Arch Linux

Zelgius

Member

Registered: 2009-09-14

Posts: 4

[Solved] Xorg won't load properly

Intro:
This is my first post on these forums. It's been a while since I messed with linux and I recently had some free time and wanted to get back into it. Back in the day, I would spend days trying to get a Gentoo install working and it was a lot of fun. However the novelty of this eventually wore off and the end result was Ubuntu. However Ubuntu isn't my destination. I'm a tinkerer. I hate bloat. I love tweaking things to maximum efficiency and that is what attracted me to Gentoo.

I decided to start with Ubuntu when I came back to linux a couple days ago. It's still the same as I remember. It just seems slow to me and I hate having a massive amount of packages installed that I did not ask for. I ended up doing a few hours of research to find a new distro and what ended up leading me to Arch was a google search for simply "better than Gentoo". So far, I love Arch. From the simple website layout (I love simple.) to the amazing installation guides, to the wiki, and the list goes on. I want this to be my main distro so badly but I've hit a little snag.

The install:
I followed the instructions to a T. I read every paragraph more than once to make sure I got it right. Some of my linux experience is coming back and the installation of the base system ended up being problem-free. Now time for Xorg. Installing Xorg took about 17 seconds. Back when I messed with Gentoo I can remember emerging XFree would be an overnight endeavor. I followed every step of the instructions to a T again.

The problem:
Having not messed with linux in a while I have to admit by ability to write a config file is probably garbage. After installing the proprietary NVidia driver and doing everything that the installation guide said, I went into the advanced NVidia guide to make sure I hadn't missed anything and did a few extra things recommended in there.

When it came time to startx, the NVidia logo flashed, and I was greeted with a black screen. My gut told me it was hardlocked. Key combinations that should have gotten me out of it weren't working, but I guess it could have been a termination of my inputs. I tried a few things like disabling hot-plugging but that didn't seem to help at all. Now, after a few hours of scouring the Arch forums, the wiki, and googling everything I could find, the best I've managed to do was get X to open with 3 terminal windows, a clock in the upper right, all barebones graphics, and either completely hardlocked, or with the mouse/keyboard disabled. Every time I startx ends in me needing to restart the computer.

Having read countless forum posts in search of an answer, I'm aware how annoying people like me can be. Not finding the answer on our own... expecting a miracle cure from more experienced users...

But I can assure you I've put in plenty of time on this, and when I get home from work today I plan to put more time into it. But any advice or points in the right direction would be massively appreciated.

A couple specific questions would be, is there a log file somewhere I can read the error messages if any that X is spitting out before it locks up? I tried googling for that but the log file didn't appear to exist.

Also for a NVidia 9200M can anyone tell me if just pacman -S nvidia is correct? Or do I need a specific package. I proceeded under the assumption that my 6 month old laptop should use the newest, "nvidia" package.

Sorry if this is long winded, but I wanted to provide a little background so I don't get a generic RTFM response :)

Last edited by Zelgius (2009-09-14 22:10:42)

semitone36

Member

Registered: 2009-03-02

Posts: 34

Re: [Solved] Xorg won't load properly

Welcome to Arch Zelgius

Tuition tells me that you need to be more specific with the driver you installed, I dont think that pacman -S nvidia will get you the driver you need.  Consult the nvidia wiki (http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/NVIDIA).

If that doesnt work then i would go back to the "install video drive package" section of the beginners guide and try the open source xf86-video-nv driver to see if your gpu works period.

Zelgius

Member

Registered: 2009-09-14

Posts: 4

Re: [Solved] Xorg won't load properly

As a side note, I went with the x86_64 install. Maybe 9200M + Linux + 64bit wasn't meant to be. I could try an x86 install.

Zelgius

Member

Registered: 2009-09-14

Posts: 4

Re: [Solved] Xorg won't load properly

It appears pacman -Sy nvidia is what I want.

http://www.nvidia.com/object/linux_disp … 18.36.html

That driver version matches the version currently in the repository.

loafer

Member

From: the pub

Registered: 2009-04-14

Posts: 1,772

Re: [Solved] Xorg won't load properly

Make double sure the xf86-input-keyboard and xf86-input-mouse packages are installed and that you are starting the hal daemon.

---

All men have stood for freedom...
For freedom is the man that will turn the world upside down.
Gerrard Winstanley.

Zelgius

Member

Registered: 2009-09-14

Posts: 4

Re: [Solved] Xorg won't load properly

loafer - Installing those 2 packages seems to have worked. There wasn't a mention of that in the install docs. Thank you very much! I went ahead and put [Solved] in the title but I removed my video card as that wasn't the issue.

Thanks again guys.

Last edited by Zelgius (2009-09-14 22:12:17)