Red Hat 8.0 hangs on "startx"
 

I just upgraded from Red Hat 7.2 to 8.0. I have a Pentium 200 MMX and 78 meg RAM. In 7.2, KDE and GNOME worked fine. I access the GUI by typing "startx" at the command line. When I type "startx" in 8.0 my hard drive gets activity for about 2 seconds then it pulls a microsoft trick (total lockup). My screen goes blank. I cannot even telnet into the box from another machine. I cannot even ping the box from another machine. All I can do is hit the power button and restart the machine.

Any ideas?

--Paul

xf86config

Great! Thanks for the tip. I got Xwindows to load. When I log out however, it still does that Microsoft thing (total lockup). I can use ctrl-alt backspace to get back to text mode only if I don't try to log out first. Any ideas why it would hang when logging out in graphical mode?

Thanks!

--Paul

vi /etc/inittab
edit as follows

# These are the default runlevels in Slackware:
# 0 = halt
# 1 = single user mode
# 2 = unused (but configured the same as runlevel 3)
# 3 = multiuser mode (default Slackware runlevel)
# 4 = X11 with KDM/GDM/XDM (session managers)
# 5 = unused (but configured the same as runlevel 3)
# 6 = reboot
# Default runlevel. (Do not set to 0 or 6)
id:4:initdefault:

Yours maybe 5.

You should post your error message. You can still surf the Web with

lynx

I am actually running runlevel 3. I use my Linux box mostly as web and database server for developing client server and web based applications. Most of the time I am actually accessing my linux box on a windows based machine via either telnet or a database connection. I prefer to not have X11 running must of the time because of the overhead but I find it has handy utilities for setting up printers and starting and stopping services. I like to be able to just get into X11 when I need to but not default to it.

When I log out of X11, My screen goes blank and the machine is completely unresponsive. I cannot even ping it from another machine. I cannot see any error codes of the screen. I even checked some X11 error log I found but it was empty so I have no idea what is causing the problem. It acts as if the machine is totally off yet the power is still on.

I have an old "CompuAdd" 15" svga monitor I got for $5.00 at a thrift store. I have no idea what the specs are for it and I cannot find any on the internet. Do you think I just need a better monitor to get it to work properly? The same monitor worked great on red Hat 7.2.

I appreciate you taking the time to work with me on this.

Thanks,

--Paul

Post your

/etc/rc.d/rc.3

or whatever your /etc/inittab id:3 points to

# Script to run when going multi user.
rc:2345:wait:/etc/rc.d/rc.M

Downgrade to 7.2 and upgrade kernel and stuff as a last resort.

that would be /etc/rc.d/rc3.d/

Here are the files in /etc/rc.d/rc3.d/ :

K03rhnsd
K05saslauthd
K15httpd
K15postgresql
K20nfs
K20rstatd
K20rusersd
K20rwalld
K20rwhod
K25squid
K34yppasswdd
K35vncserver
K35winbind
K45arpwatch
K46radvd
K50snmptrapd
K50tux
K65identd
K70aep1000
K73ypbind
K74nscd
K74ypserv
K74ypxfrd
S05kudzu
S08ipchains
S08iptables
S09isdn
S10network
S12syslog
S13portmap
S14nfslock
S17keytable
S20random
S25netfs
S26apmd
S26oninit
S26tomcat
S28autofs
S55sshd
S56rawdevices
S56xinetd
S58ntpd
S60apache
S60lpd
S78mysqld
S80sendmail
S85gpm
S90canna
S90crond
S90xfs
S91smb
S95anacron
S95atd
S99local

Some of these are custom ones I made such as:
S60apache - Apache Web server
S26oninit - Informix database server
S26tomcat - Jakarta Tomcat JSP Server

I have tried disabling these (and a buch of other in various combinations) by entering interactive mode on startup but it did not make any difference.


Is there an easy way to downgrade to 7.2 without starting over?
Thanks!

--Paul

I tried running startx from a telnet console of a windows machine. Xwindows boots up OK but when I log out, I get the following line printed about 200 times on my Telnet console:
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
(nautilus:1407): Gtk-CRITICAL **: file gtkwidget.c: line 2933 (gtk_widget_eventd
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I have no idea what it means but it does not look like a happy message. I think there should be more to the line but it was cut off. If you think it is important, I can output the results of startx to a file and get the whole line that way. When running Xwindow from a console, It does not lock up when logging out of Xwindow. When I try to run it a second time, It does lock up when loading. There is the screen output I get when Xwindows locks up on startup:
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
XFree86 Version 4.2.0 (Red Hat Linux release: 4.2.0-72) / X Window System
(protocol Version 11, revision 0, vendor release 6600)
Release Date: 23 January 2002
If the server is older than 6-12 months, or if your card is
newer than the above date, look for a newer version before
reporting problems. (See http://www.XFree86.Org/)
Build Operating System: Linux 2.4.18-11smp i686 [ELF]
Build Host: daffy.perf.redhat.com

Module Loader present
OS Kernel: Linux version 2.4.18-14 (bhcompile@stripples.devel.redhat.com) (gcc
Markers: (--) probed, (**) from config file, (==) default setting,
(++) from command line, (!!) notice, (II) informational,
(WW) warning, (EE) error, (NI) not implemented, (??) unknown.
(==) Log file: "/var/log/XFree86.0.log", Time: Sun Nov 10 22:06:18 2002
(==) Using config file: "/etc/X11/XF86Config"

--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Let me know if any on this info helps. Thanks a million!

--Paul

I got it! It all works just like it ever did. I made a new XF86Config using xf86config. I then hand changed some of the settings to ones that were in a similar file (I guessed backed up by the install from my 7.2 installation). It works great! No more lock ups. Thanks for taking you time to help!!!

--Paul