x will not start, gives no error messages

[slackerw/nojob]

Installed slackware 10.1, cmd line runs fine, but when I try to type startx it prints some text really fast that I can't read then goes totally black instead of loading. Before I ran the xconfig util, I tried startx to see if it would work. It didn't, and gave me errors similar to others that posted with this problem.

My sys specs:

usb mouse
Leadtek Winfast Geforce2 pro
compaq fs740 monitor
1 gig ram

I installed and ran SuSe linux 8.1 home with kde and had no problems before.

[gimp335]

Maybe changing the refresh rates in /etc/X11/xorg.conf will help...maybe not. Give it a try.

[genesus]

also if the screen goes black you may be able to switch over to terminal 1, ctl-alt-f1 or ctl-f1 or alt-f1 or something like that and post what is happening, usually when it goes graphical it is running under the term located on f7.

[Krendoshazin]

Maybe changing the refresh rates in /etc/X11/xorg.conf will help...maybe not. Give it a try.

that was my suspicion aswell, if you comment out HorizSync & VertRefresh by putting a # before them in xorg.conf, this will make it use the monitors default values.

most monitors when out of frequency will display a black screen, mine gets around this by printing a color bar saying "frequency out of range", or if there is a problem with the cable or it is not plugged in it'll say "check signal cable", this is a nice touch, and the black screen is often a cause of confusion for users.

[slackerw/nojob]

Thanks for replying, I have been trying different frequencies and stuff in the xorgconfig program, and I have started receiving error messages, mostly relating to the changes I made. My monitor's freq's are:

H freq: 31.5 to 70 khz
V freq: 50 to 120 HZ

as seen on its web page. As for the errors that I get all the time regardless of the adjustment I made, it prints them to the command line immediately after the command starx. Here it is:

[code]
_XSERVTransSocketOpenCOTSSERVER:Unable to open socket for inet6
_XSERVTransOpen: transport open failed for inet6/lsacker: 0 #(lsacker is my computer name)
_XSERVTransMakeAllCOTSServerListeners: failed to open listener for inet6

In this space is some general info about my kernel build,build date,
type, etc.

Parse error on line 1 of section (null) in file /etc/X11/xorg.conf
"XSERVTransSocketOpenCOTSServer:" is not a valid keyword in this section

In between more error messages is the key explaining the (EE) and (II) etc.

Fatal server error:
no screens found #(this happens regardless of the settings I give it)

XIO: fatal error 104 (connection feset by peer) on Xserver "0.0"
after 0 requests (0 known processed) with 0 events remaining

I might just reinstall slack, that server stuff sounds scary. But when I was testing different v frequencies, I put it to the highest and it also gave me the screen saying that it was too high for my monitor.

P.S., how do you edit that file? I tried vi and less, but don't know much about Linux cmd line yet.

[puntmuts]

Ignore the first few lines, they are about ipv6 and not fatal. The problem is the message "no screens found". Looks like you will have to configure your X.org again. You could do that using xorgconfig on a bash prompt as root. But lookup your monitor frequencies first (manual ??) before you break things.

Install mc (midnight commander) which has a nice 2 pane file manager and a good editor as well, mcedit. Pico or nano are fine too, and much easier to use then vi.

[slackerw/nojob]

Now that I run xorgconfig again and input the proper refresh info, it gives me the black screen again and no error info. I am positive that the refresh rates are correct.

But, when it's asking for a video card identifier, the closest thing in the loooong list is "nvidia geforce". I have a geforce2, the driver for which could be different and probably is, but I don't know. The log file in /var/log/X11/ whatever prints the full name of my card, and I never typed it in, so I assume that means Slack recognized it.

Thanx for the recommendations on the viewers, pico works good and I want to try mc, but I don't know where to install from (internet from command line?).

[puntmuts]

Midnight commander is somewhere on the install cd of slack. Could you post the /etc/X11/xorg.conf file regarding monitor and videocard settings ?
I will post mine as an example :

Section "Monitor"
        Identifier   "Display 1"
        VendorName   "Samsung"
        ModelName    "SM 152V"
        HorizSync    31.0 - 61.0
        VertRefresh  56.0 - 75.0
        Option       "DPMS"
        Option       "DDCMode"  "on"
EndSection

Section "Device"
        Identifier  "Geforce MX4000"
        Driver      "nv"
        VendorName  "Nvidia"
        BoardName   "Geforce MX4000"
        BusID       "PCI:1:0:0"
EndSection

Section "Screen"
        Identifier "Display 1"
        Device     "Geforce MX4000"
        Monitor    "Display 1"
        DefaultDepth     24
        SubSection "Display"
                Depth     8
                Modes    "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
        EndSubSection
        SubSection "Display"
                Depth     16
                Modes    "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
        EndSubSection
        SubSection "Display"
                Depth     24
                Modes    "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
        EndSubSection
EndSection

This is for my nvidia geforce mx4000 and a lcd samsung screen.

[slackerw/nojob]

Mine looks almost nothing like that; it has a lot of commented things about what refresh rates and stuff to choose, but the only uncommented stuff looks like this:

section "monitor"

identifier "monitor"

(some commented stuff)

HorizSync    31.5 - 70

(some more commented stuff)

VertRefresh  50 - 120

EndSection

And the device section just has generic inputs and the generic vga driver, no busid or options. The screen section doesn't even exist. I guess this would be the problem; how would I fix it?

Btw, mc was already on it, but I can't load xorg.conf in it. Wonder why?

I'm going to go see what I can do myself about xorg.conf and come back to check for another post in a half hour.

Edit- It does have a screen section, but where some of the fields are correct, others are using the wrong reference, like it is using a generic vga device as its first device and "nvidia geforce" as its second entry. Does it help to know it is an AGP 4x interface? I noticed your busid said pci.

[slith]

Had you choose a wm? Without window manager, you may have a grey screen, but in some pcs, you can have a blackscreen if you set a wm like evilwm or fluxbox and gave no wallpaper... But dont think is that, anyway..