CentOS 6 installation with strange X problem
 

I've already posted this problem at the CentOS forum and got two silly replies, so I'm hoping to find a little more expertise here!

First I installed using the option 'development platform'. When I rebooted, I found myself in a CLI. I created a user manually and ran startx. The result was a screen with the computer and home icons, but no panel and no way to run programs. I couldn't see anything in the log files and ~/..xsession-errors had not been created. The same result was obtained by running startx as root.

I then tried re-installing, this time chosing the option 'desktop',and again ended up in a console. This time, when I ran startx, I didn't even get a blue screen, but I did get an error message:
open /dev/fb0: no such device.
A quick check reveals that /dev is completely empty! What's going on here? And is there anything that can be done to remedy it?

It's unlikely to be the installer, because the download had a correct checksum, and I ran the disk check before anaconda.

My video is SiS 741 on the motherboard, which was detected in the boot. And if it were having a problem with that, it still wouldn't explain an empty /dev.

I've yet to install CentOS6, although I probably will soon to play around, maybe this gives me an excuse/motivation.

I don't see how you have a functioning machine without /dev. Sounds like something did not mount. During install did you specify a specific mount point for /dev?

During your second attempt to install, did you completely reformat?

Are you choosing a default desktop, gnome/kde? I believe bare bones X uses twm. That's what you saw during the first attempt.

The /dev situation is very strange. Logged in to CentOS, "ls /dev" gives the output one would expect, but from Fedora /media/guest/dev shows empty. And the OS does complain that /dev/fb is missing, even if ls lists it!

The only mount point specified in the installation was "/". I chose Gnome each time, and what I saw was not twm. That's grey with a terminal window, while this was blue with the Computer and Home icons.

By the way, I know you meant well, but you shouldn't post a first reply to a thread if you do not have the answer. All that this does is to stop the thread from showing up in a zero-replies search, which many busy people use rather than sanning all new posts.

If you wish it to remain with 0 replies until someone has a definite answer, you'll be waiting for a long time if you don't provide all the details up front.

>>CentOS, "ls /dev" gives the output one would expect, but from Fedora /media/guest/dev shows empty

Are you installing fedora or CentOS?

Since my last post, I've made two more attempts to install. Finally, by choosing the default option of "minimal desktop", I was able to boot into run-level 5 and see the first-boot configuration program. I wasn't able to actually use it, as all the text was displayed as little boxes! I then went back to Fedora and discovered that CentOS had an empty /usr/share/fonts directory. I populated it and so I can post this from CentOS. The GDM screen still has little boxes, though.

PS the reason that /dev seems empty when viewed from another OS on the same computer is that it is empty: i'ts created on the fly at every boot.

Final answer
Each installation, I'd added a few extra programs with the 'customise now' option. This disables some things that should be enabled. One must either use 'customise later', or manually ensure every section of the desktop category is selected.