Mandrake 10.1 OE boot up problem on ThinkPad R30

[clair]

I tried looking for topics similar to mine but I that I haven't seen any. (Or maybe I didn't know that it was there.)

 

I have a ThinkPad R30. I tried to go dual boot on it: Windows 2000 Pro and Mandrake 10.1 Official. Windows was installed first then Mandrake. I didn't see any error messages during the install and so I booted it up after the install.

 

On LILO, I selected linux. Then I pressed ESC to see the messages and I didn't notice any error messages. However, after that stopped, there was no graphical log in console, which I had on Mandrake 10. I don't know what happened. I would like to try using Mandrake 10.1 Official.

 

Windows 2000 Pro was fine. But I only installed Windows in case my sister or mom would borrow my laptop. I use Linux and open source software more.

 

Thanks.

[Ixthusdan]

Greets!

Are you at a command prompt? If you are, type "startx" and tell us the error reported.

[clair]

Hi, Ixthusdam!

I am not at command prompt, sorry :( I am GUI-dependent. How do I do that? Thanks!

[mark_667]

Hi, Ixthusdam!

I am not at command prompt, sorry :(  I am GUI-dependent. How do I do that? Thanks!

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I have the same problem only I'm dual-booting with Windows XP on a desktop machine. I found that if you boot in fail-safe mode you then have the option to continue the boot normally (which doesn't do anything different for me) or log-in as root. When you log-in as root you get a command prompt although it wasn't much use to me at the time because I didn't know where to start.

Hope this helps :D

[Ixthusdan]

Hi, Ixthusdam!

I am not at command prompt, sorry :(  I am GUI-dependent. How do I do that? Thanks!

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

OK, so the machine is "hanging" at a particular point? What was the last entry printed on the screen? (The "hang" point)

[mark_667]

Ixthusdan: my machine freezes at the same point as Claire's (from what I can tell) after the screen goes blue but before the logon box appears. I tried what you suggested in your first response and got this data:

 

Using vt 7
(EE) Filed to load modulke "usr/X11R6/lib/modules.extensions/libglx.a" (once-only module, 135962511)
(EE) xf860OpenSerial: Cannot open device /dev/mouse
No such file or directory.
(EE) xf860OpenSerial: Cannot open device /dev/mouse
No such file or directory.
(EE) xf860OpenSerial: Cannot open device /dev/mouse
No such file or directory.
(EE) xf860OpenSerial: Cannot open device /dev/mouse
No such file or directory.
Could not init font path element unix/:-1, removing from list!

Fatal server error:
could not open default font 'fixed'

Please consult The X Org Foundation support
at http://wiki.X.org
for help
please also check the log file at "/var/log/Xorg.0.log" for additional information.
XIO: fatal error 104 (Connection reset by peer) on X server ":0.0"
after 0 requests (0 unknown processed) with 0 events remaining.

Does this mean anything to anyone?

[Ixthusdan]

Tricks for both of you to try.

 

If x, which is the component that generates the nice gui stuff, hangs on a terminal, try hitting ctrl-alt-F1 (or F4, F7) in order to get to a virtual terminal with a command prompt. This will tell us if linux is actually running. I think it is for mark_667, but I am not sure for clair. We can do much from the command prompt. For example, mark_667, your open gl driver is not loading and it looks as if there is a configuration issue with your mouse. Neither of those is as crtical as the font problem. X (nor any gui) cannot run without base fonts. I would reinstall x, since it is a new installation. If you are at the command line you can force a reinstall of the x components. I am not certain that clair has the same problem despite similar appearances.

 

If you cannot raise a command prompt on another terminal, linux is not running, which is a worse problem!

[clair]

Tricks for both of you to try.

 

If x, which is the component that generates the nice gui stuff, hangs on a terminal, try hitting ctrl-alt-F1 (or F4, F7) in order to get to a virtual terminal with a command prompt. This will tell us if linux is actually running.  I think it is for mark_667, but I am not sure for clair. We can do much from the command prompt. For example, mark_667, your open gl driver is not loading and it looks as if there is a configuration issue with your mouse. Neither of those is as crtical as the font problem.  X (nor any gui) cannot run without base fonts. I would reinstall x, since it is a new installation. If you are at the command line you can force a reinstall of the x components. I am not certain that clair has the same problem despite similar appearances.

 

If you cannot raise a command prompt on another terminal, linux is not running, which is a worse problem!

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

My computer hangs around at the same point as Mark's. I will try out this trick you posted and tell you about it later, when I do get to try this.

 

And by the way, I tried looking for the Xorg.0.log file. There was none. There was a Xorg.9.log file though. And I tried

cat /var/log/Xorg.9.log | grep EE

 

And this was the resulting message:

 

Failed to load module "user/x11R6/lib/modules/extensions/libglx.a" (once-only module, 135962511)

 

Would you have any idea what that means? Someone just told me about looking for the Xorg.0.log file but I still don't know what is going on. :unsure:

 

Thanks!

[mark_667]

Claire, I tried the code you did (although I have no idea what | grep EE is all about) and it couldn't find the file either, but although I didn't get the module error at that point, if you look at the second line of the code dump I posted above; we both have the same module missing, although the file paths are different. I tried looking for the module in the same directory as stated in Claire's last post using the command:

ls /usr/X11R6/lib/modules

and indeed found it to be missing.

 

I tried:

ls /var/log

to see what files were there. I found the last two entries were Xorg.0.log and Xorg.0.log.old both of which I could open and basically just gave the error:

xf86OpenSerial: Cannot open device /dev/mouse

I wonder if this is the case on Clair's system or not as:

And by the way, I tried looking for the Xorg.0.log file. There was none. There was a Xorg.9.log file though.

 

Ixthusdan: In your last you advised us to re-install X can you post some simple instructions or a link that would tell us how to do this please? I tried Googling, but couldn't find anything relevant.

[clair]

but although I didn't get the module error at that point, if you look at the second line of the code dump I posted above; we both have the same module missing, although the file paths are different.

 

Yeah, we do have the same module missing.

 

I tried:

ls /var/log

to see what files were there. I found the last two entries were Xorg.0.log and Xorg.0.log.old both of which I could open and basically just gave the error:

xf86OpenSerial: Cannot open device /dev/mouse

 

Strangely I tried again, and I found the Xorg.0.log, Xorg.0.log.ol and Xorg.9.log files... I am quite clueless about it.

 

Mark: We have some similar troubles indeed. What hardware are you using? One of my friends mentioned to me yesterday that maybe because my ThinkPad is relatively old, Xorg is having trouble loading up. I have no idea what he means, but I do want to get to the bottom of this because I really like using Mandrake.

 

Ixthusdan: Thanks for the previous tips you've mentioned. I tried getting into command line from the point where Xorg hangs using CTRL-ALT-F4 (I think it was F4) and it was ok. I got to the command line. How would Mark and I re-install X.org? Thanks!

[kmack]

Sometimes it helps to try to boot without any peripherals (printer, etc) hooked up. USB things can cause issues sometimes too. Might even try without a mouse since you should be able to use the touchpad on the laptop. I had some initial boot problems with my joystick plugged in to USB port. Once I booted I installed the joystick and rebooted and everything worked. Maybe you'll be so lucky. Hope so! :D

[Ixthusdan]

Since you can get to the command line, su to root and type MCC. This will get you a gui-ish type of Mandrake Control Center. Go to system and software, installed software, and remove x.org. Then, reinstall it. MCC should also take care of removing and reinstalling all the dependencies. Try that, and afterwards, startx again to see if it worked.

[clair]

Since you can get to the command line, su to root and type MCC. This will get you a gui-ish type of Mandrake Control Center. Go to system and software, installed software, and remove x.org. Then, reinstall it. MCC should also take care of removing and reinstalling all the dependencies. Try that, and afterwards, startx again to see if it worked.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Will try this one out... If this doesn't work, maybe I should download the iso's again? Or maybe my ThinkPad is too old for 10.1 Official?

[tyme]

libglx is only necessary if you're doing 3d stuff, you can safely ignore any error messages referring to it and assume that it's not the cause.

 

mark: your problem is most likely here:

Fatal server error: could not open default font 'fixed'

this is most likely why your X server isn't starting. Your missing some fonts, or it can't find them.

 

Suggestions:

run:

fc-cache -v

as root, then try startx again. if those doesn't work we need to look into reinstalling your fonts.

 

--

 

clair: it seems you can get to a command prompt, since you ran grep on your X11 error logs, so I suggest trying startx and giving us any messages that come up in the terminal when you try to start it.

[clair]

Ixthusdan: Couldn't run MCC on the command line. Command not found, it says.

 

Tymark: Thanks! I should've posted the error messages today but I left the slip containing the error messages. Will post them later.