RedHat 7.2 power failure, now can't boot into Gnome or KDE

[OhioDude]

I had a power failure last night, now I can't start the GUI on my RedHat 7.2 system. When it tries to enter run level 6 and launch the GUI login, everything on the monitor looks like it is scrunched into the upper 25% of the screen and the system completely hangs. I booted from the RH rescue CD and changed /etc/inittab so it only boots to run level 5 without the GUI but the problem is, I have no idea what to do to diagnose and fix the problem. I'm very familiar with Unix OSes while I'm at a shell prompt in a telnet session but I'm a complete n00b when it comes to that thar fancy X interface.

Any suggestions on where to look first?

TIA

 

[Barnaby W. Füi]

might wanna check ~/.xsession-errors, and /var/log/XFree86.*.log files, and /var/log/messages....those are the only files i would know to check, i'm a bit of a newbie myself.

i had to cut the power on my machine once and it broke X too, but since it was a fresh install of debian, i didnt have much to lose so i just reinstalled.

you should think about a journalling file system like ext3, reiserFS or xfs, they are much friendlier when the power gets cut. =)

 

[Sunner]

Have you fsck'ed the filesystem?

Ext2 doesn't like being brutally unmounted.

 

[n0cmonkey]

And run level 6 is reboot, 5 is gui I believe.

 

[OhioDude]

Thanks for the help.

BingBongWongFooey:
I am using ext3. I checked the logs you suggested and nothing really seems amiss. I don't believe the .xsession-errors would come into play because the system crashes before the GUI logon is displayed. I compared the messages file from a good boot with a messages file that has a boot that hangs and I can't see any diffs, with the exception, of course, that the good boot shows kde opening a session for the root user following the login. I searched the XFree86.0.log file for errors and none show up. Just a warning towards the end about not being able to open APM. I appreciate your suggestions. Got any more?

sunner:
Yes, I have fsck'ed the system, and I'm using ext3 for the file system, not ext2.

n0cmonkey:
Yes, my bad. I editted inittab to boot to run level 3.

Any other suggestions? I can't really say that I'm very impressed with XFree86's stability. Shortly after installing RH 7.2, I tried to use a different monitor on the system and it crashed in the same manner. I ended up re-installing RH four times before I just said to heck with it and went back to the monitor I had been using. Now a power failure breaks X and it looks like only a re-install will fix it again? :disgust: I'm evaluating RH 7.2 on this box to see whether or not it's feasible to replace our NT4 servers with Linux machines. So far, Linux hasn't been a pleasant experience... :|

 

[n0cmonkey]

Try reconfiguring X. Backup the /etc/X11/XF86Config file first though.

Oh yeah, and if this is a server, forget X all together.

 

[OhioDude]

<< Try reconfiguring X. Backup the /etc/X11/XF86Config file first though. >>


I'll give that a try.

Thanks.

 

[IJump]

did it work? Just following this in case I break my linux box........

 

[kellygirlbeads]

My first instinct was that you had a config file eaten by the ext2 crash, but you're using ext3 .....


My second instinct would be to not even worry about tracking it down, just reconfigure X. I use FreeBSD myself, so I'm not entirely sure on the specific steps to take, but I'd assume your problem is that the monitor settings are more than slightly off, and it's dumping to avoid permanent damage.