Can't get X to start. Slack starts up fine, but no X. When I run startx I get:
(II) VGA(0): initializing int10
(II) VGA(0): Primary V_BIOS segment is: 0xc000
(EE) VGA(0): Driver can't support depth 24
(II) UnloadModule: "vga"
(II) UnloadModule: "int10"
(II) Unloading /usr/X11R6/lib/modules/linux/libint10.a
(EE) Screen(s) found, but none have a usable configuration.
How do I fix this?
Thanks!

slackware 8.1 run xfree86setup

Thanks David... but do I need to know any special HW settings? If I recall, last time I was walked through an extensive menu for all I/O devices, and to be honest, the freedom of choice there is probably what got me in trouble!

xfree86setup

not xf86setup


it asks no questions

Beautiful! Thank you.

OK I ran xfree86setup and it worked like a charm for video. But X still wouldn't start due to a bad mouse (USB) , so I ran mouseconfig, chose "imps/2" (as I've seen in this forum for USB mice), and then I chose to run gpm, not knowing what it was. When I did this, and ran startx, I got into XWindows, but the mouse wouldn't work. So I got to a console and rebooted, and from then on, I can't get into Slack because I can't login. Apparently, something (prolly gpm) is preventing my keyboard from working.
Any ideas?

the device in XF86Config needs to be set to /dev/input/mice

also gpm needs to be

gpm -m /dev/input/mice -t imps2

this is in /etc/rc.d/rc.gpm


maybe boot into the system with

linux single

Thanks, that got me to be able to log back in... but still no mouse, /dev/input/mice doesn't exist.

try modprobe usbmouse


or it may be

modprobe mousedev

modprobe usb-uhci

modprobe input


check lsmod and see what's loaded

Yea, i had heaps of shit getting a USB Mouse to work in slackware, edit /etc/rc.d/rc.modules and enable the USB related.

Running lsmod gave the following:
Module Size Used by Not tainted
usbmouse 1760 0 (unused)
input 3072 0 [usbmouse]
usbcore 48000 0 [usbmouse]
pcmcia_core 40896 0
ide-scsi 7456 0
I then ran modeprobe (usbmouse|mousedev|usb-uhci|input), all of which ran without a return at the prompt.
Afterward, running lsmod returned the same results.
Then startx crashed with the same, familiar error:
(**) Option "Protocol" "imps/2"
(**) Mouse0: Protocol: "imps/2"
(**) Option "CorePointer"
(**) Mouse0: Core Pointer
(**) Option "Device" "/dev/input/mice"
(EE) xf86OpenSerial: Cannot open device /dev/input/mice
No such device.
(EE) Mouse0: cannot open input device
(EE) PreInit failed for input device "Mouse0"
(II) UnloadModule: "mouse"
(II) Keyboard "Keyboard0" handled by legacy driver
(WW) No core pointer registered
No core pointer

Fatal server error:
failed to initialize core devices

looks like you need these too

modprobe hid
modprobe usb-uhci
modprobe mousedev


I believe what you want to see here is this

usbcore [hid usb-uhci]
input [mousedev hid]


in /dev/input you would need to see a mouse device and it's corresponding event device

Still not working ??



This is supposed to work, however it can be a pain sometimes, I have some machines that work without a problem and some that don't. I am thinking it's something with the hardware.

one thing you can do that I recommend is to use devfs

you will need to enable it in the kernel, there is a document in the kernel docs

OK, this is getting wacky... none of the modprobe commands return anything, except "modprobe usb-uhci", which returns a bunch of kernel errors.
I checked and made sure "/dev/input/mice" does exist.
Now when I run "startx" it goes right into XWindows, but the mouse doesn't work! So it gets me stuck there.
Here's the tail of my XFree86.0.log:
===
(**) Option "Protocol" "imps/2"
(**) Mouse0: Protocol: "imps/2"
(**) Option "CorePointer"
(**) Mouse0: Core Pointer
(**) Option "Device" "/dev/input/mice"
(==) Mouse0: Buttons: 3
(II) Keyboard "Keyboard0" handled by legacy driver
(II) XINPUT: Adding extended input device "Mouse0" (type: MOUSE)
SetKbdSettings - type: 2 rate: 30 delay: 500 snumlk: 0
SetKbdSettings - Succeeded
AUDIT: Sun Dec 15 21:05:45 2002: 157 X: client 6 rejected from local host
(WW) Open APM failed (/dev/apm_bios) (No such device)
===

if your getting kernel errors then that means you probably have usb-ohci

Ran "modprobe usb-ohci", it crunched for a fwe seconds and came back with no results. Tried X again, crashed. "dmesg" returned a ton of stuff, but here's the tail (only part where ohci is mentioned):
==
usb-ohci.c: USB OHCI at membase 0xcc8c6000, IRQ 12
usb-ohci.c: usb-00:02.3, Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS] 7001 (#2)
usb.c: new USB bus registered, assigned bus number 1
hub.c: USB hub found
hub.c: 3 ports detected
PCI: Found IRQ 5 for device 00:02.2
usb-ohci.c: USB OHCI at membase 0xcc8c8000, IRQ 5
usb-ohci.c: usb-00:02.2, Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS] 7001
usb.c: new USB bus registered, assigned bus number 2
hub.c: USB hub found
hub.c: 3 ports detected
hub.c: USB new device connect on bus1/1, assigned device number 2
usb.c: USB device 2 (vend/prod 0x47d/0x1001) is not claimed by any active driver.
==