Re: 1 CD Woody install, GDM and XFree configuration problem
On Tue, 25 Jun 2002, Branden Robinson wrote:
> On Tue, Jun 25, 2002 at 07:02:40PM -0400, Dale Scheetz wrote:
> > First problem was no servers for X on the CD. This makes the single CD
> > install for machines not-net-connected must wait for an X server 'til
> > later...
>
> Who creates woody CDs without the xserver-xfree86 on them?
Well, mine were gifted to me by LAN Comp Systems. They were produced as a
pre-beta release, using the then current image for CD 1. As I said, some
of this has been fixed in later releases...
>
> > So, I toasted a CD with the xserver-common and xserver-xfree86 packages,
> > took it next door, and we installed them.
> >
> > Next we ran dpkg-reconfigure xserver-xfree86 until we got mode lines and
> > mouse protocols that would work with the provided hardware (/dev/psaux and
> > MouseManPS/2). The mode lines took several tries, but we finally got
> > something to work, saved the config-4 file and played around with GNOME a
> > bit.
>
> Mode lines? The debconf configure script for xserver-xfree86 doesn't
> even let you specify mode lines. The most it will ask you are your
> monitor's horizontal sync and vertical refresh tolerances.
Yes, choosing h-sync or v-ref is one of the ways to configure the mode
lines, but it is those generated mode lines that fail to satisfy the
server, and show up in the error log.
>
> Also, have you considered apt-get installing discover, mdetect, and
> read-edid so that you can take advantange of the debconf script's
> hardware autodetection features?
>
Are these available on CD 1?
The machine in question is completely stand alone, with no outside
connection. This is exactly the kind of machine that can most benefit from
a good single CD installation...
> > Upon rebooting the machine, GDM failed to successfully start the server,
> > complaining that it could not open /dev/psaux!
>
> Is this a devfs-based kernel? Is the devfs daemon running?
Not sure. (I don't have access to the machine without "visiting" my
neighbor)
What I do know is that the install was done with the default kernel, which
I believe to be the ide kernel, which is *not* 2.4 based.
Short answer ... I'm pretty sure it isn't.
>
> > Nothing changed that I could see, but it appears that GDM re-wrote
> > some of the entries in the config file, most notably the vertical and
> > horizontal refresh rates.
>
> I seriously doubt gdm rewrote your X server configuration file.
I'll take your word for that. What I *do* know is that on at least one
occasion the vertical refresh value changed from the configured values
after a failed attempt to start the server.
>
> Maybe you have more than one lying around after all your manual efforts?
No manual efforts were involved, beyond saving off numbered coppies of the
config files as I created them using dpkg-reconfigure
>
> See XF86Config-4(5).
>
> > At this point, no amount of dpkg-reconfigure got us a working system, and
> > we gave up and went back to working on other problems...
>
> And a bug report like this is pretty worthless without the config file
> you're using, or the X server's log file. Please supply both.
I'll see what I can put together next time I have access to the machine...
The main point of my report may not be reproducable. I saw a machine with
a working config, where starting and stopping the server worked correctly
and gave a useful desktop to play with, become totally broken on reboot
such that the same config file fails to start the server, giving the
message "can't open /dev/psaux", which is clearly bogus
>
> 1) /etc/X11/XF86Config-4
> 2) /var/log/XFree86.0.log
I'll try to put this together this weekend...
Thanks,
Dwarf
--
_-_-_-_-_- Author of "Dwarf's Guide to Debian GNU/Linux" _-_-_-_-_-_-
_- _-
_- aka Dale Scheetz Phone: 1 (850) 656-9769 _-
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_-_-_-_-_- Released under the GNU Free Documentation License _-_-_-_-
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