The error: you boot up your Linux box one day, and try and
start X, and all of a sudden for no apparent reason under
heaven it no longer works... with the following error
message (due to pesky neutrinos permeating everything!!?):
ERROR MESSAGE------------------------------------------------
startx
could not open default font path 'unix/:-1
Fatal server error:
could not open default font 'fixed'
or:
/etc/rc.d/init.d/xfs
xfs dead but subsys locked
MY FIX-------------------------------------------------------
Basically, change XFS to run on port 7100 instead of -1 and
tell X to look for fonts on port 7100 instead of -1:
pico /etc/X11/Xf86Config
change FontPath "unix:-1" to FontPath "unix:7100"
CNTRL-X to exit pico editor and save... then...
from the command line, manually start XFS ingnoring lock file:
xfs -port 7100 -daemon
startx
If that worked, go back to a command line, and make the
change permanent also in your /etc/rc.d/init.d/xfs script:
pico ./etc/rc.d/init.d/xfs
change the refereneces under 'START' and 'RESTART'
where it starts 'daemon' change '-port -1' to 'port -7100'
careful: on the first occurance under START, expanding the
line with the extra characters will make '/bin/sh' word
wrap to a new line, so take out some whitespace before the
daemon line and get the '/bin/sh' back on the same line...
otherwise, when you reboot, you will get dropped midway
in the boot to a shell... if that's the case, just
pico ./etc/rc.d/init.d/xfs again and fix it back on one
line...
CNTRL-X to exit pico editor and save...
-------------------------------------------------------------
If on the next time you reboot, it does not work... and
it worked before... run xfs manually at the command line:
xfs -port 7100 -daemon
startx
-------------------------------------------------------------
This is a really stupid thing in the distributions to me, to
have XFS run on some dynamic port/filesystem -1... why not
just stick with port 7100 so it doesn't break on everybody
at random for no apparent reason...
removing the lock file with rm /var/lock/subsys/xfs
does not seem to allow xfs to restart either... something
messed up is going on...
One of these unreliable unix gotcha's that turn newbies off
to linux...
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