XFree86 Error on RedHat 8.0
 

Hi
I installed RedHat 8.0 linux few weeks back and its x-windows system worked correctly for about 3 weeks, but suddenly today it has started behaving strangely.

The system boots otherwise, but wont be able to start X-window( and my default setting is to boot in graphical mode), following is the messages it prints, in that order :

-----
Cannot start the X-server. It is likely that it is not configured correctly. Would you like to check current settings?
------

Clicking on 'yes' brings next message :

-----
Could not init font path element unix/:7100, removing from list!
Fatal server error: could not open default font 'fixed'
When reporting a problem related to a server crash, please send the full server output, not just the last message. This can be found in the log file "/var/log/XFree86.0.log".
Please report problems to xfree86@xfree86.org
-----

Clicking next says ;

-----
Would you like me to try to run the xconf program? Note that you will need the root password for this
-----

after this, it asks for root-password at the prompt, and then ;

----
Could not start x-server, trying with fresh configuration.
ddcprob returned bogus-values
blah blah...
blah blah...
----

I havenot changed any hardware( Intel P-III, 128 MB , 40 GB, Intel chipset with onboard graphics card), and yesterday the system was working fine with all the current settings. I wonder what went wrong ?
i am clueless, anyone can shed any lights? then please do.

Regards

Yeah, it is well known issue with fixed fonts goop, one of the work arounds is login into a console, probably by switching to another virtual console with Alt-F2...6 while the system tries to configure itself, then become root (or login as root initialy), and open up /etc/X11/XF86Config-4 file in your favorite command line text editor, then find the lines about fixed font path and comment them out with a hash ('#') sign, then you can either kill init process or reboot the machine - your choice, and it should be fixed afterwards.