server aborts on startx under ati 9200 se

juanjavier_xxx · 06-01-2005, 07:41 AM

I´m not in front of my computer now, but X refuses to boot.
Got an ATI RADEON 9200 SE

Among the messages are

Code:

(EE) xf86OpenSerial: Cannot open device /dev/input/mice

Code:

waiting for X server to shut down

I configured to make it work at full 1280x1024 res -I've got a CRT 19" monitor-, but I´m not able to make startx to run.

Debian Sarge, 2.6 kernel. Should it something to do with a XFree86 update?

Anyway I promise to bring here more data....sorry....!!!!

BTW I plan to use just a simple X system like Blackbox. I suppose my graphic ATI card meets and exceeds the requirements.

Any rough idea?

iceman47 · 06-01-2005, 07:50 AM

Yup, great idea; bring the exact output.

Port3M5 · 06-01-2005, 09:14 AM

i have that problem with my USB mouse, any idea's?

juanjavier_xxx · 06-01-2005, 12:25 PM

I managed to make it boot just an initial splash screen that closes as soon as you press ok.

In this splash box you can read:

Code:

Xsession: unable to start X session --- no "/root/.xsession" file, 
no session managers, no window managers, and no terminal emulators 
found; aborting

When back in console mode it reads

Code:

waiting for X server to shut down

Hope it helps...any ideas??

Dead Parrot · 06-01-2005, 01:29 PM

It's better if you don't try to start X as root -- this could produce unexpected problems when trying to use applications as normal user. Personally I always login as normal user and use the "su" command to become root when I need to do administration tasks. If you want to use some GUI application as root, you can install the gksu package and then you can start, for instance, the synaptic package manager as root with the "gksu synaptic" command.

Have you installed any window manager yet? If not, I'd suggest that you first login as normal user, then "su" to root, then do "aptitude install blackbox menu" (the menu package will give you the Debian application menu in blackbox), then hit Ctrl-d to become normal user again, then do "echo 'exec blackbox' > .xinitrc", and then "startx". This should start an X session with blackbox, provided that your X configuration is OK.

juanjavier_xxx · 06-01-2005, 01:53 PM

Parrot, you are very gentle. Thank you so much. It is a good idea what you say.

Blackbox boots smoothly now.

Well, in fact it was as simple as

Code:

apt-get update

and

Code:

apt-get install blackbox

And Voila!! (More fool me)

But now the following happens: I perform a

Code:

apt-get install xpdf

and a

Code:

apt-get install blender

...and get them both installed. However I cannot access them from Blackbox, since the only options i have got from the blackbox menu are 'xterm' -which strangely does not work; it performs nothing-, 'restart' -which restarts blackbox- and exit -which exits to console-.

What am I missing now?

Cheers,
Juan Javier Martï¿½nez.
Madrid (Spain)

Dead Parrot · 06-01-2005, 02:21 PM

Did you install the menu package? That should give you the Debian menu in blackbox.

If you installed the x-window-system-core package, that doesn't include xterm. Do "aptitude install xterm" (or "aptitude install aterm" if you want a better terminal

).

juanjavier_xxx · 06-01-2005, 02:52 PM

Quote:

Did you install the menu package?

What do you mean by that?

Quote:

That should give you the Debian menu in blackbox

I would really love so.

So how could I perform, sorry?

Thank you so much in advance, Dead Parrot.

Dead Parrot · 06-01-2005, 03:01 PM

Try "aptitude install menu". If you have installed the menu package and still don't get the Debian menu in blackbox, try "update-menus" as normal user.

juanjavier_xxx · 06-02-2005, 12:47 AM

Dead Parrot, now it works fine. Got BlackBox, Gimp and Blender running nice on 1280x1024 without a hitch!!.

But when I installed x-window-core-system I stupidly chose 60 HZ of vertical refresh, and I would like to raise it till 75-80 Hz, since the Radeon 9200 SE supports it. The issue is that being used to work @80Hz under window$ now is easy to note the small flicker when working @60 hz. And working w/graphics (Blender, Gimp) makes it a little pity...

How could I perform?

Thank you so much in advance, you are helping a lot!!!

Best regards,

Juan Javier Martinez
Madrid, Spain.