XFree86 config problems

[harrinkf]

Hi All,

I'm trying to install a linux GUI on my old laptop. First off:

'Tiny' Branded Laptop I bought in 2000 (I think).
CPU: Celeron 600mhz
RAM: 128mb
Harddisk: 20GB
Linux dist: debian

The laptop used to run windows ME but i decided to reformat the whole thing and run it as a linux only machine. I'm new to linux so I just wanted something to learn on and thought i'd resurrect my old laptop.

The DVD drive on it hasn't worked for a few years so i installed debian, firstly from 2 floppys and then I downloaded the rest as i installed it through my network card. so i have linux working fine in a shell.

Next I wanted to get a GUI so I used aptitude to download all the packages for gnome. After installing it and trying the comman startx I get a bunch of errors. I think these are are due to my graphics card and mouse configuration settings.

I've ran dpkg-reconfigure xserver-xfree86 to try a few different settings. i'm not 100% sure what to put for my mouse, I don;t have an external mouse just the track pad on the laptop with 2 buttons.

Anyway, I have attached the error log file from /var/log/XFree86.0.log in the hope that someone might be able to diagnose my problem and help me figure out where I'm going wrong.

Thanks all!
Kev

[Vergil83]

have you install xfree86-driver-synaptics for your touchpad?

[nate19k]

I too had similar problems with installing debian on my compaq laptop. Oddly enough, however, I installed debian on the same laptop a few days earlier without problems. The only notable difference was that I installed a larger hard drive, upgrading from a 5GB to a 20GB.

I found the file structure under /etc/X11 to be quite different from the previous install. The configuration file was not present at all. I tried to use xfreeconfig to build the needed file without success.

I worked an entire day trying to get xserver working. Finally, I opted to install Ubuntu to save time. Clearly, debian is wonderful system and I will likely try to install it at another time.

If you get it working, I would be pleased to learn the solution.

If time is important, Ubuntu installed quickly without problems. All hardware was detected and worked perfectly.

[nate19k]

To (re-)configure an XF4 server,

# dpkg-reconfigure --priority=low xserver-common
# dpkg-reconfigure --priority=low xserver-xfree86

will generate /etc/X11/XF86Config-4 file and configure X using the script dexconf.

The above is an excerpt from a reference to configuring X server, a link to the entire reference article follows:

http://qref.sourceforge.net/Debian/r...ne.en.html#s-x