X Window not coming up SUSE 10

trishikh · 03-15-2006, 01:13 AM

Hi !!

I have installed LINUX SUSE 10 on my machine. After installation from all the five cds it had asked me to give the username and the password. The automatic login was selected. But since then i dont see the Xwindow come up. If i type X from the command prompt it tries to load the Xwindow ..becos the screen just goes blank and then throws some errors...I dont exactly remember those errors but they are something to do with the video settings..
My graphics card is built in INTEL 8485GL .
My monitor is SAMSUNG 56V
The scanning frequencies are:
Horizontal : 30-55 KHz
Vertical : 50-120 Hz
And resolution is Recommended Mode
-800 x 600 @ 85Hz
Supportable Refresh Rate
-Max 1024 x 768 @ 60Hz

How do i make sure that its actually taking these settings while installing..I guess there might a problem in there..I heard about the Xconfig,.Havent tried it though..In that when it asks for the card name should i give a random name or the exact make name>> Or does it matter at all/

Please let me know how to make things right so that i can log into the graphical mode and have all the fun..
I am very new to LINUX/..so incase ure going too technical please elaborate..so that i can follow the steps.
Thanks
Trishikh

vbisis · 03-15-2006, 01:32 AM

Post the exact error message you get, when trying to start x. You can as well have a look at /var/log/Xorg.0.log and post this one here.

Greets Isis

bc8o8 · 03-15-2006, 02:42 AM

There should be a file named /etc/X11/XFree86 (or /etc/X11/XFree86-4, or /etc/X11/xorg.conf). If you open this with your favorite editor (emacs, vi, etc) you'll see a bunch of options used to start up X on your machine.

First look for a section that starts with

Code:

Section "Monitor"

and make sure the HorizSync and VertRefresh are appropriate for you're hardware.

Next, if things still aren't working, somewhere very close to the bottom you'll see a section that starts with

Code:

Section "Screen"

Under this, you'll find a series of lines starting with the word Device, one of which relates to your video card (it will probably say "INTEL 8485GL" or Default Video Card" or something similar (for now, we'll just call it "INTEL Video Card"). Now, further up in the file we should see another section that looks like this

Code:

Section "Device"
    Identifier "INTEL Video Card"

Under this section should be a line that starts with Driver then has something in quotes after it, this is the driver currently being used by X for you're card. I'm not familiar with the Intel 8485 specifically so I'm not sure which driver you should use, but a good fail-safe is vesa. You can switch drivers by commenting out the old one (by adding # before it) and creating a new driver line. You won't get a lot of graphics acceleration, but you'll at least have it working. It should look like this (although there may be other stuff before, after, or in the middle of this)

Code:

Section "Device"
    Identifier                          "INTEL Video Card"
#    Driver                              "OLD_DRIVER"
    Driver                              "vesa"

90% of the time when X doesn't start after an install it's because the graphics card wasn't set up properly (which isn't always your fault). However, there are other issues that could be causing it (such as failure to find the mouse).

If these don't work, and for future reference, posting the exact error and relevant configuration file (if possible) helps get the solution MUCH faster. Logs are usually located under /var/log and depending on whether you're running XFree 86 or Xorg, you should have a log file named XFree86.0.log or Xorg.0.log.