OESF Portables Forum

General Forums => Off Topic forum => Topic started by: lardman on September 23, 2004, 02:48:37 pm

Title: Starting Linux without X
Post by: lardman on September 23, 2004, 02:48:37 pm

I foolishly installed a new graphics card in my home PC without altering the X11 setup.

Now I get a black screen after the boot messages have gone away. I have a couple of options for what to start (in Lilo) - Linux, and Linux-non-fb are the most recent ones, and although the non-fb one seems to be what I want (just uses the terminal), it also goes to a black screen after the boot process.

Is there a way of starting Linux on a console so I can get in and make the alterations I need to to get X11 back? BTW the graphics card works fine with Windows and even has drivers for Linux, it's just that I can't install them!.

Cheers,


Si

P.S. Have just found a list of Linux keypresses (like Alt-SysRq, etc.) let's see what (damage) I can do...

Title: Starting Linux without X
Post by: lardman on September 23, 2004, 04:12:14 pm

Hmm, tried again (after running fsck as I'd shutdown 'uncleanly') and now I get a random shimmering screen of colour (much like one of the xscreensaver screensavers actually).

I tried the standard Alt-Fn key to try to change vt - no change; ctrl-alt-backspace - nothing; Alt+SysRq then T, on the off chance, but again nothing.

Does anyone have any ideas?

Thanks,


Simon

Title: Starting Linux without X
Post by: stupkid on September 23, 2004, 04:15:33 pm

You can either wait until init pauses after restarting the process too many times.  Then quickly log into the system and disable X.

  Or

You can start up the system in single user mode and change your configuration to not start X (remove it from /etc/rcd/rc5.d or /etc/inittab).

As I recall from the old days of running lilo you should be able to boot with 'linux single' to get into single user mode.

Good Luck!

Title: Starting Linux without X
Post by: superbondbond on September 23, 2004, 04:42:54 pm

Sounds like a job for Tom's Root/Boot.  

Title: Starting Linux without X
Post by: lardman on September 23, 2004, 06:28:37 pm

Quote

You can start up the system in single user mode and change your configuration to not start X (remove it from /etc/rcd/rc5.d or /etc/inittab).

As I recall from the old days of running lilo you should be able to boot with 'linux single' to get into single user mode.

Hmm, doesn't appear to be there. I'll have to try to find my boot floppy or wait until I can get to my Linux box at uni over the weekend.

Quote

Sounds like a job for Tom's Root/Boot.

Yes, if I can't find my boot floppy then this may well be the easiest solution, cheers for pointing it out to me.


Si

Title: Starting Linux without X
Post by: zmiq2 on September 24, 2004, 03:42:22 am

have you tried ctrl-alt-f1 (that works for me)?

ctrl-alt-f7 to go back to x11 session, even in your case that seems stupid, since there's no x11 ;-)

Title: Starting Linux without X
Post by: lardman on September 24, 2004, 05:42:42 am

Not sure, but thanks for the tip.

I've managed to fix it, sort of. I booted from the installation CD, started a rescue kernel, found /etc/X11/XF86Config-4 and edited it sufficiently to allow X to start then give up and give me a login prompt.

I then tried to install the nVidia drivers, but strangely enough they were the ipk for Wellenreiter. I have a feeling DirectCD (on my PC) must have been having a bad day and screwed up the filenames.

Anyway I'm back in business.

Thanks to everyone for their suggestions.


Si