Little screen problem with X / GNOME

Dreepser · 2009-03-27 21:32:26

Hi everybody !

I must say I've been discouraged a bit, but I'm ready now to solve my nect problem ^^ I've just had a DELL Studio XPS 13 laptop, and I made the Wifi work, thanks to your help ! Th next task was to have a WM working and set, I chose GNOME.

Here is the steps I followed.

Dont laught at me, but I began to ... install GNOME with this tutorial : http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Gnome (I thought installing GNOME would also install X !), so I typed :

pacman -S gnome

It downloaded all it needed and installed sucessfully, then, I started the daemons :

/etc/rc.d/hal start
/etc/rc.d/fam start

It happened with no problems neither, then I added theses daemons to /etc/rc.conf. I have modprobed "fuse" too.
Then I tried to start GNOMe by typing

gnome-session

But I got the error :

(gnome-session:2936): WARNING **: Cannot open display:

.
So I decided to install the extra package, I wondered if it contained any additional settings or whatever ...

pacman -S gnome-extra

It installed it with no problems but the same error when trying to "gnome-session".

I talked with a friend of mine that made me realise that maybe X was not installed, I checked and noticed I had a /etc/X11/ folder but nearly nothing in it, and especially no xorg.conf.

________

I followed this tutorial then : http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Xorg
So the first thing I did was :

pacman -S xorg

And installed nvidia package.
I followed the rest of the tutorial, meaning I installed "hwd" and then between the several solutions proposed, I used "nvidia-xconfig" that generated a xorg.conf file and commented "Load type1" line.

Then I tried to launch x "startx" and I got something very ugly, but I got something.
I had 3 windows opened, a kinda menu bar and statut bar. But as it was very ugly (I remember a window called "bash..." somehting ^^) I decided to reboot, but after rebooting it has never started again (X).

Now when running "nvidia-xconfig" it tells me it created the xorg.conf file and when I try to startx I got the error message

"(EE) No devices detected.

Fatal server error:
no screens found
giving up."

And when I read my xorg.conf file it's strange, I have lots of "0" : Screen0, Monitor0 ... and I have some vendor "Unknown" ModelName "Unknown" ...
It seems my screen is not detecte at all (I am on a laptop). And I don't known if it's normal, but when running "lspci" I don't see anything about the screen (only video card).

_________

I hope you can help me, because I have a working Archlinux distribution, Wifi's working but I don't have any WM. It's not absolutely necessary, but I have few things to do in Windowed mode ^^

I thank you in advance and ArchLinux is the best ever !

carlocci · 2009-03-28 01:53:35

I had 3 windows opened, a kinda menu bar and statut bar. But as it was very ugly (I remember a window called "bash..." somehting ^^) I decided to reboot, but after rebooting it has never started again (X).

You were almost there!

Try to delete your xorg.conf (by now xorg should be able to figure everything out by himself) and edit ~/.xinitrc to launch gnome-session.
Then startx.

Good luck

edubarr · 2009-03-28 03:09:28

What you got was probably twm. You're most likely missing your .xinitrc file in your home directory. Just create a file called .xinitrc and write:

exec gnome-session

The next time you run startx it will log into gnome.

Dreepser · 2009-03-28 09:52:57

Hi, thanks for your help !

Well I still have some problems.
I just wanted to tell you that I forgot to say one thing in my previous post. Generating the xorg.conf file with "nvidia-xconfig" or "hwd -xa" didn't change : X wasn't starting at all, bu t there was a way I could get X start well ... a bit better (but not very much) : "X -configure" creates a /root/xorg.conf.new, when I copy it into /etc/X!!/xorg.conf and then run startx I got my three ugly windows back, but no statuts bar nor menu bar.

I followed your instructions : I created ~/.xinitrc file and just added "exec gnome-session" into it, I tried to startx : same error. Then I tried to delete my xorg.conf file and launch "startx" but it says it uses the default built-in configuration (30 lines) and I got 3 errors (the no screens found and two others).

So I decided to test with "X -configure" and then copy the file into /etc/X11/xorg.conf and to startx.

When doing this, I got a screen with "Nvidia" written and the green logo, then I got somehting on the screen : two windows, each with a green title bar. The first is names "Login" and I got the command invite : "bash-3.2#" and the second is named "xterm" and I have th e same command invite (it seems to be consoles).

But nothing more, I have the cursor but it doesn't move (with touchpad). And when I return to CTRL-ALT-F1 I got 8 (EE) concerning NVIDIA such "Failed to initialize the NVIDIA graphics device PCI:2:0:0." (In fact it seems to be 4 errors, but the messages are displayed twice). I have messages such "Could not init font path element /usr/share/fonts/TTF, removing from list!" or "Xlib: extension "Generic Event Extension" missing on display ":0.0" " which is also written twice ...

Could you help me ? Did I do something wrong ?

Again : thanks for your help !!

Last edited by Dreepser (2009-03-28 09:53:14)

fishonadish · 2009-03-28 11:52:08

Hi. These look like a string of unrelated problems, I think.

Dreepser wrote:

When doing this, I got a screen with "Nvidia" written and the green logo, then I got somehting on the screen : two windows, each with a green title bar. The first is names "Login" and I got the command invite : "bash-3.2#" and the second is named "xterm" and I have th e same command invite (it seems to be consoles).

This sounds like X is working, but with the default TWM. I prefer using GDM so I'm not familiar with .xinitrc, but you perhaps double check you haven't got additional 'exec' lines before the gnome-session one. Or since you're a gnome user you might install GDM, add it to your rc.conf and see how that goes.

I have the cursor but it doesn't move (with touchpad).

You need to install the synaptics driver, and then either add a synpatic device in xorg.conf or allow it to be hotplugged - see here for instructions: http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Synaptics

And when I return to CTRL-ALT-F1 I got 8 (EE) concerning NVIDIA such "Failed to initialize the NVIDIA graphics device PCI:2:0:0." (In fact it seems to be 4 errors, but the messages are displayed twice). I have messages such "Could not init font path element /usr/share/fonts/TTF, removing from list!" or "Xlib: extension "Generic Event Extension" missing on display ":0.0" " which is also written twice ...

"Failed to initialize the NVIDIA graphics device PCI:2:0:0." doesn't sound good... however you're getting a minimal X session then some driver is functioning, so check your Xorg.log for more details, perhaps? That generic event extension error is harmless - I have it when I run glxinfo and it's never been a problem. I think I read somewere that it was going to be turned off in future anyway.

Anyway, I hope you get there. Best of luck.

Fishonadish

Dreepser · 2009-03-28 13:12:49

Hello,

fishnadish wrote:

This sounds like X is working, but with the default TWM. I prefer using GDM so I'm not familiar with .xinitrc, but you perhaps double check you haven't got additional 'exec' lines before the gnome-session one. Or since you're a gnome user you might install GDM, add it to your rc.conf and see how that goes.

I think (but not sure because I'm still new in Linux world) that the real problem is that the screen is not found by the system. When runnin "lspci" is it normal not to ind anything about a screen ? Is the info about the screen elsewhere ?

About Synaptics, yes I will follow the tutorial, but the very first time when I got the statut and menu bar, the cursor was moving the the touchpad.

So the question is : does anyone know how can I make my screen discovered by the system ? Should I install additionnal drivers (for the screen) and then configure my xorg.conf file ?
Moreover, which tool should I use to generate my xorg.conf file ? hw -xa ? nvidia-xconfig ? Or the only one that gave any result : X -configure ? When using the last one, are the nvidia drivers used or only the default vesa ?

Thank you a lot for your help and posts !

bgc1954 · 2009-03-28 13:30:50

First, don't worry about your screen. It's all got to do with your video card and driver. At times, nvidia drivers can be problematic. To see if it's the nvidia driver that's giving you problems, install the xf86-video-nv package and change your Section "Device" in /etc/X11/xorg.conf from "nvidia" to "nv". This is a generic nvidia driver which doesn't do 3D or anything fancy but it might show you whether the most recent nvidia driver works with your laptop.

Edit: See, this is lspci from my old t21 laptop. Note: no screen.

brian ~ $ lspci
00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation 440BX/ZX/DX - 82443BX/ZX/DX Host bridge (rev 03)
00:01.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 440BX/ZX/DX - 82443BX/ZX/DX AGP bridge (rev 03)
00:02.0 CardBus bridge: Texas Instruments PCI1450 (rev 03)
00:02.1 CardBus bridge: Texas Instruments PCI1450 (rev 03)
00:03.0 Ethernet controller: Intel Corporation 82557/8/9/0/1 Ethernet Pro 100 (rev 09)
00:03.1 Serial controller: Xircom Mini-PCI V.90 56k Modem
00:05.0 Multimedia audio controller: Cirrus Logic CS 4614/22/24/30 [CrystalClear SoundFusion Audio Accelerator] (rev 01)
00:07.0 Bridge: Intel Corporation 82371AB/EB/MB PIIX4 ISA (rev 02)
00:07.1 IDE interface: Intel Corporation 82371AB/EB/MB PIIX4 IDE (rev 01)
00:07.2 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82371AB/EB/MB PIIX4 USB (rev 01)
00:07.3 Bridge: Intel Corporation 82371AB/EB/MB PIIX4 ACPI (rev 03)
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: S3 Inc. 86C270-294 Savage/IX-MV (rev 13)
02:00.0 Network controller: Broadcom Corporation BCM4306 802.11b/g Wireless LAN Controller (rev 03)

Last edited by bgc1954 (2009-03-28 13:44:22)

Arch Linux

#1 2009-03-27 21:32:26

Little screen problem with X / GNOME

#2 2009-03-28 01:53:35

Re: Little screen problem with X / GNOME

#3 2009-03-28 03:09:28

Re: Little screen problem with X / GNOME

#4 2009-03-28 09:52:57

Re: Little screen problem with X / GNOME

#5 2009-03-28 11:52:08

Re: Little screen problem with X / GNOME

#6 2009-03-28 13:12:49

Re: Little screen problem with X / GNOME

#7 2009-03-28 13:30:50

Re: Little screen problem with X / GNOME

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