Starting Out With Linux Problems
 

Hi, I've just recently started messing with linux and am trying to install it on my machine. I decided upon SuSE linux. The install runs very smoothly, however, when I try to run the installed system it errors out and will not run the GUI interface. I know that everything with the machine runs fine without error and I get this problem with both desktop eviroments. With gnome it reads that an insufficent memory window was requested and with KDE it gives an error that it was "Unable to connect to the X server." and "Connection Failed: directory does not exist". I've reinstalled the system at least twice with each desktop and the same result occurs so I know it's not that and the media is alright and checked out perfectly. So what is wrong? Has this problem happened before and how can I solve it?:confused:

Hi,

And welcome to LQ!

As for the problem: in assessing the possible causes a detailed list of
the hardware involved (most importantly the video-adaptor) would be
very helpful.

As far as the installed system goes: it completes to boot to a command-line
with no problems? If so, log-in as root and run
sax2

Even if it doesn't manage to set-up X correctly we may at least get some
sensible error messages back from it.


Cheers,
Tink

Correct.


Okay here's the semi-detailed list (The computers currently at a different location than I am so I'm recalling this from memory.)

Processor: Intel PIII 1.0 Ghz

MB: It's an alton with a via chipset. I'll get the specific specs what I get back with the machine.

Memory: 256 MB PC133 SDRAM

Video Card: ATI Raedon Rage6 32MB

Network Card: Dcom Network card (model number is long and I don't remember it)

Harddrive: 40GB WD caviar

CD/DVD Drives/Burners: 1 DVD+R burner (brand unknown currently) and 1 Asus 48x CD-Rom Drive.

Floppy: Standard Floppy drive.

Other than that there's nothing much left to add. I'll try the suggestion you gave and will report back with results.

And don't forget the "running sax2" bit :}


Cheers,
Tink

Sorry I'm taking so long. I wasn't able to acess the computer with linux on it yesterday but I hopefully will get to it today.

Okay, I've finnaly gotten to look at the computer and I've run sax2 and here's what I got:

Sax:Initalizing please wait
Sax:your current configuration will not be read in

Sax: no x-server is running
Sax: will start own server if needed
SPP: prepare device [0] profile: Depth24
SPP: prepare device [0] profile: Radeon
SPP: calling device [0] profile script: Radeon
SPP:Including prepared profile(s)...

Sax: Startup

xc: sorry could not start configuration server
xc: for details refer to the log file:

/var/log/SaX.log

xc: abort

I can't access the log file for some reason. ( It says I don't have permission to access it even though I'm logged in as root.)

Hope this clears up some questions.

Can you please post the output of
ls -l /var
ls -l /var/log

?

Cheers,
Tink

okay here's the "ls -l /var" log...

drwxr-xr-x 8 root root 224 2006-06-06 12:52 adm
drwxr-xr-x 11 root root 272 2006-06-06 13:44 cache
drwxrwxr-x 2 games games 48 2006-06-06 20:51 games
drwxr-xr-x 40 root root 1072 2006-06-06 13:14 lib
drwxrwxr-t 4 root uucp 96 2006-06-06 9:55 lock
drwxr-xr-x 10 root root 1130 2006-06-06 9:54 log
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 10 2006-06-06 12:39 mail -> spool/mail
drwxr-x 1 root root 72 2006-06-06 12:44 opt
drwxr-xr-x 17 root root 944 2006-06-06 9:55 run
drwxr-xr-x 11 root root 296 2006-06-06 12:48 spool
drwxrwxrwt 6 root root 176 2006-06-06 9:56 tmp
drwxr-xr-x 5 root root 152 2006-06-06 12:47 x11r6
drwxr-xr-x 3 root root 104 2006-06-06 12:48 yp

Annnnd here's the other one...

-rw-r----- 1 root root 2075 2006-06-06 13:48 mail.warn
-rw-r----- 1 root root 556493 2006-06-06 11:54 messages
drwxr-x--- 2 news news 136 2006-06-06 12:46 news
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 0 2006-06-06 12:48 ntp
drwxr-r--- 2 root root 48 2006-06-06 3:42 samba
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 44377 2006-06-06 9:39 SaX.log
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 560 2006-06-06 13:53 scpm
drwxr-x--- 2 root dailout 112 2006-06-06 14:00 smpppd
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 91 2006-06-06 14:00 susehelp.log
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 4361 13:14 suspend2ram.log
-rw-r----- root root 16720 2006-06-06 10:00 warn
-rw-rw-r-- 1 root tty 54144 2006-06-06 9:56 wtmp
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 10 2006-06-06 12:48 XFree86.0.log->Xorg.0.log
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 14 2006-06-06 12:48 XFee86.0.log.old ->xorg.0.log.old

-rw-r--r-- root root 34041 2006-06-06 9:54 Xorg.0.log
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 34586 2006-06-06 9:39 Xorg.0.log.old
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 15 2006-06-06 9:39 xvt
drew------ 3 root root 448 2006-06-06 13:54 YaST2
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1600039 2006-06-06 9:56 zmd-backend.log
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 42487 2006-06-06 9:30 zmd-backend.log-20060612bz2 <- (this text was red)
-rw------- 1 root root 3854 2006-06-06 10:00 zmd-messages.log
-rw------- 1 root root 6106 2006-06-06 14:08 zmd-messages.log.2006-06-06
-rw------- 1 root root 5781 2006-06-06 12:45 zmd-messages.log.2006-06-07


Thats all of the log that I could see (There appears to be more above whats written but I can't find out what it is) I really hopes this helps.

So, what happens if you try
less /var/log/SaX.log
from a shell?

Cheers,
Tink

It tells me that "no such file or directory exits".

You're using the right capitalisation, yes? Actually typing SaX.log,
not sax.log?


Cheers,
Tink

Ah hah! i forgot to run it as a shell. Okay, I got a huge list of files hex addresses and the like. I hope you don't want me to put all that here but at the very bottom I did see one thing.

Thats the only thing I found that looked suspisous.

How about the 5 to 10 lines above that? :}


That definitely indicates that there WAS a problem but doesn't give us a clue as
to WHAT the problem was ...


Cheers,
Tink

ok here's the 7 lines that were above the error. (I'm assuming the you want the "Backtrace")

0 /usr/sbin/xw(xf86SigHandler + 0x87) [0x80881f7]
1 [0xffffe420]
2 /usr/X11R6/lib/modules/drivers/savage_drv.so [0xb7949398]
3 /usr/sbin/xw(InitOutput + ox9ee) [0x80719fe]
4 /usr/sbin/xw(main + 0x22f) [0x80d448f]
5 /lib/libc.so.6(__libc_start_main + 0xdc) [0xb7d7687c]
6 /usr/sbin/xw [0x8070081]

There you are.

Btw I'm heading home now. I won't have the computer again untill tomorrow.

Any ideas yet?

Sorry, doesn't mean much to me; as I don't have any recent SuSEs around I can't
look into it in more detail. I would suggest to try a "manual" configuration of
Xorg, either using X -configure (see what that has to say, anyway) or xorgconfig
if all else fails. The latter will require some knowledge about the graphics/
keyboard/monitor/mouse, though.


Cheers,
Tink

Allright I'll give that a try. Thanks for the help.

If anyone else knows anything about this problem feel free to throw in your input.

well I've tried what you've siad and it still didn't work. If anyone has anypossible solution then please share it. This is getting very frusterating. I don't want to give up on it. One more thing that might help is that, besides the video card I've got in there I also have an on-board video port. Could that possibly be causeing any problems? Any input from anyone would be highly appreciated.

It might - do you have the on-board thing-a-mabob disabled in BIOS?

When you say "well I've tried what you've siad and it still didn't work.", which steps
did you take? What did X -configure say, and what was the result of running X with the
automatically created config-file?
What values did you tell xorgconfig to use, what was the output when you tried starting
X after that manual config?


Cheers,
Tink

There's no real "disable" setting for the on-board video. The closest thing there is to that is to auto disable the onboard if there's a pci video card in one of the pci slots.

X -configure failed and gave some errors of which I've forgotten but I will report them to you when I rerun it again.

In xorgconfig I gave it the values appropriate for what hardware I had. (32MB video memory, 1024 x 768 pixels @ 75 Hz, etc etc.) And it still failed with the same errors as before.

However after looking at the sax2 log again I found another thing that might interest you. As I was looking through it I saw a list of errors that kept ending up at the same conclusion. "Not enough memory" These errors, if I recall right, were in the video boot section. Didn't know if that interested you but thats what I found.

Okay here's the aftermath of running the X -configure.

It still will not boot up after running this.

Ok - I'm afraid that this is becoming quite SuSE specific,
and will shuffle your thread to the SuSE forum - hope you
don't mind? I firmly believe that your chances to get help
will increase significantly.


Cheers,
Tink

Okay great. i had posted a similar thread but it got locked so I was hoping this'd get moved here.

Okay, anyone here know what's going on?

I have fixed it Please try this out
 

Are you using Matrox G 400 Graphics card.Then go through the followiing


Configured display using xorgconfig

The driver got setup automatically was "mga"

But while trying to start X11 using startx it showed the following error message

Error while loading module atimisc10b
No driver found
No screens found
No device to configure ,etc

Edited the Device Section for the Monitor
Replaced the

Driver "vga" entry by
Driver "fbdev"


Section "Device"
Identifier "Matrox"
# Driver "vga"
Driver "fbdev"
# unsupported card
#VideoRam 262144
# Insert Clocks lines here if appropriate
EndSection





Started X11 by startx

It showed an error related with resolution
The error was just a graphical message displaying "Hz ?"



So edited /etc/X11/xorg.conf

And replaced the
Modes "1280x1024" "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
with
Modes "1024x768"

under the Subsection "Display"


Subsection "Display"
Depth 24
# ### Modes "1280x1024" "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
Modes "1024x768"
ViewPort 0 0
EndSubsection

And the Defaultdepth was set to "24" in the "Screen" Section

X11 Display got workig after this

But there were problems related with Horizontal and Vertical Refresh Rates

So looked into the Rerfresh Rates under the
"Monitor" Section

And set as

HorizSync 30 - 70
VertRefresh 40-160



Thereafter it seemed that Mouse is not working
Mine is a USB Mouse


Mouse device got detected was /dev/device-mapper
After referring the YaST Hardware Database it is clear thet the Mouse device is /dev/input/mice

So edited the "InputDevice " Section for mouse

as below



ection "InputDevice"
Identifier "Mouse1"
Driver "mouse"


#### Changed the Device
# Option "Protocol" "Busmouse" # Bus Mouse
# ## Option "Device" "/dev/device-mapper"
Option "Device" "/dev/input/mice"




But it didn't help.The mouse didn't work


Again looked into the same .And this time i just commented the
Option "Protocol" Section
and commented out "Resolution 256"
as shown below



Section "InputDevice"
Identifier "Mouse1"
Driver "mouse"
#### Changed the Device
# ## Option "Protocol" "Busmouse" # Bus Mouse
# Option "Device" "/dev/device-mapper"
## Option "Device" "/dev/input/mice"


# Mouse-speed setting for PS/2 mouse.

Option "Resolution" "256"

# Option "BaudRate" "9600"
Option "SampleRate" "150"
Option "ZAxisMapping" "4 5 6 7"
Option "Emulate3Buttons"
# Option "Emulate3Timeout" "50"

# ChordMiddle is an option for some 3-button Logitech mice

# Option "ChordMiddle"

EndSection



After this everything got working except the Colour depth
You may get a lower bit colour display

Try this if you are using Maxtron G400
 

Configured display using xorgconfig

The driver got setup automatically was "mga"

But while trying to start X11 using startx it showed the following error message

Error while loading module atimisc10b
No driver found
No screens found
No device to configure ,etc

Edited the Device Section for the Monitor
Replaced the

Driver "vga" entry by
Driver "fbdev"


Section "Device"
Identifier "Matrox"
# Driver "vga"
Driver "fbdev"
# unsupported card
#VideoRam 262144
# Insert Clocks lines here if appropriate
EndSection





Started X11 by startx

It showed an error related with resolution
The error was just a graphical message displaying "Hz ?"



So edited /etc/X11/xorg.conf

And replaced the
Modes "1280x1024" "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
with
Modes "1024x768"

under the Subsection "Display"


Subsection "Display"
Depth 24
# ### Modes "1280x1024" "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
Modes "1024x768"
ViewPort 0 0
EndSubsection

And the Defaultdepth was set to "24" in the "Screen" Section

X11 Display got workig after this

But there were problems related with Horizontal and Vertical Refresh Rates

So looked into the Rerfresh Rates under the
"Monitor" Section

And set as

HorizSync 30 - 70
VertRefresh 40-160



Thereafter it seemed that Mouse is not working



Mouse device got detected was /dev/device-mapper
After referring the YaST Hardware Database it is clear thet the Mouse device is /dev/input/mice

So edited the "InputDevice " Section for mouse

as below



ection "InputDevice"
Identifier "Mouse1"
Driver "mouse"


#### Changed the Device
# Option "Protocol" "Busmouse" # Bus Mouse
# ## Option "Device" "/dev/device-mapper"
Option "Device" "/dev/input/mice"




But it didn't help.The mouse didn't work


Again looked into the same .And this time i just commented the
Option "Protocol" Section
and commented out "Resolution 256"
as shown below



Section "InputDevice"
Identifier "Mouse1"
Driver "mouse"
#### Changed the Device
# ## Option "Protocol" "Busmouse" # Bus Mouse
# Option "Device" "/dev/device-mapper"
## Option "Device" "/dev/input/mice"


# Mouse-speed setting for PS/2 mouse.

Option "Resolution" "256"

# Option "BaudRate" "9600"
Option "SampleRate" "150"
Option "ZAxisMapping" "4 5 6 7"
Option "Emulate3Buttons"
# Option "Emulate3Timeout" "50"

# ChordMiddle is an option for some 3-button Logitech mice

# Option "ChordMiddle"

EndSection



After this everything got working except the Colour depth