Re: Question about X Window Crashing

[Aaron Maxwell <amax@redsymbol.com>]

Two thoughts:

1) When you got stuck during X configuration, and had to reboot, did you 
press the 'ctrl-alt-backspace'?  If so, did it respond? This key chord 
is is supposed to kill the X server.  

2) In the file /etc/X11/XF86Config-4, there should be a Screen section.
(Search for a line that says 'Section Screen' or 'Section "Screen"'.)  
I've included that section from my system below.  Is yours much 
different?  If it's not present in your XF86Config-4, copy mine in, see 
if that helps.

(BTW, I assume you are using X version 4.  You can discover your version 
by doing 'dpkg -l xserver-common' on the command line; the version 
column should say '4.<something>'.  If it is 3.<something>, work with 
/etc/X11/XF86Config, not /etc/X11/XF86Config-4.)

Section "Screen"
    Identifier  "Screen 1"
# Haoyu - you should change the Device argument to match your video card
# Read the "SCREEN SECTION" part of XF86Config-4 man page
    Device "Verto TNT2-M64"
    Monitor     "MyMonitor"
    DefaultDepth 16

    Subsection "Display"
        Depth       8
        Modes       "640x480" "800x600" "1024x768" "1280x1024"
        ViewPort    0 0
    EndSubsection
    Subsection "Display"
        Depth       16
        #Modes       "640x480" "800x600" "1024x768" "1280x1024"
        Modes       "1024x768"
        ViewPort    0 0
    EndSubsection
    Subsection "Display"
        Depth       24
        #Modes       "640x480" "800x600" "1024x768" "1280x1024"
        #Modes       "1280x1024" "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
        Modes       "1024x768"
        ViewPort    0 0
    EndSubsection
    Subsection "Display"
        Depth       32
        Modes       "640x480" "800x600" "1024x768" "1280x1024"
        ViewPort    0 0
    EndSubsection
EndSection


On Monday 14 June 2004 12:00 pm, Haoyu Zhang wrote:
> Dear Friends,
>
> I am a new user of Debian and just installed it in an old Dell
> machine, Dell Optiplex with PIII 500. The installation went
> through well, but I met problems of X Window setting.
>
> The X Window can start correctly. However, after letting it
> idle for a while, like one day, the system crashes and reports
> error saying:
>
> "I cannot find the X Server (your graphical interface). It is
> likely that it is not set up correctly. Would you like to view
> the X server output to diagnose the problem?"
>
> I chose "Yes" and it gives me some information. It seems that
> everything is set to be default or generic. And the fatal error
> is "No screens found."
>
> Then it asked me whether I want to run X configuration. I did
> and found that I can do nothing except for moving the small
> arrow with keyboard. I even can't find way to exit it. And I
> had to reset the computer to restart.
>
> I do feel strange. The X Server starts well, but why does it
> crash after long time idling? I was wondering whether it is
> the data switch that caused this. I connected two computers
> with a switch. The other one is M$ Win2000. But this can't
> explain why it won't crash after a short term idling.
>
> Thanks a lot in advance for your help.
>
> Best Wishes,
> Haoyu

-- 
Best,
Aaron Maxwell - http://redsymbol.com
Internet Joint Ventures - http://amusene.com