Re: Troublesome install of X
<quote who="Brian Swale">
> Hello,
>
> I have had Debian on my dual-boot machine for about 3 years but have not
> really been able to get it to do anything other than run MC.
in all my 6 years of runnin linux ive never used MC :) and never
used emacs. ...hmm
anyways ..
>
> Yesterday, having got Bill McCarty's book and read much of it, I ran
> Xconfig. Having installed that, I closed the system down properly.
what is Xconfig ? searching on packages.debian.org shows no
traces of anything with a path of 'bin/Xconfig'. maybe you mean
xf86config ? ..thats another tool i try to avoid ..for X 3.3.x I
try to use XF86Setup, if its X 4.x i use X -configure
> The machine promptly froze. None of the logout / kill commands worked,
> and after 10 minutes I just turned off the power.
i need some clarification here, did the machine lock up, e.g. mouse
stops moving, numlock/capslock lights no longer function? or did
you login, and nothing happened(the grey/black patterned screen with
a cursor)? if you can get to the point where you can login and you
actually can type your username and password it would be very odd if
it locked up after that ..another thing to try is to kill the server
via CTRL+ALT+BACKSPACE or switch to another terminal via
CTRL+ALT+[F1], that is if the machine is ont locked solid. and if
you have network access to the machine you can try to login through
the network to issue a graceful shutdown.
>
> Startup later worked OK, Debian fixed broken files as far as I can tell,
> but again, the system took me right into the X screen, and the previous
> events were repeated.
>
> It seems to me that the only way out of this is to do a re-format and re-
> install. And to be on the safe side, I should back up all of my valuable
> Windows work on the other half of the machine.
format & reinstall is only last resort. first I would boot the machine
to single user mode and stop X from loading on boot:
(assuming your using LILO, if your not the procedure may be different)
when you see the LILO prompt hot the SHIFT key, it should change
to a LILO: prompt, at the prompt type 'linux single' you will be
prompted for the root password before entering single user mode.
once there, cd to /etc/rc2.d and erase the file named S99xdm or
S99kdm or S99gdm (it usually has the letter S, the number 99
and the letters 'dm' in it). it is safe to erase as it is only
a link. the 'debian way' is to use the update-rc.d script but
it may not be available if your /usr is on another filesystem
and is not available, erasing it is faster & easier for this(IMO).
once thats done, issue an 'init 2' that will bring you up
to normal operation minus the X starting.
login, be sure you have a windowmanager installed, for testing
i would reccomend using afterstep, since it is small & simple,
unless your sure you have another windowmanager installed,
apt-get instal afterstep.
then run 'startx'. if the machine locks up, then theres something
strange and I would reccomend emailing the lits with FULL
details on your hardware and X configuration. if it loads
and you see afterstep come up, then X is probably OK. you
can exit afterstep by left clicking ont he desktop and going to
the quit menu, or hold CTRL+ALT and press BACKSPACE that will
terminate the X server. If X starts and works as noted above
I would reccomend starting and stopping it a few times to
test.
then if you don't like afterstep, install another windowmanager
or desktop enviornment if your more a desktop enviornment
person.
if you want X to load on boot then this may do the trick:
update-rc.d -f xdm remove
(where xdm is the name - minus the S99 of the file you deleted
earlier)
update-rc.d xdm defaults
that should auto-recreate the links for you ..
I don't think i've ever had to reinstall linux for any reason
other then serious filesystem damage due to hardware failure or
something.
good luck!
nate
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