I'm a NEWBIE!

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Distro is: Slackware Linux
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Ok, Stats on the computer.

Found dead on road.

Ok, problem...just kidding

Stats:
Compaq Presario 850
CPU: 486 DX2 Chip
Video: SVGA Whish I knew more
Memory: 24 MB
Sound: Reveal Sound FX (No sound setup as of yet)
Modem: 56k (not setup, don't want it right now)
Network Card: NONE, but, I'm wanting one.
Drives:
Floppy: Master
Size: 1.44M (fd0 for linux, A for dos)
Mount Command: ??
CD-ROM: Master-single, slave to sound card.
Speed ?(says 4x)
NOTE: Arttached to Sound card
Mount Command: mount -t iso9660 -o ro /dev/hdc /cdrom
Hard Drive 1: Master.
Number of Drive letters: 1
Drive Letters: hda (linux) C (dos)
Size: 170MB
Format: DOS 6.0
Mount Command: mount -t vfat -o rw /dev/hda /fat-c
Hard Drive 2: Slave.
Number of Drive letters: 3
Drive Letters: hdb3 (linux) hdb2 (linux swap) hdb1 / D (dos)
Size: 2gig (50MB Linux Swap, 50MB DOS, 1.5GB+ Rest for Linux)
Format: Linux, Linux Swap, DOS 6.0
Mount Command: mount -t Linux Jernull -o rw /dev/hdb3 /
Mount Command: (Swap)
Mount Command: mount -t vfat -o rw /dev/hdb1 /fat-d


Ok, problem...
I start the computer and boot into Linux.
Log in as root.
I type in 'startx'
It prints some text up, to quick to see. Then the blank screen thing happens. I have tried Ctrl+C, Changing the V-consull, Ctrlr+D, Ctrl+Q, even Ctrl+Alt+Del and nothing happends. I end up turning off the power.

History:
CD-ROM did not detect on install, did after install.
Installed sets A, AP, L, F, KDE, X, XAP
Setup X to use the KDE
Ran XFree86Setup
Thats all I have done.

I'll try to still work on it, but I hope someone can help me.

did you also try ctrl-alt-backspace? This is the combination that usually kills X.

which distro are you using?

maybe your monitor doesn't support the current X configuration settings, like screen resolution, color depth, refresh rate, etc. Did it work the first time you started X (after the installation)?

I'm a NEWBIE!

Distro: SlackLinux 9.0 to 9.1 (used 9.0 boot disk, 9.1 root disks)
Tried Ctrl+Alt+Backspace, Alt+Backspace, Ctrl+Backspace and even just Backspace. I also tried the + key combos.

I'm so used to using micro stuff that I rebooted the computer after install. When it was done, I tried it and then it did that blank screen.
After that, I readed up on X windows, found out you might have to set X. So I ran xfree86setup, after that I typed in 'startx' didn't work, turned off power, booted up tried again samething. ran xfree86setup again, rebooted and tried again, samething...a blank screen. After more reading (more then I realy wanted to do, over 2 housr)... I found out that you can try to set X up with xf86config, so I did. set everything to a default or the lowest setting. Did everything the same as I did for xfree86setup. (tried, rebooted and ran config, tried, ect.) Still nothing but a blank screen.

Well, if some one has a Idea please tell me.

just saw that you say you have only 24MB of ram. this might be the problem rather than some X setting if you are trying to use KDE or gnome. Both need a lot of resources and probably won't run at all or extermely slowly. See if you have installed something like IceWM and try to start that one. I think it would be
startx exec starticewm
if you have icewm installed.

the only other window manger (if thats what KDE and Gnome are called) is the one that came with X (don't know it's name, but it says BASIC Window Use or something close to that)

Try start that one. I'm not sure what the command would be but it probably starts with start. You can type
start
and then press the tab key which will give you a list commands beginning with this string. If you're lucky the command to start your basic thing will be on the list. you can then start it with
startx exec <command>

You can see if X works at all with just
startx exec xvt
this ought to give you just a terminal window. No desktop but at least you'll know if X is working at all.

Well, I tried that. Didn't work.
I'm thinking about adding 32MBs more, will that help?
Where can I get iceWM?

Well, I had to go off to bed so I didn't check back, I won't check again untill tomarrow. So, Thank you so veary much quatsch for all the help you have been to me. My only hope is that I will one day be that good.

see if you have xvt installed (you should) with
whereis xvt
you'll get an output lilke /usr/X11R6/bin/xvt (or whatever). Place this after startx. So if the output is blah-blah, then do
startx blah-blah

If this doesn't work at all, then X settings are wrong as well.

I'm not sure if adding 32MB is enough for KDE or Gnome. I think these want 64MB minimum (not sure though).

IceWM seems to be not on the slackware CDs but you can find pre-compiled packages on the net. Just go to www.icewm.org and there should be a link. Slackware's homepage will tell you how to install packages. There are other lightweight desktop managers as well. Just look and ask around.

This same thing happened to me before, below is my post from another thread. Hopefully it will be helpful. -- J.W.

http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...939#post757939

J.W. - I don't use lilo. Use loadln at the start of the computer (after config.sys)

I just tried, it says xvt:
I don't have it.
OK, now what, reinstall X?
I downloaded my copy of Slackware (A, AP, K, D, L, X, XAP,ect. everything but N). I copy A, on to my DOS HD and install from there. Could this be the problem? I am a ::newbi:: . After Slackware is on, I mount my cdrom and install the rest using pkgtool. Is that whats wrong?

If I have to just reinstall X, do I delete X from the system or just start all over and format and install Linux Slackware, again?

I'm not sure why I don't have xvt installed, is it in the X & XAP packages?

I like how iceWM looks on the web, I would like to have it on the computer. Maybe I'm using too old of a computer?
I don't mind the prompt look, in fact that is what I'm used to. I'm a old dos lover. I remember when GW basic (gee wizz) was like the teaching language, then came QB and QuickBasic (2.0 4.5 7.?) and that was cool. I learned TP (Turbo Pascal) and saw Pascal was in the D Pack for slackware, My heart loning for something other then Visual Basic 6.0 jumped. I also want to learn C/C++, then as I was reading I saw that C/C++ was in the D Pack too! If I can't get, with your help - with some many people helping me I can't name them all - can I still use Pascal and C/C++? Thats the second thing that made me install Slackware. First reson, I want to get away from Micro Stuff. I mean thing about it, if it's micro, what good can it do? I'm joking here. Well, I thank you veary much, to all of you, please don't give up on me. I will try to check back at the end of the night, its 4:50PM here.
Bye!

Turbo Pascal. Wow. That was the first (and last) language that I can claim to have learned to a competent level. Anyway, the compilers themselves should work without X. I'm not sure about the whole development environment but I think a lot of tools will work without X.

As for the way you're installing. I don't think there's anything wrong with the way you're installing things though I think it's easier to install things from the CD right away. Could you use a boot floppy to start the installation process which will then proceed to install from CD? I'm pretty sure slackware has such an option in case you cannot boot from the CD.

maybe the name of the terminal is rxvt - sorry; there are so many variants. Other possibilities are aterm, eterm, xterm. I think you should try get the icewm package and install it. See where it goes.

Ok, I found out a few things.

1)
VIDEO:
Super-VGA
Chipset: Cirrus CL-GD5428
Memory: 1024Kbytes (1MB)
RAMDAC: Cirrus Logic Built-in 15/16/24-bit DAC
(with 6-bit wide lookup tables (or in 6-bit mode))

2)
That graphics card is not supported in the newest X version. Only in 3.X

3)
Installed iceWM.


What I did:
I installed iceWM, that didn't let me in, then I went to work on finding everything I could on the graphics, found out that my card is not yet supported. So...
I installed the highest X version for my graphis card, version 3.4.0. And I set it all up.
Now it should work with my graphics card, but...
I have a new problem...
When I start x with startx it says

execve failed for /usr/X11R6/bin/X (errno 2)

(I press Ctrl+C after a while, like around 2 minuets)

Xinit: unexpected Signel 2

I'm sorry! This is not my thing...yet
I did try to load just the text termal but I don't think it works. It prints up the same error. I try KDE and it just fails and says can not connect to X server. Hold on while I kill the computer, it filling up the screen right now.
Ok back, well if you have a idea I be happy to read it!

Thanks for the help, maybe we can get the next one done!

Computer Kid out!

P.S. On the boot disk for my cdrom, it couldn't detect it even with making it look at it.