system down

[gildedpage]

I'm a newbie with Mandrake 7.0 installed. I just installed Star Office from a 7.2 cd. After I installed it, when I restart the computer, it gets to the login prompt and then the video goes haywire, flashing on and off and waving all over the screen. I have it set to start X automatically so I dont have the command line. The only thing that was not right about the install was that it said that it could not find any java environment for using PGP. I told it not to install PGP (whatever that is) and continued on.
What happened? Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks,
SW

[Bradmont]

Hmm... that's an interesting one... I think Mandrake automatically sets up hi-res consoles... be it with svga text mode or lilo arguments, I don't know which...

Look in the file /etc/lilo.conf.
There should be a line that says something like
vga=9
or
vga=normal
or some variant on that. There may be more than one line with similar entries; in this case, all but one will begin with a #, meaning its a comment. Ignore those.

If you find a line like this that says something like vga=9, try changing it to vga=ask; then on boot, you can get a list of different modes. Try selecting the one which has the console character resolution at 80x25.

If Mandrake is running svga text mode instead, you'll have to remove it. I'm not entirely sure how you would do that under Mandrake, maybe somebody else could elaborate.

[gildedpage]

Is there a way to get into the system without the command line?
SW

[Jeepsta]

I am not exactly sure what you are trying to do but if you cant get to a command prompt from normal boot just type "linux single" at the lilo prompt. That will put you in single user mode and allow you to find and fix the problem. Hope that helps a little.

[X_console]

You don't have to type "linux single" That takes you to single user. But since this appears to just be a video problem and you should be able to login with "linux 3" and still have everything (networking etc) running.

By the way, PGP stands for Pretty Good Privacy, a piece of software which is used for encrypting and signing files.

[gildedpage]

Ok, I got to a command line by typing linux 3 at the lilo prompt. I went into Xconfigurator to try to reset the resolution. Every resolution I tried didn't work giving error message something to the effect 'could not open default font fixed, try changing some parameters'. When I try to start X now get error messages something like:

(--)Mach 64: Virtual resolution: 640x480
(--)Mach 64: Video Ram: 409k
(--)Mach 64: Using hardware cursor
(--)Mach 64: Using 16MB aperature @ 0x40000000
(--)Mach 64: Using 4kb register aperature @ 41000000
(--)Mach 64:Ramdac is internal
(--)Mach 64: Ramdac speed: 230 Mhz
(--)Mach 64:Color weight: 565
(--)Mach 64: Pixmap cache: 0 256x256 slots 0 128x128 slots, o 64x64 slots
font cache 0 fonts
The x keyboard keymap compiler (xkbcomp) reports:
error bad length in geometry
output file "/var/temp/server_0.xkm" removed
errors from xkb are not fatal to x server
Couldn't load xkb keymap, falling back to pre xkb keymap
_FrontTransSocket unixconnect: can't connect:
failed to set default font path 'unix/:-1'
Fatal server error: could not open default font 'fixed'
X connection to :0.0 broken (explicit kill or server shutdown)

Maybe someone can make sense of this.
Thanks!
SW

[bdg1983]

failed to set default font path 'unix/:-1'
Fatal server error: could not open default font 'fixed'


This seems to be a popular error and question here. Seen quite a few posts here about it.

The quick solution, although probably not the correct way of fixing the problem is to comment out the offending 'FontPath' line in /etc/XF86Config.

[gildedpage]

Thanks for the info. When I try to cd into /etc/XF86Config I get a 'no such file or directory' message, though. Could my file be somewhere else?

SW

[kernel.panic]

Originally posted by gildedpage:
Thanks for the info. When I try to cd into /etc/XF86Config I get a 'no such file or directory' message, though. Could my file be somewhere else?

SW

You are getting that error because /etc/XF86Config is not a directory, it is a configuration file. Open it in vi and use "/FontPath" to find that string, then you can comment that line out with a # sign.

Good luck.

[ 07 April 2001: Message edited by: kernel.panic ]

[gildedpage]

Also when I run 'find xf86Config' I get 'no such file or directory'. Am I doing someting wrong? Missing the point? Time to reinstall? Run screaming back to Windows?

sw

[romey1]

do this as root:

cd /etc/X11
pico XF86Config
if you have xf86 4.0.1 or better, you'd pico XF86Config-4

scroll down to where you see the unix/:-1 and add a comment: # in front of it. that will bypass that part of the config when you start x. i'm not sure why the unix/:-1 is jacked up, or how to fix it, just how to bypass it.

[edit]
oops, i got kernel numbers mixed with X numbers :)

[ 08 April 2001: Message edited by: romey1 ]

[kernel.panic]

Originally posted by gildedpage:
Also when I run 'find xf86Config' I get 'no such file or directory'. Am I doing someting wrong? Missing the point? Time to reinstall? Run screaming back to Windows?

sw

Don't even talk like that. ;P

No, you are only having troubles because of the case. Remember, linux is CaSe-SeNsEtIvE.
copy paste this:
vi /etc/X11/XF86Config

That will open the configuration file. Then continue with what was discussed earlier in the string.

(Yeah, I had the path wrong, it's fixed now. Thanks, Jeepsta)

[ 07 April 2001: Message edited by: kernel.panic ]

[Jeepsta]

Correct me if I am wrong (I probably am), but isnt the XF86Config file located in /etc/X11? At least it is on my Mandrake 7.2 box. Maybe 7.0 is different.

You can also just do a "locate XF86Config"

Like kernel.panic said...Linux is case sensitive.

[romey1]

oh crap, you're right. oops.

[gildedpage]

Alright, I'm beginning to feel a little Homer Simpsonish. I have been able to open XF86Config both in pico and in vi. But in vi, I wasn't able to get anywhere. It would not let me put a comment in front of 'FontPath unix/:-1'. When I tried, a prompt appeared at the bottom of the screen:
?\<FontPath\>. Not quite sure what to do with that. Couldn't even figure out how to properly exit the program.
In pico I was able to comment out the offending line but was not able to figure out how to save the changes. DOH!
Thanks for your indulgence.
SW

[Linuxcool]

After you edit the file in pico, press ' CTRL-o ' and you'll get a screen that near the bottom will have your file name listed. Just press ' <ENTER> ' and it will write out your new changes. Then ' CTRL-x ' and you're finished.

[ 07 April 2001: Message edited by: Linuxcool ]

[gildedpage]

Thanks. Now I have commented out the line like so:
# FontPath unix/:-1

But I still get basically the same error message when I try to start X. The following path is different:
'failed to set default font path '/usr/X11 R6/libX11/fonts/misc/:unscaled, unix/:-1'
And so it goes....

[kernel.panic]

Well, try what Romey1 suggested about commenting out a different line. The one that said unix :(something).

Scroll up to his post for the details.

[bdg1983]

Seems like StarOffice has messed up your Fonts. You may end up commenting out all the FontPath lines, which wouldn't do much good.

For that, I don't have a solution. You could try www.sun.com (http://www.sun.com) and search to see if they have any other similar reported problems after installing SO.

As I said in my previous response, the suggestion was only meant to be a temporary fix and there is probably a correct way of fixing this.

[gildedpage]

I'll check out that site.
Question: Think it would do any good to uninstall staroffice?
SW

[romey1]

which version of Xfree86 are you using? if it's 3.whatever, your config file is XF86Config

if it's 4.0.whatever the config file is XF86Config-4

make sure you edited the right one.

[gildedpage]

I checked, there is no file XF86Config-4
Anyone have an opinion on uninstalling? Would that make X run again?
SW

[ 08 April 2001: Message edited by: gildedpage ]

[bdg1983]

As I had posted previously, my suggestion was a temporary fix.

Saw this posted in another thread of the same problem.

Most likely forgot to run xfstt before starting your X session

[gildedpage]

I looked up xfstt and found xfs, a script that stops and starts the X11 font server. I thought, maybe wrongly, that I was supposed to type xfstt at the command line before trying to start X. This gave a 'no such command' response. I tried 'xfs {start}' (syntax I found in "Red Hat Linux Unleashed) and it gave some output I don't remember and hasn't seemd to make any difference. BTW, during startup it says that the X11 font server starts ok, but on shutdown it says that shutdown of the server fails. I thought maybe this meant that it wasn't really running to begin with.
Oh well, I guess its time to hunker down and search for that more comprehensive cure.
sw

[gildedpage]

Could someone please elaborate on what xfstt
is and how you run it? (I tried to get more info on it through the forum search...it was very s-l-o-w.
Thanks'
SW

[Sensei]

xfstt is the true type server i believe...

xfs is the font server and is probably started up by default.

you can check its status by:

/etc/rc.d/init.d/xfs status

also to check your startup services:
either linuxconfig, setuptool, along with others in side redhat that I have now forgotten....

[gildedpage]

Thanks.
Ran /etc/rc.d/init.d/xfs status and got this rather ominous response:
'xfs dead but subsys locked'
I guess this means the server crashed? What does 'subsys locked mean'?

From what I read, Red Hat and Mandrake do not have xfstt, they have xfs as a standalone version which has true type font support built in. I guess the fonts themselves are not installed though.
p.s. How do I check to see for sure what version of XFREE86 I am running?
SW

[bdg1983]

X -version

Guess it means 'subsystem is locked'. Most likely a configuration problem with xfs. Google search of the error may find something.

[jaygee432]

Maybe a little late for this discussion, but if X is set to start automatically and you want to go to console mode, do ctrl+alt+F1 (or other Fn). Ctrl+alt+F7 will take you back to X. ;) web page (http://www.geocities.com/jaygee432)

I have a four letter word for my car. It's ---FORD!

[gildedpage]

I read somewhere that this problem could be from having a full partition on your hd. I didn't think that was likely in my case cause I have a big hd (20gig)and a new install with hardly anything on it (all those dependency problems you know). But I typed df at the command line and to my suprise /dev/hdb5 shows it is at 100%. I'm not sure how that happens or what to do about it. Any suggestions?
Reading further it seems that / can become full from using your root account too much or starting X too often as root? Does this happen when you have X set to start automatically? (Run level 5 I guess)? What to do????
SW

[ 11 April 2001: Message edited by: gildedpage ]

[ 11 April 2001: Message edited by: gildedpage ]