Mandriva & ATI 128 issues
 

Hi there,

so i'm a bit new to linux, trying to kinda learn as i go
i just installed Mandriva (aka Mandrake) 10.2 distriibution on
IBM Netfinity 4500R Server (Dual PIII 733, 1Gb), IDE M=20Gb HD, IDE S=CD-ROM

Works good automatically with the planar (built-in) video - Savage S3 - using it now
However, my PCI ATI All-in-wonder Rage 128 video card only works in text-only mode.

After searching online, I found out that XFree86 driver works only if i manually edit /etc/X11/XF86Config file "Device" Section by adding the following text:
Identifier "ATI Rage 128"
Chipset "ATI Rage 128"
Driver "r128"

Now, here's my problem:

When i log in using the internal S3 card, the XF86Config file is written for that S3 card. If i manually edit it to say the ATI stuff and save it, then try to restart, it still doesnt work. When i use the ATI card, it only goes through the initial start up screen (everything checks OK in verbose mode), but then right before the Log In screen everything goes black.

I found info about F1-F7 modes (F7 being the GUI one), and during the Verbose startup F2-F6 turn the screen black. F1 returns it back to Verbose mode (so i am assuming that is the only text mode that works stock with my card). However, when the screen goes black right before the Log In, the F keys stop working as well, and i cant get into the text mode either...

any ideas???

also, what exactly do i do if i do manage to get into the text-onnly mode???
i assume, log in as root... find the XF86Config file, then what??? How do i modify it under Bash??? then just restart???

Edit your /etc/inittab file (as root) and change the line which says

id:5:initdefault:

To

id:3:initdefault:

(3 is multiuser, no graphical environment).

You can boot up like that, login at the command prompt, su all around and do whatever you need, and if you want to test your new settings you can type 'startx' to start up your window manager and see how things look.

For rebooting the command would be 'shutdown -(r or h) now'; r for "reboot" or h for "halt" (i.e. shut down and stay down). The 'now' is also necessary, it tells shutdown when you'd like this to actually happen. You may have to execute shutdown as root, some systems don't give users the priviledge to do it themselves.

Change the initdefault level back to 5 in order to go straight into a GUI again.

how can edit that file if i cant get even into the text-only mode???
i can see the start up screen, but it doesnt let me type anything in
as soon as it goes to (i assume) Log In GUI screen, it goes black, and then even Ctrl-Alt-F1 doesnt work any more....

oh wait, i'll try to edit it in S3 planar video mode,
then restart and put ATI in, eh :)

ok another question:

the first part worked, i can navigate to the XF86Config file under bash, but i dunno how to open it so that it could be edited... shame on me :) what a noooob

bash questions
 

ok,


I am logged in via text-only miode as "root", i can navigate to the file
i opened all the permissions to it by writing "chmod 0777 XF86Config"
when i try to write "gedit ..." it says :

(gedit :7471): Gtk-WARNING **: cannot open display:

i looked online and it said to put "export DISPLAY=:0.0" before "gedit", but that did not change anything....

how can i open, edit and save that file??? thanx in advance :)

you don't have permission to connect to the X server. try 1) use a console editor, e.g. vi. you should learn vi, it's great. 2) as your normal user run "xhost +localhost" then you will have permission to connect to X.

gedit is a graphic editor. It won't open until you start a gui. You need to use a text-mode editor: vi, joe or mc to name a few.

Emacs, Vi or Pico are all command-line text editors which should be installed. If you're not familiar with them, peeking into their man pages and writing down some of their relevant commands ('save' and 'quit' to name a couple) before you start will p'bly save some hassle :-) They're none of them normal "ctrl+s, ctrl+q" type editors. The command to open the file is all the same, though:
emacs <filename>, vi <filename> or pico <filename>

You'll need to be root to edit the XF86Config file, as well.
And yeah - you can edit inittab while still in the GUI, it won't take effect 'til you reboot. Sorry about that!

ok, i got myself into vim, now i have to learn it so that i can save, undo, etc...

I merged your two posts as they are on the same subject.

To insert text (i.e. edit the file) you must first hit the letter 'i' before it will let you type anything. Hitting Escape will get you out of Insert mode, and then typing :w will save your file. :q will quit, and :q! will quit without saving.

Gedit won't work only because when you're in commandline only mode, there's no X server running, and Gedit is an X application.

well, now

inittab is edited back to :5:, XF86Config is edited too, but X-GUI does not want to load... just loads in text only

something about misplaced delimiter and something failed...

F1-F6 text-only modes all work, which tells me that the ATI card will be working OK (about time), but when if press Ctrl-Alt-F7 which is supposed to take me to GUI, it takes me to a black screen with a blinking cursor, but no way to type nothing...

Can you paste in the exact inittab line (s)? Or something more on the error message, to tell whether it's an XF86 problem or an inttab problem?

when i log in as root and type "startx" it gives me bunch of crap, including:

Data incomplete in file /etc/X11/xorg.conf
Undefined Device "device1" referenced by Screen "screen1"
Problem parsing the config file
Error parsing the config file
Fatal server error: no screens found