Re: [gentoo-user] Is starting xdm enough to see something in X?

[Daniel da Veiga]

On Fri, May 22, 2009 at 17:46, Mark Knecht <markknecht@×××××.com> wrote:
> On Fri, May 22, 2009 at 12:54 PM, Alan McKinnon <alan.mckinnon@×××××.com> wrote:
>> On Friday 22 May 2009 21:19:40 Mark Knecht wrote:
>>> On Fri, May 22, 2009 at 12:08 PM, Matt Harrison
>>>
>>> <iwasinnamuknow@×××××××××.com> wrote:
>>> > Mark Knecht wrote:
>>> >> On Fri, May 22, 2009 at 11:49 AM, bn <brullonulla@×××××.com> wrote:
>>> >>> Mark Knecht ha scritto:
>>> >>>> Title sort of says it. I have an old machine that I'm setting up as a
>>> >>>> Myth server. I didn't want X on the machine but I'm having trouble so
>>> >>>> I emerged xdm and start it using /etc/init.d/xdm start. The  drivers
>>> >>>> get loaded but I get a black screen. No error message in the X log
>>> >>>> file.
>>> >>>>
>>> >>>> I haven't messed with X at this level before. What's the minimum test
>>> >>>> of X that would display a terminal or something very basic?
>>> >>>
>>> >>> Have you tried
>>> >>>
>>> >>> startx /usr/bin/xterm
>>> >>
>>> >> Yes. Same black screen. Nothing else going on. The processes show up
>>> >> in ps aux, X as root, xterm as me.
>>> >
>>> > I've found before that if everything seems to be running (can list X
>>> > processes and logs look fine) but you still don't see anything, it's
>>> > possible it is your monitor. I used to use a really old 15" CRT for a
>>> > server but it just wouldn't run X at anything over 640x480. Modern
>>> > monitors will at least tell you if the resolution/refresh is out of
>>> > limits, but older ones don't often. Try with a different monitor if that
>>> > one is old or suspect.
>>> >
>>> > ~Matt
>>>
>>> Good point. I'll hook the machine up to a very good monitor later today.
>>> Thanks.
>>
>> You need to run an X-server, not the one that is displaying xdm because that
>> will only run xdm and once you authenticate will launch an entirely different
>> session. Either launch the failsafe session, it gives you twm on gentoo with a
>> single xterm, or ditch xdm and run startx.
>>
>> You can also run xinit (startx is a wrapper script around xinit that launches
>> user-defined apps) and that gives you plain X without a window manager so you
>> need to put at least xterm into .xinitrc
>>
>>> One question about this X stuff. Is there any difference at all at the
>>> application level if I run an app displaying on the monitor of that
>>> machine, or use ssh -X -Y -C and run the app displaying on a remote
>>> machine?
>>
>> No difference whatsoever for basic apps. X is network transparent, meaning
>> that the X client reads and writes a Unix socket, TCP socket, or whatever else
>> you can dream up. However, I'm sure you will find that recent fancy stuff like
>> compiz and OpenGL don't work as expected.
>>
>>> If there is absolutely no difference then I don't need to bother with
>>> this. If there is then I do. The real issue here is that Myth doesn't
>>> work. If I can be certain that displaying Myth apps on a remote
>>> screen, such as mythtv-setup or mythfrontend, is really the same then
>>> I'll just do that. However those apps are currently failing so I'm
>>> trying to eliminate issues, and possibly creating one I don't care
>>> about in doing that!
>>
>> Running X apps locally locally tests your X libs and your X server.
>> Running X apps remotely tests the X libs
>>
>
> Thanks Alan,
>   OK, I switched to a known good monitor, left xdm turned off and
> used startx at my command line. I see all the right stuff in ps but
> still no video, and it seems that I've lost control of my keyboard as
> I cannot use Alt-Ctrl-F2 to get to another console. (The machine
> currently doesn't have a mouse)
>
> MacMini ~ # ps aux | grep x
> <SNIP>
> mark      4643  0.0  0.2   3324  1348 tty1     S+   13:24   0:00
> /bin/sh /usr/bin/startx
> mark      4659  0.0  0.2   3680  1104 tty1     S+   13:24   0:00 xinit
> /etc/X11/xinit/xinitrc -- -nolisten tcp -br -auth
> /home/mark/.serverauth.4643 -deferglyphs 16
> mark      4679  0.0  0.6   8216  3252 tty1     S    13:24   0:00 xterm
> -geometry 80x66+0+0 -name login
> mark      4694  0.0  0.6   8376  3488 tty1     S    13:24   0:00
> xclock -geometry 50x50-1+1
> mark      4695  0.0  0.6   8208  3252 tty1     S    13:24   0:00 xterm
> -geometry 80x50+494+51
> mark      4696  0.0  0.6   8196  3236 tty1     S    13:24   0:00 xterm
> -geometry 80x20+494-0
> root      4735  0.0  0.1   2840  1020 pts/3    R+   13:26   0:00 ps aux
> root      4736  0.0  0.1   2060   580 pts/3    R+   13:26   0:00 grep
> --colour=auto x
> MacMini ~ #
>
> If I use top in a terminal and kill startx and xinit then I get back
> to my login console.
>
> Possibly xorg-server-1.5 isn't compatible with a 2.6.24 kernel?
>
> Maybe I should move this to the Power PC group. Likely I'll find
> someone there with direct experience. Still, I appreciate the wider
> audience of gentoo-user.
>

Or you're using an intel card.
Set your VIDEO_CARDS variable in /etc/make.conf to "vesa" and
recompile xorg-server, then try again.

-- 
Daniel da Veiga