Monitor goes black

[gmac]

After installing md9, after reboot everything seems o.k. however I get a message that says fsck.ext 3 fordevices/dev/hda1 exited with signal 11. things then continue I get to localhost login there is a pause then the screen goes black and stays that way.

 

The monitor is an axion that is supposedly compatible with a multitude of systems. Actually I did get it working with 7.2 after a great deal of trouble.

 

I also got it working with md9 although it took me several tries before I could get past the monitor section during installation, I did eventually manage it.

 

system 11 I believe is something to do with a fault in the hard drive.

 

I was wanting to experiment with mandrake on an old computer prior to installing on what i think of as my good computer. However, I do suspect I may have a completely knackered drive.

 

I am now trying to pluck up the courage to try dual booting but am wary of screwing things up, cos I need my computer for work.

 

As you may have gathered I am a total novice at this so what do you reckon, is my hard drive just knackered or have I missed something simple in installation?

 

If this is a not very coherent question its because its now 11 pm AND i'M FED UP.

[pmpatrick]

I assume that when the monitor goes black, you are turning the computer off and then back on to reboot. That is why you are getting the fsck message. The fsck command runs automatically on boot if the file system was not unmounted cleanly (i.e. you turn the computer off without going through the shut down procedure). The purpose of fsck is to repair the corrupted file system caused by the improper shutdown. The exit code from fsck is the sum of all the conditions that apply, in your case 1,2, and 8. 1 means errors were found and corrected; 2 means a reboot is suggested; and 8 means that fsck encountered an operational error. The 8 code is the troublesome code here. It could mean the superblock is corrupted.

 

That's the bad news. The good news is that I doubt there is anything wrong with the hard drive other than the file system may be corrupted. If you want some peace of mind on this point and know the make and model of the hard drive, go to the manufacturer's website and you can probably download a utlility which will allow you to run fairly comprehensive tests on the drive and make repairs if necessary. Usually you just download the file, click on the downloaded file and you are prompted to put a floppy in. The diagnostic program is then written to the floppy which you can boot off of in the affected computer and run the diagnostics.

 

Back to the problem at hand, I think your real problem is with your X system since you've indicated problems configuring your monitor. Doing the hard shut down when the screen goes black is only making matters worse.

 

Try booting up again and note any error messages. If the screen goes black again, press Ctrl-Alt-F2. That should bring you to a command line login prompt. Enter your user name and password, then type su and your root password. You can then run the X configuration utility by typing XFdrake. From here you can reset monitor settings, grapics card, etc and test the X system to see how it is working.

[pmpatrick]

Also forgot to add, if you can get to a command line by using Ctrl-Alt-F2, you can cleanly reboot or halt the system by typing reboot or halt at the command prompt.

[gmac]

Thanks for that. I'll try it tomorrow. My computer has a reset button so I was'nt just turning it off and on. I have'nt a clue what the x system is.

 

I had major failures with it previously that seem to come back to this signal 11 error. I have been told that this is indicative of a major problem with the disc.

 

I decided to try linux on it so perhaps it did me a favour. If it just worked I would probably have stuck with windows. As it is I don't have to worry about wrecking it so I can practice with the likes of mandrake till i'm satisfied i know what I'm doing. (positive thinking that is).

[pmpatrick]

In linux, X refers to the graphical windowing system. All GUIs, e.g. KDE, Gnome, ect, in linux run on top of the X windowing system. Also the graphical login screen runs on the X windowing system. If the X system is not properly configured, you either won't get a picture on the screen or you will have some problems with that picture, system hangs, ect.

 

Repeatedly hitting the restart button has the potential to really bugger up your file system. To my knowledge fsck only checks and repairs file system integrity; it does not directly test the hard drive itself. The fact that it is running tells me that hitting the restart button may have caused some problems with the file system, i.e. hitting the restart button resulted in the file system on partition /dev/hda1 not being cleanly unmounted with resulting file system corruption. Linux really hates being shut down this way, more so than windows. However, if you have good reasons to suspect a problem with the hard drive itself, I would definetly recommend downloading the hard drive utility from the manufacturer as I suggested in my previous post.

 

If you want to test the theory that it is the X windowing system causing the problem you can run linux in what is referred to as text mode. In text mode the X system never starts up and you run from a command prompt like DOS.To do so, when the lilo boot screen first comes up immediately press the Escape button. At the command prompt type "linux 3" without quotes and press enter. The system should then boot to a command line style login. Type your user name and press enter then your password and press enter again and you should be at a command prompt. If you get this far, I think you have pretty good evidence that the X windowing system is not configured correctly. If you want to try to start X from here type "startx" without quotes at the command prompt and see what happens.

[Cannonfodder]

Try this...

 

Boot off of CD1, hit F1, type rescue, and then mount all file systems, followed by go to console.

 

Edit the following file with vi or whatever..

 

/etc/X11/XF86Config-4

 

Look for the following line..

 

Load "v4l" # Video for Linux

 

and comment it out..

 

#    Load "v4l" # Video for Linux

 

Video 4 linux can cause the blank/black screen. I've used this fix several times successfully..

[gmac]

pmpatrick. Thanks very much for your suggestion. At the command style login I entered my user name and then the password. I finally got a screen that i recoignise but with absolutely huge icons that make it hard to use. I suspect I may have done something basically suipid at the monitor confuguration point that will be really obvious once I work out what it is. I also still suspect that my computer is knackered but at this point I am using it to learn on.

 

Cannonfodder. I'll try that next. thanks

[pmpatrick]

Glad you finally got to a GUI. Now that you're there you can use some of Mandrake's graphical configuraton utilities to reconfigure X. When you get to the screen with large icons go to the start menu>Terminals>Konsole which will open a console. Type su then Enter and type your root password at the prompt. Then type "mcc" without quotes and hit Enter. This should bring up Mandrake Control Center. Hit the "Hardware" button then "Graphical server configuration" . From here you can reconfigure your graphics card, monitor and resolution and test any changes you make. Check to see what's designated for your graphics card, and monitor and make any changes you think are appropriate. Hit the Test button to see if the changes you made are helping or making matters worse. Also see if you can increase your resolution which will make the icons smaller. When you get it the way you want hit the Options button and click "yes" in the popup window then quit and close mcc. Reboot and see if you can get to a graphical login screen.

 

It sounds like your running in SVGA mode which is a very rudimentary graphics mode that all grapics cards support. The install program will select this mode when it doesn't recognize your grahics card. That's the first place I would look. Also be careful with your monitor settings. If you select a monitor with higher frequencies than your monitor supports, you can burn your monitor out if you run it for an extended period of time.

[Guest arise]

He could be runnning using the Framebuffer Device...

 

Try using vga=normal as a LILO option, and see what happens

[gmac]

It's Working!! Thanks for the help guys. Pmpatrick. I could'nt get the x configuration utility working but reading your post again I realise i did'nt follow your instruction correctly.

 

Your commemt about the vga gave me a clue. i went back and did a complete new install this time taking the settings picked up by the install programme leaving it vesa and this time it worked and I can now see things properly. Previously I had changes it to svga cos I knew I had a svga monitor and thought I knew the correct refresh rate. In this case a little knowledge can be a bit dangerous.

 

I'm stiill having trouble with the system 11 error. It comes up when a programme fails "due to a system 11 signal".

 

I have been told that this refers to a fault in part of the disc. I do not know how accurate this is.

 

In the meantime I have this working on an old computer on which windows had failed completely. My intention is to experiment till its more familiar and then try dual booting on a newer, faster bigger computer.

 

Once again thanks very much for your help.