Mandrake installation problem

[tedh]

I have logged in as root and the cursor is after
[root@localhost root]#

???

[shebang]

Yeah, then do what chessforce asked you to do...

[horus]

[quote author=tedh link=board=1;threadid=10075;start=0#msg91594 date=1104512045]
Many thanks for all that.
1- I installed from cd's.
[/quote]

Good. This tells me your system is fairly modern, and that, if you had all the CDs for the install (three of them?) you should have gotten all the pieces needed to get X going. Did you skip any of the requested CDs during the install?

[quote author=tedh link=board=1;threadid=10075;start=0#msg91594 date=1104512045]
2-I tried failsafe but it made no difference.
[/quote]

Hmm... This means that the default 640 X 480 X 16 color mode won't work either? Or that X is not properly initializing in /etc/inittab (more on that in a bit...)

[quote author=tedh link=board=1;threadid=10075;start=0#msg91594 date=1104512045]
3 I have reconfigured using xf86config but still get the same message. I am fairly sure it's configured the same as shebang's now. I wonder if horus is right and it's not a video problem?
[/quote]

Your video card is an S3 based critter, am I right? Try looking at the card and see if you can identify the support chipset number. (It'll look like, for example, 82C375) It's important to identify the support chipset correctly in xf86config for most S3 based cards to do more than basic stuff. Also, try configuring the basic SVGA server and see if that will get you going, then use XFDrake to noodle out the finer points.

[quote author=tedh link=board=1;threadid=10075;start=0#msg91594 date=1104512045]
4 Yes that's where I get to. I don't know how to look in file you mention.
I am going travelling for a week or so now so will pick this up when I come back, thanks for the help so far.
[/quote]

Chessforce and Shebang both give excellent advice thus far, too. I'd definitely check out the grep thing that chessforce suggests. (Darn, wish I'd thought of that one. I'll really have to start using grep more myself, I guess.) But I digress...

You "look in" a file by either opening it in a text editor like vi or joe, or by typing in the command

less /etc/inittab

for example. This will allow you to page up and down through the file by using the page up/page down keys, spacebar, or arrows.

/etc/inittab is editable with a regular text editor like vi or joe. Be careful, though. You CAN render your system unusable in any but single mode with a mistake in this file.

A bit more about /etc/X11/XF86Config...

If you have to, you can edit this file by hand, but it's tricky business. I'd suggest sticking with the xf86config utility for now until you get X going in one mode or another, then use the graphical tools. If you get X going but it hangs, try restarting the X Server with ctrl-alt-backspace before you do anything more drastic (like a reboot, shutdown, or hard reset.)

If I had to guess from what I have in front of me so far, I'd guess that there was a problem during the install which caused you to bypass some steps in the X Server configuration. You might save yourself hair pulling in the long run just to reinstall, but that's no way to learn what happened (and I only suggest it in the case that your stress level exceeds your patience - a personal call, of course.)

I've been looking around some more on my own system... I'm beginning to suspect that Mandrake has "hidden" certain aspects of the X configuration from the end user in an effort to maintain some brand identity protection of some sort... this trend (Red Hat/Fedora does it, too...) bodes ill for for us all, as it obfuscates and departs from established open standards. I'll be digging into this some more while you're away. I'm off that damned soapbox now...

Enjoy your trip, stay safe, and we'll tackle this again when you get back.

Later On,
Dave

[horus]

:-\

Crap. Sorry to be posting to this topic again before anyone else has a chance, but I just noticed something that probably bears on this.

The real config file for X is /etc/X11/XF86Config-4. You should probably look here for the stuff we've been talking about.

Just curious, Shebang, but is xorg.conf peculiar to a different distro, or a different X server?

Later On,
Dave

[shebang]

[quote author=horus link=board=1;threadid=10075;start=0#msg91610 date=1104541428]
:-\

Crap. Sorry to be posting to this topic again before anyone else has a chance, but I just noticed something that probably bears on this.

The real config file for X is /etc/X11/XF86Config-4. You should probably look here for the stuff we've been talking about.

Just curious, Shebang, but is xorg.conf peculiar to a different distro, or a different X server?

Later On,
Dave
[/quote]

xorg.conf is for the Xorg xserver. X.org or freedesktop.org -> it's an open source solution cause of XFree86's non-opensource solutions... it's based on XFree86 4.4 RC2..

[horus]

[quote author=Shebang link=board=1;threadid=10075;start=0#msg91611 date=1104541700]

[snip: my previous in this thread...]

xorg.conf is for the Xorg xserver. X.org or freedesktop.org -> it's an open source solution cause of XFree86's non-opensource solutions... it's based on XFree86 4.4 RC2..
[/quote]

Yeah... I'd heard that XFree86 wasn't exactly free anymore.