2 Linux-Newbie Problems
 

My first problem is when I type startx, my monitor ends up basically going into power-off mode, screen goes black etc and nothing shows up. I somehow one time managed to type a command which stopped the startx command and allowed me to continue. I have tried changing GUI's but that didn't help. Any suggestions? I'm guessing something with monitor-support or...? :confused:

My second problem is that now I can't even boot Linux up so-to-speak. I was either playing a game or browsing around seeing I had only had Linux for about half-hour before hand, and I rebooted and it started saying there was a file system error - check forced. I don't recall changing anything to mess this up, but now it 'fixes' the error, reboots, and does the whole percentage thing again fixing, reboots again, so it creates a loop. I have no clue with this one :scratch:

Any help would be great. I use Slackware 9.1. Everything was running great (excluding the startx so far) until I got slapped with this looping issue. Thanks!

not sure about the rebooting, but as far as startx goes...

ctrl-alt-backspace will kill the X server, and take you back to the commandline... you can also use alt-F1,F2,F3, etc (or ctrl-alt-F1,F2,F3, etc) to switch back to another console....

it sounds like the rates for your monitor are wrong, once you get your system back, look up the details for your monitor (vert, horiz, etc) at the manufacturer's site, and put them in the right place in /etc/X11/XF86Config (or /etc/X11/XF86Config-4, depending which one you have)... there's a section called monitors, when you find it you'll know what to enter in if you have your monitor specs handy.

Awesome. Thanks :D I have my system partitioned with Windows XP and Slackware of course. I need to work on getting past this dang loop so I can work on getting a GUI after being stuck on Windows all my life.

You probably already did that, but the question is, did you ran xf86config first?
If not do that first with as much infos as possible about your hardware, expecially video card, monitor, mouse or any pointing device, and so on...
Hope this helps
Ciao

Nope, haven't did anything really. I was just getting the feel of it, rebooted a few times before it, then it started acting up. Everything seemed to work fine except for the monitor part when I did startx. Mouse worked, keyboard (obviously), and so on. The problem is, I don't know how to get out of the loop to do anything, so my Linux is basically stuck in a loop until I can stop the forced checking and do something about it

No one know's how to skip the forced checking? I really need to get by it :( If no one can help, looks like I'll have to search on how to remove Linux and reinstall... I just need to get past fsck forcing a scan every time I start up.

You can simply run the installer again. When you select the mount points you can indicate to have the partition reformatted. That will erase the old stuff and install it anew.

I would guess you screwed up the file structure when you just shut the system down when the screen went blank.

First step:
type in xf86config (as root)

then go through all the steps choosing the correct values

secondly
type in xwmconfig to choose your default window manager (i.e. kde, gnome, fluxbox, etc)

hope i helped

Everyone read his comments. He says he can not even get to the command line prompt, so configuring X is impossible.

Ok, looks like I have some fun ahead of me. Thanks for all the tips.

Ringwraith - he said he was styping statrx and then it failed. If he is typing startx, he can easily type xf86config before typing startx.

Try xf86config. If it doesn't work the first time, try again with slightly different settings. Don't go for a high resolution initially either.

You really need to get yourself a live CD..... The Gentoo X86 Basic Cd is my fav.... Knoppix is good too if your more comfortable with a GUI.... It mounts everything RO tho and sometimes it's a nightmare getting it in RW mode.... Permissions are too strict 'out-of-the-box' for me to like using it as a recovery CD.... So I use the Gentoo cd. It's also only a hundred or so megs if I remember correctly and has ALL filesystem support along with awsome networking capabilities... Will fit on one of those cool looking mini disks too... ;) Once you hit the Gentoo prompt:

mount /dev/<slackware-partition> /mnt/gentoo
chroot /mnt/gentoo /bin/bash
xf86config

I certainly wouldn't re-install...... Hope you haven't already.... Opportunities like this are great for learning... Not sure what file system you are using either.... I find that reiserfs and especially XFS are not prone to going south like yours has done.... ext3 shouldn't either really.... I still don't use it anymore tho. If you are using ext2, I would most certainly reformat and ditch that dinosaur of a file system. Good luck

Yea, looks like no one is reading his posts all that carefully....

Past Tense... Was the ORIGINAL problem
He says it a billion and one times.... Not sure why this is obscure to people....

Use a live CD.....

Heh. The first problem I had was startx, which isn't a problem right now because like someone said, I can't get to the prompt ;) So my first problem is getting past the forced checking, then my second problem after getting that solved is the startx.

Do you still notice how no one is really giving a solution to your paramount problem? :D I don't know either really... You could try this.....

http://www.tldp.org/HOWTO/Tips-HOWTO-2.html#ss2.10

Of course, that implies that you have to rebuild your kernel..... Sometimes I find that, when new, it's often easier to reformat..... ;) Use reiserfs if you do finally get frustrated and decided to start over... I know there is a config file somewhere that you can either modify or delete that will skip the fsck process..... I just don't know where... Extensive googling should yield results after awhile.... It might help if I knew what filesystem you are using.... (If I were inclined to extensively search for a solution, which I'm not really.... :D)

If I were you, I might even boot into a live cd, get into /sbin and start renaming some fsck files, depending on what file system you are using... Like, say, if you were using reiserfs, I would boot with my gentoo CD and:

mount /dev/<slackware-partition> /mnt/gentoo
cd /mnt/gentoo/sbin
mv reiserfsck reiserfsck.disabled
mv fsck.reiserfs fsck.reiserfs.disabled


Who knows.... It could work. Or it could just make it lock up. Don't know till you try... :) If you can get past this and then fix your /etc/X11/XF86Config file, then you could jump on figuring out whats up with the forced fsck at your own liesure.... Good luck... If I locate anything I'll let you know.