gui not working

mrchaos · 03-15-2005, 12:07 AM

I finally was able to successfully install Slackware 10.1 on my machine while dual booting windows xp professional. The installation went well without any problems, but now I have absolutely NO GUI when loading linux... it's just text mode. In the installation I installed GNOME, KDE, and Xce desktop environments and they don't load. When I try logging into root and running init 5, nothing happens. does anyone know what's going on?

puffinman · 03-15-2005, 12:17 AM

By default slackware boots into text mode. You can start the default window manager with "startx". You can change your window manager with the appropriate .xinitrc file in your home directory. Sample .xinitrc files can be found in /etc/X11/xinit. You can change the default runlevel in /etc/inittab, which will start the gui on boot.

tavixor · 03-15-2005, 12:19 AM

any error messages when you try to run startx or xdm ?

mrchaos · 03-15-2005, 12:37 AM

oh, I forgot to mention that when I run the "startx" command, the screen blanks out and nothing happens... for a long period of time. No, I don't see any error messages when the system boots. I'm confuzzled, I never had this problem with FC3

tavixor · 03-15-2005, 12:45 AM

maybe the problem is your graphics card (or whatever

). Did you install any drivers or run xorgconf(ig?) as root ?

mrchaos · 03-15-2005, 12:48 AM

I just realized what's going on. My screen isn't going blank, it's entirely SHUTTING OFF. I'm guessing that my graphics card may not be supported by the Slackware Drivers: GeForce FX5200 Ultra 128 MB. Can I use run level 5 in linux with just VGA so that I may find and download the driver?

tavixor, to tell you the truth, I'm not sure how to install drivers with the installation. I bought the official release (4 disks) and I assumed that the graphics card driver would already be assessed and installed

kodon · 03-15-2005, 12:54 AM

a) use '/usr/X11R6/bin/xorgconfig' to configure X
b) edit '/etc/X11/xorg.conf' to tweak the settings manually
c) use '/usr/X11R6/bin/xwmconfig' to select the default window manager/desktop
d) use 'startx' to start the gui
e) once you have it working, edit '/etc/inittab' and change: "id:3:initdefault:" to "id:4:initdefault:"
in order to boot into gui
f) reselect your default window manager/desktop using the gdm/kdm/xdm utilities

tavixor · 03-15-2005, 12:56 AM

i dont have any experience with nvidia card because i use ati radeon card but maybe someone else can help you. You can try to run xorgconfig if that helps

vharishankar · 03-15-2005, 12:59 AM

nVidia has official Linux drivers. Go to their website, download it and follow their instructions.

kodon · 03-15-2005, 12:59 AM

yes you can set xorg.conf to use vga
until you can d/l and install the nvidia drivers

and slackware uses init 4...not 5

vharishankar · 03-15-2005, 01:02 AM

Here's the link to the nVidia driver download page:
http://www.nvidia.com/object/linux.html

mrchaos · 03-15-2005, 01:12 AM

there's a lot of lines of code in xorg.conf... what monitor section do I edit to run in VGA? It seems strange that my monitor entirely shuts off, though.

kodon · 03-15-2005, 01:18 AM

make sure your synchs are correct for your monitor

for vga you would need:

Section "Device"
Identifier "Standard VGA"
Driver "vga"
EndSection

then under 'Section "Screen"'
Device "Standard VGA"

mrchaos · 03-15-2005, 10:04 AM

I edited my xorg.conf file and inserted VGA and Standard VGA and tried to load the x-window system. However, when I loaded the system, I got a fatal system error saying "VGA not a device. No drivers found for VGA." I did a full install of slackware, and it still doesn't work........ man, slackware is frustrating for n00bs. SOMEONE HELP??

kodon · 03-15-2005, 10:20 AM

whatever you set 'Device "<value>"' to in the Screen Section
must match EXACTLY the 'Identifier "<value>"' of the Device Section with the vga driver