strange problem

Forum: HD Install
Topic: strange problem
started by: yib

Posted by yib on Nov. 01 2005,07:39

I'm sure this isn't a very major problem, but I can't seem to get around it:
I've been using dsl on my old pentium laptop with no problems. I recently replaced lilo with grub and everything boots up as usual. However, now x won't start... up on bootup, the system logs in as root and stays in command line. If I startx, the system looks like its about to start, but then just kicks out to command line. No error messages, just waiting for x server to shutdown, and back to command line... What's going on?

Posted by hawki on Nov. 01 2005,13:14

Hi
Have you tried some of the other startup selections. Usually this happens when the default video mode and the X config are not compatible. Maybe try fb1024x786 that sets the vga=791. You might try typing this at the command line to see what modes your hardware can use.

Xvesa -listmodes

It will usually give you an idea of what might work for you. Then use Xsetup.sh to configure X.
Good luck

Posted by yib on Nov. 01 2005,21:42

well, the lap top monitor is only capable of 800x600, which is what i've been using since I started using dsl. One startup I've been passing dsl vga=787, which is 800x600 16bit. Using xsetup.sh after boot up at command line gives the same problem; and I know it's setup correctly because that's what I've been using before.

The ONLY thing that is new is i'm using grub instead of lilo, so thats the only thing that I can think of that could be causing this, but I don't know what the problem is or how to fix it.

Posted by hawki on Nov. 02 2005,00:59

Hi again
The following is what I use to boot my thin-client machine. It is much like a laptop in function. In my case I use a little different vga mode than you but yours should work.

title DSL fb1024x768 toram
kernel /boot/linux24 root=/dev/hda1 vga=791 noscsi frugal toram mydsl=hda2
initrd /boot/minirt24.gz

I have to run xsetup.sh when I do the original install. The default setup uses Xvesa and sometimes gives me problems. I select to use Xfbdev and everything works fine. Just because you select fb800x600 doesn't mean you are using Xfbdev.
good luck

Posted by doobit on Nov. 02 2005,19:20

I had that problem due to a little corruption in the xinitrc file that I couldn't seem to fix. I deleted the persistant /home/dsl directory on my hda7 partition, and rebooted and everything is back to normal again.