startx troubles with 9.1... help

**jpalfree** · 09-07-2005

I just installed 9.1 on an old computer. everything seemed to be fine. I set it up to boot into runlevel 3 and it does just that. I can log in and do everything one can usually do in runlevel 3.

but when i tried "startx" the first time i got a first time wizzard or something that let me choose which GUI to use. I chose kde. and it looked like it was starting kde but it just keeps fluctuating and i get a busy cursor and a blue background and that's it. it does this every time I "startx".

does anyone know how to fix this?
or if more information is needed tell me where to find it?
maybe also could someone tell me how to change the default GUI to gnome so i can see if it's a kde problem or a general problem with x?

thanks

**dylunio** · 09-07-2005

Erm, what distro is this? If it is SuSE 9.1 (the olny slightly modern 9.1 distro I know of), try running

Code:

sax2

as root to configure your display

Edit: just seen that this is in the mandriva forum, so you might want to run Mandrakes configuration tool MCC or it's X configuration tool drakex (not sure about the last one).

**jpalfree** · 09-08-2005

I did try mcc and changed the display configuration around...but i still have the same problem. I have an sis 540 motherboard with built in video card..and it looks like there's a driver for it in the list..but i've changed it to an Xfree driver (SiS) and still the same thing happens. I get a blue textured background and then a pannel pops up and disappears. a few windows do the same.. too fast to see anything in them. and then i get a single icon that keeps fluctuating. I end up with a blue background, and that's it.

when i press ctrl+alt+F1 i see lots of error messages like so:

Code:

Mcop warning&#58; user defined signal handler found for SIG-PIPE, overriding
kdesktop&#40;a random number&#41; got signal 11
...
<repeating with different numbers>
...

any more ideas?

**dylunio** · 09-09-2005

Hmm, it seems that there is something wrong with kde, have you tried re-installing kde? or maybe installing another desktop environment or windowmanager (such as fluxbox) ?

Sorry but i haven't got many more ideas on the subject

**jpalfree** · 09-11-2005

i actually installed redhat 9 on it aswell. and kde didn't work in redhat either. I think it's incompatability issues. but what exactly, i'm not sure.

**AlexK** · 09-12-2005

instead of using a driver, why not try using a vesa framebuffer?

**jpalfree** · 09-13-2005

Originally Posted by AlexK

instead of using a driver, why not try using a vesa framebuffer?

ok. i'll try that. could you elaborate on how i do that? (and what a vesa framebuffer is?

)

**AlexK** · 09-13-2005

vesa driver is supported by all cards, it is just a non-fancy graphical driver. I am not sure if it can support high resolutions or not. Basicially what you do is during the graphics setup of the installation, just choose the vesa driver.

**jpalfree** · 09-14-2005

It works! Fianlly!
I used the vesa driver and all is well.
thanks very much guys.

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