Re: Why is setting up X so arcane?

["Paul D. Smith" <pausmith@nortelnetworks.com>]

%% Nikki Locke <nikki@trumphurst.com> writes:

  nl> I ran XF86Setup, and chose the SVGA driver. I left everything else
  nl> alone. It hung my machine solid (again).

Are you _sure_ your machine was hung?  That rarely happens.

More likely you just can't use your monitor.

Try using ALT-F1 or maybe CTRL-ALT-F1.  That should switch you to the
console you were using before you started X.  Alternatively, you could
use F2 instead of F1 to get to a different console and log in there.
You can then reboot your system properly if you like, although you
almost certainly don't need to reboot (this ain't Windows!  :)

Instead, use "ps" to find the X server process, then kill it:

  # ps -aef | grep /X
    ...make sure you get the right process: the PID is the second field...

  # kill 1234 # or whatever the PID was

If that doesn't work (ps shows the process is still running), you can
try "kill -9 1234".

Then try again with some of the other suggestions here.

As others have pointed out, the version of X in Debian 2.2 is not as
good at this as later versions are.

-- 
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 Paul D. Smith <psmith@baynetworks.com>    HASMAT--HA Software Methods & Tools
 "Please remain calm...I may be mad, but I am a professional." --Mad Scientist
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   These are my opinions---Nortel Networks takes no responsibility for them.