markspace wrote:
Hi all, I have a new debian install on a machine with a Geforce 2 video card. After the install was complete, the Xserver refused to start, so I have no gui.I'm not sure where to start debugging this.
Look at the messages displayed on console. Look in the log file (/var/log/XFree86.0.log).Run startx manually, and pipe the error output to a file, and then look at the file ("startx 2 > startx.errorlog", "less startx.errorlog").
I picked nv as the driver during install, was this not NVidia?Yes, but it's the open-source driver which has been reverse-engineered because the nVidia folks won't release the specs on their cards to properly write drivers.
You can go to the nVidia site and download their proprietary driver, but putting proprietary software on my Debian box just makes me ill. I'd send a polite note to nVidia telling them that next time I purchase a video card it won't be from them, unless they start releasing the specs on their cards.
How would I go about changing it? (maybe to something safer like a vanilla svga driver)"dpkg-reconfigure xserver-xfree86". I'd try the "vesa" driver, or I'd change my resolution settings, or my monitor refresh rates (don't overdrive or you might let the magic smoke out of the monitor which is required for proper monitor operation), or my color depth settings. Any one or any combination of these things might result in a working setup.
Of course, all the above assumes the problem with X is video-related. It might be something else entirely. Another common problem is the mouse not being setup properly.Other ideas?
Where are the output logs of the Xserver stored, the one it showed me at install wasn't useful.
See above. -- Kent