[wplug] Re: wplug digest, Vol 1 #963 - 25 msgs

[Elwin Green]

I don't know what is distro-specific (or
distro-dependent) and what is not. However, as of my
previous email, I had already run xf86config a couple
of times. Here's what happens:

It asks if I want to look at the video card database.
I say yes.

I find my card on the list and enter its item number
(101; the card is a Cirrus Logic GD5422).

I get this message:

Do NOT probe clocks or use any Clocks line.
This card is basically UNSUPPORTED. If may only work
as a generic VGA-compatible card. 

What's missing here, for me, is info on *how* to get
it working as a generic VGA-compatible card.
*Extremely* frustrating after all the wonderfulness of
the network install process.

I just stepped beyond my fear to follow your
suggestion (the fear of smoking my monitor, or
otherwise causing a *new* problem. I mean, what does
'XFree86 -configure' do, that 'xf86configure' does
not?). There was an extremely quick scrolling of text,
then my monitor went black for a while (really scared
now!). Then text again - looks like a log, which
finishes with this:

XFree86 is not able to detect your mouse. Edit the
file and correct the Device.

Your XF86Config file is /root/XF86Config.new

To test the server, run 'XFree86 -xf86config
/root/XF86Config.new'

Hmm. That looks like the second part of JSB's
suggestion (BTW, JSB, are you a fan of *the* JSB?), so
I try it.

It does that scary blackout thing again, then for a
few seconds there's a narrow band of what looks like
incredibly poor tv reception. Then the assumed log
file, which ends in a message about not detecting my
mouse. 

Just as I feared: a *new* problem. 

Feeling bold, I edit that XF86Config.new to say that
the mouse is at /dev/ttyS0, and try again. Same
blackout/bad tv response, then a log which ends with a
list of complaints that it "Could not init font path
element xxxx", ending with 

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

Great. A *new* new problem. Something to do with
fonts, I know that much. But I don't know, I don't
have any idea about - what to do next.

Apparently it found my mouse, though. For what that's
worth.

Sigh.

Gripe time: I *know* that my video card is really old,
and I *know* that this monitor is really funky, but
every version of Windows I've ever used has rendered
at least a basic vga picture with every card and
monitor I've ever owned. A process that I didn't have
to think about under windows has become, under linux,
a learning experience that I didn't want to have. And
it's holding me back from the learning experience I
*do* want to have (i.e., learning to administer a
webserver with linux and apache and a lightweight
gui). 

It is at points such as this that linux looks less
like an OS that could transform the world (and I
sincerely want to believe that it could, in very
specific ways), and more like a great big pain in the
butt. It is at these points that I remember some wag's
observation that "Linux is free only for those whose
time is worthless." 

The very fact that I am asking you folks what to do
next means, not only that something isn't working as
it should, but also that I haven't found the help I
need elsewhere - not in man pages, not at debian.org,
not at xfree86.org, not in my O'Relly book ("Learning
Debian GNU/Linux").

Is there some trick to learning this stuff, a process
for finding answers that I don't know about yet? If
so, please clue me in. 

If not, is there a place where I can find generic vga
settings for x under debian?


TIA,
E.

--- wplug-request at wplug.org wrote:
Message: 16
Subject: Re: [wplug] new x errors
From: Jonathan S Billings <billings at negate.org>
To: wplug at wplug.org
Organization: TSFNKP, President and Chief Lackey
Date: 13 Aug 2003 17:08:11 -0400
Reply-To: wplug at wplug.org

Have you configured the X server for your video
hardware?  Try running:

XFree86 -configure

and then

XFree86 -xf86config ~/XF86Config.new

(that'll just start X, no session management or
anything, you'll have 
to
cancel it at the console or hit control-alt-backspace
to kill the X
server).

If that works, you can use that XF86Config.new as the
X config script
(normally stored in /etc/X11/XF86Config).  

There may be distro-dependant ways of configuring
this, but I only know
the redhat way (and I prefer using the above and
tweaking the resulting
file).



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