Hello!

I am having a very odd problem with my linux box. I recently formatted my box which is a home-built machine with 512 megs of RAM, a 1.2 ghz T-Bird, a ATI Rage 128 Pro, and an asus A7A motherboard.Previously, I had RH 9.0 on it, but I wanted to give Mandrake a try. Tried it, and didn't like it as much as RH, so I decided to switch back. However, after I was done installing it, on my first boot, the system would get all the way to "firstboot," change resolutions, then I would get a big screenfull of random graphical corruption. So then I tried booting into just the text-based logon, which worked, but I was unable to start X-server. I got some long lengthy message about how X-server was unable to run, ect.

After this I decided to double-check my media, and make sure that it would pass <linux mediacheck>. I tested the media once, and discovered that disk 2 was bad. OK, no prob, I'll just redownload-reburn. Did that, installed again, no dice. Still got to the same point as before and got the screen of graphical corruption.

Has anyone had this happen to them? If so, what are some possible fixes? Since everything worked fine before I have a hard time believing that the card has gone bad although I suppose that could be a possibility... groan.

Any help would be appreciated!

Thanks

Your problem (at least to me) seems more like an X configuration issue than a general system problem. First, I'd tell you: What are the errors you get when you try to start X from the console? Second, is this error the same as in the /var/log/XFree86.0.log file? Third, What driver is XFree86 using? Fourth, does changing the driver to VESA do anything; do you still get X screen corruption?

OK, the error that comes up in the console is:
OS Kernel: Linux version 2.4.20-8 (bhcompile@stripples.devel.redhat.com) (gcc version 3.2.2 20030222 (Red Hat Linux 3.2.2-5)) #1 Thur Mar 13 17:18:24 EST 200
Markers blah blah....

(EE) Unable to locate/open config file
(EE) Error from xf86HandleConfigFile()

Fatal Server error:
no screens found

And I am using the latest version of xfree86 so I know that its updated.

Any help would be appreciated! Thanks.

You don't have a valid XF86Config file. That is what the error is complainting about. Try either of these:

1.- Look under /etc/X11/ for the XF86Config file or any other file that may have a name suggesting XF86's configuration. If there aren't any, see setp 2.

2.- Try running the command redhat-config-xfree86 (from init 3) to create a new XF86Config file.

Hey, the second command worked great! Thanks a lot!

Do you know why the setup program would not create the file by itself?

Thanks!

It could be due to several reasons, but to be honest I don't know.