Re: X Window problem after woody --> sarge upgrade
On Monday 27 June 2005 22:22, Mark Fletcher wrote:
> Hi
>
> I recently (last week) upgraded from woody to sarge
> using aptitude. First off much to my surprise X
> windows appeared to survive the upgrade although my
> KDE was shot.
>
> Removing and re-installing GDM (which I use to launch
> X) solved that problem. However over the following
> days it gradually became apparent to me that a ton of
> packages had been "held back" by aptitude --
> including x-window-system and a ton of libraries.
>
> To try and solve this, this evening I did a U in
> aptitude interactively and then did an aptitude
> install to upgrade the held-back packages. This
> completed successfully.
>
> BUT -- now X is shot. If I try to start X either
> using GDM or startx, it starts up but then... my
> monitor goes into power saving mode!!! And nothing
> can get it to come out of it other than Ctrl-Alt-F1,
> login as root (without being able to see what I am
> doing) then shutdown -r now... Even Ctrl-Alt-BkSpc
> doesn't work...
>
> Now I'm going to try the lists' collective patience
> by not supply config files / logs etc. Unfortunately
> the only Linux mail program I have running at the
> moment runs under X...... So I am having to run this
> from Windows from where I can't see the Linux
> partitions (same machine...) I can tell you though
> that I didn't see anything in the XF86.log file in
> /var/log that looked odd, nor in ~/.xession-errors
> (no errors at all there, a couple of missing modules,
> specifically pex5 and xie, in the former).
>
> If I can figure out a way to get log files etc to
> this list I will do so. In the meantime let me know
> what would be useful. My XF86Config-4 hasn't changed
> with the upgrade.
>
> Does this problem sound familiar to anyone and can
> anyone suggest a solution.
>
> X was working perfectly before the upgrade. And after
> the upgrade but before I upgraded the held-back
> packages.
The problem turned out to be an innocent-looking line in
my XF86Config-4 file. I remember a while back I
upgraded some packages woody-->woody (noticed using
apt-get that my installation was behind what was said
to be stable on ftp.debian.org) and at that time I
briefly broke my X Windows because I stupidly didn't
back up /etc/X11 so couldn't retrieve my old config.
While scrabbling around trying to get it work again
(this was back then) I uncommented the line in my
XF86Config graphics card "Device" section that said
"Option FlatPanel True". At the time, it didn't do
squat.
However after upgrading the X packages to sarge, it
seems it now does... ;-) Commenting it out again fixed
the problem.
Anyone got any wisdom on what that option does? (Apart
from stop me from being able to see anything!!!). I do
indeed have a flat screen monitor... My card is a
nVidia GeForce3. Just curious now, no longer urgent...
Cheers
Mark
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