Bug#342817: No joy in X land
On Mon, Dec 05, 2005 at 10:43:20PM -0800, Ross Boylan wrote:
> Having managed to get my hard disk detected, I'm on to the next
> problem. When I do a regular boot, my system appears dead:
> The screen is black.
> There is no response to any keyboard or mouse activity, including
> ctl-alt-del, ctl-alt-backspace, ctl-alt-+ or - (minus key).
>
> The odd thing is that the log, included the xorg log, didn't show
> anything that looked like a problem. I can ssh into the system, and
> top shows xorg taking up 99% of the CPU. I believe some earlier logs
> showed some signs of it attempting to start repeatedly, though I could
> not confirm that recently.
>
> The immediate question is the appropriate forum for working this out.
> Here? Xorg? Some other debian list (-user?, X?)?
>
Here's an update.
I've gotten the video card to work by using the Debianized version of
the proprietary driver with the 2.6.12-i686-smp kernel and headers
(name is approximate, but it's the right flavor).
It also works with vga driver, confirming the problem is with the
open-source nv driver. Someone on the xorg list said there was a
known bug and suggested I try the latest 6.9 RC3. I built the latest
Debianized version I could find, which was RC2, and it still has the
problem.
P.S. When replying, note I copied a Debian bug I filed on this. You
may want to trim the distribution list.
Ross
>
>
> More details, if you're still with me :)
>
> I've been booting into single user mode as a work-around. Knoppix had
> no problem with X.
>
> I guessed randomly when asked for the mouse device (I picked the one
> with mouse or mice in it), and suspected problems there. I tried
> changing it later to /dev/psaux without any benefit. I also tried
> removing it from the layout, but it may have been used anyway: the log
> says "The core pointer device wasn't specified explicitly in the
> layout. Using the first core pointer device."
>
> I also added some higher resolution modes to the default list provided
> by the installer.
>
> Most of the X FAQs give guidance in diagnosing error messages. I
> don't seem to have them.
>
> I tried aptitude remove gdm; this took out a huge set of packages, but
> didn't quite manage to remove gdm itself. Standard boot still ends
> with blank screen and no response to keyboard. A second try removed
> gdm. When I did telinit 2 I got "welcome to the debian base
> installer," which walked me through the 2nd part of the installation
> again.
>
> I have an nvidia 6600 chip ("NVIDIA Corporation NV43 [GeForce 6600?]"
> says the Xorg.log). A later entry says "PCI: ... nVidia .. unknown
> chipset (0x0142) rev 162" but this is neither a warning nor an error.
> I'm using the stock, non-proprietary, nv driver. This is
> PCI-Express, not AGP.
>
>
>
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