On Fri, May 22, 2009 at 17:46, Mark Knecht <[email protected]> wrote: > On Fri, May 22, 2009 at 12:54 PM, Alan McKinnon <[email protected]> > wrote: >> On Friday 22 May 2009 21:19:40 Mark Knecht wrote: >>> On Fri, May 22, 2009 at 12:08 PM, Matt Harrison >>> >>> <[email protected]> wrote: >>> > Mark Knecht wrote: >>> >> On Fri, May 22, 2009 at 11:49 AM, bn <[email protected]> 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
