Laptops :: No X Display pm ThinkPad - Out of Ideas



Apologies in advance for my noob-ness, but here goes...

Setup: ThinkPad 701c, 16MB RAM, floppy drive, no CD
DSL Setup: "poorman" install - boot from floppy, "KNOPPIX" directory/file on HD (on C drive of a Windows volume)

DSL boots from floppy, and finds the Knoppix file on hda1, and boots from it. But I cannot for the life of me successfully start up X Windows.

I have tried the following cheatcodes:
- fb640x480
- fb800x600
- dsl vga=769 (that's 640x480, 256 colors, the native capability of the 701c's screen)
- lowram (similar to "dsl failsafe" but also sets the X server to "minimal")
- dsl xsetup (booter allows you to configure X manually)

In the X setup process I've tried both fb and vesa.

- with fb I get a fatal IO error (the one that's been cited by others in this forum) and X won't even start

- with vesa I select 640x480, 256 colors, and X starts but I get nothing on the screen.

I'm nearing the end of my rope here. Any ideas?

TIA.

Best,
Matt
How about:

dsl vga=769 xsetup

and then choose the xfbdev server when prompted?
Quote (cbagger01 @ Feb. 08 2006,02:14)
How about:

dsl vga=769 xsetup

and then choose the xfbdev server when prompted?

Thanks for the suggestion. I should have mentioned in my first post that I have also tried many combinations of the cheatcodes I listed.

I haven't actually tried "dsl=769 xsetup", but ever since the first time I used "dsl xsetup," I get the xsetup dialogs even when I don't use the xsetup cheatcode. So in other words, I have used dsl=769 and then gone through the xsetup process, and selected xfbdev - whenever I select xfbdev, I get a fatal IO error 104 and X won't start up.

I gather from reading around here that this older laptop really "wants" xfbdev rather than xvesa (although if I'm not mistaken the booter sees the screen as a vesa vga). But with xfbdev selected it just refuses to start up X.

Since my original post I've also tries some additional cheatcodes, based on Web pages of people who've gotten other versions of Linux (or BSD) running with X on their 701c's. I've tried dsl xscreen=640x480, and I've tried setting maxhsync and vsync values, but still no love.

Again, TIA for any ideas.

Best,
Matt
FYI a little more info on my situation:

Just before X attempts to start, I get the following error:

/opt/bootlocal.sh no such file or directory

After that, there's one more line about setting up something in .Xauthority.

Then, when I've chosen xfbdev as my Xserver, the IO error I mentioned before includes the following: "could not find module fb0"

It then kicks me back to a CLI prompt.

When I've chosen xvesa as my Xserver, the IO error doesn't appear and X starts (I think), but to a black/blank screen.

Matt
You may have corrupted something in your file system, or you don't have a complete install if it can't find /opt/bootlocal.sh
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