It's a LILO problem, of course. I see Linux but not XP. Tried to edit lilo.conf and it creates a new file. Apparently one doesn't exist or I'm looking in the wrong directory (/etc/lil.conf)


Next is the cardmgr problem. It hangs on the following line.
"cs: IO port probe 0c0800-0x08ff:"
I found a post here and took out the line section "0c0800-0x08ff" in the include line. What else should I have to do?

Another problem and I've yet to see if this one is fixed, is that KDE won't start when I type "startx"


Thanks for all your help and sorry about all the questions.

Concerning lilo, have you tried using "liloconfig" (as root)? Go to expert, begin, linux, dos etc

Steve

hard drive spins like it's doing something, but nothing comes up.

Anyone have a clue why liloconfig wont work?

I know the file exists because I get a LILO screen at boot, just minus the choice to boot Windows.

When I type startx is says command unknown.

In your first post about lilo: the file to edit is /etc/lilo.conf note the o
as to not being able to start kde from startx.... did you install the second install disk that has gnome and kde on it. if so run as your user xwmconfig and choose kde. then startx should start kde up.

Did a "dir" in the /etc directory, there is no lilo.conf. Could it have been placed somewhere else?

Also, when I type in any user name except root, it prompts me for a password, but when I login as root, it doesn't.

Do you mean as my user name, type in xwmconfig?

Fixed all problems and X tries to start, but the screen just goes crazy and I get a lenghthy error message.

(WW) VESA(0) Failed to set uo write-combining range

(EE) Mouse1: cannont open input device
(EE) PreInit failed for input device "Mouse1"
No core pointer

Fatal server error:
failed to initialize core devices

XIO: fatal IO error 104 (Connection reset by peer) on X server ":0.0" after 0 requests (0 known processed) with - events remaining.


Obviously theres a mouse problem in there. I only have USB ports and a touchpad mouse. Selected USB mouse when I was prompted to install one. How do I change it? Are there other problems that are causing this crash? Any help will be much appreciated.

Messed around with the xf86config file and now it sais

(EE) VGA(0): Driver can't support depth 24
(EE) Screen(s) found, but none have a usable configuration

Fatal server error:
no screens found

Try running as root
or something similar. You're looking for a nice ncurses screen (similar to the Slackware installation screens). That will ask a few questions and then set up a nice XF86Config file that you should be able to use. If you have an ATI or Nvidia card and you want hardware accelleration (you do for games) then you'll need to install the correct drivers (search LQ) and run the above command again.

Did you get lilo working? If you have lilo installed
then try reinstalling it from the Slackware CD
If you don't have it installed, install it
The run liloconfig and answer the questions. You'll need to run the above commands as root.

Alright, for the X display problem.

It looks like you've set it to use the generic VGA display. This could work but you'd probaby have to set your display depth to 8 which would suck.

More desirable (in lieu of your card's specific drivers) you can use the generic vesa drivers. Look in XF86Config for the section marked "Graphics device section"
You should find the following lines in there.

Section "Device"
Identifier "VESA"
Driver "vesa"
EndSection

This chooses to use the generic vesa display driver which should be in your kernel by default.

Now, under "Screens section" you should have something similar to...

# **********************************************************************
# Screen sections
# **********************************************************************

# Any number of screen sections may be present. Each describes
# the configuration of a single screen. A single specific screen section
# may be specified from the X server command line with the "-screen"
# option.
Section "Screen"
Identifier "Screen 1"
Device "VESA"
Monitor "My Monitor"


# If your card can handle it, a higher default color depth (like 24 or 32)
# is highly recommended.

# DefaultDepth 8
# DefaultDepth 16
DefaultDepth 24
# DefaultDepth 32

# "1024x768" is also a conservative usable default resolution. If you
# have a better monitor, feel free to try resolutions such as
# "1152x864", "1280x1024", "1600x1200", and "1800x1400" (or whatever your
# card/monitor can produce)

Subsection "Display"
Depth 8
Modes "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
EndSubsection
Subsection "Display"
Depth 16
Modes "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
EndSubsection
Subsection "Display"
Depth 24
Modes "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
EndSubsection
Subsection "Display"
Depth 32
Modes "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
EndSubsection

EndSection

*********************************************************************************

This allows you to select your depth and the driver you want to use. Just enter the Graphics Device Identifier you used in the Graphics device section in the Section "Screen" Device selection. To change the resolution depth, uncomment one of the default depth selections. To select a screen resolution, go to the Display subsection that coincides with the display depth you've chosen and check that the resolution you want is there. Delete any unwanted resolution Modes (i.e. if you want a max resolution of 800x600 then delete the 1024x768 entry).

Now for Lilo.

You should be able to run liloconfig as root. Even still this will NOT automatically set up lilo to work. However, it WILL create a new /etc/lilo.conf file for lilo. Depending on what partitions you have everything installed your lilo.conf will look something like this:

# LILO configuration file
# generated by 'liloconfig'
#
# Start LILO global section
boot = /dev/fd0
#compact # faster, but won't work on all systems.
prompt
timeout = 150
# VESA framebuffer console @ 1024x768x256
vga = 773
# Normal VGA console
# vga = normal
# VESA framebuffer console @ 1024x768x64k
# vga=791
# VESA framebuffer console @ 1024x768x32k
# vga=790
# VESA framebuffer console @ 1024x768x256
# vga=773
# VESA framebuffer console @ 800x600x64k
# vga=788
# VESA framebuffer console @ 800x600x32k
# vga=787
# VESA framebuffer console @ 800x600x256
# vga=771
# VESA framebuffer console @ 640x480x64k
# vga=785
# VESA framebuffer console @ 640x480x32k
# vga=784
# VESA framebuffer console @ 640x480x256
# vga=769
# ramdisk = 0 # paranoia setting
# End LILO global section
# Linux bootable partition config begins
image = /boot/vmlinuz
root = /dev/hda2
label = Linux
read-only # Non-UMSDOS filesystems should be mounted read-only for checking
#Linux bootable partition config ends
# DOS bootable partition config begins
other = /dev/hda1
label = Windows-XP
table = /dev/hda
# DOS bootable partition config ends

Typically Windows like to be installed on the first partition on the drive so (to make things easy) you'll usually want to install it first then install linux to another partition. You're able to boot to linux so you should have to worry about fixing that part. Your windows partition is most likely going to be hda1 also so you can just copy what I have above for the DOS partition. The 'label' is what you'll see when you boot. It can be pretty much anything you want as long as there are no spaces and it doesn't exceed a certain number of characters (can't remember how many but it'll warn you if it's too long when you run lilo). Which brings me to the next step that most people forget. Once you've configured lilo.conf and closed the file you MUST type lilo as root. This will actually invoke the changes you've made.

I got LILO working and fixed the cardmanager problem. Thanks a bunch for the help. Now I just need to get X to start up.
I'm running on a laptop and have a 64 meg Radeon Mobility. I wasn't selecting anything the card couldn't show. I'll keep trying to mess around with it.

Will selecting PS/2 for my mouse allow me to use my touchpad and USB mouse? It seems like that's the only mouse selection which doesn't error out anyway.

You should be able to get X to start by doing the whole XF86Config thing I outlined above. That'll enable the generic vesa drivers which will display in 24 bit depth whereupon you should be able to start x.

You might also want to make sure you've chosen a default. Type xwmconfig to choose which window manager you want to use in X. If you don't see KDE or Gnome as options you'll need to install them from the second installation CD.

For your login problem. You'll want to configure a password for root (type passwd as root I believe). After that, to create other users just type (again as root) adduser name-of-user and that will take you through the process. It's best to run as a user and use the su root command to switch to root for certain tasks (less chance you'll break something).

Are you brand new to linux or just to Slackware? Have you compiled a kernel before?

Once you've got X running you'll want to check out either ATI's site for the latest Radeon drivers or possibly you'll have to rely on the kernel's built in Radeon drivers if your card isn't supported (I think it has to be an 8500 or above for ATI's official drivers). I have a Radeon 7000 so I'm stuck using kernel default or DRI project's drivers.

If ATI's drivers won't work but you need hardware 3d support check out the DRI project (do a google search for it). If nothing else it'll teach you a lot about how graphics are handled in linux.

As for the mouse/touchpad thing. I have a laptop at home that I had to configure with that but I honestly can't remember how it was done. Again, a search on this board (or google) should bring up some hits on configuring a touchpad with Slackware. It involves adding some settings to the XF86Config that aren't already there.