Cant boot into linux

Darksaber · 06-26-2005, 10:20 AM

Hey guys!
Im new here and im a real newbie at linux

Im currently (well sort of

) running two OS's - Windows XP and Linux MEPIS

I have one partition for windows xp and 3 for linuxs, which are root, home and the swap disk, heh.

ok, so my prob is booting, first from the cd. I put the cd in, boot off:

Code:

 BOOT 2.6 (Newer version)

and it dosent work. Infact, it dosent work with:

Code:

 BOOT 2.6 (newer hardware)

or

Code:

 BOOT 2.4 (older hardware)

exept for

Code:

 SAFE 2.4 (minimum options)

what happnes is it boots up, and looks like its gonna work fine, then the login screen dosent come up. Instead, the screen goes blank for a second, and as a huge anti-climax, a txt version comes up (like in a console) saying "Login" lol. being a n00b i dont really know what to do

So i now boot off the safe mode version and everything works as it should (exept i dont get a nice blue mepis boot screen, its all with a black backround and dosent look nice). I get into linux now and i install it all cool.

Now it seems to work fine and everything, and i can choose which OS to boot from when i start my pc... i can even select the 2.6 version i couldnt use earlier! (the boot screen is sill black and horrible)

So i start to personalise it and change some settings. If i even touch the graphics settigs (eg monitor frequency & ati drivers) then when reload linux, i get the same problem as when i use the cd... i can get the login screen to come up!!!

This is what happnes:

I select either MEPIS at sda3, kernel 2.6.10 or MEPIS at sda3, kernel 2.4.29 . It boots and i see the progress as its loading. it gets to where the login screens should come, but i get a blank screen for a second and then the message:

Code:

MEPIS LINUX testing/unstable LANCER tty1

(Lancer is my pc name btw

)

then it goes to the text login thing:

Code:

 LANCER Login:

so i type in my user name, but nooo sometimes when i press keys it comes up with an error like:

Code:

 atkbd.c: Unkown Key released (translated set 2, code 0x81 on isa 0060/serio0).

atkbd.c: use ' set keycodes e001 <keycode> ' to make it known.

of course, some of the numbers change when i press different keys, but eventually, i manage to login and put in the password. now it displays:

Code:

 root@tty1[~]#

and i can type stuff in, lolol

i type in:

Code:

 root@tty1[~]# ls

and it shows

Code:

 Desktop   Documents   snb4k   tmp

so i dunno what the hell im doing, but snb4k isnt a folder im guessing, so i run that to see what happnes:

Code:

 root@tty1[~]# snb4k

and i get an error:

Code:

snb4k: ERROR: KUniqueApplication: Can't determine Display. Aborting.

So im guessing the display settings or sommin are really messed up in linux, which is why i cant see the login screen and get into linux.

at the mo im using a Sapphire RADEON x600 Pro (256mb

) and im using PCI express on my motherboard.

do any of you have anyideas why i cant seem to get into linux from the cd (unless in safe mode) and from the hard drive (after display settings have been changed correctly) ?

Id appriciate any help you guys can offer, and sorry bout the huge long n00bish post lol. Hope ive given enough info!

thanks

otchie1 · 06-26-2005, 07:00 PM

firstly you only need to boot from the CD when you arefirst installing linux or if something has gone wrong - trying to boot an active system from an installation CD will often result in you running in a chrooted environemnt which will confuse you until your head melts :-)

Take the CD out and just boot from the hdd.

Do you get a choice to boot either Mepis or XP or does it run straight to Mepis?

If it boots to a text only screen and you can log in then the command to start the GUI is

Code:

startx

but i'm pretty sure Mepis defaults to a GUI anyway so if you need to type anything, something has gone wrong.

Probably the best people to ask are in the Mepis conference http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...php?forumid=64

Darksaber · 06-27-2005, 02:03 AM

hehe, well i can only install from the safe mode on the cd - all the other modes result in a text login screen. I've tried using

Code:

kdeinit

but it came up with the error

Code:

 Kdeinit: Aborting. $Display not set

. Also tried

Code:

xinit

but that resulted in a similar graphics error

hmm, so if there was a way to reset the graphics (or to get some liux drivers) id be able to install the newer version from the cd, as aposed to having to install using safemode.

After installation (and the cd is out), I do get the selection screen with a choice of mepis 2.4, 2.6 kernels, windows or memtest.

[ooooh on a side note, does anyone know how to change what it shows on this screen? once everything is working, i'll only want windows and mepis 2.6 there

]

I get into linux fine after installation, but if i even change some of the graphics settings, once i restart my computer, the original error comes up! but this time, there is no safe mode to go into cause im not botting from the cd!

it's kinda annoying! I'll give that code you gave me a try now and see if i get any results

thanks!

Darksaber · 06-27-2005, 02:20 AM

oki, I just tried the

Code:

 startx

command when booting " BOOT 2.6 (Newer version) " from the cd. I get into the txt login screen, and type it in... it then shows the following error:

Code:

(WW) RADEON: No matching device section for instance (BusID PCI:1:0:1) found

(EE) No devices detected

Fatal server error:
No screens found

....


XIO: Fatal IO error 104 (connection reset by peer) on x server ":0.0"
after 0 requests (0 known processed) with 0 events remaining

Any ideas on whats happening

Im sure its not just a mepis problem, its my graphics card or something

thanks guys

syg00 · 06-27-2005, 05:30 AM

Mmmm - odd.
Having a Mepis system, I just did a test on another box. Couple of old Mepis CDs booted up o.k. - although the failsafe boot wouldn't complete.
There is a Mepis forum here on LQ, you may want to post there. There is also www.mepislovers.org.
But you might be right - could well be a hardware issue.

Darksaber · 06-27-2005, 03:33 PM

thanks! ill tryout the mepis forum and also try mepislovers lol

i recon its the graphics card, cause its quite new, so maybe linux dosent support it yet or sommin

thanks guys, you rock

ayteebee · 09-23-2005, 11:40 AM

I dunno how old your kernel is or anything, coz I'm not good enough to figure it out! Here's what I'd try though.

When you boot into the command line, try pressing ctrl+alt+f7 (or f1, f2, etc). There are different consoles in Linux, and this changes between them. On my computer, tty7 (console 7) is the one reserved for X window environments. All the other ones are text-mode only, which is why you get the "Can't determine display" error, or whatever it is.

Hope this helps,

Andy.

Darksaber · 09-24-2005, 03:29 AM

hehe i managed to fix the problem just by typing xdrvr=mesa in the command line on the boot screen... cool eh?

(at least i think it was that, i may have spelt it wrong)

u rock

cs-cam · 09-24-2005, 04:32 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by Darksaber
hehe i managed to fix the problem just by typing xdrvr=mesa in the command line on the boot screen... cool eh?

(at least i think it was that, i may have spelt it wrong)

u rock

That will allow you to start X but you won't have any accelerated graphics. Don't try and play any games like that. You need to go to the ATI site and download their current linux driver. You might need to install the kernel source as well, depending on how mepis handles things.

Darksaber · 09-24-2005, 04:46 AM

yep, i found that out the hard way :P

i managed to get some updates on package manager, so alls well that ends well

thanks for your help and support guys