debian newbie- can't get into X

[83mercedes]

Hey all,

I'm still here, just giving you a day off!!!

:lol:

Actually I have been waiting, thinking about whether I want to risk losing the whole install, in order to make the cd burner work again.

But now that I think about it, it's only a valuable install if it all works, so what the heck?

I'll try it.

EDIT: ( I downloaded devfsd) here we go...

[83mercedes]

Need to know exactly where tp put 'devfs=mount' in lilo.conf.

It keeps saying it is an "unrecognised token at line so-and-so." when I run lilo.

[bvc]

Now, what if it had devfs=mount already, and that was the only entry? Could you make it boot it with devfs=nomount just be specifying it too, or will it still mount?

I'm no lilo expert but I'd say it would still try to mount. That's what I hate about lilo. It'll accept a complete boot command but it all has to be typed, so you have to know /remember everything which is tough for me with 4 distros :shock: ....I know...print it. Grubs cool because it's all right there for you to see and edit, and like you said, if it fails, edit again. :wink:

 

Read the help for devfs in menuconfig and it'll tell you what you need kernel wise. Other than that, just install devfsd and tell grub devfs=mount as see what happens.

 

83mercedes, look for

append=

and put

append= devfs=mount

if you have other stuff like

append= ro acpi=on

just append it

append= ro acpi=on devfs=mount

[DOlson]

When you say you downloaded devfsd, what do you mean by that? I hope you just apt-get install devfsd and didn't get source code and stuff...

 

I think I'm gonna try getting devfs going on my system too, just to see if I can do it.

 

Oh, you might wanna give grub a chance sometime. :) It's great.

[83mercedes]

OK, yes I did apt-get to get that, and it installed OK, it said.

But when I 'append' lilo.conf, I get a syntax error, here is just that section of lilo.conf:

 

# Kernel command line options that apply to all installed images go

# here. See: The `boot-prompt-HOWO' and `kernel-parameters.txt' in

# the Linux kernel `Documentation' directory.

#

append=hdc=ide-scsi devfs=mount

 

# Boot up Linux by default.

#

default=Linux

[83mercedes]

By the way, I'd like to try grub, if you say it's better, but I don't know how to change from lilo.

:?:

[bvc]

apt-get install grub

lilo -u /dev/hdx (where x is a,b,c etc...to uninstall lilo)

grub-install '(hd0)'

will install grub to hda.

0=hda

1=hdb

2=hdc

and so on.

If you have different distros etc...bkup lilo.conf to help with configuring grub.

[DOlson]

And once you've got Grub going (test it first), apt-get remove lilo :)

[83mercedes]

Ok, now I AM dumb, I installed grub, and it pushed lilo right out of the picture during boot-up, but I have no idea how to begin configuring it so it's usable.

It just says

grub>

and I hit 'tab' for a list of possible words, there must be 50 of them, so I pick 'boot' for my first word, but what to type after that?

It says kernel must be loaded first.

As I said, I am sorry, guys, I had no idea...

[DOlson]

Type in something like this:

 

kernel (hd0,0)/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.0-test1 root=/dev/hda1 ro devfs=nomount hdd=ide-scsi

 

Use tab to autocomplete things in it... (this is assuming you have hda1 as / and no separate /boot, and you'll have to modify the kernel version and that...)

 

You should have made a Grub config file before you rebooted. D'oh!

[DOlson]

From my Debian notes archive (stuff I wrote during my first time setting up Debian):

 

installing Grub on Debian:

 

su

apt-get install grub

grub-install /dev/hda

update-grub

nano /boot/grub/menu.lst

(add in boot stuff)

#update-grub

[83mercedes]

OK, I'm licked.

I have tried every conceivable variance of those commands, it won't work.

Now lilo is gone, and there is nothing I can do with grub, I can't get lilo back, and booting off the CD is the closest I can get to a working system, and now, even that won't get into X.

I am frustrated.

Here I just thought I would give this a try, but after 5 days of beating my head against the wall, still no X, no cdrom, no printer, etc.

Thank God for Mandrake.

If you still think I can salvage this mess, please let me know.

[bvc]

Still have mandrake? Edit /boot/grub/menu.lst from mandrake. Use diskdrake to create a mountpoint for the debian / partition. I mount it at

/mnt/d

 

Then just browse to /mnt/d/boot/grub/menu.lst from mandrake and edit. Don't run update-grub, it's not necessary. Here's my menu.lst. Use mandrake to get all the correct info for your sys.

# /boot/grub/menu.lst - See: grub(8), info grub, update-grub(8)

# --------------------       grub-install(8), grub-floppy(8),

#                            grub-md5-crypt, /usr/share/doc/grub

#                            and /usr/share/doc/grub-doc/.



## default num

# Set the default entry to the entry number NUM. Numbering starts from 0, and

# the entry number 0 is the default if the command is not used.

#

# You can specify 'saved' instead of a number. In this case, the default entry

# is the entry saved with the command 'savedefault'.           

default  0



## timeout sec

# Set a timeout, in SEC seconds, before automatically booting the default entry

# (normally the first entry defined).

timeout  5



# Pretty colours

#color cyan/blue white/blue

#color black/cyan yellow/cyan

#color light-green/brown blink-red/blue

color dark-green/orange blink-red/blue



# Set colors for foreground and background:

# (RRGGBB, in hex)

#

# These are optional it will still work without them

#

foreground  = ffffff

background  = 000000

# The splash image location (doesn't need to be the root partition, BTW,

# since grub can read your filesystem):

#

#splashimage=(hd0,7)/boot/grub/BlueFlame.xpm.gz

#splashimage=(hd0,7)/boot/grub/tribal.xpm.gz

#splashimage=(hd0,7)/boot/grub/GanymedeTile.xpm.gz

splashimage=(hd0,7)/boot/grub/splash.xpm.gz





## password ['--md5'] passwd

# If used in the first section of a menu file, disable all interactive editing

# control (menu entry editor and command-line)  and entries protected by the

# command 'lock'

# e.g. password topsecret

#      password --md5 $1$gLhU0/$aW78kHK1QfV3P2b2znUoe/

# password topsecret



#

# examples

#

# title  Windows 95/98/NT/2000

# root  (hd0,0)

# makeactive

# chainloader	+1

#

# title  Linux

# root  (hd0,1)

# kernel	/vmlinuz root=/dev/hda2 ro

#



#

# Put static boot stanzas before and/or after AUTOMAGIC KERNEL LIST



### BEGIN AUTOMAGIC KERNELS LIST

## lines between the AUTOMAGIC KERNELS LIST markers will be modified

## by the debian update-grub script except for the default optons below



## DO NOT UNCOMMENT THEM, Just edit them to your needs



## ## Start Default Options ##

## default kernel options

## default kernel options for automagic boot options

## e.g. kopt=root=/dev/hda1 ro

# kopt=root=/dev/hda8 ro



## default grub root device

## e.g. groot=(hd0,0)

# groot=(hd0,7)



## should update-grub create alternative automagic boot options

## e.g. alternative=true

##      alternative=false

# alternative=true



## should update-grub lock alternative automagic boot options

## e.g. lockalternative=true

##      lockalternative=false

# lockalternative=false



## altoption boot targets option

## multiple altoptions lines are allowed

## e.g. altoptions=(extra menu suffix) extra boot options

##      altoptions=(recovery mode) single

# altoptions=(recovery mode) single



## controls how many kernels should be put into the menu.lst

## only counts the first occurence of a kernel, not the

## alternative kernel options

## e.g. howmany=all

##      howmany=7

# howmany=all



title  Debian

root  (hd0,7)

kernel  /boot/vmlinuz-2.4.20-3-k7 root=/dev/hda8 ro noapic acpi=on idebus=133 devfs=nomount vga=791

initrd  /boot/initrd.img-2.4.20-3-k7

savedefault

boot



#title Debian

#kernel (hd0,7)/boot/vmlinuz-2.4.20-3-k7 root=/dev/hda8 ro noapic acpi=on idebus=133 devfs=nomount vga=791

#initrd (hd0,7)/boot/initrd.img-2.4.20-3-k7



title ML9.1

kernel (hd0,5)/boot/vmlinuz-2.4.21-0.13mdk root=/dev/hda6 noapic acpi=off idebus=133 ro devfs=mount hdd=ide-scsi vga=791

initrd (hd0,5)/boot/initrd-2.4.21-0.13mdk.img



title RH9

kernel (hd0,6)/boot/vmlinuz-2.4.20-8 root=/dev/hda7 idebus=133 ro devfs=mount hdd=ide-scsi

initrd (hd0,6)/boot/initrd-2.4.20-8.img



title Win98

rootnoverify (hd0,0)

makeactive

chainloader +1



#================================================#

#title floppy

#root (fd0)

#chainloader +1



#title  Debian (recovery mode)

#root  (hd0,7)

#kernel  /boot/vmlinuz-2.4.20-3-k7 root=/dev/hda8 ro single

#initrd  /boot/initrd.img-2.4.20-3-k7

#savedefault

#boot



#title  Debian GNU/Linux, kernel 2.4.18-bf2.4

#root  (hd0,7)

#kernel  /boot/vmlinuz-2.4.18-bf2.4 root=/dev/hda8 ro

#savedefault

#boot



#title  Debian GNU/Linux, kernel 2.4.18-bf2.4 (recovery mode)

#root  (hd0,7)

#kernel  /boot/vmlinuz-2.4.18-bf2.4 root=/dev/hda8 ro single

#savedefault

#boot

 

If you end up having to copy this then #comment out the splashimage=

line. Yes grub on debian supports fb and bootsplash images 8)

 

If you need to install grub again, you can from mandrake. Su to root and (in my case)

chroot /mnt/d

grub-install '(hd0)'

to install to hda's mbr.

 

If you've already got debian's / in ml, then this can be done with ml's cd1 rescue mode.

F1>type rescue <hit Enter>>Mount your partitions under /mnt>Go to Console>chroot /mnt/mnt/d>and you're in debian.

:wink:

[83mercedes]

Thanks, but Mandrake is on seperate machine... and I have Debian dual booting with XP. I am thinking, at this point, of starting over from scratch with Debian, and perhaps only updating to Sarge.

Honestly, I am out of patience. If Mandrake had been this tough, I'd still be using windows only.

[bvc]

ok

and booting off the CD is the closest I can get to a working system

can you then write to the menu.lst from this? I've never had to use it. Somehow, you can boot with just the commandline grub, but I've never figured out how, as I've always had other distros to fall back on. In fact, Installinfg a 600 to 800MB minimal mandrake is suggested, just for this reason. In the past it has saved me many times. You could checkout the grub Home docs on howto from the commandline. But I'd imagine that you can do it from the debian cd's somehow.