noob Posted December 3, 2003 Report Share Posted December 3, 2003 ok, ive just installed mandrake 9.2 and it will only boot up into the commandline shell. if i try to wun the gui by typing "X", it has a screnn of junk and near the bottom it says "no screens found". well, not junk but i havent a clue. ive run drakxconf and set up the display, but is i test, it tells me to change some parameters. i have tried every possible variation of my graphics card(within the same s3 trio selection) and it wont have it. iv'e tried every resolution there is and i need to get it to work. i can't use the command shell on anything well(except the amiga) and i need my internet access back asap. PLEEEEESE HELP ME :( Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
liquidzoo Posted December 3, 2003 Report Share Posted December 3, 2003 Can you give us a bit more on your system? I noticed you did mention the s3 Trio graphics chipset. Just as a note, every time I've gotten that error it was because I had an incorrect video driver being called. Might be the case for you, but I want to be sure. Can you post your system specs? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bvc Posted December 3, 2003 Report Share Posted December 3, 2003 Is using X new? That didn't use to work, at least not the last time I tried it. Try startx (case sensitive). Have you tried the vesa driver? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Darkelve Posted December 3, 2003 Report Share Posted December 3, 2003 (edited) bvc, don't know if it's new, but there is definitely a command called 'X' out there. I tried it and I seem to remember it did about the same as "startx" (booting into GUI and directly launching the KDE desktop [i'm using autologin]), no idea what's the difference though. Edited December 3, 2003 by Darkelve Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bvc Posted December 4, 2003 Report Share Posted December 4, 2003 I tried X. It just took me to a blue screen (as root :o ...should be red) with an X for a cursor...that's it. Stick with good old startx. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scoopy Posted December 4, 2003 Report Share Posted December 4, 2003 Sounds like the problems I had with an older S3 ViRGE GX (385) card --- I never had any luck running with the newer XFree86 version 4 --- I always had to use the older 3.3.6 version. And I just checked --- there is a specially made Xfree 3.3.6 just for S3 chips on the install CD's. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
noob Posted December 4, 2003 Author Report Share Posted December 4, 2003 (edited) i havent a clue how to change drivers or even access the cd drive. ill try the startx command now. nope, same except the screen flickers before it has the same darn screen. Edited December 4, 2003 by noob Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bvc Posted December 4, 2003 Report Share Posted December 4, 2003 as root try; rpm -qa | grep XFree86 and write down exactly which pkgs are installed. then urpmi XFree86-3.3.6 or urpmi XFree86 it'll either give you a list of available rpm's, or tell you everything is already installed. If it list 3.3.6 pkgs choose them by doing; urpmi XFree86-3.3.6 XFree86-libs-3.3.6 XFree86-server-3.3.6 until you have listed the same that is installed, if possible, and hit enter. It may be required or easier to get urpmi to do more for you by doing; rpm -e --nodeps XFree86* I prefer to list them so that I know all are being uninstalled. rpm -qa | grep XFree86 and rpm -e --nodeps XFree86-4.2.1 XFree86-libs-4.2.1 XFree86-server-4.2.1 I know this is rough being new and all but give it a shot. Your other option is to reinstall or do an upgrade and change the XFree86 version then. Where or how? I don't know, never had to, but someone could tell ya. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
noob Posted December 5, 2003 Author Report Share Posted December 5, 2003 all packages are installed and it won't work. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
noob Posted December 5, 2003 Author Report Share Posted December 5, 2003 i had to re-install linux and try every s3 card it could support. it works fine now. its slow to boot up and shut down though. how do i run windows apps in it? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
omideus Posted December 7, 2003 Report Share Posted December 7, 2003 *** i installed it in VMWare from WindowsXP Pr o*** i used to have the same problem, try to config your monitor to "Custom", enter vertical and horizontal frequency rate of your monitor (find in your monitor's manual - **wrong setting might harm your monitor!!!**) then select the generic video card. then click on TEST button above advices are working for me, Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scoopy Posted December 8, 2003 Report Share Posted December 8, 2003 same here with my monitor. Had to use a custom monitor setting with that card and bypass the 100 or so S3 settings. also... How much RAM is installed. I am thinking you need 128 or better with 9.2 to run smoothly. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lagrosse Posted January 12, 2004 Report Share Posted January 12, 2004 (edited) ."And I just checked --- there is a specially made Xfree 3.3.6 just for S3 chips on the install CD's" So like Where the hell is it?? 1,2 or 3? OK kids. here's the why. http://www.xfree86.org/current/Status29.html#29 NOW I know why I haven't been able to upgrade to 9.1 It's taken me trying to install Mandy9.1, RH9, FreeBSD4.6 and Debian to figure this one out. (((And all this time I thought it was because I was stupid!!))) Edit: I found it! Now I'll give upgrading a try but how does one choose that particular RPM when it isn't in the install choices?? Edited January 12, 2004 by Lagrosse Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aRTee Posted January 12, 2004 Report Share Posted January 12, 2004 (edited) Just commenting on the command X This just starts X without any window manager/desktop environment. Quite handy, I use it like this, from the real console: X :1& (ctrl-alt-F[1-6] to get back to the console, if you're not running this from a script) export DISPLAY=:1 icewm & (or any other wm/de of your liking: startkde, gnome-session or whatever) Without any wm, you can run stuff like starcraft via wine, on a 640x480 desktop, instead of icewm & just do: wine /mnt/win_c/Program\ Files/StarCraft/StarCraft.exe Sorry for messing up this topic a bit... To answer the last question: if you put the rpm in a place where you can find it, you can just install it from the command line: just 'cd' to the location of the rpm and do urpmi [namehere.rpm] or just do urpmi /path/to/location/on/disk/of/package.rpm You don't need any graphical stuff for something as simple as this, and after that you can do with running the graphical setup program -- of which I inconveniently can't remember the name.. If no one else knows, you can always start mcc on the command line, it still works... thanks to ncurses. [edit] seems the command to setup xfree is: xfdrake Edited January 12, 2004 by aRTee Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lagrosse Posted January 18, 2004 Report Share Posted January 18, 2004 (edited) Just as an update for the morbidly curious: At first I thought to try upgrading from Mandy8.1 to 9.1. No go; not enough space. but lucky me as it turned out. I decided to use the experimental section of my hda and made a clean install of 9.1Even selected XFree 3.3.6. S3 Got a server failure, no starty Installed 3.3.6 again. nope So I got this billiant idea to install XFree from the 8.1 disks; even had to replace the lib. files. Same story. My conclusion? Considering how easy 9.1 has gone into two other machines I have here, I'll just wait and get the other box I have coming in to install it on. Might have something to do with the proprietary bios I have but I'm so ignorant I'll have to solve this mystery another day. I guess the "designed for windoze" sticker Does means something sometimes. later Edited January 18, 2004 by Lagrosse Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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