Debian: X!!! Help me get this going.

[smp]

Okay, so I installed woody today over the net. All of that worked out like pie. Now, I did a;
apt-get install xserver-xfree86

Okay! Done

Then I run through the setup, I have a Radeon and there is a driver, OKAY.
So I think it's gonna work, and it doesn't.. I run through the setup a few more times changing things here and there and I can't get it working.
I have specs for my monitor that I found online, I did the advanced monitor config because of this, should I maybe do a medium default or something?
Anyways, any pointers on getting this thing up and running. I have never been successful w/ X and I am insistent that i get it working this time.
Thanks.

 

[Barnaby W. Füi]

i just set up X on my p233 w/ debian woody last night, here's the exact steps i took (not sure if this will help but hopefully it will)

apt-get install x-window-system-core

then i pick the right driver for my video card, when it comes to specifying the monitor res/refresh/etc, i do the "medium" option, tell it to do 640x480x16 @ 60hz. you can either do this, then change it later, or just pick what you want right now. i do 640x480x16@60 cuz the monitor is a POS 14" and i plan on sitting a few feet away and 800x600 would be really stretching it.

anyways, perhaps try that and see if you can get it working. i've never tried it by installing xserver-xfree86, so i really cant help you there :/

 

[Nothinman]

Check out /var/log/XFree86.X.log (where X is some number).

 

[smp]

I haven't had time to mess with it since I've posted... I work
But .... I remember that I was having a hard time figuring out my PCI address .. I used lspci .. and it showed me in hex, the addy's .. but it looked like none of the values were > 10 so the #'s would be the same. (debian's X configuration .. debconf asks me for this, but warns that lspci displays hex and that debconf wants regular numerical) Anyways.. I might have messed that up .. I wish I could post the output from lspci . maybe someone could figure that one out for me... I'll post it when I get home.

 

[Nothinman]

Just run 'XFree86 -configure' and see what it comes up with, you shouldn't need the PCI address unless you have more than one card.

 

[smp]

See... I didn't have more than one card... until today, my PCI radeon came in and I threw it in.. working great in win2k ..
Now with the xfree86 thing. It's hard for me to post the log file because I'm dual booting, so it makes it hard, I would have to write it down by hand. That PCI address I think I got right, because lspci does show me the address of the card. Even when I reconfigure and do the simple monitor setup, I get a scrambled screen. I don't know what to do. The log file doesn't tell me much either. I'll boot back into it and see if I can get something out of that log file.

 

[Nothinman]

Even if you have 2 cards, you shouldn't need the PCI address unless they're the same card I believe.

 

[smp]

yeah .. they are the same card.. but the problem looks like it's the same as before I added the second card.

 

[smp]

oh yeah:

I'm doing the exact same thing on an old P120 .. I have a PCI ATI card in there, so I picked ATI for my driver, everything works but I can't get the damn mouse working. I am using a serial mouse, a logitech. What tty do I set it to? I have these options:

psaux
tty01
tty02
etc

well, damn I can't even remember them all now .. anyone know?

 

[Nothinman]

ttyS0 == com1
ttyS1 == com2
etc.

 

[smp]

etc?

Sorry .
Anyways, here is my XFree86 log file
log file
Maybe you can help me out .. it says that the radeon is not found .. but i know it found it because it reports back memory size and type.. I don't know what gives.

 

[smp]

Okay .. I guess I didn't have the whole package.. what I did was:

apt-get install xserver-xfree86

but I just tried what BingBong said and even though it grabbed lots more packages, it still doesn't work. What is good now though, is that xf86config works (before it didn't , I would do dpkg-reconfigure xserver-xfree86 and it would take me to debconf ..
but yeah, same sh!t is still going on .. I think it's having problems with my video card, but I'm not sure. I get (EE) and (WW) flags in my log file .. when it is finding/checking/starting the video card (not sure what it's doing) ..

 

[Nothinman]

It just looks like you have no fonts installed, the only error is DRI init which won't stop X from working, just GL.

 

[Chaotic42]

<< etc?

Sorry .
Anyways, here is my XFree86 log file
<a class=ftalternatingbarlinklarge target=blank href="http://www.disobey.ca/~stevan/xfreelog.txt">log file</A>
Maybe you can help me out .. it says that the radeon is not found .. but i know it found it because it reports back memory size and type.. I don't know what gives. >>



Do you have the 75 or 100 dpi fonts installed? Are they configured correctly, etc?

I wish I had access at home, where my Debian system is, I could be of more assisstance.

 

[smp]

Thanks guys ... I just did my first recompile, and uh ... it won't boot into the new kernel, just kind of starts loading it (so I configured lilo properly) but then it freezes, I did something wrong in the compile stage I guess. My old kernel will boot, but then it complains about depmod or something
Oh well, that is my router anyways, I think I'm gonna give smoothwall a try, unless I hear objections.

 

[Chaotic42]

This is a snap post, but here's what I'd do, maybe someone can comment.

Rebuild a new kernel, a basic one that can get you up and running. Make sure the modules are installed and configured, etc.

Make sure the fonts are installed correctly. Are they?

Try the new kernel, see what happens. Let us know.

 

[smp]

thanks ..

Rebuild a new kernel, a basic one that can get you up and running. Make sure the modules are installed and configured, etc.

I think I have more reading to do regarding this

Make sure the fonts are installed correctly. Are they?

I don't know .. and uh, again, more reading

 

[Nothinman]

Rebuild a new kernel, a basic one that can get you up and running. Make sure the modules are installed and configured, etc.

I think I have more reading to do regarding this

make mrproper
make menuconfig
make dep
make bzImage
make modules
cp arch/i386/boot/bzImage /boot/vmlinuz-version
make modules_installl
edit grub or lilo
reboot

Make sure you have at least 1 xfonts- package installed.