Linux - NewbieThis Linux forum is for members that are new to Linux.
Just starting out and have a question?
If it is not in the man pages or the how-to's this is the place!
Notices
Welcome to LinuxQuestions.org, a friendly and active Linux Community.
You are currently viewing LQ as a guest. By joining our community you will have the ability to post topics, receive our newsletter, use the advanced search, subscribe to threads and access many other special features. Registration is quick, simple and absolutely free. Join our community today!
Note that registered members see fewer ads, and ContentLink is completely disabled once you log in.
If you have any problems with the registration process or your account login, please contact us. If you need to reset your password, click here.
Having a problem logging in? Please visit this page to clear all LQ-related cookies.
Get a virtual cloud desktop with the Linux distro that you want in less than five minutes with Shells! With over 10 pre-installed distros to choose from, the worry-free installation life is here! Whether you are a digital nomad or just looking for flexibility, Shells can put your Linux machine on the device that you want to use.
Exclusive for LQ members, get up to 45% off per month. Click here for more info.
I'm somewhat new to Slackware Linux, the version that I have installed and ran is 13.37. I edited that inittab using nano text editor to start up as GUI desktop instead of the terminal type thing. And when I restarted it looked like it was gonna work but after it gone through the start up I came to this blank screen with just the "_" in the top left corner blinking and the only way to get out of it is to do Ctrl+alt+del. How do I fix this? And how do I get the GUI to work right so I could use that?
This is likely to be a hardware/driver interaction problem.
First, I would revert the change to /etc/inittab. If you installed Slackware with the default LILO bootloader, then when you reboot, select Slackware and hit TAB. Type " 3" (note the space) then Enter. This will boot to run level 3 and allow you to use the nano editor.
To help, more information is required. Please post the output of '/sbin/lspci' and the contents of /var/log/Xorg.0.log.
When first getting a GUI environment in Slackware, it is recommended that you use the 'startx' command. Only when this is working reliably should you make the change in /etc/inittab. http://docs.slackware.com/slackware:install
You need to use the proprietary AMD driver for that card on Slackware 13.37, or you install the newer kernel, libdrm and Mesa from the /testing folder of your install medium. The default radeon drivers that come with Slackware 13.37 will not work with that card.
Never mind my last post then, but how would I install the new kernel or install the correct AMD drivers for it? Could I just install the new version of slackware, would that fix it?
Slackware 14 will work with that card by default, but the free default drivers still lack some functions (hardware video decoding, proper power management, not all 3D functions are available). If that is an issue for you I would recommend to install the AMD drivers.
You can install them with launching these commands in runlevel 3 as root:
Code:
wget http://www2.ati.com/drivers/linux/amd-driver-installer-catalyst-12.10-x86.x86_64.zip
unzip amd-driver-installer-catalyst-12.10-x86.x86_64.zip
sh amd-driver-installer-catalyst-12.10-x86.x86_64.run
Now the installer will run, just use the default options. After the installer has done its work launch the command
Code:
aticonfig --initial
and reboot the system. The graphical system should now run flawlessly.
This routine to install the driver works on 13.37 and 14.0.
I did all that you said and none of it will work. I tried using the wget and downloading and installing the file for 13.37 and when I did it wouldn't download and I realized I had not setup the config for it. So instead of going back and redoing the configuration for Slackware, I installed 14.00, figured it would clear up any bugs but towards the end of the installation where it was asking me to do the boot loader LILO, after choosing all that I wanted it said it could not install correctly because of the video hardware was not detected properly and it didn't know what it was so it set it to auto console which is option 3 in the inittab. And when I rebooted it said that it could not boot because it could not find a file and there was something wrong with LILO. SO, now i'm stuck wondering what I should do, do you think I should just completely scrap this slackware linux idea and try a different distro, and if so which distro would work with my computer?
You can use your installation DVD to boot the installed system, instructions for that can be found directly on the boot page of the DVD. After that you can try to reinstall lilo.
But of course you use a different distro also, any recent version should work.
LinuxQuestions.org is looking for people interested in writing
Editorials, Articles, Reviews, and more. If you'd like to contribute
content, let us know.