1.My memory is hazy on this (because I always upgrade immediately to a recent 2.4.x kernel after installing, and it's been some months now since I did my last install), but I think I recall that the 2.2.20 kernel on the Debian install disks uses the framebuffer (if so, you'll note that early in the boot/init sequence, the display "blinks" and you see it change to a display that has a small, color penguin near the top - that's the sign of the kernel framebuffer). The kernel framebuffer and X sometimes do not play well together, so that *could* be the source of your problem.

If it is, you need either to switch to a kernel without framebuffer support (see next item) or tell X that it needs to use the kernel framebuffer device (I don't do it this way so don't recall how to do it ... might even be an option in the setup script, which you can run with, I think, "dpkg-reconfigure xserver-xfree86" ...perhaps someone else can chime in here with more exact advice?).

2. After you switch from Woody to Sid, you'd do better to switch to the current kernel ... either the kernel-image-2.4.22-* appropriate for your hardware or your own kernel, compiled from kernel-source-2.4.22 . 2.2.20 is really just intended as a temporary kernel for use during install.

3. The other possibility I can think of is that you are trying to use a vfreq or hfreq that your monitor deos not support (or have I previously suggested this? I don't recall your earlier postings in any detail). Probably not, since this problem usually makes it impossible toswitch back to vts.

4. I'm not sure what is putting a "pointer to /dev/mice/???" in your XF86Config-4 file, but that sounds like an attempt by something to use the devfs filesystem for devices, a pesudo-filesystem you probably do not have installed. Your adopted solution should serve, but it would be better to correct this through dpkg-reconfigure than as a hand edit ... that way, it will survive apt-get update/upgrade cycles.


At 11:21 AM 12/9/2003 -0600, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
Hello all.  I'm still experimenting with various ways of installing
Debian.  Since I seem to have hosed the gui on a system I've been using,
and since a "new" computer showed up in the dumpster over at the
department, my latest victim for cruel Debian install experiments is a
P166 with 32MB RAM, 2GB HD and S3Trio64v+ video card (among other things).
I chose the floppy install: six diskettes, then everything downloaded from
the 'net (the machine had an SMC NIC as well, and I have a fairly fast
connection here at the U).  So, the base system was installed as Woody
(2.2.20 kernel and all).  Side note: I really wanted to try out the new
installer beta, but I couldn't access any documentation on it (maybe
because of the Debian server compromises of late).

After installing the base system, I edited /etc/apt/sources.list and
switched over to unstable.  I then ran apt-get update, apt-get
dist-upgrade.  Then, I proceeded to install additional software - the X
window system being the central concern, installed using tasksel.  I also
installed (apt-got) fluxbox for a WM.  Entered settings for my monitor
and video card when asked.  On next boot, however, I got pretty much the
same black screen I wrote to the list about earlier - though that black
screen was with a different video card, monitor and computer: it's just
blank black, as though the monitor is powered off.  The difference in this
case is that I can ctrl-altFsomething and get to other virtual terminals.
I can also kill X windows by going to the terminal X runs on and hitting
ctrl-alt-backspace.  This was more than I could do on the other machine.

So, I conclude that I'm doing something really fundamental really
wrong(ly).  I want to start by asking if I should expect the sid/unstable
version of X windows to have any conflicts with running on a system using
the older 2.2.20 woody/stable kernel (both systems I'm having display
problems with run sid/unstable XFree86 and the stable 2.2.20 kernel)?  I
noted among the messages on screen when either firing up or killing X
windows that it was compiled using the 2.4.22 kernel.  I also noted a
pointer to /dev/mice/???  that my system couldn't make sense of in
XF86Config-4, and which I edited to point to /dev/psaux.

Before going on to any more in-dpeth trouble shooting on this, I'd just
like to ask if I might not be running into problems at some really basic
level like using the older, stable kernel with the newer XFree86.





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