X server problems

captain · *nix forums beginner Joined: 20 Feb 2005 Posts: 8

I have recently installed 5.1B3 and am trying to get a GUI. There is
no problem with the installation itself running in console text mode
but the problems are with the X server. After several helpful comments
on the HP forum concerning the PCI card which is presumably too old to
be supported, it was decided to default back to the on-board Cirrus at
low resolution but first to try and use the ECU to properly disable the
Cirrus chip.

I therefore built an ECU diskette from backup images as follows on a
PC:-
W98 booted in MSDOS mode
format a:/s
label SYSTEMCFG (upper case as in Alpha 1000A user manual)
files copied to A:
files verified using wordpad to maintain formatting
all looked fine and check that cfg (5000) for 1000 and 1000A was
present.
moved floppy to alpha
powered down and restarted
at >>>runecu
[answer] Loading Arc Firmware from Flash
Arc Firmware Loaded

Then nothing. Keyboard dead so <cr> no good. No lights on floppy drive.

Only a reset brings alpha back to life, and back to the srm chevrons.

I did this whole job three times with constant results.

As the floppy seems good I next tried test at SRM and results suggest
floppy drive may be NBG but not absolute because the error given is
that EVA0 file cannot be opened. As the only floppy I have that can be
tested is the one that will not load as an ECU it could still be the
floppy rather than the drive. However it should be noted that when UNIX
is booting there is a constant error of
fd internal drive error [Unsupported media] whether there is a floppy
in the drive or not. I don't know if this is a red herring or not.

OK, so if I can't run the ECU at present I tried another tack.
I removed the PCI card and re-enabled the on-board vga jumper, moving
the monitor to the vga port. Ran test at >>> seemed OK.

Booted as normal and hey presto a gui appeared with Xserver apparently
running as it should with a low resolution of 640x480. I tested this
for a couple of hours and mouse etc worked fine with sysman actions all
possible from the screen and netscape browsing world-wide.
Note well that the Xserver.conf file had not been changed from what it
was while trying to get the PCI card working so the entries such as

-screen0 640x480

etc etc were still in the conf file.

I reasoned that they should not be there for the default operation of
the Cirrus chip and so edited the file (/var/X11/Xserver.conf) to
remove the entries and rebooted.

Oh dear. No gui. No gui whatever I do. Putting the entries back and
rechecking, rechecking. Taking them out. Powering down. Test and init.
You name it I have tried it.

Clearly if Xserver started once with this physical configuration it
should start again so what have I done to upset it??

The Xerrors file gives two errors each time e.g.
error (pid 1049): Server unexpectedly died
(5 seconds later)
error (pi 1049): Server for display :0 can't be started

which is not terribly helpful.

Can anybody on this newsgroup make any suggestions as to what to try
now please?

stuart mckenzie

Google