i am currently installing all the packages found on slackware 10.2 #1 (/mnt/cdrom/slackware/kde/) and it seems to be working.

i am not so sure how to 'add' something to my /home/<username>/.xinitrc file???

thanks for the xorgsetup tip. (also thanks again for all the above tips) i did do the MD5checksum and there were only errors on ascii entries (so I assume the .isos are good?)

i am now figuring out how to find this stuff on my linux box and am just wondering why it didnt install itself during the setup process? is there something wrong with my machine, or the basic.i kernel ? i'm getting further but perhaps more confused.

i am really impressed (and grateful) for all the help everyone is offering, i really appreciate it.

Welcome to slackware. You will find to not expect anything less from the community of Slackware users.

you can open it in a text editor and save it or:
This echos "startkde" but sends the output to a file instead of the screen.

I'm not sure why you didn't get all of the packages, it doesn't sound like you did a full install. Good thing you can always add them after the fact.

regards,
...drkstr

Also, you should make a normal (i.e. non-root) user account, so you don't run as root all the time (especially in a graphical environment). You can do this with "adduser".

Yes definitely. I assumed this was already done. Never run X as root. When I was referring to /home/<username>/, <username> is the username you will create with adduser.

ahh.. well i have been trying to search for that because i saw it (and did it once before) but have forgotten (lost) where i wrote it down. now i know the command it'll be easier to find that again.

i kind of gave up on my last install and just tried it again. it all installed ok, i definitely am selecting 'full' install - but still X does not work on startup, but for different reasons. i ran xorgsetup and that didn't work, it says (after i run xorgsetup):

#startx
..bunch of stuff here...
(==) Using config file: "etc/X11/xorg.cong"
Parse error on line 49 of section Monitor in file /etc/X11/xorg.conf
The HorizSync keyword must be followed by a list of numbers or ranges
(EE) Problem parsing the config file
(EE) Error parsing the config file

Fatal server error:
no screens found

..more stuff...

the thing that confuses me is i:

# vi /etc/X11/xorg.config
...
HorizSync 30.0 - 69.0
HorizSync 54.0 - 0.0
...

and there are two HorizSync(sp?) lines, on both 48 and 49. The thing is I dont actually have any documentation for this monitor and its not listed in that X monitor list. am i screwed? its an old monitor (circa 2000) but i still can't be sure of refresh rates & what not.

also realizing now i have no idea about the video card. see - i move forward and get more confused.

NO, you shouldn't have to diffrent horiz syncs. Dit you format the drive when you reinstalled? It's a good idea to clean everything off when reinstalling to prevent conflicts. If you still get the same strage error after formating and reinstalling, or you did do a format when you reinstalled, try deleting the /etc/X11/xorg.conf file and run 'xorgsetup' again. or you can copy one of the other ones in the /etc/X11/ directory over it. Such as : 'cp /etc/X11/xorg.conf-vesa /etc/X11/xorg.conf' then run 'xorgsetup'. If it still does not work, try to copy and paste the entire xorg.conf file here so we can see what needs to be changed.

regards,
...drkstr

well, when i reinstall i just delete/replace all my hard drive partitions, then boot from the slackware CD, i thought I remembered seeing where it was formatting the partitions during installation.

anyways, i have a new problem. i went ahead and removed the extra HorizSync 50 - 0 line and saved the /home/perry/xorg.config file, then logged back in (not as root) and did startx, voila!

KDE opened a setup wizard.

everything was going good until all of the sudden (at the fast/slow processor selection screen) my monitor went mostly black, with three thin vertical lines (one near each border and one ~centered) ??

I tried to ctrl+alt+del but nothing happens, I still can see a mouse pointer and up the sides there is something like purple fringing (like on a digital camera).

ack.

more news. after hitting the on/off interlock, i can start KDE as a user, but some things do not show up (i.e. the backgrounds/text for menus)

i see icons, (trash, home) on the 'desktop' but in what seems like a 'start menu' (sorry, i am an imported windows user) there are small icons, then blank space, and it seems i can see right through the menu to the desktop, but there is a border.

could this be the monitor settings in xorg.config? i'll try to find the specs for this monitor somewhere i guess.

thanks again.

please help.. i am now desperate. i found some stuff about a program called superprobe? even found the man pages for it, but it does not seem to be on my system (not found by slocate, whereis, and not in /usr/X11R6/bin/ )

the person i got this stuff from does not have the documentation anymore, and i've no idea how to figure out the hardware otherwise.

yikes, I've never seen an x setup so jacked up before. You sure do have some non linux friendly hardware. I guess we should start debugging the problem step by step. First thing though, do you have any other monitor you can test temporarily? If we know it's a problem with the monitor then we can at least narrow down what needs to be done. Also, I would like you to post your xorg.conf file so I can take a look at it.

regards,
...drkstr

I don't have another monitor (my Win machine is a laptop) - sorry.

well, i could type it into this console, you see among other (aforementioned things) i have no internet access from my linux box (doesnt seem to recognize my internet card) so that would be quite a chore. i suppose i could burn it to a cd then cut & paste it forom this (windows) machine. <if i knew how to do that :) i will work on it.

i think i have figured out the hardware at least. the card is (i think) an NVidia geForce2 MX (32mb) card, and the monitor is a Tiny (LiteOn mfg) A177onsl. part of the prob here is the computer is a Tiny and so I can't exactly e-mail tech support. I tried taking the cover off to verify the HW but I really know little of what I'm looking at..

also i should say that while the xorg.config-vesa seems to work; but, if I use xorgsetup I get the missing text problem (and wierd loading screens for KDE) and if i use xorgconfig I get a beautiful KDE until I try anything - at which point the screen goes completely black and my machine no longer response to anything.

Section "ServerLayout"
Identifier "X.org Configured"
Screen 0 "Screen0" 0 0
InputDevice "Mouse0" "CorePointer"
InputDevice "Keyboard0" "CoreKeyboard"
EndSection

Section "Files"
RgbPath "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/rgb"
ModulePath "/usr/X11R6/lib/modules"
FontPath "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/misc/"
FontPath "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/TTF/"
FontPath "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/Type1/"
FontPath "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/CID/"
FontPath "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/75dpi/"
FontPath "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/100dpi/"
EndSection

Section "Module"
Load "record"
Load "extmod"
Load "dbe"
Load "dri"
Load "glx"
Load "xtrap"
Load "freetype"
Load "type1"
Load "freetype"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
Identifier "Keyboard0"
Driver "kbd"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
Identifier "Mouse0"
Driver "mouse"
Option "Protocol" "auto"
Option "Device" "/dev/mouse"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
#DisplaySize 320 24 # mm
Identifier "Monitor0"
VendorName "LTN"
ModelName "A1770NSL"
HorizSync 30.0 - 69.0
HorizSync 54.0 - 0.0
VertRefresh 50.0 - 120.0
Option "DPMS"
EndSection

Section "Device"
### Available Driver options are:-
### Values: <i>: integer, <f>: float, <bool>: "True"/"False",
### <string>: "String", <freq>: "<f> Hz/kHz/MHz"
### [arg]: arg optional
#Option "NoAccel" # [<bool>]
#Option "SWcursor" # [<bool>]
#Option "ColorKey" # [<i>]
#Option "CacheLines" # [<i>]
#Option "Dac6Bit" # [<bool>]
#Option "DRI" # [<bool>]
#Option "NoDDC" # [<bool>]
#Option "ShowCache" # [<bool>]
#Option "XvMCSurfaces" # [<i>]
#Option "PageFlip" # [<bool>]
Identifier "Card0"
Driver "i810"
VendorName "Intel Corp."
BoardName "82810 CGC [Chipset Graphics Controller]"
BusID "PCI:0:1:0"
EndSection

Section "Screen"
Identifier "Screen0"
Device "Card0"
Monitor "Monitor0"
Subsection "Display"
Viewport 0 0
Depth 1
EndSubSection
Subsection "Display"
Viewport 0 0
Depth 4
EndSubSection
Subsection "Display"
Viewport 0 0
Depth 8
EndSubSection
Subsection "Display"
Viewport 0 0
Depth 15
EndSubSection
Subsection "Display"
Viewport 0 0
Depth 16
EndSubSection
Subsection "Display"
Viewport 0 0
Depth 24
EndSubSection
EndSection

Well thats it.. my fingers are tired. that is what xorgsetup creates.

nevermind.

thanks to all who've contributed to my newfound understanding of linux/slackware.

i think i've got it working now.

Cool, I'm glad it works now. Do you mind sharing what you did for anyone else that might have a similar problem? Also, I don't know if you did this, but you might want to set your default resolution. See the changes in bold:

well for some reason whenever i set my own horiz/vert refresh rates in xorgconfig, they did not appear in the xorg.config it would be like:

VertRefresh (null)

so i did vi and changed those. also i dont think its a geforce becuase i810 generic works - still not sure how to verify this. is it working enough? also had to guess a few times at the video ram param in xorgconfig

also made the above changes (DefaultDepth & Modes) to a different xorg.confg (not the one above) doesnt seem to bother anything