GUI won't load - let the diagnostics begin!

English Install/Boot/Login
1

Hi all,

Well I’ve been stuffing around with things and know Gnome won’t load :frowning: except in FailSafe mode. :slight_smile:

When I choose either Xen or openSUSE from the Grub menu it starts to boot fine until towards the end when the screen flashes several times and each time the following line appears;

gdm[4694] WARNING: GdmDisplay: display lasted 0.5... seconds

Then shows the login command, where I can login fine, just no desktop.

Here’s some additional info.

fdisk -l

Disk /dev/sda: 320.0 GB, 320072933376 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 38913 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x56815681

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sda1   *           1       38887   312359796    7  HPFS/NTFS

Disk /dev/sdb: 320.0 GB, 320072933376 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 38913 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x56815681

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sdb1               1       23499   188747685    7  HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sdb2   *       23500       38913   123812955    f  W95 Ext'd (LBA)
/dev/sdb5           23500       38913   123812923+   7  HPFS/NTFS

Disk /dev/sdc: 500.1 GB, 500107862016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 60801 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x09e994cb

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sdc1               1       28047   225287496    7  HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sdc2           28048       60801   263096505   83  Linux

Disk /dev/sdd: 500.1 GB, 500107862016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 60801 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x09e994ce

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sdd1   *           2       60801   488376000    f  W95 Ext'd (LBA)
/dev/sdd5               2          13       96358+  83  Linux
/dev/sdd6              14         274     2096451   82  Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sdd7             275        5495    41937651   83  Linux
/dev/sdd8            5496       60801   444245413+  83  Linux

menu.list

# Modified by YaST2. Last modification on Thu Jul  9 11:35:26 BST 2009
default 0
timeout 30
gfxmenu (hd0,4)/message
##YaST - activate

###Don't change this comment - YaST2 identifier: Original name: xen###
title Xen -- openSUSE 11.1 - 2.6.27.23-0.1
    root (hd0,4)
    kernel /xen.gz 
    module /vmlinuz-2.6.27.23-0.1-xen root=/dev/disk/by-id/scsi-SATA_ST3500418AS_6VM29J94-part7 repair=1 resume=/dev/disk/by-id/scsi-SATA_ST3500418AS_6VM29J94-part6 splash=silent showopts vga=0x31a
    module /initrd-2.6.27.23-0.1-xen

###Don't change this comment - YaST2 identifier: Original name: linux###
title openSUSE 11.1 - 2.6.27.23-0.1
    root (hd0,4)
    kernel /vmlinuz root=/dev/disk/by-id/scsi-SATA_ST3500418AS_6VM29J94-part7 repair=1 resume=/dev/disk/by-id/scsi-SATA_ST3500418AS_6VM29J94-part6 splash=silent showopts vga=0x31a
    initrd /initrd

###Don't change this comment - YaST2 identifier: Original name: failsafe###
title Failsafe -- openSUSE 11.1 - 2.6.27.23-0.1
    root (hd0,4)
    kernel /vmlinuz root=/dev/disk/by-id/scsi-SATA_ST3500418AS_6VM29J94-part7 showopts ide=nodma apm=off noresume edd=off powersaved=off nohz=off highres=off processor.max_cstate=1 x11failsafe vga=0x31a
    initrd /initrd
2

Hey David,

Have you installed a video driver, yet?

If not, let me know and I’ll walk you through the process.

3

Hi Unseen-Ghost

I have the nvidia driver installed, although I’m currently in FailSafe mode.

I did have everything working fine until I decided to physically move my hard drives to different slots and install Xen.

If you think it will help I can post what I’ve done, but it will be a long one.

4

Thanks for the hint Unseen-Ghost, it was the video driver after all. :slight_smile:

I un-installed all the nvidia drivers, as I noticed there were both 173 and 185 versions installed, then re-installed the 185 version, rebooted and everything came back.

Now I just have to try booting into Xen, but hopefully that will work too.

5

No problem. :slight_smile:

Best part was that you fixed it.