Need Help Installing Centos 5.2 i386 ... not able to use gui ... i am lost...

ngooch · 01-29-2009, 12:58 AM

ok so i decided to get linux centos because I may be getting a job where Im going to need to know how to use it. I am a noob and have been looking around for help...having tough time finding the answers to these questions any links or advice would be awesome!

I can install using the cd i made.
it than asks for a login i put in: root
it seems to work out...

now how do i set up a username to login? scared to be doing things under root login, dont want to mess things up.

how do i make it possible to use a gui of some sort?
all the tutorials i've seen there is a gui and you go to template or something like that to use the text part.

Is the reason i dont see a gui option because my graphics card needs to have drivers installed into centos? and if that is the case how do i do this? I have nvidia 6600gt card

can i install firefox? and how do i do that? This would be very helpful so i can search and learn how to use linux while on the OS.
would i just use the lynx command to do this??

I've been reading all day about the basic commands of UNIX but I'm still not ready to jump in full force on the text side...I want to learn some shell scripting and I really need to get something installed so i can practice.

Your help is greatly appreciated!

linuxlover.chaitanya · 01-29-2009, 01:36 AM

Root is admin user and rightly so you should not be using it for other general purposes. You can add a user by useradd command.Once you have added the user give it some passowrd by passwd <username> command. You can man for the command you want to use for more help.
By default run level in RH systems is set to 3 so I assume same in CentOS as well. If you want to be able to boot in GUI always change the runlevel settings in inittab file in /etc.
Just do vi /etc/inittab and change the line that could look something like this

id:3:initdefault

to

Code:

id:5:initdefault

This will change your runlevel the next time you boot to graphical.
Once you have done this you can login and use the normal username and password to login and use the system.
To install packages you have got "yum" utility. Use it to install packages.
To install firefox just do

Code:

yum install firefox

stratotak · 01-29-2009, 01:57 AM

Centos is RedHat minus some RedHat content and has its own repos.it uses Anacondo installer.I believe thats what it is called.And it boots into gui by default.If I remember correct.Creating user is done on first boot of Centos.

colucix · 01-29-2009, 02:07 AM

So now you have a text based system and you are scared by being root? Don't be! Here is the steps to install the proprietary NVIDIA driver. Someone may criticize the choice to install the proprietary driver, but since the CentOS' driver should have worked out of the box, maybe your model is not fully supported. Anyway, you can always install the proprietary driver, then solve any problem and eventually uninstall it later.

First, be sure the machine is connected to internet. In the following, when I type a hash # before a command, it means the command prompt, you have not to include the hash in the command itself, ok? Now login as root, then issue the command

Code:

# ifconfig eth0

in the second line of the output you should see the string "inet address" followed by a IP number. If this is the case your network card has properly seen and activated by the system. Test the internet connection doing

Code:

# ping www.google.com
PING www.l.google.com (74.125.77.99) 56(84) bytes of data.
64 bytes from ew-in-f99.google.com (74.125.77.99): icmp_seq=1 ttl=234 time=50.9 ms
64 bytes from ew-in-f99.google.com (74.125.77.99): icmp_seq=2 ttl=234 time=50.3 ms
64 bytes from ew-in-f99.google.com (74.125.77.99): icmp_seq=3 ttl=234 time=51.1 ms
64 bytes from ew-in-f99.google.com (74.125.77.99): icmp_seq=4 ttl=234 time=50.5 ms

if you see an output similar to the above, press Ctrl-C to interrupt the ping command. You're connected. Now download the Nvidia driver using wget

Code:

# wget http://it.download.nvidia.com/XFree86/Linux-x86/180.22/NVIDIA-Linux-x86-180.22-pkg1.run

make it executable:

Code:

# chmod 744 NVIDIA-Linux-x86-180.22-pkg1.run

do a backup of your existing Xorg configuration file (that is the file containing graphics settings. The NVIDIA installer will change it.

Code:

# cp -p /etc/X11/xorg.conf /root/xorg.conf.000

then launch the installer:

Code:

# ./NVIDIA-Linux-x86-180.22-pkg1.run

Now you have to follow the instructions. Usually you have to ACCEPT all the proposals and if all goes well at the end you will return to the command prompt having the driver installed. Take in mind that to navigate from one button to another inside the installer program you can use the arrow keys and/or the TAB key. After highlighting the button you want to press, just hit enter.

At this point test the X system issuing the command

Code:

# startx

after a moment you should see the NVIDIA logo, the a little cross in the center of a grey screen and finally the CentOS login page. Now login then logout and return to the text mode. Be sure the content of the /etc/inittab file has 5 as the running level, like this:

Code:

# cat /etc/inittab
#
# inittab       This file describes how the INIT process should set up
#               the system in a certain run-level.
#
# Author:       Miquel van Smoorenburg, <miquels@drinkel.nl.mugnet.org>
#               Modified for RHS Linux by Marc Ewing and Donnie Barnes
#

# Default runlevel. The runlevels used by RHS are:
#   0 - halt (Do NOT set initdefault to this)
#   1 - Single user mode
#   2 - Multiuser, without NFS (The same as 3, if you do not have networking)
#   3 - Full multiuser mode
#   4 - unused
#   5 - X11
#   6 - reboot (Do NOT set initdefault to this)
# 
id:5:initdefault:
<omitted>

and finally reboot the machine:

Code:

# shutdown -r now

Good luck!

ngooch · 01-29-2009, 02:40 AM

thanks for help.

Im off to try what you said colucix.

Yea im thinking it is the drivers because when i tryed using startx my screen went blank and monitor turned itself off

I'll let you know how things go

cheers

ngooch · 01-29-2009, 02:57 AM

no luck...

get this message when i do:

ifconfig eth0

link encap: Ethernet HWaddr 00:12:3F:8A:BF:55
UP BROADCAST MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
RX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
RX bytes:0 (0.0 b) TX bytes:0 (0.0 b)

than when i try to ping i get "unkown host" response

My current set up is running my computer through wireless router. Would going to a hard line fix the problem?

linuxlover.chaitanya · 01-29-2009, 03:15 AM

You do not seem to have ip address for the interface. Can you tell how do you connect to the internet? ifconfig and iwconfig should give you an idea of that. Post the output of both of the commands.

Wim Sturkenboom · 01-29-2009, 03:24 AM

Just run ifconfig, not ifconfig eth0 and see what shows up (and after reading the previous post, iwconfig)

With regards to the GUI:
1)
You don't need THE driver, but possibly the wrong driver is used or it's not configured for the monitor/screen.
2)
When you run startx, you get a black screen. You can use the key combination <ctrl><alt><backspace> to kill it and you should be taken back to the console from where you entered the command. If not, you can use <ctrl><alt><Fn> (where n=1..6, probably 1). Do you see any error messages there.

Can you post details of the laptop (make, model, which video card etc). The output of the lspci command might also help. It will look like this:

Code:

wim@btd-techweb01:~/commandcentre3/ils/web$ lspci
00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corp. 82845G/GL[Brookdale-G]/GE/PE DRAM Controller/Host-Hub Interface (rev 03)
00:01.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corp. 82845G/GL[Brookdale-G]/GE/PE Host-to-AGP Bridge (rev 03)
00:1d.0 USB Controller: Intel Corp. 82801DB (ICH4) USB UHCI #1 (rev 02)
00:1d.1 USB Controller: Intel Corp. 82801DB (ICH4) USB UHCI #2 (rev 02)
00:1d.2 USB Controller: Intel Corp. 82801DB (ICH4) USB UHCI #3 (rev 02)
00:1d.7 USB Controller: Intel Corp. 82801DB (ICH4) USB2 EHCI Controller (rev 02)
00:1e.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corp. 82801BA/CA/DB/EB/ER Hub interface to PCI Bridge (rev 82)
00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corp. 82801DB (ICH4) LPC Bridge (rev 02)
00:1f.1 IDE interface: Intel Corp. 82801DB (ICH4) Ultra ATA 100 Storage Controller (rev 02)
00:1f.3 SMBus: Intel Corp. 82801DB/DBM (ICH4) SMBus Controller (rev 02)
00:1f.5 Multimedia audio controller: Intel Corp. 82801DB (ICH4) AC'97 Audio Controller (rev 02)
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: nVidia Corporation NV6 [Vanta/Vanta LT] (rev 15)
02:08.0 Ethernet controller: Intel Corp. 82801BD PRO/100 VE (LOM) Ethernet Controller (rev 82)
wim@btd-techweb01:~/commandcentre3/ils/web$

Because you have video and network problems, look for lines with ethernet and VGA (in the example the last 2 lines)

ngooch · 01-29-2009, 04:21 AM

ok here is all the info:

ifconfig
lo Link encap: Local Loopback
inet addr:127.0.0.1 mask: 255.0.0.0
inet6 addr: ::1/128 scope:Host
UP LOOPBACK RUNNING MTU:16436 Metric:1
(rest the same as the post above)

iwconfig
all come back with "no wireless extension"

I am running on a desktop computer that has usb wireless set up (did have to install something in windows to make it work...may not be compatible with linux?)to use the router hooked up in a different room.

lspci
00:1f.3 SMBus Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) SMBus Controller(rev 01)
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller : nVidia Corp NV43 [geForce6600 GT](rev a2)
03:02.0 FireWire (FEEE 1394): Texas Instruments TSB12LV26 IEEE-1394 Controller (Link)
05:08.0 Ethernet controller: Intel Corp 82801G(ICH7 Family) LAN Controller (rev 01)

Cntrl-alt-backspace

X Window System version 7.1.1
Release Date: 12may2006
X Protocol Version 11, Revision 0, Release 7.1.1
Build OS: Linus 2.6.18-53.1.14.el5PAE i686 Red Hat, Inc.
Current OS: Linux localhost.localdomain 2.6.18-92.1.6.el5 #1 SM
Build date 21jun2008
Build ID: xorg.xll-server 1.1.1-48.41.el5_2.1
before report check wiki.x.org
to make sure that have lattest version
Module Loader present
Markers: (==)defualt setting
(==) Log file: "/var/log/xorg.0.log", Time thrjan292009
(==) Using config file: /etc/X11/xorg.comf
localuser:root being added to access cntrl list
SESSION_MANAGER = local/localhost . localdomain:/tmp/.ICE-unix/7382
FreeFontPath: FPE "unix/:7100" refcount is 2, should be 1 fixing.
xinit: connection to X server lost.

says refcount is 2 than trys to fix it and the server is lost...could this have to do with my having 2 monitors hooked up?

*Dxdiag attached as well
DxDiag.txt

Hopefully this info helps

thanks all!

linuxlover.chaitanya · 01-29-2009, 04:35 AM

Why not try a live distribution like Ubuntu just to check how your system responds to it?

ngooch · 01-29-2009, 04:52 AM

was trying to use centOS since that's what the job uses...

i can give Ubuntu a try while trying to figure this out. Really not sure what kind of difference it will be since im a noob to all the distros. Is there any major differences?

chrism01 · 01-29-2009, 05:12 AM

I'd keep it simple (K.I.S.S.) and only use one monitor until you get the full GUI working.

linuxlover.chaitanya · 01-29-2009, 05:35 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ngooch

was trying to use centOS since that's what the job uses...

i can give Ubuntu a try while trying to figure this out. Really not sure what kind of difference it will be since im a noob to all the distros. Is there any major differences?

I am not saying to change your distribution. You can boot off a live cd and check if other distributions have the same issues.
Also as advised by Chris, you should just check once connecting just one monitor and see if it works.

stratotak · 01-29-2009, 08:43 AM

If reason youe cant boot into gui is a graphics driver issue..try using vesa as driver..
I use nano to edit config files quikcly.
you could cd into /etc/X11/ and nano xorg.conf
or you can nano -w /etc/X11/xorg.conf
and changed driver to vesa..
Is that the whole output of lspci??because there nothing there..no usb,no sound,it shows your eth0..but if wireless is a usb adapter..seeing has you have no usb..it wouldnt show up..
If that is your whole lspci..then something went wrong on install..