RE: Runaway X

1998-08-21 Thread Hersh, Harry
Thanks, everyone for all the help. Here's what I found that might be helpful
to others starting out:
1. From a virtual console, pressing Alt-Fn on the keyboard switches
control to virtual console n. However when X is running, the command is
ctrl-Alt-Fn. (I don't remember reading this in the documentation.)

2. As Rafael pointed out, if you install one X server (an incorrect
one, perhaps?), then install a second X server, /etc/X11/Xserver will still
point to the old server. (Again, an undocumented feature.) Editing the first
line of the script to point to the correct server solves the problem.

Now that I have X up and running (almost), there is one more nagging problem
I hope someone can help with. Everything seems to run, but there is no
cursor bitmap, just a 1x1/4 white rectangle that moves in response to my
mouse movements. In addition, it appears that the backing store is not
working: moving a window to a new location on the display moves it
correctly, but the old location still maintains a snapshot image of the
window. (It's as if the backgound is not responding to the repaint event.)
And in a seemingly related matter menues drop down correctly only the first
time selected. After that the menu's bounding rectangle appears without the
content. I can tell the menu is there (but invisible) for I can hilight and
select menu items.

Can anyone take a guess at what's happening here? What's missing or
reconfigured wrong?

Thanks,

Harry Hersh

 -Original Message-
 From: Rafael Cordones Marcos [SMTP:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
 Sent: Thursday, August 20, 1998 6:10 PM
 To:   Debian Users
 Subject:  Re: Runaway X
 
 On Wed, Aug 19, 1998 at 10:40:18AM -0500, Ed Cogburn wrote:
   
   Once I can stop the looping, I can start figuring out why the server
   only comes up in 340x200 mode and why /dev/psaux doesn't work as a
   Microsoft mouse port.
   
   Thanks,
   
   Harry Hersh
 
 
 I don't know if this might be your problem but when I installed Deb2.0
 I couldn't start the Xserver (SVGA). And finally spotted the problem
 in the file /etc/X11/Xserver which had not been updated by the
 configuration script and still had the VGA16 server on the first line.
 See also /usr/doc/X11/README.Debian
 
 Rafa
 
 
 --  
 Unsubscribe?  mail -s unsubscribe [EMAIL PROTECTED] 
 /dev/null


Re: Runaway X

1998-08-21 Thread Peter Iannarelli
Hello:

You say your running X, what is your window manager?
Select 1, fvwm, fvwm95, KDE, also install kdm or xdm.

Peter


-Original Message-
From: Hersh, Harry [EMAIL PROTECTED]
To: 'Rafael Cordones Marcos' [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Cc: Debian Users debian-user@lists.debian.org
Date: Friday, August 21, 1998 7:21 AM
Subject: RE: Runaway X


Thanks, everyone for all the help. Here's what I found that might be
helpful
to others starting out:
 1. From a virtual console, pressing Alt-Fn on the keyboard switches
control to virtual console n. However when X is running, the command is
ctrl-Alt-Fn. (I don't remember reading this in the documentation.)

 2. As Rafael pointed out, if you install one X server (an incorrect
one, perhaps?), then install a second X server, /etc/X11/Xserver will still
point to the old server. (Again, an undocumented feature.) Editing the
first
line of the script to point to the correct server solves the problem.

Now that I have X up and running (almost), there is one more nagging
problem
I hope someone can help with. Everything seems to run, but there is no
cursor bitmap, just a 1x1/4 white rectangle that moves in response to my
mouse movements. In addition, it appears that the backing store is not
working: moving a window to a new location on the display moves it
correctly, but the old location still maintains a snapshot image of the
window. (It's as if the backgound is not responding to the repaint event.)
And in a seemingly related matter menues drop down correctly only the first
time selected. After that the menu's bounding rectangle appears without the
content. I can tell the menu is there (but invisible) for I can hilight and
select menu items.

Can anyone take a guess at what's happening here? What's missing or
reconfigured wrong?

Thanks,

Harry Hersh

 -Original Message-
 From: Rafael Cordones Marcos [SMTP:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
 Sent: Thursday, August 20, 1998 6:10 PM
 To: Debian Users
 Subject: Re: Runaway X

 On Wed, Aug 19, 1998 at 10:40:18AM -0500, Ed Cogburn wrote:
  
   Once I can stop the looping, I can start figuring out why the server
   only comes up in 340x200 mode and why /dev/psaux doesn't work as a
   Microsoft mouse port.
  
   Thanks,
  
   Harry Hersh
 

 I don't know if this might be your problem but when I installed Deb2.0
 I couldn't start the Xserver (SVGA). And finally spotted the problem
 in the file /etc/X11/Xserver which had not been updated by the
 configuration script and still had the VGA16 server on the first line.
 See also /usr/doc/X11/README.Debian

 Rafa


 --
 Unsubscribe?  mail -s unsubscribe [EMAIL PROTECTED] 
 /dev/null


--
Unsubscribe?  mail -s unsubscribe [EMAIL PROTECTED] 
/dev/null




Re: Runaway X

1998-08-20 Thread Rafael Cordones Marcos
On Wed, Aug 19, 1998 at 10:40:18AM -0500, Ed Cogburn wrote:
  
  Once I can stop the looping, I can start figuring out why the server
  only comes up in 340x200 mode and why /dev/psaux doesn't work as a
  Microsoft mouse port.
  
  Thanks,
  
  Harry Hersh


I don't know if this might be your problem but when I installed Deb2.0
I couldn't start the Xserver (SVGA). And finally spotted the problem
in the file /etc/X11/Xserver which had not been updated by the
configuration script and still had the VGA16 server on the first line.
See also /usr/doc/X11/README.Debian

Rafa


Re: Runaway X

1998-08-19 Thread M.C. Vernon

 Debian 2.0 installed on my machine amazingly easy, including ppp
 connectivity. However, now that I'm trying to get X up, things have
 bogged down.  In trying to debug XF86Config, my system is caught in an
 endless loop it cannot get out of. The problem is that xdm somehow is in
 the boot sequence and now I can't shut it off. Ctrl/Alt/BS kills the
 server, but it immediately comes back up. I've tried rebooting with the
 boot floppy and the rescue floppy, but as soon as the file system is
 mounted and fsck'ed, the disfunctional X comes right back. 
 
 How can I get out of this endless loop so I can fix XF86Config? This is
 a stand-alone machine, so it cannot be remotedly accessed. 

The mistake you have made is to tell xdm to start automatically before
getting X configured correctly.
 
Try starting it up in single user mode...

and using the boot floppy shouldn't let xdm start - it's running its own
programm...

Matthew 

-- 
Elen sila lumenn' omentielvo

Steward of the Cambridge Tolkien Society
Selwyn College Computer Support
http://www.geocities.com/Area51/Chamber/8841/
http://www.cam.ac.uk/CambUniv/Societies/tolkien/
http://pick.sel.cam.ac.uk/


Re: Runaway X

1998-08-19 Thread Ed Cogburn
Hersh, Harry wrote:
 
 Debian 2.0 installed on my machine amazingly easy, including ppp
 connectivity. However, now that I'm trying to get X up, things have
 bogged down.  In trying to debug XF86Config, my system is caught in an
 endless loop it cannot get out of. The problem is that xdm somehow is in
 the boot sequence and now I can't shut it off. Ctrl/Alt/BS kills the
 server, but it immediately comes back up. I've tried rebooting with the
 boot floppy and the rescue floppy, but as soon as the file system is
 mounted and fsck'ed, the disfunctional X comes right back.
 
 How can I get out of this endless loop so I can fix XF86Config? This is
 a stand-alone machine, so it cannot be remotedly accessed.
 
 Once I can stop the looping, I can start figuring out why the server
 only comes up in 340x200 mode and why /dev/psaux doesn't work as a
 Microsoft mouse port.
 
 Thanks,
 
 Harry Hersh


Look in /etc/X11/config, and change the line 'start-xdm' to
'no-start-xdm'.  This will stop xdm from automatically starting.


-- 
Ed C.


Re: Runaway X

1998-08-19 Thread Brian Sheehan
Debian 2.0 installed on my machine amazingly easy, including ppp
connectivity. However, now that I'm trying to get X up, things have
bogged down.  In trying to debug XF86Config, my system is caught in an
endless loop it cannot get out of. The problem is that xdm somehow is in
the boot sequence and now I can't shut it off. Ctrl/Alt/BS kills the
server, but it immediately comes back up. I've tried rebooting with the
boot floppy and the rescue floppy, but as soon as the file system is
mounted and fsck'ed, the disfunctional X comes right back. 

I had exactly the same problem.

How can I get out of this endless loop so I can fix XF86Config? This is
a stand-alone machine, so it cannot be remotedly accessed. 

what I did was boot the machine with the CD I used for the installation.
Once this boots up, you're are able to switch to the second virtual
console with alt-F2. Once you do this you are root. Then I mounted my
root partition, and I was able edit the /etc/rc?.d directories and take
out XDM from the bootup. Probably not the right way to do things but I
don't really need XDM anyway. After that, I umounted the root partition,
took out the installation CD and booted with my normal boot floppy.

Once I can stop the looping, I can start figuring out why the server
only comes up in 340x200 mode and why /dev/psaux doesn't work as a
Microsoft mouse port.

I'm suffering the same problem here aswell - so if you have any luck be
sure and mail me.

Brian Sheehan
Thanks,

Harry Hersh


Re: Runaway X

1998-08-19 Thread Michele Bini


On Wed, 19 Aug 1998, Hersh, Harry wrote:

 Debian 2.0 installed on my machine amazingly easy, including ppp
 connectivity. However, now that I'm trying to get X up, things have
 bogged down.  In trying to debug XF86Config, my system is caught in an
 endless loop it cannot get out of. The problem is that xdm somehow is in
 the boot sequence and now I can't shut it off. Ctrl/Alt/BS kills the
 server, but it immediately comes back up. I've tried rebooting with the
 boot floppy and the rescue floppy, but as soon as the file system is
 mounted and fsck'ed, the disfunctional X comes right back. 
If you use lilo you can, at the lilo prompt (keep the caps lock on during
the boot to see it), type linux single, so that starts in single-user
mode (and do not start X).

Ciao
Michele