Xorg 1.8 just won't start

jni · 2010-09-15 15:43:45

Hi,

I recently upgraded my Xorg for the nth time. Since it used to crash all the time, i was doing a rollback every time. But now i really want to get it working, and i just can't seem to find the problem. I just did a complete format (i wud have had to anyways, computer was getting full of junk).

Problem seems to happen when upgrading to these :
* kernel 2.6.35
* nvidia 256.53-1
* Xorg 1.8.1.902 (1.8.2 RC 2)

What happens :
* I can get to a TTY just fine on the boot.
* I can use startx or xinit, with or without a ~/.xinitrc (i tried having openbox and xfce4 in this).
* When using startx or xinit, screen goes black, but computer is still running
* I cannot ctrl-alt-F1 to the TTY (as a matter of fact keyboard and mouse don't seem to work at all)
* Before i used to have logs in Xorg.0.log, but now it's always empty.
* X started a few times, on a random basis (i can reboot - log - startx 10-15 times before it works, it's just luck, i don't change anything in-between).

I tried :
* Following every steps and notes in the "installing arch", "Nvidia" and "Xorg" wiki pages.
* Using an xorg.conf file generated by nvidia-xconfig
* Removing the xorg.conf completely (xorg.conf.d is populated though)
* Wiki said not having dbus running could be an issue - so i quadrupled checked that
* modprobe'ing nvidia module manually - no error there
... and all of that failed to be useful.

I have a new installation of Archlinux x86_64 (downloaded 3 days ago), followed everything to the letter. I used to fail as well on my 2 years-old installation though... thought a fresh install could fix that.

As i said, Xorg.0.log is empty now (and when it wasnt, there was no error, only a few WW concerning font paths... i doubt that's any relevant), so i don't know what log/config files to put here. Just ask for them and i'll post them here.

I have no idea what to try anymore, aside from a rollback - but i'd rather get this to work. Any thoughts?

Thanks alot
jni

MadCat_X · 2010-09-15 22:59:31

Have you tried to REISUB your way to reboot? That way you might even get something in the logs. Any chance this can be a hardware malfunction?

jni · 2010-09-15 23:19:08

Thanks for the reply. I don't have time to try it for now, i have to go to school, but i'll try it tonight when i come back and let you know.

As for the hardware issue, i'm pretty sure it's not the case here. I tried multiple times to update everything (kernel, X and nvidia), and everytime it did the same. Then i rolled back and everything was working again... So if it's an hardware issue, it must be something really weird lol

quick123 · 2010-09-16 04:17:52

Catalyst 10.4 will most probably support Xorg 1.8, at least the pre release supports it (pre release packages are available for Ubuntu, Arch Linux and maybe more I think). Probably catalyst 10.4 will be releast in one of the next two weeks.

Its pretty unlikely that you can easily get a GTX 470 before June. I read this german article and it will probably take until at least end of april until there are GTX 480 cards on the marked (in Germany) available.

jni · 2010-09-16 05:23:34

I tried to get some logs by rebooting in different ways, even pressing ctrl-c quickly after startx and to "live debug" with tail -f in SSH on another computer... still nothing. I can't find anything to help...

Any1 ever had that issue?

codycarey · 2010-09-16 05:59:44

Do you have xf86-input-evdev and udev installed?

Once X starts up and everything goes black, if you hit Caps Lock or Number Lock does the keyboard LED turn on and off as you do?

Is this a laptop? What kind of hardware are you running?

jni · 2010-09-16 06:15:03

xf86-input-evdev and udev => yes

As for the caps lock and numlock leds... erm, yes and no. They do turn on and off, but without me pressing anything. They just keep flashing. I tried 3 different keyboards too, 2 USB, 1 PS/2, same behavior.

Some hardware (from inxi -F) :

* Kernek 2.6.35-ARCH x686_64
* CPU : intel core2 qud Q9550 @2.8ghz
* Gfx : nVidia GeForce 9500 GT
* Audio : Intel 82801JI (ICH10) - onboard
* Net : Realtek RTL8111/8168B
* Disk : 2 WD caviar black (1To and 640Gb) - no raid or funky stuff here (for now lol)
* Not a laptop

Hope that help.

Thanks again everyone!

codycarey · 2010-09-16 06:30:05

Have you tried the nouveau drivers? And what happened when you tried to SSH into the machine after it froze? Did it connect and run normally?

Also you may want to keep tabs on this Red Hat bug report, it seems to be your exact issue and the devs are taking it very seriously (it breaks the next Fedora release). https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=596985

Last edited by codycarey (2010-09-16 06:37:28)

jni · 2010-09-16 14:57:39

SSH : it seems to work for a little, then eventually connection shuts down.

Nouveau : i installed nouveau-dri and xf86-video-nouveau. The first time after installation openbox booted just fine, but in low-res (1280x720). Now instead of a black screen i get a colorful screen lol and it's always different colors, nouveau is very artistic (i tried 4 times after the succesful attempt with nouveau, always the same colorful output).

Thanks for the bug link, i'll read that carefully and see if i can find anything useful!

jlkotson · 2010-09-16 22:17:21

For what it's worth... I've had the same problems in 6 different installs over the last two days. The only thing that will run with startx is xterm. Lxde, IceWM, Fvwm, Slim, GDM all fail into a locked black screen. Today I was finally getting error messages when I tried startx without any bootloaders installed. It seems that Xorg 1.8.1.902 (1.8.2 RC 2) was compiled with the 2.6.34 kernel... while we are all trying to use it with the 2.6.35 kernels. Like jni, I too am using nvidia and have tried all the combinations in the wiki concerning with/without hal, xf86-input-drivers, dbus, gamin and of course only lightweight apps.

schuay · 2010-09-16 23:42:07

jni wrote:

As for the caps lock and numlock leds... erm, yes and no. They do turn on and off, but without me pressing anything. They just keep flashing.

Looks like a kernel panic.

Arch Linux

#1 2010-09-15 15:43:45

Xorg 1.8 just won't start

#2 2010-09-15 22:59:31

Re: Xorg 1.8 just won't start

#3 2010-09-15 23:19:08

Re: Xorg 1.8 just won't start

#4 2010-09-16 04:17:52

Re: Xorg 1.8 just won't start

#5 2010-09-16 05:23:34

Re: Xorg 1.8 just won't start

#6 2010-09-16 05:59:44

Re: Xorg 1.8 just won't start

#7 2010-09-16 06:15:03

Re: Xorg 1.8 just won't start

#8 2010-09-16 06:30:05

Re: Xorg 1.8 just won't start

#9 2010-09-16 14:57:39

Re: Xorg 1.8 just won't start

#10 2010-09-16 22:17:21

Re: Xorg 1.8 just won't start

#11 2010-09-16 23:42:07

Re: Xorg 1.8 just won't start

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