startx is a no-go

[timothykaine]

Just installed Debian Woody (minimal install) on my iMac, and I used apt to get xfce. Im using KDM and XFree86.

When I startx, it starts, then the screen dies. I can ctrl-alt-bkspc out of it. I took it all the way down to 640-480 in my Xfree file.

The only error I can see when I ctrl-alt-bkspc is "Could not init font path element unix/:7100, removing from list!".

Then its just xinit: connection to X server lost

from my cancel of X.

[Hayl]

look through the log file... you are looking for lines with (EE) in them.

/var/log/XFree86.0.log

[timothykaine]

There are no lines with (EE).

It looks like the font thing may be the problem. The only errors are:

"PXExtensionInit: Could't open default PEX font file Roman_M"

Then it configures keyboard and mouse then gives back:

"Could not init font path element unix/:7100, removing from list!"

[JohnT]

X can get its fonts from a font server, such as xfs, or by finding them directly. The 'unix/:7100' entry is telling it to use a font server listening on port 7100, and apparently it's not running or is running on a different port. As a result of this, the X server can't find the necessary font.

There are two solutions to this:

1. Add a line in your X config file in the "Files" Section that directly specifies where the font can be found, like this:

code:FontPath "/usr/share/fonts/misc"

(Changing it as appropriate)

2. Fix the font server. The default now is to listen on unix sockets, not TCP ports, so maybe changing the entry in the config file to be like this would help:

code:FontPath "unix/:-1"


(Re)starting the font server may also be necessary.

[timothykaine]

I tried your suggestion on changing the server, same error.

Also tried commenting out the server and using the specific directories and now it doesnt give a font error. The only error is the one above that never changes:

"PEXEExtensionInit:Couldn't open default PEX font file Roman_M"

Then quits after XINPUT: adding extended input device "Configured Mouse" (type: MOUSE)

[sharth]

apt-get install xfonts-base will usually fix a different error (not this one, and the exact error message escapes me at the moment), but it might help.

Your other best bet would be to run dpkg-reconfigure xserver-xfree86 which should try to reset your X config, and make it all pretty and working.

If this doesn't work (or you don't want to try it), post as an attachment your /etc/X11/XF86Config-4 and the log referenced earlier.

[Hayl]

post the log file here or better, on paste.phpfi.com and give us the resulting URL.