GUI issue (I think...)

**hellhuff** · 10-30-2004

Hi all, I'm trying to run a redhat 9 server on an old computer of mine. I'm an intermediate at linux, but this thing has me lost and confuzed.

I can install, configure, and update it just fine, but I'm one of those who seems to need a GUI

since I grew up with Windows. The first few reboots seem to work perfectly, then for no apparent reason, one reboot will fail to load the GUI login and every 7 seconds or so it will switch back to text and vice versa continuously. After that reboot, I can't access the system at all (even using the created boot-disk).

I've tried several re-installs of the OS (complete, reformat and everything), but every time I run into this same problem. At first I thought it was the updates I was doing, but after a non-update install, it still did it to me, so I'm completely lost.

specs are:
-80mb of RAM
-i586 pentium 179 mhz
-8mb of video RAM

Anyway, if someone could shed some blatantly obvious light on this it would be much appreciated.

**devil** · 10-30-2004

Does booting into the terminal prompt and starting X manually (by startx) give the same problem?
(You can try that by modifying the /etc/inittab file, line 18, change id:5:initdefault: to id:3:initdefault:, reboot)
Also try starting X (type xinit) and starting KDE or GNOME manually (type startkde and gnome-session respectively) to see whether the problem is with the Xserver configuration, or the GNOME and KDE packages. The installation may not be proper as you might be installing from the same (maybe defective) cd everytime.
If the problem is with the Xserver configuration, type "XFree86 -configure" to generate a new configuration file.

**lordnothing** · 10-30-2004

it sounds like your X config is borked.. most likely incorrect monitor settings or some such is causing X to crash, and the init tries to respawn it and it dies again.. and this continues in a vicious cycle...

so, the first thing you need to do is make ABSOLUTELY sure that you know what your monitor's vert refresh and horiz sync rates are... don't just select a model from their list... input the values by hand.. (you can find them in the monitor's manual or on the web.. Google is great for finding that info)...

**benjamin20** · 10-30-2004

google is greatfr finding ANY info

**hellhuff** · 10-30-2004

Ok, I managed to rescue it from the cycle (which I overestimated, it's actually a 2 second break between restart attempts). I changed the /etc/inittab file to start in text mode, so I now have a command line.

I tried the "startx" command and it still wouldn't start. It gave me the same problem with the following error message:

Fatal server error:
could not open default font 'fixed'

...(instructions for error reporting)

XIO: fatal IO error 104 (Connection reset by peer) on X server ":0.0"

I think it's quite possible that the problem is the monitor's refresh rates (as I just chose an unprobed monitor), do you know where the file can be found where I can change that?

Also, I don't think that it's the CDs, becuase I was running a newer computer off of those CDs for a while before I switched to Fedora.

**devil** · 11-10-2004

As i said, type "XFree86 -configure" to generate a new configuration file automatically. If you want to edit the file manually, it's usually /etc/X11/XF86Config

**Dolda2000** · 11-10-2004

It sounds to me as if there's something wrong with the font server. See if xfs is started, and if it isn't, see if it works if you start it:

Code:

service xfs status
service xfs start

**hellhuff** · 11-21-2004

peachy, it worked perfectly, thank you all

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