SOLVED: Fresh Install, No X

thewebdoctor · 2011-03-10 19:08:39

My first install of Arch 64-bit was by following a Lifehacker article. Someone here said that was a bad idea, so in light of the problems I was having with that install, I decided to do a fresh one in a different partition, using the Beginner wiki.

The text part of the install went fine. Before I did the update, I used the mirror rating link to get up-to-date mirrors:
Server = ftp://mirror.rit.edu/archlinux/$repo/os/x86_64
Server = ftp://ftp.gtlib.gatech.edu/pub/archlinu … /os/x86_64

I installed xorg, mesa, mesa-demos, and nouveau-dri for my nVidia chipset.

X wouldn't start, and the output may be viewed at http://www.drlanelester.com/startxprob2.jpg

Lane

Last edited by thewebdoctor (2011-03-10 21:19:28)

skunktrader · 2011-03-10 19:11:00

Did you remember to install xf86-video-nouveau?

thewebdoctor · 2011-03-10 19:16:09

skunktrader wrote:

Did you remember to install xf86-video-nouveau?

No, I did not. The wiki says:

The open-source nouveau driver should be good enough for most users and is recommended:

# pacman -S xf86-video-nouveau

Or, for 3D support (experimental):

# pacman -S nouveau-dri

The word "Or" caused me to leave it out. Should I have installed both of the above?

Lane

skunktrader · 2011-03-10 19:24:26

yes

thewebdoctor · 2011-03-10 19:47:25

OK, adding the other driver got X started. But it's a mess, as you can see: http://www.drlanelester.com/startxprob3.jpg

In my previous install of Arch, at the very beginning I got a good default X screen. But now it's messed up like this one.

I suspect the "good" X was when I used the old mirror to update the system, and the problem originated after I changed to an up-to-date mirror and again updated the system. In this fresh install, I started out with the up-to-date mirrors.

Any suggestion for how I might repair this? I could try adding the current nVidia driver and copying over a working xorg.conf.

Lane

SS4 · 2011-03-10 20:36:06

The "good" X was probably using the non-free nvidia drivers. As for the nouveau driver did you create the /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/20-nouveau.conf as detailed in the wiki?

 Section "Device"
    Identifier "nvidia card"
    Driver "nouveau"
EndSection"

Last edited by SS4 (2011-03-10 20:37:05)

thewebdoctor · 2011-03-10 20:44:28

SS4 wrote:

The "good" X was probably using the non-free nvidia drivers. As for the nouveau driver did you create the /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/20-nouveau.conf as detailed in the wiki?

Yes, I did.

Maybe it's time to try the non-free driver. I've had plenty of trouble with that over the years. I usually succeed by copying a working xorg.conf from another partition.

Lane

SS4 · 2011-03-10 21:07:59

(EE) Failed to load module "nouveau" (module does not exist, 0)

Did you modprobe the driver? It doesn't matter if you rebooted since it would load anyway.

modprobe nouveau

The wiki also suggests starting X as user rather than root although why this would matter I don't know

thewebdoctor · 2011-03-10 21:14:38

No, I didn't do the modprobe, but now it doesn't matter. I just installed the nonfree driver with
pacman -S nvidia nvidia-utils
and all is well. I have good video again, and the other commands in .xinitrc are being executed as well.

On to the next adventure!

Thanks for all the help, guys.

Lane

Arch Linux

#1 2011-03-10 19:08:39

SOLVED: Fresh Install, No X

#2 2011-03-10 19:11:00

Re: SOLVED: Fresh Install, No X

#3 2011-03-10 19:16:09

Re: SOLVED: Fresh Install, No X

#4 2011-03-10 19:24:26

Re: SOLVED: Fresh Install, No X

#5 2011-03-10 19:47:25

Re: SOLVED: Fresh Install, No X

#6 2011-03-10 20:36:06

Re: SOLVED: Fresh Install, No X

#7 2011-03-10 20:44:28

Re: SOLVED: Fresh Install, No X

#8 2011-03-10 21:07:59

Re: SOLVED: Fresh Install, No X

#9 2011-03-10 21:14:38

Re: SOLVED: Fresh Install, No X

Board footer