Suse 10.1 installation - white screen
 

I have installed (apparently successfully) Suse 10.1 as the sole operating system on my old Compaq Armada M300 laptop (12 BG HDD, 384 MB RAM, 500MHz Pentium III) but when I boot, the screen goes white after a rather protracted log-in process.

I have read some similar threads about this problem and have entered <Ctrl> <Alt> <F3> at the white screen. This has indeed allowed me to log in as root user, but at this point I am completely flummoxed, as the file which other users suggest I should be altering at this point (XF86Config-4) does not seem to exist.

Can anybody help please? I have a high level of Windows literacy, but this is my first attempt at a Linux installation.

Many thanks

David

It would seem that your X window configuration file is missing / has errors.

Usually this file is in /etc/X11/
There are 2 different X systems, Xorg and XFree86 and both use different files for their xonfiguration

look for xorg.conf or XF86Config-4.

If neither is found, you can generate one yourself if your able or let the linux automatically try to generate one.

to generate one automatically try following:
This will generate sample configuratio file in your /root folder. Just copy the file in the above folder and issue 'startx' and you should be getting to your desktop.

Then if you still have problems, post the configation file with info about your hardware so we can help you a bit more.

Thanks for your very prompt reply.
There is indeed a file called xorg.conf in that directory. I will go away overnight and work out how to get it onto a floppy and onto this site. A good test for my command line skills!!
Regards,
David

Suse 10.1 install - white screen
 

Here is the xorg.conf file saved as a text file via Windows Wordpad. I don't know how to do one of those nice little "code" screens. Please let me know if you need any more hardware details:

# /.../
# SaX generated X11 config file
# Created on: 2006-07-18T21:27:35+0100.
#
# Version: 7.1
# Contact: Marcus Schaefer <sax@suse.de>, 2005
# Contact: SaX-User list <https://lists.berlios.de/mailman/listinfo/sax-users>
#
# Automatically generated by [ISaX] (7.1)
# PLEASE DO NOT EDIT THIS FILE!
#

Section "Files"
FontPath "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/misc:unscaled"
FontPath "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/local"
FontPath "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/75dpi:unscaled"
FontPath "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/100dpi:unscaled"
FontPath "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/Type1"
FontPath "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/URW"
FontPath "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/Speedo"
FontPath "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/PEX"
FontPath "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/cyrillic"
FontPath "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/latin2/misc:unscaled"
FontPath "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/latin2/75dpi:unscaled"
FontPath "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/latin2/100dpi:unscaled"
FontPath "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/latin2/Type1"
FontPath "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/latin7/75dpi:unscaled"
FontPath "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/baekmuk:unscaled"
FontPath "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/japanese:unscaled"
FontPath "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/kwintv"
FontPath "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/truetype"
FontPath "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/uni:unscaled"
FontPath "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/CID"
FontPath "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/ucs/misc:unscaled"
FontPath "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/ucs/75dpi:unscaled"
FontPath "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/ucs/100dpi:unscaled"
FontPath "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/hellas/misc:unscaled"
FontPath "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/hellas/75dpi:unscaled"
FontPath "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/hellas/100dpi:unscaled"
FontPath "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/hellas/Type1"
FontPath "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/misc/sgi:unscaled"
FontPath "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/xtest"
FontPath "/opt/kde3/share/fonts"
InputDevices "/dev/gpmdata"
InputDevices "/dev/input/mice"
EndSection

Section "ServerFlags"
Option "AllowMouseOpenFail" "on"
EndSection

Section "Module"
Load "dbe"
Load "type1"
Load "freetype"
Load "extmod"
Load "glx"
Load "v4l"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
Driver "kbd"
Identifier "Keyboard[0]"
Option "Protocol" "Standard"
Option "XkbLayout" "gb"
Option "XkbModel" "pc105"
Option "XkbRules" "xfree86"
EndSection


Section "InputDevice"
Driver "synaptics"
Identifier "Mouse[1]"
Option "Buttons" "5"
Option "Device" "/dev/input/mice"
Option "Emulate3Buttons" "on"
Option "InputFashion" "Mouse"
Option "Name" "Synaptics;Touchpad"
Option "Protocol" "explorerps/2"
Option "SHMConfig" "on"
Option "Vendor" "Sysp"
Option "ZAxisMapping" "4 5"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
Driver "mouse"
Identifier "Mouse[3]"
Option "Buttons" "5"
Option "Device" "/dev/input/mice"
Option "Name" "ImPS/2 Generic Wheel Mouse"
Option "Protocol" "explorerps/2"
Option "Vendor" "Sysp"
Option "ZAxisMapping" "4 5"
EndSection


Section "Monitor"
HorizSync 31-38
Identifier "Monitor[0]"
ModelName "800X600@60HZ"
Option "DPMS"
VendorName "--> VESA"
VertRefresh 50-60
UseModes "Modes[0]"
EndSection


Section "Modes"
Identifier "Modes[0]"
Modeline "800x600" 40.0 800 840 968 1056 600 601 605 628 +hsync +vsync
Modeline "800x600" 36.88 800 832 912 1024 600 601 604 621
EndSection


Section "Screen"
DefaultDepth 16
SubSection "Display"
Depth 15
Modes "800x600"
EndSubSection
SubSection "Display"
Depth 16
Modes "800x600"
EndSubSection
SubSection "Display"
Depth 24
Modes "800x600"
EndSubSection
SubSection "Display"
Depth 8
Modes "800x600"
EndSubSection
Device "Device[0]"
Identifier "Screen[0]"
Monitor "Monitor[0]"
EndSection


Section "Device"
BoardName "Mach64 LI"
BusID "0:5:0"
Driver "ati"
Identifier "Device[0]"
VendorName "ATI"
EndSection


Section "ServerLayout"
Identifier "Layout[all]"
InputDevice "Keyboard[0]" "CoreKeyboard"
InputDevice "Mouse[1]" "CorePointer"
InputDevice "Mouse[3]" "SendCoreEvents"
Option "Clone" "off"
Option "Xinerama" "off"
Screen "Screen[0]"
EndSection


Section "DRI"
Group "video"
Mode 0660
EndSection

Section "Extensions"
EndSection