X wont work with Mandrake 10

darthdavid · Post by **darthdavid** » 2004-06-24 08:10pm

So i can't get x to load. I've got mandrake 10 installed nice and purty. The X server starts but all i get is a pointer. Nothing loads. It works with my two moniters and the mouse will track across both but it's useless because i can't get anything open if there's nothing to click on. I can ctrl-alt-f2 to the terminal but my bash skills are, well, limited. Lynx loads but it won't connect to the net. I probably need a driver for the network card built into my mobo but I haven't bothered to get one yet partially because I my knowledge on how to install one from bash is sketchy at best. StartKDE gives me an error about not being able to connect to the x-server and StartGnome gives me an error about not being able to launch it from shell. Luckily Lilo installed right and I can still get int 'doze. So I ask, where could I get a driver for the built in Ethernet port on my N-Force mobo? How can I get X to work? And for future reference, How do I install something (like the driver i undoubtably need) with BASH.

Pu-239 · Post by **Pu-239** » 2004-06-24 09:53pm

http://www.nvidia.com/object/linux_nforce_1.0-0274.html

Download this: Source RPM

then read:
http://download.nvidia.com/XFree86/nfor ... Notes.html

Start with "Source RPM Installation"

You also need a driver from nVidia if you want hardware accelerated graphics with an nVidia card.

For X, try "killall X", then run "kdm" first- if that doesn't work,"gdm", and finally try "DISPLAY=:0 StartKDE after you reboot and X is loaded and you get only the pointer.

And tip: "links" or "elinks" or "w3m" are far superior to "lynx"

darthdavid · Post by **darthdavid** » 2004-06-24 10:21pm

Pu-239 wrote:

And tip: "links" or "elinks" or "w3m" are far superior to "lynx"

Thanks for the tips I'll see If i can make this work now. Oh, and I know that there are better browsers i just remembered seeing it listed during the installation and tried starting it to see if i could get on the net with it.

darthdavid · Post by **darthdavid** » 2004-06-24 10:33pm

when I type killall x it says "x: no process killed". I think i may have managed to fubar the x server installation.

Crayz9000 · Post by **Crayz9000** » 2004-06-24 10:35pm

Nope. *nix is case-sensitive. X is capital, not lowercase.

Try "killall X" and see what happens.

If you want to see what's running, "ps -A" will tell you.

Pu-239 · Post by **Pu-239** » 2004-06-24 11:06pm

Actually, try killall X then try StartKDE or StartGnome, then kdm and gdm. I think StartKDE assumes no X server and attempts to start it's own, so DISPLAY=:0 won't work.

Crayz9000 · Post by **Crayz9000** » 2004-06-25 12:36am

startkde assumes that X is already running. Same with startgnome.

I would simply use startx, and see if X even starts. KDE or Gnome is really irrelevant at this point.

If startx works, and you get an xterm, then just type startkde or startgnome in it and you're off. Then you can use Mandrake Control Center to configure your display manager.

Praxis · Post by **Praxis** » 2004-06-25 01:11am

Well, on a somewhat (only somewhat) similar note...on either of my computers, openGL will not work. I can not use 3d screen savers, nor can I play the best game ever...TUX RACER!

It's not my hardware, Red Hat played Tux fine, but Mandrake won't.

One PC has a Geforce FX 5200, the other has a Geforce 2 MX 400 64 MB (best of the Geforce 2 line not counting Ti's if they existed for GeF 2).

Yes, I've installed Mesaglu, XFree86, and all related packages...

phongn · Post by **phongn** » 2004-06-25 01:23am

If you have a 2.6-based distribution, there are no accelerated nVidia drivers currently.

Pu-239 · Post by **Pu-239** » 2004-06-25 01:25am

phongn wrote:If you have a 2.6-based distribution, there are no accelerated nVidia drivers currently.

WTF? I'm running 2.6 with accelerated nVidia right now. You used to have to get a patch, but they fixed that.

phongn · Post by **phongn** » 2004-06-25 01:27am

Really? I thought that nVidia hadn't released their driver for 2.6 Linux yet because of some differences they had to work around.

Pu-239 · Post by **Pu-239** » 2004-06-25 01:33am

Crayz9000 wrote:startkde assumes that X is already running. Same with startgnome.

I would simply use startx, and see if X even starts. KDE or Gnome is really irrelevant at this point.

If startx works, and you get an xterm, then just type startkde or startgnome in it and you're off. Then you can use Mandrake Control Center to configure your display manager.

In that case try DISPLAY=:0 startkde. And his X is already running. Bad things might happen if you try to run stuff without a windowmanger, like Xterm appearing cut off .

Oh, and Praxis, I don't think nVidia supports Linux/PPC
[EDIT] Nevermind... you probably are running Linux on one of your peecees. Anyway, go to nvidia.com and download the relevant drivers[/EDIT]

Praxis · Post by **Praxis** » 2004-06-25 02:27am

I did that, but it told me I have to install it outside of X. I booted it without the GUI (just UNIX) and it still wouldn't install (forgot the error) and became very buggy (weird screen stuff, etc) until I rebooted.

Pu-239 · Post by **Pu-239** » 2004-06-25 03:01am

Praxis wrote:I did that, but it told me I have to install it outside of X. I booted it without the GUI (just UNIX) and it still wouldn't install (forgot the error) and became very buggy (weird screen stuff, etc) until I rebooted.

You don't reboot to get to a console from X. Type [ctrl]+[alt]+F1 or [ctrl]+[alt]+F2. To completely exit X as required by the installer, run init 3 or init 2 (distro specific). You also need to install the kernel headers and/or kernel sourcee packages from the mandrake installer or attempt to use kpackage to install them. You might also need to manually edit /etc/X11/XF86Config-4 - I'm not sure, since it's been awhile since I used an nVidia installer (using prepackaged drivers, again, a benefit of using Debian). .

Oh, and never reboot by hitting the power button. At worst, hit [ctrl]+[alt]+[backspace] in X to restart X, or if that doesn't help, or not in X and need to reboot, hit [ctrl]+[alt]+[delete] to reboot. Older linux filesystems were very flaky if rebooted improperly, while newer ones are more robust. However, even newer ones suffer individual file corruption if rebooted improperly, at least until we get Reiser4.

darthdavid · Post by **darthdavid** » 2004-06-25 03:59pm

Acck. If it type startx it says there's already an x server running and that if there's not than I need to remove an X lock on display 0. I don't know what it's talking about with removing an X lock or whatever. If i type display=:0 startkde or just startkde it says it can't find any x server. What do I do now?

Pu-239 · Post by **Pu-239** » 2004-06-25 04:39pm

CASE SENSITIVE. It has to be capital 'DISPLAY=:0 startkde'. Did you even read Crayz9000's post?

.

Anyway, if startkde doesn't work, try killing the X server with 'killall X' and/or 'killall XFree86', then run startx. And this time, type it in VERBATIM.

Sorry for the flamage.

darthdavid · Post by **darthdavid** » 2004-06-25 04:54pm

Pu-239 wrote:CASE SENSITIVE. It has to be capital 'DISPLAY=:0 startkde'. Did you even read Crayz9000's post? .

Anyway, if startkde doesn't work, try killing the X server with 'killall X' and/or 'killall XFree86', then run startx. And this time, type it in VERBATIM.

Sorry for the flamage.

Doh.