You are not logged in.
Pages: 1
I'm having 2 annoying issues with X..
First, when I start X it will sit at the X loading screen for a very long time (grey screen with X pointer), after close to a minute it'll go into windowmaker and seems to run ok after that. The only log I could find is /var/log/XFree86.0.log and it doesn't seem to have any errors.
The second problem is shutting down windowmaker.. If I select exit from the menus it'll close windowmaker but not Xwindows (Again I'm just sitting at a grey screen with X pointer).. I end up having to hit ctrl-alt-backspace to get back to a prompt. This causes another problem.. the *second* time I end windows this way it'll completely crash my system, the only way to get out of it is to hit the reset button on my computer.
Thanks for any help!
Offline
Sounds like it may be having trouble with your gfx card, have you setup your graphics card correctly in /etc/X11/XF86Config ?
Offline
I ran XFree86 -configure and it seemed to probe it correctly. It failed out because it couldn't find my mouse but I was able to fix that.. this is what it shows..
Identifier "Card0"
Driver "nv"
VendorName "NVidia"
BoardName "GeForce2 MX 100/200"
BusID "PCI:1:0:0"
Offline
have you considered installing the nvidia drivers from nvidia? if it is indeed a card issue it maybe with the native xfree86 driver. the nvidia drivers may provide improvements to your problem.
AKA uknowme
I am not your friend
Offline
Well, I can't say if all the problems you have are caused by the driver but I can tell you the nVidia X driver offers better stability, at least on my system. IIRC, the 'nv' driver is mainly for older RIVA cards although it does try to work with some GeForce cards also.
Try here for more info and drivers
http://www.nvidia.com/view.asp?PAGE=linux
It's a 2 file system with support for GLX but relatively easy to install unless you use my setup. My test box is configured so the nVidia module will build if it doesn't exist for the current kernel. Yes, I do strange things with Linux sometimes. A cute, optional feature with this driver is a shadowed cursor.
As for the WindowMaker problems. I tested this wm on my system and it works fine. Some simple points. Did you run the /usr/bin/wmaker.inst script as the user? This sets up some important things for WindowMaker. Also, if using the simple startx method, all you really need in the ~/.xsession (or ~/.xinitrc) file is:
#!/bin/sh
exec wmaker
BluPhoenyx
Offline
Can you see anything strange when you switch back to console mode while you are running X (or better yet, waiting for X) ?
I have a Geforce2 MX/400 and I still run with the nv drivers, since swithing back and forth with the nvidia drivers is way slower than with the nv drivers.
apt-get install arch
Offline
Can you see anything strange when you switch back to console mode while you are running X (or better yet, waiting for X) ?
I have a Geforce2 MX/400 and I still run with the nv drivers, since swithing back and forth with the nvidia drivers is way slower than with the nv drivers.
Depending on hardware and system setup there is some delay between swapping from X to virtual terminals and starting X. This is partly caused by the driver design used by nVidia. But, that's a whole other issue.
On my system, a 1ghz P3 with 32mb GeForce2 it takes about 1 second to swap and and 1 to 2 seconds for GDM at startup. I think that some of this is actually my fault though. For one thing, I use a 16 bit 1280x1024 vesafb mode in the kernel and X uses a 24 bit 1600x1280 mode. This gives me an easily readable, large text screen while still using the full resolution available for X. IIRC, it is much smoother when the video mode matches.
The system is temporarily running as ISP server for the network while I rebuild an older PC. When I get the chance I will try and get more specifics on tweaking the setup.
BluPhoenyx
Offline
Well, I had/have the chance to work with AL on another box I'm putting together. The hardware is pretty close to the nVidia gfx system, speed wise. It currently has a 3dfx 64 mb VooDoo5.
I had expected the 3dfx card to be a little bit faster when switching into and out of Xfree. Surprisingly, the times are pretty close to the ones I saw with the nVidia card & drivers.
So I suppose that lag is just natural for this level of hardware. Of course part of my problem could be the 1600x1200 screen resolution also. I'm sure that slows things down a bit. Still, it's only about a second or two delay. Impatiently waiting until I can afford today's current goodies...
BluPhoenyx
Offline
Same nVidia card here, never saw those problems.
Confused - have you tweaked something? From your first post:
after close to a minute it'll go into windowmaker and seems to run ok after that.
and from your most recent post
Still, it's only about a second or two delay.
FWIW, I will be performing a clean install in the next week or so, will try to follow up this thread unless you come to a resolution to the problem (resolution - no pun intended).
Offline
I tried installing the drivers but am not sure if I did it correctly. I downloed the source and compiled it. Then did modprobe nvidia, it didn't return any errors. I figured I'd have to change something in XF86config so I changed the GRX section to "nvidia". Now it returns an error when it tries to turn on the screensaver. Is there anything I need to change in the XF86config file? Also, any other tips for getting x to run faster? All I have done is pacman -S xfree86 then ran the configure file.
Thanks
Offline
Guess I should read my eariler posts. I changed the GLX section back to glx and tried to change the driver section from nv to nvidia. Now it errors out when I triy to startx saying that it can't find nvidia. I tried moving it from /lib/modules/2.4.20/kernel/drivers/video to /usr/X11R6/lib/modules/drivers but that didn't help. Guess that's all I need to do now is find where to put the file. Also, do I need to be running it at boot or just within X? This is what dmesg says:
0: nvidia: loading NVIDIA Linux x86 nvidia.o Kernel Module 1.0-4191 Mon Dec 9 11:49:01 PST 2002
Thanks for any help.
Offline
There are actually two parts to the nVidia drivers. I don't have that box (testing hardware on it right now) running where I can check things to be exactly certain but I will try and give as accurate info as possible.
First, you may be best off if you use the files from the nVidia site. They have gzip files as well as the rpm ones. Also, there are two components you need. One is the kernel interface module which you seem to be a little familiar with. The other is the X driver/GLX archive. Both packages are important and both require the matching version numbers. nVidia's drivers may not work properly if you try and disable their GLX in an attempt to use another but theirs works with everything I have found and/or built. The last version I have (may not be the current version) is 4191.
nVidia also includes info on the site (http://www.nvidia.com/view.asp?PAGE=linux) for installing but basically it's pretty simple.
Both files include a makefile which the root user should use by typing 'make install' at the command line. Install the kernel module first then the GLX package. You can then edit the XF86Config-4 config file to ensure the following entries match.
(in the module section, make sure that you have)
Load "glx"
(also in module section, remove or comment out)
Load "dri"
Load "GLcore"
(in the device section)
Driver "nvidia"
Also, you may need to add a line like this to the modules.conf file. I'm not sure about the device value and it might work fine without it.
alias char-major-195 nvidia
BluPhoenyx
Offline
Pages: 1