[Techtalk] newbie install

Conor Daly conor.daly at oceanfree.net
Sat Nov 24 23:34:11 EST 2001


On Fri, Nov 23, 2001 at 10:16:44PM +0800 or so it is rumoured hereabouts, 
Malcolm Tredinnick thought:
> On Fri, Nov 23, 2001 at 01:45:28AM -0500, Kathryn Hargreaves wrote:
> > I just did a clean install of RH 7.1; it reboots and gives me a login
> > prompt and then the screen goes blank.  Any thoughts?
> 
> I assume it doesn't return if you start typing something?
> 
> When you did the install, can you remember if you asked it to start up X
> upon booting up? It's possible that it's trying to start an X server and
> failing completely. To see if this is the case, try <ctrl>-<alt>-<f1>
> and see if you get a login prompt. If that does nothing, try <alt>-<f2>
> or <alt>-<f3> and see if that does anything (I expect it won't, but
> let's just rule it out anyway).

That won't necessarily rule out an X problem.  In such a situation, X can
hose the video card so that a text console cannot be had either.  try
rebooting and, at the LILO prompt, type "linux 3" to boot into text only
mode.  If that works, login as root and run "setup" which should give you
a menu including "Xconfigurator".  Running this will allow you to modify
your X settings.

There is a different method to set up XFree 4 which seems to do everything
automagically but I've only used it once and don't remember how.

Conor
-- 
Conor Daly <conor.daly at oceanfree.net>

Domestic Sysadmin :-)
---------------------
Faenor.cod.ie
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Hobbiton.cod.ie
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