to check out Linpus Lite 9.4 using the Live CD on both a Toshina Laptop and an old Dell desktop. On both machines Linpus boots up through a logo screen then runs through a few pages of startup script. On the desktop it finally just goes to a black screen - no prompt ... nothing. Tried F1, Ctrl alt F1, Ctrl Alt Backspace (suggestions from other sources), but nothing happens. Before it does the same thing on the Toshiba, it does give me messgae "Failed to start x server"... then the black screen.

Some sources say I need to reconfigure my x server. What is it? How do I start it? How do I reconfigure it? Or is there a simple solution out there? Relatively new to Linux and very new to this forum - so I am a real Newbie. Any help will be appreciated.

The black screen is something you often get when the system is having issues with graphics drivers. Maybe your video card is not supported by xorg?

Hi,

See if there are some boot options. Usually these are the F1, F2, or F3 to view the options, try a VESA framebuffer if that is available.

When the Linpus start sequence stops and the screen goes black neither functions keys nor Ctrl and Alt combinations work. The system appears dead or locked.

BTW - all other Linux distros I used have worked perfectly on these machines, including Ubuntu, Puppy, Mepis, and others. Only Linpus gives me this problem.

Hi,

I'm speaking about the 'boot:' when you place the cd in the device then the system will give you a 'boot:' where you would enter kernel parameters or options.

Most distributions allow you this option so you can pass what your system would possibly need to initialize properly.

When the Linpus Live CD first starts I get three options - Live CD, Installation-Linpus Lite, and Boot from Hard Disk.

There is also a Boot Options line where I can insert info. Now it reads: prompt_ramdisk=0 ramdisk_size=14000 root=/dev/ram0 rw nohd"

As in my original question is there a command or input I can add to get the x server started and/or configured properly?

The same thing happened to me!
 

i got linpus lite live cd and i had tryed my main PC 1.7 ghz 1gb-ram 128 nvidia gforce5200 and works but when i try with pentium 400mhz onboard 4mb-video 128-ram doesn't,
another PC 1ghz 512-ram 32mb-nvida gforce doesn't work, laptop 900mhz 512-ram 8mb-video ati onboard doesn't work ............ I think is the old video cards but 32mb-gforce it should be enough to run a linpus (designed for slow computers)?
my live cd is ok because it work with my main PC......



how do I setup xserver?.......... help.....

Hi,
I would start a new thread instead of high jacking one!

Hi,
Got the same problem using a B series lifebook. I have noticed that there are various flavours of xorg.conf for the different video cards in /etc/X11. It may help activating one of these for your specific video setup!.

numnuts,

How did you get to a terminal to edit the xorg.conf file? I am using the live cd and when GDM does not start I cannot get a terminal window that will let me login. I get to a terminal that shows text and it quits after hitting the init 5 step. I can type in text in this terminal, but nothing happens. So I need a terminal to log into, but I cannot find one using cntrl+alt+Fkey.

Any assistance would be greatly appreciated.

Hi sanger440,

In answer to your question, I take the HD out of the laptop and put it in my desktop. Its a bit crude but it works fine on the desktop and do any adjustments there before reinstalling. Generally I've screwed around with linpus so much that I have to reinstall each time which only takes 2 or 3 minutes.

I've checked and Linpus has Xorg 7.1 and a whole raf6t of drivers including Ati, vesa and vga. All of which I have tried and have adjusted the settings ,however I still get the "xserver failed" I may just give up. I've tried a hand full of distros on the lifebook and linpus is the only one to have an argument with it which is a shame as the kids and myself like the look.

Thanx numnuts.

I just ordered one of those Aspireone netbooks with linupus installed so I was hoping to get Linpus installed on another laptop to play with. The Live CD will not boot on my desktop computer either. Same xserver error. So the HD trick will not work for me. I have not tried the "install" option on the Linpus cd because I do not want bork my exisiting OS's.

I was hoping that if you could get to a terminal and change the xorg.conf file you could get a decent running system to play with. Even if I could get to Vesa mode I would be happy. There is a good blog on how to fine tune Linpus on the aspireone that I wanted to try on my older laptops: macles.blogspot.com.

Thanks again.

Sanger

Getting to the Linpus prompt
 

Hi

I am having the same X server problem. I have got to the command prompt and done some diagnostics, but I am now stuck.

Here is what I did and the results:-

Boot hard disk install of Linpus Lite.

At the X Server B.S.O.D pres Ctrl + Alt + F9.

At the command prompt login as root.

Run the command 'X -configure' ( Capital X and without the quotes).


I got this error message :-

<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

(EE) LoadModule: Module ztv does not have a ztvModuleData data object.
(EE) Failed to load module "ztv" (invalid module, 0)

Backtrace:
(..........not reproduced here........)

Fatal server error:
Caught signal 11. Server aborting

<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

It seems that the ztv Module is causing a problem.

As I do not need ztv I would like to remove it from the X Server startup script.

However I cannot locate relevant script/config file.

Any thoughts?

Thanks

BillP

Solution found
 

Hi guys

I have been having the same problem as the rest of you both on the live cd and after installing. To get to a console, press CTRL + ALT + f9 (unusual i know). the user is root with no password. Having looked at the xorg.conf in /etc/X11, i couldn't make head nor tail of it, especially since there isn't a decent text editor installed, only the godawful vi and vim. Just before I gave up however, I thought "why don't I try deleting it and see whether starting X will create a new one?". Bingo, it worked.

Only trouble is, to even get to a grub command I could edit, I had to boot from a tinyme livecd and edit boot/grub/grub.conf (even that is different. I removed the delay and turned the second entry into a proper recovery line by replacing the "rw" with "ro single"

Hope this helps you all.

Alex