11.2 boots to command prompt, not KDE

WantOS2Back · August 16, 2010, 11:48pm

Computer: Toshiba Satellite A505D laptop
OS: Suse 11.2, installed from Linux Pro Magazine disc – was running fine after formatted install (dumped Vista), been running it for a month.

Situation: Saturday, I went to an installfest for help getting my Pantech UM-175 USB aircard to work with my new laptop. One of the guys there got it running, and then we downloaded all of the updates. Following download, I shut down the laptop and hit the road.

I got home last night, booted the computer a little while ago, and it came up to a command prompt rather than KDE. I was able to log in on the command prompt.

Cold and warm reboots gave the same results, as did Failsafe boot.

I am assuming that something in the updates cut off KDE from starting. We did several cold boots at the installfest and it was working fine after the modem install, but BEFORE downloading the updates.

QUESTIONS:

How do I manually launch KDE?
How do I get KDE to autoload again?
Is there anyone in the Reno, Nevada area who is a Suse guru, or are there installfests near Reno?
Thanks!

deano_ferrari · August 17, 2010, 1:15am

If you’ve recently installed a lot of updates, I wonder whether the kernel got updated too. This might have disrupted your graphics drivers. Do you know what graphics chipset you’re using? Did you have a proprietary driver installed? Try logging into your console (as regular user), then type ‘startx’. Does this start the desktop ok?

Some useful references:

http://forums.opensuse.org/english/information-new-users/advanced-how-faq-read-only/438705-opensuse-graphic-card-practical-theory-guide-users.html

http://en.opensuse.org/SDB:Configuring_graphics_cards

WantOS2Back · August 17, 2010, 5:14pm

No joy – it aborts with a bunch of lines, mostly saying:

"(WW) fglrx: o matching device ection for instance (BusID PCI:0@0:17:0) found

The final number increments: 18:0, 18:1, 18:2, 19:0 and so on until 20:4

the last several lines include:

“Fatal server error:
Caught signal 11. Server aborting”

some notes about X.Org Foundation, then

“xinit: No such file or directory (errno 2): unable to conect to server
xinit: No such process (errno 3): server error”

and back to a command prompt.

The video is onboard ATI Radeon, the CPU is an AMD Turion X2 64.

gogalthorp · August 17, 2010, 5:22pm

Reinstalling the ATI driver should get you back. Did you read the Practical theory guide??

WantOS2Back · August 17, 2010, 5:58pm

As far as Linux is concerned, I’m still only one step above “ignorant appliance operator.”

Looking at the Guide, I see references to editing files. How do I launch the editor from a prompt?

Would I be better off just getting 11.3 and loading that, then trying again to get my aircard to work?

tararpharazon · August 17, 2010, 6:09pm

You could try editing the /etc/X11/xorg.conf file to use the “radeon” driver instead of the “fglrx”


# from command prompt 
su ~
vi /etc/X11/xorg.conf
#   scroll down using down arrow until you see "fglrx"
#   press the "I"  key or the insert key
I
#   change "fglrx" to "radeon"  in the Section "Device"
  Driver       "radeon"
#   press  ESCape
ESC
#    press the ":"  key and type wq and press enter
: wq
#    enter startx
startx

You won’t be using the lastest ATI proprietary 3D driver but it’ll let you play 3D games.

WantOS2Back · August 17, 2010, 6:29pm

tararpharazon:

You could try editing the /etc/X11/xorg.conf file to use the “radeon” driver instead of the “fglrx”
# from command prompt 
su ~
vi /etc/X11/xorg.conf
#   scroll down using down arrow until you see "fglrx"
#   press the "I"  key or the insert key
I
#   change "fglrx" to "radeon"  in the Section "Device"
  Driver       "radeon"
#   press  ESCape
ESC
#    press the ":"  key and type wq and press enter
: wq
#    enter startx
startx 
You won’t be using the lastest ATI proprietary 3D driver but it’ll let you play 3D games.

I got through the insert-radeon line, hit ESC :wq and got

E45: ‘readonly’ option is set (add ! to override)

Where do I add a “!” ?

tararpharazon · August 17, 2010, 6:52pm

Sorry I missed the password part, but that would be :wq!

from command prompt


su -
password: 
#  make sure you are in /root
pwd 
vi /etc/X11/xorg.conf
#   scroll down using down arrow until you see "fglrx"
#   press the "I"  key or the insert key
I
#   change "fglrx" to "radeon"  in the Section "Device"
  Driver       "radeon"
#   press  ESCape
ESC
#    press the ":"  key and type wq and press enter
:wq
 ##  but if requested 
:wq!
#    enter startx
startx

Hope that fixes the problem. For some reason the proprietary ATI drivers never match my kernels so I can’t even compile the source to get a proper driver.

WantOS2Back · August 17, 2010, 7:13pm

“su ~” returns with

“su: user /home/kw6 does not exist”

then drops me back to a command prompt.

BTW, the command prompt is “kw6@linux-7ib2:~>”

Again, I’m on 11.2, the version which was on the disk that came in Linux Pro Magazine a few months back, if that matters.

WantOS2Back · August 17, 2010, 7:32pm

Got the su problem figured out – in the first msg, you gave me “su ~” with a tilde. I checked man su and saw no tildes, to I tried it with just a hyphen and it worked.

Cold booted, just to see (didn’t try startx first) and IT CAME UP TO KDE!!!

. . .and a bash prompt window on the Desktop . . .hmmm . . .

X’d off the window, and everything seems to be working. I have to kill my Windoze laptop to pull the aircard to try it on the Suse laptop, but we’ll see what happens and I will come back to let you know.

tararpharazon · August 17, 2010, 7:34pm

Yes I had changed the “~” to “-” in the reply but once you’ve signed in you should


cd /root/

The command prompt indicates to me you were in the “kw6” directory and before you use vi check the directory.


pwd
##  it should be /root

WantOS2Back · August 17, 2010, 7:40pm

Success!

I am sending this from the Suse laptop!

Thanks for the help, and the specific instructions.

tararpharazon · August 17, 2010, 7:49pm

Whew, glad it worked.
Should work for a reboot as well.
I suggest writing down the corrected instructions somewhere because the next ATI update might cause the same problem, I know it does for my ATI video.

karmadillo · October 20, 2011, 1:29pm

tararpharazon:

Sorry I missed the password part, but that would be :wq!

from command prompt
su -
password: 
#  make sure you are in /root
pwd 
vi /etc/X11/xorg.conf
#   scroll down using down arrow until you see "fglrx"
#   press the "I"  key or the insert key
I
#   change "fglrx" to "radeon"  in the Section "Device"
  Driver       "radeon"
#   press  ESCape
ESC
#    press the ":"  key and type wq and press enter
:wq
 ##  but if requested 
:wq!
#    enter startx
startx
Hope that fixes the problem. For some reason the proprietary ATI drivers never match my kernels so I can’t even compile the source to get a proper driver.

I think this applies to my situation too.
As super user (su) the vi command creates a new (blank) file.
Upon further investigation this is because there is no X11 folder in the etc folder on my install.

Can you give me any pointers?
I’m running the 64 bit version if that makes any difference.

martin_helm · October 20, 2011, 1:45pm

karmadillo wrote:

>
> I think this applies to my situation too.
> As super user (su) the vi command creates a new (blank) file.
> Upon further investigation this is because there is no X11 folder in
> the etc folder on my install.
>
Do you have X11 installed at all?