Unable to start X after installation

pwc101 · 03-03-2006, 06:51 PM

EDIT: Inevitably, as soon as I'd posted, I realised this should have gone in Slackware Installation - sorry folks.

Hello everyone,

Firstly, I'd like to say this is my first Slackware installation, so it's very much a learning experience at the moment! (Hence my problem, I suppose

)

If I give a bit of background, hopefully that will help solve this problem. I wanted a cheap laptop, so I bought an Acer Travelmate 507T, having checked on linux-on-laptops to see if this was compatible with linux first (info on successful installation on the same model). So I felt fairly confident about installing linux on this machine.

After reading several posts, I decided on Slackware for the distro (after having first tried DamnSmallLinux and feeling the need for something a little more comprehensive). Of primary concern was the fact I had only 2GB of hard drive on my new beast, and therefore I was going to have to carefully choose which packages to select in the installation (for example, losing Abiword, some documentation, and programs which I knew I didn't need - if I didn't recognise it, I generally left it in!). All seemed to go well, I rebooted and found myself with a command prompt. So far so good (although, being used to Fedora, the command line was initially unexpected!

).

A little reading on some websites and this forum indicated I needed to start the X server in order to get XFCE to start, so I tried startx, and got a series of errors. Some tweaking of my xorg.conf file removed some of those. I'm left with something which I have had trouble finding much info on (forgive any typing errors, but I can't copy and paste this since the laptop's not on the internet yet):

Code:

...
No matching visual for __GLcontextMode with visual class = 3 (32772), nplanes = 16
No matching visual for __GLcontextMode with visual class = 1 (32774), nplanes = 16
No matching visual for __GLcontextMode with visual class = 2 (32773), nplanes = 16
No matching visual for __GLcontextMode with visual class = 0 (32775), nplanes = 16
Agent pid 1934
which: no dbus-launch in (/usr/local/sbin:/usr/sbin:/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/bin:
/bin:/usr/lib/qt/bin:/usr/share/texmf/bin
/usr/bin/xfce4-session: error while loading shared libraries: libatk1.0.so.0: 
cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory
Agent pid 1934 killed

waiting for X server to shut down

I am able to get X to start by simply typing "X", and I get a cursor which I can move on a black background. However, when I exit from the X display (ctrl+alt+backspace), I get the same "No matching visual..." errors as above back in the commandline "history" (if you see what I mean). I can post my current xorg.conf file if needed, although it'll take some typing! If there's anything anyone needs to know, please don't hesitate to ask

Briefly going back to the beginning, is it wise to try to install Slackware on a machine with such a small hard drive?

Apologies for the essay, any help anyone can offer would be very much appreciated. I'd really love to get linux working on this machine

Thanks,

Pierre

allend · 03-03-2006, 07:35 PM

I am not familiar with the laptop, but offer the following.
As you appear to be happy to use XFCE, then I suggest that you do a full install excluding KDE. This will happily fit inside your 2GB limit and ensure that you have all the stuff you need. You can always further prune later, but for the moment you want a working system.
Getting X running requires a correctly configured xorg.conf. You may need to customise settings, so pay careful attention to details reported by other people who have achieved a successful install.
Try starting XFCE using 'startxfce4' rather than 'startx'.

msyss · 03-03-2006, 07:37 PM

Hi there!

I don't know what to do about these --GLcontextMode messages, but if you can start X and move the cursor around these may not be fatal errors.

Code:

/usr/bin/xfce4-session: error while loading shared libraries: libatk1.0.so.0: 
cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory

However this one must be fatal. You gotta check whether you have atk installed. Try something like:

Code:

find / -name "*atk*" -print

to see whether atk is anywhere on your system. If it is not (i.e. no output from 'find'), then you have to install it from your install CD.
If the libs are there but aren't found, you could add the directory where they are located to /etc/ld.so.conf and run ldconfig, so that the libs are found when they are needed the next time.

lestoil · 03-03-2006, 07:40 PM

If you chose menu install option instead of expert or full,installer will list must have pkgs(which you can't change) and then let's you pick other pkgs to complete your install. Some installs are only 400-500mb. Good luck.

pwc101 · 03-04-2006, 03:33 PM

Thanks everyone for your replies.

It seems the problem was mainly that I was being slightly overzealous when it came to thinning my installation, and consequently removed some essential packages. As soon as I realised this, I did a fresh install and everything worked first time.

Time to learn some more

Pierre