x server
 

I have just installed M 10 with no problems till I came to start up.
Instead of the GUI I got a text based startup, so I entered my name and password then at the prompt I typed startx only to be met by a serious error which said screens available but no usable configuration.
In the set up everything was configured exceot the GUI so I accepted the defaults ( 1024 x 768 @ 70hz ) and Vesa as the graphics card driver.
The computer is a shuttle with 2 x 256ddr ram 2 hard drives 80gb & 40gb, N-Force 2 mobo and a leadtek FX5700 graphics card.
I have re-installed it 5 times to change the GUI settings but still get the same error.
Can anyone help?.

i know this is going to help, but there seem to be a few people experiencing problems with nforce2 mobo's, search the forum for their posts and see what you can come up with.

What are the horizontal sync and vertical refresh rates set to in your /etc/XF86Config-4 file? What driver is listed under the section about the video card? What is the resolution and color depth that is set under the "Screens" section?

When I try to access /etc/xf86config-4 as user it says no such file or directory and if I go to root I get the same reply.
The only driver I can get to work with the leadtek gf5700 is the vesa driver.
As to the other settings I do not now how to find them from the text interface.

whoops! I meant /etc/X11/XF86Config-4. Sorry

when I type that command as local or root I get permission denied.

fire up konsole and type You should be prompted for your root password. Type that in. That files is a configuration file. All you need to do is look at it and then change it if its wrong. You want to look at it with your pager first(less is installed on most every *nix box), and then if you want to edit it, you can fire up a text editor to change it(nano is installed on Mandrake).To lookUse the pageup and pagedown buttons to scroll up and down the document. Copy and paste the relavent sections. To get out of the pager, hit the "q". There should be no reason why you can't look at a plain text document. Some files are hidden from users like /etc/lilo.conf, but root can read them.

How do I fire up the console when I cannot get the GUI interface.

If you're presented with a login: prompt, type your username in and then your password. You'll be logged in. If this is the answer that you're looking for, than I will assume that you truely are the newbie that you claim to be. If so, you'd be very wise to learn a few simple commands so that you could get around in the command line (or your system in general). Do yourself a big favor and take an hour to review the basic commands to getting around in Linux. I suggest you go to a place like www.linuxcommand.org or your distro's installation guide page and learn about "ls, man, cd" etc. Check out little things like how to log in and out. It'll be an hour well spent. Then, you can come back and we can get you graphical really fast!


See you in a bit...

I am a newbie but I now how to log on and off and how to get into root.
I will take a look at your link and will get back to you.
I have used xf86config to try and set it up but non of the drivers available will give me a working screen, this is strange because on instillation when the graphics were configured it asked you to test it and it was OK.
OH well time to read your link and thanks for it.

Have read your link it took longer than an hour:(
With using the examples more like 5 hours.
Hopefully now I understand a bit more, with your help I can finally get my GUI up an d running.

It would take that long to read. Wow! Mos peeps would maybe skim it ( was assuming that you would do something in between. Well, you're ahead of the game now. If you want to know all there is to know about *nix, you may want to read the Rute manual. Its comprehensive but entirely readable. Some consider it a bible of sorts. You'll be answering most of the questions if you do that :eek:

Can you post the relavent sections of XF86Config-4? I'll help you suss it out (as well as anyone else who wants to attack it). I would suggest that you try the "nv" driver to get it working and once that's accomplished, get the Linux driver from their website so you can get 3d acceleration working too. One step at a time. Lets get a screen.

The parts that are the most important usually are:
Monitor - what is the horiz and vert rates
Device - what vid card driver is in use
Screen - what is the default color depth and the modes that are set for that depth (resolution)

The monitor is a Typhoon T95N 19"
The graphics card is a Leadtek GF5700 128mb.

This is how it reads.
SECTION MONITOR.
Identifier 1
VendorName Generic
ModelName 1280 x 1024 @ 76Hz
HorizSync 31.5 - 82
VertRefresh 50 - 90

# Sony Vaio C1 ( X, XS, VE, VN )?
# 1024 x 480 @ 85.6Hz 48kHz hsync
ModelLine 1024 x 480 65.00 1024 1032 1176 1344 480 488 494 563 -hsync -vsync

# TV fullscreen mode or DVD fullscreen output
# 768 x 576 @ 79Hz, 50kHz hsync
ModelLine 768 x 576 50.00 768 832 846 1000 576 590 595 630
# 768 x 576 @ 100Hz, 61.6kHz hsync
ModelLine 768 x 576 63.07 768 800 960 1024 576 578 590 616

SECTION DEVICE
Identifier device 1
Driver VESA
Option DPMS

SECTION SCREEN
Identifier Screen 1
Device Device 1
Monitor Monitor 1
Default ColorDepth 24

Subsection Display
Depth 8
Virtual 1280 1024

Depth 15
Virtual 1280 1024

Depth 16
Virtual 1280 1024

Depth 24
Virtual 1280 1024

END SECTION
The Hor rates in the monitor manual are 35 - 95
The ver rates in the monitor manual are 50 - 150
The maximum resolution of the monitor is 1600 x 1200.

I hope I have given you all the information you need.

Regards Alan.

Before I make any recomendations, I have two more questions:
1) Does anything happen at all when you try to go graphical?
2) Do you happen to have the manual for your monitor?

Yes the monitor flashes as if it is trying to load the GUI
and yes I have the manual

I also have Mandrake 10. Since Mandrake 9, X server acts funky: sometimes I can get my resolution as hibh as 1280*1024 in 15 bi color, but usually I go fo 8 bit color. The thin is that 15 bit color works only sometimes, and most of the times I get 15 bit color, but resolutoin goes waaay down. There is no pattern in this behaviour.
Weird.

Now, when I'm on Mandrake10, the resolution goes up to 1152*??? in 15 bit color, but stil sometimes. Usually I work with 256 colors, which would be fine with me if some programs (Qt driven) wouldn't make problems (read: crash).

I have 2MB of video RAM (I'ts an oooold machine, but serves me well :)) so restricrtions are understandable, but why does X sometimes let me go 'over the top'???

Thanx in advance
Shoki

I'm really sorry that I didn't see that you already put in the values from the monitor - should have slept on it and then read my email :D

Change the values in the SECTION MONITOR to the ones in the manual (horizsync to 35-95 and vertrefresh to 50-150 and then change the SECTION DEVICE so that the Driver is "nv" instead of "VESA" and see if it'll work. Your vid card is based on the Nvidia FX5700 chip, so the nvidia driver should produce results.

Of course, youc an also do xf86config again and select to enter your own values for horiz and vert and then choose to look at the card database. Choose the Generic Nvidia driver, which should be #18. This would be the long way around to the same thing.

Another thing that may be handy, if you don't already have this section, wuold be to have this:Its a thought.

I`m back again.
I did get a screen of sorts but it was illegible, on further investigation by looking in /var/log/XFree86.0.log I found that the nv driver does not support my card.
On looking at some other forums I managed to find a driver for the card
"NVIDIA-Linux-X86-1.0.5336-pkg1.run"
I have downloaded the driver and to get it to my other machine I can use a CDRW disc or a 32mb USB flash drive.
How do I use the mount command in the text interface and how do I install it to xf86.
Then how do I select it for my graphics card.
Once it is installed will it be available to choose in XF86Config?.
Thanks for your help so far.
I am asking these questions because although I have read about this I do not fully understand it and I do not want to mess it up.

Jeez! What have they done to that poor Nvidia chip? If you "man mount" you'll get a much better description than I could ever give. Usually, its as easy as but sometimes certain filesystems need more switches. You may want to download the linux driver from the site for your video card. I was looking at it a while back when you first posted a question. Then, you'll know its the right one. I wonder if Nvidia has a forum...

Still trying and more determined than ever, this is not going to beat me.
I went onto the Nvidia site and downloaded the driver and burnt it to disc.
Then I started up the Linux computer and went into root mounted the cd and checked the cd directory was available(mkdir /mnt/cdrom) then entered init2 to cancel Xserver and get into text, then I typed cd /mnt/cdrom to access the cdrom directory and followed the installation instructions from the Nvidia site which said to type
sh NVIDIA-Linux-x86-1.0-5336-pkg1.run
and when I press enter it is coming up as no such file or directory.
I need these files installed so I can get a legible GUI as at the moment I can only work in text.
Can anyone see where I have gone wrong.
The command reads like this,
[root@localhost cdrom]#sh NVIDIA-Linux-x86-1.0-5336-pkg1.run

Ignore the previous post I got into the installer only to be told after accepting the license that no precompiled kernel interface was found to match your kernel.
So onto the net to download one and the installer said their was not one so I pressed OK and this message came up Unable to find the kernel source tree for the currently running kernel, please make sure you have installed the kernel source file for your kernel.
Where would I find this and how do I go about it.

As long as you haven't upgraded your kernel yet (which I am sure you haven't), you should find the kernel-source on the cd. Try "urpmi kernel-source" and see if it installs. It may ask you to choose one, as Mandy 10 actually ships with the 2.4 kernel as well as 2.6. Select the 2.6 one and install it. Try again with the nvidia driver. You should have better results.

YIPPEE
 

Thank you for all your help, I am sending this reply from Mandy 10, I did not have to make the choice as it installed the 2.6 kernel.
May I come back to you if I have any more queries.
I am now a very happy Bunny.
Regards Alan.

You're gonna love some of the little thinkgs that are under the hood (even KDE has some new tricks up its sleeve - bouncing busy cursors, kewl choices for boot logos, the ability to open more than one session at the same time). If you like trying software out, go to Easy Urpmi and get a nice urpmi update set up. I suggest the proxad mirror from France. It seems fast from where I get my internet feed (eastern Canada). There's a lot of stuff in the contrib and plf trees that one wouldn't dream of. Its a candy store for a software junkie!