Slackware - InstallationThis forum is for the discussion of installation issues with Slackware.
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I am trying to install Slackware 14.0 on an old Celeron 300 from the ground up. I started with just the A and AP sets to get the system bootable, and then, by following the instructions on various sites and posts, I have been attempting to load packages incrementally to get a running X environment.
The current status is that, when I run startx, I get a black screen with what appears to be the core of an xterm window. Rather than the standard xterm command prompt, however, all it has in it is a flashing, blank cursor box. There is no mouse cursor, and no input of any kind is accepted anymore. I have no choice but to do a hard reset to restore functionality to the computer.
Here is the current output from slackpkg generate-template:
I feel like there's more than enough in there to get a basic X running, but obviously there is still something missing. Can anyone spot the missing package for me?
I do not know the list of packages enough to make an extremely minimal installation for a Celeron 300, but here is where you can look to get an idea about what might be missing.
I would also look into your /var/log/Xorg.0.log as it might give some indication why it's not completing. dmesg might be helpful too, depending on the issue.
As with mralk3, I'm not sure the required packages for a minimal X install. I've always had the space to just install everything (only the things you select to run will run, no matter what is installed -- if you're worried about CPU and RAM usage).
I've always had the space to just install everything (only the things you select to run will run, no matter what is installed -- if you're worried about CPU and RAM usage).
Agreed.
I suggest installing the full a/ d/ l/ n/ and x/ package sets at the very least and add whatever is missing later. What is the harm in installing the requirements and then trimming out the large unnecessary packages later? It seems like it would be easier to delete than to add one package at a time and hoping that package is the last one you need.
I would also look into your /var/log/Xorg.0.log as it might give some indication why it's not completing. dmesg might be helpful too, depending on the issue.
As with mralk3, I'm not sure the required packages for a minimal X install. I've always had the space to just install everything (only the things you select to run will run, no matter what is installed -- if you're worried about CPU and RAM usage).
Of course, if I installed everything it would work, but where's the fun in that?
I hadn't thought about the Xorg.0.log file. I'll check into that and see if that helps.
I can't use dmesg because the computer has been hard-booted between the time of the problem and the next time I can actually get to a command line. Xorg.0.log should still have useful data in it, though. I'll check it out and see what I can find.
Of course, if I installed everything it would work, but where's the fun in that?
More often than not, attempts to do minimal installs are due to an incorrect assumption that on Slackware, a full install will use more resources when booted (except for harddrive space, obviously). In case you had that assumption, I just wanted to clear it up. There's nothing wrong with running a minimal install (even if it is to just learn the system better), but it can make it harder to troubleshoot any problems that arise.
I doubt very many people would know just from glancing through your package list of any obvious missing packages. We'd need logs and/or error messages to give us an idea of what the system is complaining about. Out of curiosity, what do you have as your default WM in xwmconfig?
Quote:
Originally Posted by SUSESailor
I can't use dmesg because the computer has been hard-booted between the time of the problem and the next time I can actually get to a command line. Xorg.0.log should still have useful data in it, though. I'll check it out and see what I can find.
I don't have access to my Slackware system right now to verify this, but based on some google searches, you might have a /var/log/dmesg.0, which should contain the dmesg output from the last boot (where /var/log/dmesg would contain the current boot). If that isn't available, but you have another computer handy, you could try using ssh when the computer crashes to see if you can access dmesg that way before you reboot your system.
If you hadn't loaded the xf86-input-evdev package, it might mean you're missing other x/ packages. Did you not install everything within the x/ series? You might be able to get away with leaving out some of the drivers for various video cards if you don't use them on your system, but the majority of the x/ series packages are probably required to get x/ up and running.
If you want to be really prudent and not install everything from x/, I would at least start with all packages starting with lib and all starting with x. Something like:
Well, after bassmadrigal's suggestion of checking out xwmconfig, I decided to go ahead and install the core components of xfce, knowing that I would eventually want a decent desktop environment anyway. So, after installing that - and several things that that wanted which I hadn't installed yet - I reached a state of having at least a mouse cursor. The xterm window was gone and it still wouldn't accept input, but at least it was writing data to Xorg.0.log again.
So, it turns out that evdev was the problem all along. When it stopped writing to Xorg.0.log after I installed xf86-input-evdev, it prevented me from seeing the final error message which was that evdev needed libmtdev. When xfce brought Xorg.0.log back to life, I was able to see the final problem. I installed mtdev, and that finally brought me to a functioning X environment. The mouse arrow worked and the keyboard allowed me to Ctrl+Alt+Bksp out of it. Nothing else worked because the xfce stuff still needed a whole bunch of other libraries I hadn't installed yet, but at least I could startx and kill it without having to reboot the computer.
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