Arch Linux

golbie

Member

Registered: 2016-06-15

Posts: 6

DELL Optiplex GX240 installation

hi,

I just installed Arch Linux 2015.11.01 on my old DELL Optiplex GX240 (Pentium 4, 1 GB RAM) as described here: https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/installation_guide. The installation worked perfectly. In the last step, I installed Grub, left the chroot environment, unmounted the partition and rebooted. After the reboot, the message "Welcome to Grub" appeared but Grub wasn't entered anymore. The screen was black.

Any ideas, what could be wrong?

Thank you!
golbie

madpierre

Member

Registered: 2016-05-27

Posts: 188

Re: DELL Optiplex GX240 installation

Ya did something wrong during installation.

BTW, what's your partition scheme?

golbie

Member

Registered: 2016-06-15

Posts: 6

Re: DELL Optiplex GX240 installation

hi, it's good old MBR partitioning scheme. I have ca. 40 GB and it looks like this:

* /dev/sda1, ext4, 38GB
* /dev/sda2, swap, 2GB

What do you think is wrong? Maybe a missing driver or something like that. Do you recommend to install LILO or syslinux instead of GRUB ?

thx

Slithery

Administrator

From: Norfolk, UK

Registered: 2013-12-01

Posts: 5,776

Re: DELL Optiplex GX240 installation

You installed grub, but did you configure it?

---

No, it didn't "fix" anything. It just shifted the brokeness one space to the right. - jasonwryan
Closing -- for deletion; Banning -- for muppetry. - jasonwryan

aur - dotfiles

madpierre

Member

Registered: 2016-05-27

Posts: 188

Re: DELL Optiplex GX240 installation

* /dev/sda1, ext4, 38GB
* /dev/sda2, swap, 2GB

Thanks- just curious. FWIW, I would suggest a /home partition as well (might save some tears later).

What do you think is wrong?

It appears that a GRUB configuration file wasn't created (as slithery has noted) or was created incorrectly.

Do you recommend to install LILO or syslinux instead of GRUB ?

Keep it simple. Complicating an issue is the last option to consider and is usually unnecessary.

Last edited by madpierre (2016-06-16 23:39:49)

golbie

Member

Registered: 2016-06-15

Posts: 6

Re: DELL Optiplex GX240 installation

hi,

of course, I first generated the grub.cfg and then installed into MBR.

pacman -S grub
grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg
grub-install /dev/sda

My linux installation was recognized by grub-mkconfig and it was also installed into MBR without errors.

golbie

madpierre

Member

Registered: 2016-05-27

Posts: 188

Re: DELL Optiplex GX240 installation

pacman -S grub
grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg
grub-install /dev/sda

The last two steps are backwards golbie.

See:

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/be … BIOS.2FMBR

Last edited by madpierre (2016-06-17 13:02:12)

golbie

Member

Registered: 2016-06-15

Posts: 6

Re: DELL Optiplex GX240 installation

hi madpierre,

I re-installed Grub again (grub-install and after that grub-mkconfig) but it didn't solve my issue either. Here is what I did.
I reinstalled the whole system again (as described in beginner's guide) and during the installation I noticed an error that the modules for wd719x and ac94xx are missing. Just to be sure that this is not causing my issue I installed both of them using yaourt (which was pretty tricky because of certification error, unability to execute makepkg as root and so on). Anyway, it was disappointing to see that this didn't solve my problem. Again, I booted from the Live CD and replaced Grub by syslinux (first, I uninstalled Grub by pacman, second, I removed /boot/grub). Now, my system is booting! I have absolutely no idea what the problem was (because there is no error message) but now it's working.

Thank you anyway. Now, I'm going to install LXDE and GCompris, so cross your fingers ;-)

golbie

madpierre

Member

Registered: 2016-05-27

Posts: 188

Re: DELL Optiplex GX240 installation

Two GRUBS? Perhaps. Funny- you created a schizophrenic OS.

The errors are nothing to worry about. They always show up from my experience. No worries.

Well done golbie! Well done.

FWIW I don't use a DM. I boot straight to the DE from the console.

Keep us posted.

golbie

Member

Registered: 2016-06-15

Posts: 6

Re: DELL Optiplex GX240 installation

hi,

I installed Xorg and LXDE as described here https://wiki.archlinux.de/title/Anleitu … Einsteiger (unfortunately in German). As I can remember I did:

(Xorg)

pacman -S xorg-server xorg-xinit xorg-utils xorg-server-utils

pacman -S xf86-video-ati

(it's ATI inside)

(LXDE)

pacman -S lxde

cd /home/user (this is the %wheel user)

vi /home/user/.xinitrc

content of /home/user/.xinitrc:

#!/bin/sh
exec startlxde

The screen is black; LXDE does not show up. I checked /var/log/Xorg.0.log and there are 3 errors (EE):

(II) AIGLX: screen0 is not DRI2 capable
(EE) AIGLX: reverting to software rendering
...
(EE) open /dev/dri/card0 no such file or directory
...
(EE) open /dev/fb0 no such file or directory

Any ideas how to fix it? I also installed all possible drivers (

pacman -S xorg-drivers

) to be sure that no driver is missing.

thx again
golbie

madpierre

Member

Registered: 2016-05-27

Posts: 188

Re: DELL Optiplex GX240 installation

Do you have integrated video hardware or a separate graphics card?

Last edited by madpierre (2016-06-20 21:21:16)

golbie

Member

Registered: 2016-06-15

Posts: 6

Re: DELL Optiplex GX240 installation

hi, it's a separate graphics card:

lspci | grep VGA

01 :00.0 VGA compatible controller: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD/ATI] Rage 128 Pro Ultra AGP 4x

made in Irland ;-)

madpierre

Member

Registered: 2016-05-27

Posts: 188

Re: DELL Optiplex GX240 installation

https://wiki.archlinux.de/title/Anleitu … Einsteiger

Thanks for the reference @golbie. I appreciate the fact that you've consulted the wiki. Unfortunately, it's been many, many, many years since I understood Deutsch. Hence, I can't dazzle you with brilliance.

Joking aside, the best I can do is to offer you an opinion. I tend to speak frankly. So please take no offense. None is intended.

As I sit back and review this thread, complication seems to be the theme. As with most folks on this forum (I suspect), I've installed Arch more times than I can remember. A straightforward simple approach has never failed to show success. Here, I have two Opti-Plex's. No trouble installing GRUB. No video or graphics issues. The machine from which I write is a custom box. No problems. This machine even runs an NVIDIA graphics card.

It's possible to troubleshoot your problem as it stands. But, with all the augmentations to the basic setup, things may get a bit "clouded" so to speak. If you're into modprobing and some of the more technical stuff, some of the forum wizards can certainly lend a hand. As for me, my approach is a bit different. All I can offer is to wish you success. (You won't like the next part.) However, if your goal is to get the machine into production by the most expedient method, I suggest you re-partition, re-format, and re-install- to include GRUB. Use the default installation (including Xorg). Then, if you have problems, begin to  logically work through them. If all is well, then you can start to tweak the installation as you desire (including the use of Rage drivers).

Opinions differ. Others are certainly welcome to have a say.

All the best,

Last edited by madpierre (2016-06-21 14:35:57)

Lone_Wolf

Member

From: Netherlands, Europe

Registered: 2005-10-04

Posts: 11,911

Re: DELL Optiplex GX240 installation

I noticed an error that the modules for wd719x and ac94xx are missing

That error only matters if you have one of those controllers in your machine,which is very rare.
Everyone that doesn't have those controllers has no use for those modules.
(you did a great job getting them to build in the live environment though).

hi, it's a separate graphics card:

lspci | grep VGA

01 :00.0 VGA compatible controller: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD/ATI] Rage 128 Pro Ultra AGP 4x

made in Irland ;-)

Your card is to old for the xf86-video-ati driver, you need xf86-video-r128 .

To start troubleshooting, remove all xf86-video-* packages EXCEPT xf86-video-r128, xf86-video-vesa, xf86-video-fbdev .
(the last 2 are so we got fallback options) .

To get your card to work under X we may need some card-specific modules. like an agp kernel module for your motherboard.

Make sure you have no configuration files in /etc/X11/ and /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d folders .

post a full dmesg / journal log from a boot to console, full lspci -k output .
run startx, post a full xorg log file.
Those logs will be rather large, you should consider using a pastebin client .

P.S.
No need to re-install since you got boot working

P.P.S.
I remember purchasing (job related) the optiplex GX240 when they were new, nice to see someone still uses them.

---

Disliking systemd intensely, but not satisfied with alternatives so focusing on taming systemd.

(A works at time B)  && (time C > time B ) ≠  (A works at time C)