[SOLVED] Blackscreen when starting X

Nemesis · 2013-09-11 06:51:12

Hey fellow Linux users,

after 10 months of using Manjaro I wanted to do a manual Arch install again (have been using Arch before - different hardware though).
But once i start X via startx the screen goes black and I am unable to kill X.

I am using the xf86-video-ati driver with a HD 7870 XT card.

I don't have a .xinitrc nor an xorg.conf file.
Here is my log: http://bpaste.net/show/131347/

I did add '10-radeon.conf' upon a suggestion i found in a random forum

Section "Device"
    Identifier "ATI Radeon HD 7870 XT"
    Driver "radeon"
EndSection

I hope you guys can help me, as the wiki did not.

Greetings from Germany
Nemesis

Last edited by Nemesis (2013-09-13 07:33:02)

jasonwryan · 2013-09-11 07:01:38

Not an Installation issue, moving to Multimedia.

Have a look at the ATI Bar & Grill thread for up-to-date information on that family of cards.

Welcome back.

vacant · 2013-09-11 07:07:14

There aren't any errors (EE) in that log file. X is running, what are you expecting to see? e.g. what window manager, programs have you installed and chosen to start?

r0b0t · 2013-09-11 07:08:34

A wild gues would be that your driver is not supported there, try with the proprietary driver instead.
The above is more likely however.

Last edited by r0b0t (2013-09-11 07:09:50)

Nemesis · 2013-09-11 07:10:07

I installed xorg-twm, xorg-xclock and xterm for testing. Shouldn't the launch when executing startx without wm?

r0b0t · 2013-09-11 07:17:15

Try starting X as root, other than that you could use a stable DE like XFCE or something else.

jasonwryan · 2013-09-11 07:25:20

r0b0t wrote:

Try starting X as root, other than that you could use a stable DE like XFCE or something else.

Why would you advise someone to run X as root? And installing a DE is not going to solve anything.

Nemesis · 2013-09-11 07:25:32

Thanks for all your replies. Starting X as root did not work either.
I just installed XFCE and it did also just give me a black screen.
The proprietary driver did not work back on Manjaro either, so i doubt it will now.

For some reason I guess I am missing something cruxial here.

r0b0t · 2013-09-11 08:09:59

jasonwryan wrote:

Why would you advise someone to run X as root? And installing a DE is not going to solve anything.

Because he asked about Xapplications and normally they autostart if you start X as root, about the DE it solved my issue as I had a similar problem where X didn't start with openbox so I switched to cinnamon which did work..

And after this test we are pretty sure that there is something wrong with the driver , in this case I would try looking for the card if it's supported or not and with which drivers.

r0b0t · 2013-09-11 08:14:25

Nemesis wrote:

Thanks for all your replies. Starting X as root did not work either.
I just installed XFCE and it did also just give me a black screen.
The proprietary driver did not work back on Manjaro either, so i doubt it will now.
For some reason I guess I am missing something cruxial here.

Did you try catalyst 13.4 ?

Nemesis · 2013-09-11 08:15:17

First of all: Thanks everybody.

Luckily I was able to get X running with the proprietary ATI driver.
But fglrxinfo gives me an error "unable to open display (null)"

There is an error in the log now: http://bpaste.net/show/131355

r0b0t · 2013-09-11 10:37:33

That's because of :

[    88.633] (WW) fglrx(0): ***********************************************************
[    88.633] (WW) fglrx(0): * DRI initialization failed                               *
[    88.633] (WW) fglrx(0): * kernel module (fglrx.ko) may be missing or incompatible *
[    88.633] (WW) fglrx(0): * 2D and 3D acceleration disabled                         *
[    88.633] (WW) fglrx(0): ***********************************************************

however you provided very little information, if your software is fully up to date and you are using the last Xorg , you should go for Catalyst beta for the fglrx compatibility however before that:

Install or generate (if are already installed) the fonts for

[    88.348] (WW) The directory "/usr/share/fonts/TTF/" does not exist.
[    88.348] 	Entry deleted from font path.
[    88.348] (WW) The directory "/usr/share/fonts/OTF/" does not exist.
[    88.348] 	Entry deleted from font path.
[    88.348] (WW) The directory "/usr/share/fonts/Type1/" does not exist.
[    88.348] 	Entry deleted from font path.
[    88.348] (WW) `fonts.dir' not found (or not valid) in "/usr/share/fonts/100dpi/".
[    88.348] 	Entry deleted from font path.
[    88.348] 	(Run 'mkfontdir' on "/usr/share/fonts/100dpi/").
[    88.348] (WW) `fonts.dir' not found (or not valid) in "/usr/share/fonts/75dpi/".
[    88.348] 	Entry deleted from font path.

cookies · 2013-09-11 13:26:38

Nemesis wrote:

First of all: Thanks everybody.
Luckily I was able to get X running with the proprietary ATI driver.
But fglrxinfo gives me an error "unable to open display (null)"

How did you install the proprietary drivers (which package did you install)?

Nemesis · 2013-09-13 07:32:40

Sorry for the late reply. My ISP decided to cut my internet connection.
I used the stable driver from the AUR.

I finally got it working by using the catalyst-test package which uses the current beta
driver. Seems like my card is only supported with it at the moment.

Thanks for all your replies though

cheers Nemesis

P.S. Feels good to be back at Arch

Arch Linux

#1 2013-09-11 06:51:12

[SOLVED] Blackscreen when starting X

#2 2013-09-11 07:01:38

Re: [SOLVED] Blackscreen when starting X

#3 2013-09-11 07:07:14

Re: [SOLVED] Blackscreen when starting X

#4 2013-09-11 07:08:34

Re: [SOLVED] Blackscreen when starting X

#5 2013-09-11 07:10:07

Re: [SOLVED] Blackscreen when starting X

#6 2013-09-11 07:17:15

Re: [SOLVED] Blackscreen when starting X

#7 2013-09-11 07:25:20

Re: [SOLVED] Blackscreen when starting X

#8 2013-09-11 07:25:32

Re: [SOLVED] Blackscreen when starting X

#9 2013-09-11 08:09:59

Re: [SOLVED] Blackscreen when starting X

#10 2013-09-11 08:14:25

Re: [SOLVED] Blackscreen when starting X

#11 2013-09-11 08:15:17

Re: [SOLVED] Blackscreen when starting X

#12 2013-09-11 10:37:33

Re: [SOLVED] Blackscreen when starting X

#13 2013-09-11 13:26:38

Re: [SOLVED] Blackscreen when starting X

#14 2013-09-13 07:32:40

Re: [SOLVED] Blackscreen when starting X

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