X server crashing - port listening
 

I recently installed Slack 9 on an old laptop..it only has 16mb of ram but i still wanna try and run X on it.

I try startx and i get this message..
_XSERVTransSocketOpen: socket() failed for local
_XSERVTransSocketOpenCOTSServer: Unable to open socket for local
_XSERVTransOpen: transport open failed for local/Slack-laptop:0
_XSERVTransMakeAllCOTSServerListeners: failed to open listener for local

Fatal server error:
Cannot establish any listening sockets - Make sure an X server isn't already running


I try doing startx -- -nolisten tcp and it does the same thing. Did i forget to install a package or is something not configured correctly?

Oh, man. That is gonna hurt.

The first thing that comes to my mind, is did you run xf86config?

lol..yeah i know it's gonna hurt..i'll see how it runs.. i installed blackbox..so i'm not running KDE or GNOME.

I did run XF86Config..and it still gives me an error..

Does anybody know?

By any chance did you compile a new kernel? Googling on your error message, most solutions point to compiling a kernel with UNIX Socket support.

Here is an example of what I'm seeing.

I haven't compiled a new kernel..i was trying to avoid that because it's a 120Mhz Pentium 1 with 16MB of RAM. I'll try it and see what happens.

Can X run with 16mb of ram though?

I honestly don't know. It is going to be a VERY tight squeeze if it does though, and that may be the root of your problem.

If you're only trying to run X for the fun of it, I wouldn't push this very far. My first Linux box had 49MB or RAM and while it did run X, it wasn't pretty. Web pages took minutes to load, forget about playing a movie.

The joy of Slackware is that it does so much from the command line. Heck, if you want you can even surf the web with Lynx. It's kind of weird, but it works!

Yeah i was using the command line a lot..i had a console mp3 player and it ran like a beast. It was great. I actually like using Links to browse the web..i even downloaded it for Windows lol.

Do you think that X can't start because the kernel can't load the unix sockets into the memory or is it not even installed?

I guess I don't know how to tell if the Unix socket is there or not. If you really want graphics, I'd go ahead and compile a custom kernel. At very least that would give you the chance to make a really pared down kernel and hopefully avoid as many memory issues as possible. Complining a new kernel shouldn't be too bad, just slow. Heck, launch the compile before going to bed and if you're lucky, it will be done by morning.

Alright..thats what i was thinking..just letting it compile all night. I'll try it sometime this week and if it doesnt work i'll come back. Thanks.