Blank Screen
 

Yo,

I gave up trying to install Slack 10.1 a couple weeks ago, now I am trying to do it again...


I installed Slackware, did everything correctly. For the kernel I used : bare.i

After the installation was succesfully finished I took out the CD and rebooted my rig.

Grub came up, I chose Linux.

Linux Loaded, and I was in the command prompt, or bash I think it's called.

While at the c prompt I logged in as root, and added a user with 'adduser', and filled that all out. I did that without a problem.

Than, I restarted, and logged in as root, and typed 'startx', it didn't work, it brought me to a blank screen. So I rebooted again.

After rebooting again I logged in as root and typed 'xorgsetup', I went through that, and tried 'startx' again, but again, it brought me back to a blank screen. So I rebooted again.

After rebooting, I logged in as root again and typed 'xorgconf' and went through everything. This is where I think I must of made a mistake.

My rig:

P4 2.4 ghz
Nvidia GeForce FX 5200
Soundblaster Live!
Realtek Ethernet Card
Logitech Wireless Mouse + Keyboard Combo
Samsung SyncMaster 955DF

So for the mouse I chose #1 (Auto), and for Keyboard I chose 7 (Microsoft Natural).

For the monitor there were not correct Vertical + Horizontal ranges that fitted my monitor, so I entered my own after searching the internet for the correct ranges, which are:


Vertical = 50-160
Horizontal = 30-85

Then came time (or was it before ?) to configure my Graphics Card. I went through the list and came upon "Nvidia Geforce" as a driver, so I used that. Then I changed the default 24 bit resolution to 1152 x 864 pixles. And then I wrote it to the xorg file.

So I restarted (just to be sure) and logged in as root, typed 'startx', and it brought me to a blank screen. So I restarted again, logged in as my User account and typed 'startx' and that brought me to a blank screen.


I am really confused, I'm kind of a Linux noob I guess, I've been using it for about 7 months.

Any help is greatly appreciated !

Thanks.

I would change the resolution to a more standard setting, like 1024x768 or 1280x1024. The manual for your monitor doesn't mention the setting you have (1152 x 864), maybe it's not valid.

Alright, I will try that, but I normally use 1152 x 864 in other Linux distros + Windows... But I will try it.

Changed it to 1024 x 864, it did not work, I recieved a blank screen when trying to start x.

edit xorg.conf driver to "nv" (open source 2d nvidia driver)
or "vesa" (generic driver)

either of these should work

Then download nvidia drivers from their website.

if you are still in console mode (runlevel 3) log in as root and run the nvidia installer
modify xorg.conf or run xorgconf then startx.

If it works you will see a nvidia spalsh screen.

are you using the 66xx version of the nvidia driver?

As an aside: If X ('startx') fails on you, you can do 'alt-ctl-backspace' to kill X. It will save you from rebooting.

Okay. I've edited my xorg configuration file twice and tried both vesa and the nv drivers. Both did not work. The vesa driver totally shut off my monitor, and the NV just made it go blank.

Jeeze what the heck is up with this!

take a look at " /var/log/xorg.0.log "
it's there to log what's happening when X is started.

see any clues/warnings/errors ?

egag

/var/log/xorg.0.log
No such file or directory

oops...." /var/log/Xorg.0.log "

a big X

egag

/var/log/Xorg.0.log
Permission Denied (In root)

When you type :
/var/log/Xorg.0.log

...followed by <enter>, the shell believe it is a command and try to execute it, as Xorg.0.log has not executable permission, even root can not execute it

try :
tail /var/log/Xorg.0.log

instead or :
tail -150 /var/log/Xorg.0.log

...to see the 150 last lines

look at " #ls -l /var/log/*.log ?
what are the permissions on that file ?

( should be -rw-r--r-- )
if not , do a " #chmod 644 /var/log/*.log "

guess the info is needed.

EDIT : ah...keefaz.....i didn't think of that.... :)

egag

okay,


tail /var/log/xorg.0.log

worked, and opened the file.

In the file there were tons of errors (I am guessing) because it went through about 20 pages of text.