Re: cant get x server running.
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Hi Ashish,
first of all - congratulations - you have chosen the right distribution ;-)
I am not an expert on X myself, but maybe I can help you to get answers.
It's much easier for you to get answers if you provide the information that
you consider relevant to the problem, but I understand that this is the catch
at the moment ;-) I've been there too, and actually I am still there with
most things I do ;-)
a) You should state what version of Debian you are using (woody? testing?
unstable? What kernel? You compiled your own?).
e.g.
mkamp@blue:~$ cat /proc/version
Linux version 2.4.22 (root@blue) (gcc version 3.3.2 (Debian)) #1 Mo Nov 3
20:40:23 CET 2003
If you stick with the stock kernels, e.g. 2.4.18 bf-24, it is easier to help
you, as the modules are well known.
b) What modules are you using?
e.g.
mkamp@blue:~$ /sbin/lsmod
Module Size Used by Tainted: P
agpgart 18608 3 (autoclean)
[...]
For example, if you have
usbmouse 2296 0 (unused)
You could use your touchpad and a connected usb mouse etc. etc.
c) Always a good place to start is:
http://www.linux-on-laptops.com/toshiba.html
In particular these two site claim to have installed exactly the kind of
notebook you got:
http://mysite.verizon.net/res183uh/toshiba.html
http://ai-ling.diaryland.com/030718_43.html
It couldn't hurt to have a look at similar models too, but I believe X is
already mentioned there. If it is not for debian that is fine, the
configurations of X is pretty much independent of the distribution.
d) It makes sense to explain what video card you are using:
e.g.
mkamp@blue:~$ lspci -vv | more
00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corp. 82845 845 (Brookdale) Chipset Host Bridge
[..]
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: nVidia Corporation: Unknown device 031a
(rev a1) (prog-if 00 [VGA])
Subsystem: Toshiba America Info Systems: Unknown device 0001
Control: I/O+ Mem+ BusMaster+ SpecCycle- MemWINV- VGASnoop- ParErr-
Stepping- SERR- FastB2B-
Status: Cap+ 66Mhz+ UDF- FastB2B+ ParErr- DEVSEL=medium >TAbort-
<TAbort- <MAbort- >SERR- <PERR-
Latency: 248 (1250ns min, 250ns max)
Interrupt: pin A routed to IRQ 5
Region 0: Memory at fd000000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=16M]
Region 1: Memory at d0000000 (32-bit, prefetchable) [size=256M]
Expansion ROM at <unassigned> [disabled] [size=128K]
Capabilities: <available only to root>
[..]
If you don't have lscpi on your system you can fall back to "cat /proc/pci".
Btw. you see in my case the output isn't all that helpful, but at least it is
clear what vendor (and in this case) which module to load/aquire.
e) Your XF86Config-4 file is also of interest as is the generated output
which is automatically written to disk. The output on the console tells you
to where.
Regarding one of your questions: You can switch to the console with CTRL+ALT
+F1-F6. I once happended to have my system messed up so much, that it came
up with X looping and I wasn't even able to switch to the console as it was
looping on the console when starting X. In that case more drastic meassures
are needed. On the boot prompt you can enter "linux 1". Replace "linux" with
the kernel you want to boot. Then the system will come up in runlevel 1.
If you don't see the boot prompt (lilo) you need to tweak lilo.conf or need to
hold down SHIFT during the bootprocess. You will get the bootprompt then.
Once you are at the console and tweaked the XF86Config-4 file, you can kill
the old server and restart X by issuing: startx OR you can restart the
Display Manager by issuing: /etc/init.d/kdm restart. The latter is true in
case of KDM (comes with KDE).
mkamp@blue:~$ cat /etc/X11/default-display-manager
/usr/bin/kdm
If you see xdm or gdm, act accordingly.
The particular problem is not neccessarily laptop related, so you could also
try your lack at debian-user with a much broader audience.
One last piece of advice. I am running unstable and I always make a copy of my
X-Config: cp /etc/X11/XF86Config-4 /etc/XF86Config-4.working. So that an
update to the config files cannot mess them up.
Hope that helps a bit.
Mariano
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