Trying to get X to work

Qvintvs · 2008-11-09 20:07:13

Hey,

Ive got arch installed on my system and I'm trying to get X installed. I've gotten xorg and mesa with pacman. I have an ATI card, and want to use the proprietary drivers (not sure if that's a good idea or not...). I did pacman -S catalyst to install the driver. Now comes the part where I get confused...

I think I should now create a xorg.conf file... So I run Xorg -configure. I get this error: Number of created screens does not match number of detected devices. So that's a problem right there, and I have no idea how to fix it... But, I checked if there was a xorg.cong file, and there was (it looked more like a template filled in with sample data). I tried copying that file to etc/X11/xorg.conf, and then tried running aticonfig -initial, but it complained about there being no template file in /etc/X11...

Anyway, I just want to try and get this working.... Anyone know how to fix this?

All help greatly appreciated.

And if it matters, my video card is the radeon hd 4870x2.

edit: upon review of the forum under this one, I see this may be in the wrong forum....

Last edited by Qvintvs (2008-11-09 20:12:13)

atomic · 2008-11-09 20:17:04

Install hwd, then try with hwd -xa as a root. Afrer that aticonfig -initial.

Wilku · 2008-11-09 20:34:38

hwd uses Xorg -configure as I rememember correctly.

create an empty xorg.conf and run in the same folder aticonfig --initial . You'll have to add the dri module yourself to xorg.conf. That should make it work for you. I have the same hardware layout as you and I'm currently fighting with the testing catalyst drivers. On the last configure I had my movies jumping in mplayer, but beside it everything worked great.

thayer · 2008-11-09 20:55:26

aticonfig requires at least a basic xorg.conf. Do as post #2 says...except it's aticonfig --initial (two hyphens).

_alexmyself · 2008-11-09 21:04:26

could help:
http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/ATI

Qvintvs · 2008-11-10 01:19:40

atomic's way worked, ive got x installed (im not exactly sure if I have the drivers i wanted, but right now I'm more concerned with getting this working at all, ill get it right later).

I ran into another problem downloading kde though. It ran for quite a while, and then I get this error:

error: failed retrieving file 'gstream0.10-0.10.21-1-x86_64.pkg.tar.gz' from mirrors.unixheads.org: File unavailable (e.g., file not found, no access).

I tried the same thing for ftp.archlinux.org and got the same error.

Anyone know why this is happening or how to fix it? Pings work so I know I'm connected to the internet...

nvm: fixed it with pacman -Sy

I got kde running!! thanks for the help

Last edited by Qvintvs (2008-11-10 01:39:16)

Qvintvs · 2008-11-10 13:02:51

Ok, I got KDE running for like an hour so before I screwed it up. I was playing around with my video settings, and I tried to enable advanced desktop effects (I'm pretty sure my card should've been able to handle it....). Anyway, the screen went black and I couldn't see anything... I tried closing KDE with ctrl+alt+backspace, and then running it again. It works fine until I try to go into my user, after which it goes black again.

So, how can I reset my settings? Should I just generate a new xorg.conf file? Or are the settings kept somewhere else?

Also, I really think my hd 4870x2 should be able to handle advanced effects.... Am I wrong? Or is it something with my drivers?

Last edited by Qvintvs (2008-11-10 17:47:36)

pseudonomous · 2008-11-10 20:38:18

Here's three ideas:

1) Log into a console and do:

 cd ~/.kde4/share/config

(if this directory doesn't exist, try

 cd ~/.kde4/share/config

instead) This directory stores your user's KDE settings in various config files. I don't know for sure which is the right one, but I think kdeglobals has it:

Now open kdeglobals:

nano kdeglobals

and look at the various settings, and try changing stuff like "GUI effects level". Of course, this might be a little bit dangerous, though I doubt you would end up with anything worse that Xorg locking up (which is, though , pretty annoying). kwinrc is where compositing is enabled, it seems, you could try turning this off as well.

2) Recover the default configuration files. These files might be in /opt/kde/share/config or in /opt/kde4/share/config, I'm not sure which. Try writing over your home ./kde4/share/config directory files with these files. (You'll have to change owners and permissions on the files to make this work, of course)

3) Create a new user and log into / startx into KDE with the new user. That new user should have default settings, replace your .kde config files with the new user's config files, or, if you don't have anything important set up for your old user, just delete the old user account and use the new one you created.

-hope this helps, it's pretty much all I can think of.

Qvintvs · 2008-11-10 23:16:52

copying a new user's files didnt work (neither did the other two, the first perhaps due to my lack of experience), but I just deleted my old user, and made it again (since i had no important files). Now I can get into kde, but I'm still wondering if my video card just can't handle the advanced desktop effects, or if my drivers are messed up...

Purple · 2008-11-11 07:05:23

Qvintvs wrote:

copying a new user's files didnt work (neither did the other two, the first perhaps due to my lack of experience), but I just deleted my old user, and made it again (since i had no important files). Now I can get into kde, but I'm still wondering if my video card just can't handle the advanced desktop effects, or if my drivers are messed up...

I doubt your card can't handle it. I have a paltry 1950xtx and the same thing happened to me.

I fixed it by opening up kwinrc in ~/.kde4/share/config and setting [Compositing] Enabled=false

Saved it, hit xinit and was good to go.

Arch Linux

#1 2008-11-09 20:07:13

Trying to get X to work

#2 2008-11-09 20:17:04

Re: Trying to get X to work

#3 2008-11-09 20:34:38

Re: Trying to get X to work

#4 2008-11-09 20:55:26

Re: Trying to get X to work

#5 2008-11-09 21:04:26

Re: Trying to get X to work

#6 2008-11-10 01:19:40

Re: Trying to get X to work

#7 2008-11-10 13:02:51

Re: Trying to get X to work

#8 2008-11-10 20:38:18

Re: Trying to get X to work

#9 2008-11-10 23:16:52

Re: Trying to get X to work

#10 2008-11-11 07:05:23

Re: Trying to get X to work

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