Not able to load gnome or kde

[cocheese]

hi, im relatively new to linux.. used it before a little but am tryin to install it on another system and having problems with xwindows. I had no problems during the actual installation, and i have made sure i have all of the packages i need. When trying too boot into gnome, wich is waht i used as default when typing startx... i get a blank screen... then a bunch of colored verticle lines... and it doesnt do anything after that. i can back out of that with ctl alt backspace and it returns me to the command line.

if i try starting KDE using startkde i get

xset:unable to open display ''''
xset:unable to open display ''''

xset root: unable to open display''
startkde: starting up....
ksplash: cannont connect to X server
kdeinit: Aborting. $DISPLAY is not set.
Warning: connect() failed: : No such file or directory
kmserver: cannot connect to X server
startkde: shutting down...
Warning: connect() failed: : No such file or directory
Error: Can't contact kdeinit!
startkde: Running shutdown scripts...

i also tried setting kde as default with startx and i get the same thing i got when using gnome... the screen with colored lines.
i have looked around for xfree86config.... and found a file that contains some settings .. but have no idea what to do with those... like i said im ver y new.. so any help would be appreciated! thanks alot in advance for posts!

Cocheese

[Chris H]

hi, im relatively new to linux.. used it before a little but am tryin to install it on another system and having problems with xwindows. I had no problems during the actual installation, and i have made sure i have all of the packages i need. When trying too boot into gnome, wich is waht i used as default when typing startx... i get a blank screen... then a bunch of colored verticle lines... and it doesnt do anything after that. i can back out of that with ctl alt backspace and it returns me to the command line.

if i try starting KDE using startkde i get

xset:unable to open display ''''
xset:unable to open display ''''

xset root: unable to open display''
startkde: starting up....
ksplash: cannont connect to X server
kdeinit: Aborting. $DISPLAY is not set.
Warning: connect() failed: : No such file or directory
kmserver: cannot connect to X server
startkde: shutting down...
Warning: connect() failed: : No such file or directory
Error: Can't contact kdeinit!
startkde: Running shutdown scripts...

i also tried setting kde as default with startx and i get the same thing i got when using gnome... the screen with colored lines.
i have looked around for xfree86config.... and found a file that contains some settings .. but have no idea what to do with those... like i said im ver y new.. so any help would be appreciated! thanks alot in advance for posts!

Cocheese

Login as root and then type xf86config to open up a menu driven prog to setup XF86Config file.

[sether]

first of all, the kde errors you got were probably because you tried "startkde" at the command line alone, and you should instead have it in .xinitrc (in your home directory).

post your hardware specs - video card and monitor only - and the contents of /etc/X11/XF86Config (sometimes called xorg.conf or something similar).

***edit: or what Chris H said with the xf86config***

[cocheese]

ok, ive tried using xf86config at the roots command line... even when i first started the system up after install... thats no good, it gives me commandnot found. As far as the monitor, i know the monitor will run will run with xwindows because i had this monitor on the old system i had running linux. I wich i knew wich video card i had, but i dont... this newer box was not mine to begin with and the video card is built in... there is no video card slot in it, monitor plugs directly into a port that is connected to the mobo... the box and mobo are about 2 1/2 years old, HP (piece of junk).

as for the xorg.conf file... is there anything specific i should be lookin for... i cant copy and paste it to this window and its about 487 lines long so i wont be typing the whole thing out here..

also during the boot process i did notice this... cardmgr: no pcmcia driver in /proc/devices, not sure if thats going to give anymore clues to whats going on but ya never know.

Thanks again
Cocheese

[cocheese]

in the xorg.conf file i can tell ya what it says in the monitor section.

# Any number of monitor sections may be present

   Section "Monitor"
        
        Identifier "My Monitor"
 
       HorizSync   31.5 - 50.0
# Horiz Sync 30-64           #multisync
#Horizsync 31.5, 35.2       #multiple fixed sync frequencies
# HorizSync 15-25, 30-50  #multiple ranges of sync frequencies

    VertRefresh 40-90

Graphics device section

Section "device"
    Identifier   "VESA Framebuffer"
    Driver        "vesa:
    #VideoRam  4096
    # Insert Clocks lines here if appropriate
EndSection

Screen sections

Section "screen"
     Identifier  "screen1"
     Device      "VESA Framebuffer"
     Monitor      "My Monitor"

# default depth 8
# defaultdepth 16
  default depth 24
#defaultdeptth 32

[/code]

not sure if thats going to help any.. i know the lines with # are not read so maybe i should try switching those up..?

[heartsmagic]

cocheese instead of xf86config try

xorgconfig

By the way "no pcmcia driver in /proc/devices" message is not important and your monitor section seems good.

[cocheese]

ok, xorgconfig runs but it says i need to know what video card i have.... i dont, and have no way of finding out... wich is a problem... any other suggestions?

[heartsmagic]

What is the output of

which kdeinit

command?

[cocheese]

output of which kdeinit is /opt/kde/bin/kdeinit

i did find the XF86Config files... but they have extensions and arent executable... they are XF86Config.98 and XF86Config.eg

[heartsmagic]

The best thing you can do learning your graphic card's type i think.
With xorgconfig you can try some types.

or if you got a windows system you can get some information.