hi all,

i'm using the last version of mepis that doesn't rely on ubuntu packages.

my mepis isn't starting as exected. it gets part waty through the install and then all i see is a 1 character length underline in the upper left hand corner of the monitor. it turns brighter white, a dot appears on the upper right, a dot appears on the buttom left of the line as the upper right dot disappears. this repeats ad infitum.

the two things that i recall happened recently are:

1. i installed some software that warned to check xorg. i think i logged on after that with no problems.

2. windows installed an update. it is a dual boot system - 1 hard drive is windows and 1 hard drive is linux.

thanks for any guidance / pointers as to how to resolve this.

tia...

windows guys make war on Linux . If you have updated windows then better reinstall Linux completely.
Even if you suceed in getting your current one to run there will be other aberrations you wont immediately see

1st, what actual MEPIS are you running?

2nd, given that it's out of date, don't trash it yet. Before taking that drastic step, try the repair facilities that ought to be on your MEPIS CD. I am running 3.3.2, & I remember fixes both for GRUB & X on that CD. I think they are available at the 1st page of the installer; unfortunately, I don't have a spare box to boot up & double check my memory.

archtoad, thanks. i can get to a command line, however, i don't know what to do there. when i installed some software, i was warned xorx might cause a problem - and i think this is related to that warning. i tried aptget xorg - but i'm used to using synaptic.

it said aptget wasn't recognized by bash, or something similar.

perhaps i need to login as root.

[edited, maybe i need to be root and type in "apt-get xorg"]

okay, i did apt-get install xserver xorg - it said it was already installed and suggest apt-get update.

i'm a bit weary of apt-get update since it will update everything and i'm a bit concerned my set will get dependency issues (a program relying on an old version of something).

i'm using the last version of mepis before they moved to the Ubuntu packages. i think it was 3.3 something-er-rathaer.

any ideas?

i'm going to try and startx from the command line and see what happens there.

more information:

when i did startx, here are the results:

xauth: creating new authority file /home/name/serverauthority.5759
xauth: creating new authority file /home/name/.Xauthority
xauth: creating new authority file /home/name/.Xauthority
xinit: Server Error

Can i install the latest MEPIS (pre Ubuntu package mepis to current ubuntu package mepis) without blowing away my current home drive?

tia...

Do you still have the CD you installed from?


I think you mean apt-get upgrade not apt-get update. (apt-get update only synchs your locally cached list available packages w/ the repositories in your /etc/apt/sources.list.) I, too, have reservations about using that (apt-get upgrade); especially when your sources.list may be pointing to unmaintained repositories.


I believe the final pre-Ubuntu ver. of MEPIS was 3.4.something, not that it matters much. There are at least 2 ways to find out which ver. of SimplyMEPIS you have:

• In KDE, in Konqueror or any other K- program, click on Help --> About KDE. Pre-Ubuntu, the KDE version IS the SimplyMEPIS version.
• In the command line run:
  Code:

  grep 'GreetString' /etc/kde3/kdm/kdmrc

Observations on Versioning in SimplyMEPIS

• I started using SimplyMEPIS w/ ver. 2004.04
  At that time, the major ver. was the the year & the minor ver. a 2-digit serial #.
• In early 2005 Warren switched to using the ver. of KDE the release used.
• In mid-2006, he switched to matching the Ubuntu ver. whose repositories the release uses.

Please note these are just my personal observations, there is nothing official here; although I think that my conclusions are obvious.

Why dont you get with a more recent version?

Yes - so long as it is a separate partition. Back when I was a Mepis user I did this successfully - I did however have two backups just in case.
If it is merely a directory under root (i.e. same physical partition) I suspect you'll lose it.

Upgrades (prior to 6 anyway) were handled sanely.