Guest greeneggs Posted April 13, 2003 Report Share Posted April 13, 2003 ok, try typing in: startx.autologin and see what happens. it would appear to me that you setup your system to automatically log you into a username at startup, and something went wrong with that configuration. once we get you into a graphical interface, we'll take you through the steps to fix it so you just go straight into graphical interface. oh, and if startx.autologin doesn't work, try (must be root to do this): cp /usr/X11R6/bin/startx.autologin /usr/X11R6/bin/startx and then just type in startx Ok, I just did this and I get some text telling me that the file cannot be found and something about "line 12#". I would post what I saw but I have no way to copy and paste in this "black screen" mode. Most of it was just different paths to startx anyway. EDIT: I just noticed that several more people posted so I'll try all those things and then my mom is supposed to call in about 10 minutes. I'll check back here and let you all know how it worked. Sorry I was so grumpy earlier. A lot of my bad "tude" has to do with the great deal of stress I've been under due to my medical restrictions, surgery, side effects froms meds, etc. Anyway, much thank's to all of you for sticking with me and trying to help. Talk to you in a little bit :D Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tyme Posted April 13, 2003 Report Share Posted April 13, 2003 Clearification:whatis searches a database, so only tells you what should be there. this is my fault, I was not aware of this. However, we did learn that plan old startx wasn't on his system :-) and it would appear that his trouble is his x server no starting up. it's unfortunate we can't get a copy of the error's it spits out, that may help us find the answer to this puzzle. addition: before you get to the black screen, does the screen seem to flicker a few times? after the boot up process completes, that is. and can you tell what the last message is during the bootup process? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bvc Posted April 14, 2003 Report Share Posted April 14, 2003 puzzle? yes, but believe me startx WAS there else he'd had no X..in theory anyway. He did the rebooting which rules out hardware failure, unless it wasn't a service starting but hardware failure causing the hd to thrash. :? I'm assuming he doesn't have a separate partition for /usr because of his newness and this not being done in a normal install.....so... being that there're 2 or 3 ways to start X, if it were me I'd su to root and chkconfig dm on if a dm (especially xdm) can't get X going then only rpm -e --nodeps XFree86* or rpm -qa | grep XFree86 then from it's output rpm -e --nodeps XFree86 rpm -e --nodeps XFree86-server for each package then urpmi XFree86 will....YUK! which I've had to do BTW (not at the fault of Mandrake, but my tinkering) :wink:...fun :roll: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest greeneggs Posted April 14, 2003 Report Share Posted April 14, 2003 Ok, I tried what I was told earlier and have written the results down on a piece of paper because I can't copy/paste from the black screen so everything must be painstakenly transcribed. Here it is folks... [root@localhost teddy]# urpmi Xtart (at this point the CD drawer opens and asks for CD 3# so I pop it in and hit "enter") 1 KDE 3 Windowmaker 7 IceWM (Here's where I'm asked to choose a desktop and I select "1" which is KDE and then I get this)... Traceback (most recent call last); File "/usr/bin/Xtart", sessions[well]) os.execvp('xinit',Sessions[well]) File "/usr/lib/python2.2/os.py", line 298,in execvp _execvpe (file,args) File "/usr/lib/python2.2/os.py", line 336, in_execvpe apply (func,(fullname,) + argrect) OSError [Errno2] No such file or directory [root@localhost teddy]# This is what I see. TYME: No flicker at boot-up and it's difficult to see everything that scrolls down the screen because it moves so fast but I can probably pay attention and start writing some of the things I do notice down if that will help. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
qnr Posted April 14, 2003 Report Share Posted April 14, 2003 after you've logged in to the virtual console (the black text screen) type dmesg all the the messages will scroll by again, but the last ones will stay visible. Or, if you want to see all of them, use: dmesg | less Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scoopy Posted April 14, 2003 Report Share Posted April 14, 2003 EEEEK, I think I am in over my head on this one. Luckily bvc is giving some solid info here. From your last report, looks like xinit and Xtart, are working (see "well") but it seems this "args" and "argrect" are broke and I have no clue what they are for --- or from. So if we have already tried # 3 Windowmaker or #7 IceWM and they also give some cryptic message, you should probally give bvc's last set of directions a shot because then X is most likely totally hosed. (in plain English: uninstall, then install X) Just curious if we did start this round from a clean, reformatted harddrive, or are we still trying to clean up the hosed system? wish ya luck and keep trying! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest linuxdk2 Posted April 14, 2003 Report Share Posted April 14, 2003 Try drakconf at the command line to setup your xserver. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bvc Posted April 14, 2003 Report Share Posted April 14, 2003 Well, I googled for every angle of the errors with startx, X11, and Xtart and got NOTHING! aru, anyone ...know python2? File "/usr/lib/python2.2/os.py", line 298,in execvp _execvpe (file,args) def execvp(file, args): """execp(file, args) Execute the executable file (which is searched for along $PATH) with argument list args, replacing the current process. args may be a list or tuple of strings. """ _execvpe(file, args) File "/usr/lib/python2.2/os.py", line 336, in_execvpe apply (func,(fullname,) + argrect) OSError [Errno2] No such file or directory for dir in PATH: fullname = path.join(dir, file) try: apply(func, (fullname,) + argrest) The entire section of line 336 is def _execvpe(file, args, env=None): from errno import ENOENT, ENOTDIR if env is not None: func = execve argrest = (args, env) else: func = execv argrest = (args,) env = environ head, tail = path.split(file) if head: apply(func, (file,) + argrest) return if env.has_key('PATH'): envpath = env['PATH'] else: envpath = defpath PATH = envpath.split(pathsep) saved_exc = None saved_tb = None for dir in PATH: fullname = path.join(dir, file) try: apply(func, (fullname,) + argrest) except error, e: tb = sys.exc_info()[2] if (e.errno != ENOENT and e.errno != ENOTDIR and saved_exc is None): saved_exc = e saved_tb = tb if saved_exc: raise error, saved_exc, saved_tb raise error, e, tb looks to me like some kind of ENVironment/PATH issue, but I'm not good at scripts much less python. I'd still like to see what a GUI dm can do. (service dm start or chkconfig dm on and reboot) greeneggs, if you don't want to install XFree86 from the command line, you'll have to remove Xfree86 from the command line but it could be reinstalled with the Upgrade option from a boot to cd1>F1>expert. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aru Posted April 14, 2003 Report Share Posted April 14, 2003 looks to me like some kind of ENVironment/PATH issue, but I'm not good at scripts much less python. It looks the same for me. Though I just did a quick read of your post, and I have not enought time to read backwards this thread to see what is the problem (sorry) IMHO the problem is that it can't find xinit. Check that "/usr/X11R6/bin/" is in your root's $PATH variable. Also, and ofcourse, check that "/usr/X11R6/bin/xinit" exists [offtopic] bvc, when you have doubts or do you want to know what a python function does you can open python in interactive mode, and type: [arusabal@mandrakeusers ~]$ python Python 2.2.2 (#2, Nov 23 2002, 11:51:54) [GCC 3.2 (Mandrake Linux 9.1 3.2-4mdk)] on linux-i386 Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information. >>> import os >>> help(os.execvp) Help on function execvp in module os: execvp(file, args) execp(file, args) Execute the executable file (which is searched for along $PATH) with argument list args, replacing the current process. args may be a list or tuple of strings. Faster, isn't it? :D Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest greeneggs Posted April 14, 2003 Report Share Posted April 14, 2003 I am literally shaking as I write this because in a few hours I go in to see the urologist and I am SCARED TO DEATH. It's difficult for me to even think about Linux right now and yet I am taken back by how much effort all have you have put into trying to help me and I am very greatful for it. Not trying to get all "mushy" here or anything, I just think it's nice that such a forum exists to help people with their Linux problems. Ok, this morning after reading the posts, I dedided that the simplest thing to do would be to just go ahead and re-install XFree. I remember when I did an upgrade (to try and rebuild the system) a few days ago, I noticed where you could choose between two different versions of XFree. I was thinking maybe I would try this again but this time I would select the older version. I went through the whole process but I got to the point where it asked me if I wanted to delete the partition, etc and I backed out of it because I don't want to mess with the partition - just reinstall a different version of XFree. Just for the record, I did'nt see any screen that asked me if I wanted to do an upgrade/install this time so I don't know what's going on and I'm scared out of my wits alread from my doctor's appointment so I'm a "basket case" right now. ::sigh:: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest greeneggs Posted April 14, 2003 Report Share Posted April 14, 2003 Hi Let me ask you all a question. Would I be better off just doing a complete format of my HD and then reinstalling Mandrake Linux 9.1 but this time choose a different version of XFree since I can't for the life of me seem to get my KDE desktop to come up?. When I first did this install, I remember seeing a window giving me a choice between two different versions on XFree. Would this solve my problem?. Thanks Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest fubar::chi Posted April 14, 2003 Report Share Posted April 14, 2003 ok, first off those first couple of time you killed your computer manually may have messed stuff up. I was prone to doing this with 9.0 (cause I had reiserfs and thought i was invincible) and eventually weird things started happening. See if any of this sounds familiar :: First sometimes when logging in to KDE you don't get there all the way it just stops at a certain point iin the splash screen and you're left staring at it. :: Then your desktop starts becoming "unconfigured" ,i.e, it goes back to the default state without you doing a damn things (files start disappearing in essence) :: Then X just dies altogether and all you get is a blank black screen with a prompt :: You type in the startx command and it's not found :: You go looking for the startx command in /usr/X11R6/bin as root and see the startx command, however when you type it at the console it still shows up as not found :: Eventually you decide to restart and the startx command really isn't there anymore. Your computer is officially ::fubar:: and you have no choice but to re-install :: Yes this really did happen to me during 9.0. What happened to me was the devfsd daemon was not running properly (took a very long time to start up i think) and I turned off the computer because of this. My solution was a good old fashioned re-install. To answer you question, No i don't think you need to use X 3.3.6. It sucks. Having said that tell me you computers particulars and we'll find out if you need to. Stuff like motherboard brand, video card (we know ram already), any scsi cards, raid (hardware or software), burners, dvd drives, hard drives. Windows has tools (Device Manager) for finding out all of that good stuff. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest greeneggs Posted April 15, 2003 Report Share Posted April 15, 2003 ok, first off those first couple of time you killed your computer manually may have messed stuff up. I was prone to doing this with 9.0 (cause I had reiserfs and thought i was invincible) and eventually weird things started happening. See if any of this sounds familiar:: First sometimes when logging in to KDE you don't get there all the way it just stops at a certain point iin the splash screen and you're left staring at it. :: Then your desktop starts becoming "unconfigured" ,i.e, it goes back to the default state without you doing a damn things (files start disappearing in essence) :: Then X just dies altogether and all you get is a blank black screen with a prompt :: You type in the startx command and it's not found :: You go looking for the startx command in /usr/X11R6/bin as root and see the startx command, however when you type it at the console it still shows up as not found :: Eventually you decide to restart and the startx command really isn't there anymore. Your computer is officially ::fubar:: and you have no choice but to re-install :: Yes this really did happen to me during 9.0. What happened to me was the devfsd daemon was not running properly (took a very long time to start up i think) and I turned off the computer because of this. My solution was a good old fashioned re-install. To answer you question, No i don't think you need to use X 3.3.6. It sucks. Having said that tell me you computers particulars and we'll find out if you need to. Stuff like motherboard brand, video card (we know ram already), any scsi cards, raid (hardware or software), burners, dvd drives, hard drives. Windows has tools (Device Manager) for finding out all of that good stuff. Hi there Yes, the problems you describe are EXACTLY what happens to me. This is the second time I've had this happen with v9.1. Because of these problems, I am reluctant to reinstall it. I too have the boot-up screen (where stuff is scrolling down the screen) freeze up on me at a particular line and then I have to shut the computer off and start over. Then the boot-up screen will freeze up a second or even a third or fourth time. When it's all over with, I finally end up with the black screen I was talking about. The thing that started all of this was that for the second time, I had just been sitting there when all of a sudden my HD began spinning like crazy and my computer got really slow so I tried to reboot (which took forever). When the little gray "reboot: yes/no" window appeared, it had little gray unix boxes going across it rather than the "reboot: yes/no" text. Anyway, here are the specs on my PC as best I know... 900MHZ AMD 2 10G HD's (Linux on one and Win ME on the other - no dual boot) 56 speed CD ROM 256M RAM "Shuttle" motherboard Ethernet card w/cable connection Linksys Router/firewall Floppy drive etc...etc...etc... That's about it. Any ideas what I should do? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest fubar::chi Posted April 15, 2003 Report Share Posted April 15, 2003 i'd suggest a reinstall of mdk this time when the "freeze" happens leave it alone for 5 minutes (5 actual minutes, not just it feels like 5 minutes type of 5 minutes). I think the freeze you're referring to is devfsd daemon being a sloth at its job. The other possibility is that it's a real freeze that's happening because of some config. If after 5 minutes the "freeze" is still there plug out any usb devices (except keyboard) and do the Alt+SysRQ sequence to restart. Then see if it restarts properly about two more times without usb devices installed. I don't know what the problem is but i've had this happen to my with one of my custom made boxes (usb-printer did it). Which i weird because the one i'm using now has a usb printer connected which works just fine. remember 5 minutes Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bvc Posted April 15, 2003 Report Share Posted April 15, 2003 Uuuhhh...he never had a freeze...as far as what started all this. It was his hd being accessed and using up his resources making things slow so he'd reboot. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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