Re: Improperly Configured Screen ?

[Kent West <westk@acu.edu>]

SPELYA wrote:

I have just installed Debian, but my system does not boot properly under Linux.  The following error message box appears when booting:

Failed to start X server (your graphical interface).  It is likely not set up properly.  Would you like to view the X Server output to diagnose the problem?

Just before this message appears, the last line scrolled on the booting screen is :

Testing instable MonNomDePc tty1

Unfortunately the system does not react to any keyboard key.  I cannot view the log for diagnostic and I have to turn off the system completely. 

 

I am a new user of Debian/Linus. Is there some command I should type to solve this problem? If so, which one and how?

 

First thing is to stop X from attempting to start.

Reboot, and at the grub/lilo screen, choose the "Safe" option. If you're using lilo, you'll want to enter "linux single". After you get logged in as root, disable any display manager you have starting up; there are dozens of ways to do this; what I would do is to edit /etc/init.d/[xgkw]dm (each of these that exist) and put "exit 0" as the first executable line in the script. Then "exit" out of "safe" mode, and you should boot up normally to a text-based prompt.

Let us know if this works to this point, or if things go wrong before this point. Then we can go from there.

--
Kent