Gentoo X starts but hangs at black screen

[I.M.O.G.]

I'm just now getting back to working on my T400 Thinkpad Gentoo install.

There's 2 problems I have, one big, one small.

I emerged slocate early on in the install process, and now when I try to use it I get an error. I haven't looked into this much, but googling turned up little. This should be an easy fix I would think, but I'm not sure what could cause this problem. I've emerged slocate again, but that did not help. This is what I get:

mrb78s@l3adf3h ~ $ locate test
locate: fatal error: Could not find user database '/var/lib/slocate/slocate.db': No such file or directory

The other problem is with X. I emerged X without issue, as well as kdebase-meta, then placed "exec startkde" in ~/.xinitrc. When I do startx, I get a black screen with an X for the mouse pointer - it responds to mouse movement, but no environment loads. If I wait 5 minutes, it will drop me back to the console. If I hit crtl-alt-backspace, it also drops me back.

When back at the console, I get messages reflecting repeatedly failed attempts to do something. They read:

AUDIT: *Date and Time* 2159 X: client 1 rejected from local host ( uid=1000 gid=1000 pid=2158 )
Xlib: connection to ":0.0" refused by server
Xlib: No protocol specificied

Then finally it says:

..error setting MTRR (base = 0xd0000000, size = 0x10000000, type = 1) Invalid argument (22)

giving up.

If I do this with sudo, I get the same result. If I do this as root, I get 3 terminal windows and an xclock window... Not what I expected? Never seen an environment like that, so I'm not sure what I need to do to fix X under my user account, or what I need to do to load KDE properly - I'm assuming right now that KDE is actually fine, but since I'm only telling it to start from xinitrc under my user account, when I'm under root its not launching because theres no instruction to tell it to. I'm experienced with Gnome and XFCE, but I've never used KDE before so I could really use some help here. Thanks for your input.

 

[curtis1552]

The 3 terminal windows are the default xwindows setup, it's not loading KDE. Since you didn't change the root .xinitrc it still loads the default instead of KDE. Thusly, I would assume it would be a problem associated with the KDE install and configuration. Most likely something is configured incorrectly, though I'm not sure what could be borked.

 

[petteyg359]

1. Why are you using `~/.xinitrc` rather than `/etc/conf.d/xdm` (and possibly `/etc/conf.d/rc` and `/etc/rc.conf`)?
2. Why the whole massive `kdebase-meta` with much stuff you'll likely never use, rather then `kdebase-startkde` and any other KDE pacakges you need?

 

[I.M.O.G.]

The 3 terminal windows are the default xwindows setup, it's not loading KDE. Since you didn't change the root .xinitrc it still loads the default instead of KDE. Thusly, I would assume it would be a problem associated with the KDE install and configuration. Most likely something is configured incorrectly, though I'm not sure what could be borked.

Thanks, now I know.

It's not a KDE problem exactly - X isn't useable at all under my user account. X works fine under Root.

1. Why are you using `~/.xinitrc` rather than `/etc/conf.d/xdm` (and possibly `/etc/conf.d/rc` and `/etc/rc.conf`)?
2. Why the whole massive `kdebase-meta` with much stuff you'll likely never use, rather then `kdebase-startkde` and any other KDE pacakges you need?

1. I followed the KDE gentoo instructions, and thats what they said to do by default.

2. I haven't ever used KDE, so I wanted to see what a general KDE install features.

 

[petteyg359]

When I install KDE on Gentoo:

emerge xorg-server
emerge kdebase-startkde
xorfconfig

I assume you've already got everything emerged, since X works, and you emerged kdebase-meta.
You may have to emerge additional packages with kdebase-startkde (meta should include these, since it includes pretty much everything), I haven't done it in a long time. If KDE comes up odd with no desktop or taskbar or something, then

emerge kdesktop konqueror kicker kmenuedit

I forget which part goes in which file (I haven't set up Gentoo in months), but there should be in two files, /etc/conf.d/xdm, and /etc/rc.conf or /etc/conf.d/rc, where one setting should be 'kdm', and another should be kde-3.5.3 (replace with whatever version of kdebase you have installed). Then, to start X and KDE,

/etc/init.d/xdm start

If you want autostart

rc-update add xdm default

 

[I.M.O.G.]

When I install KDE on Gentoo:

emerge xorg-server
emerge kdebase-startkde
xorfconfig

I assume you've already got everything emerged, since X works, and you emerged kdebase-meta.
You may have to emerge additional packages with kdebase-startkde (meta should include these, since it includes pretty much everything), I haven't done it in a long time. If KDE comes up odd with no desktop or taskbar or something, then

emerge kdesktop konqueror kicker kmenuedit

I forget which part goes in which file (I haven't set up Gentoo in months), but there should be in two files, /etc/conf.d/xdm, and /etc/rc.conf or /etc/conf.d/rc, where one setting should be 'kdm', and another should be kde-3.5.3 (replace with whatever version of kdebase you have installed). Then, to start X and KDE,

/etc/init.d/xdm start

If you want autostart

rc-update add xdm default

Thanks, so that addresses the KDE part...

Theres still the rights issue with X though under my own user account.

 

[Captain Newbie]

Thanks, so that addresses the KDE part...

Theres still the rights issue with X though under my own user account.

Make sure that you're in the video group.

gpasswd -a you video

Then logout and log back in.

 

[MRD]

Do you have MTRR enabled in the kernel config? I've never seen that error, but I'd look at that to be sure.

As for slocate, that's an easy one. slocate and locate pull from different db's. If you want to find a file called "gort" you do "slocate gort" not "locate gort" unless you alias locate. Also, you need to run updatedb once to build the slocate index. (It should be run nightly on a cron job so that your info is current.)

 

[I.M.O.G.]

Make sure that you're in the video group.

gpasswd -a you video

Then logout and log back in.

I thought I might have forgotten that, but I just checked and I am definitely in the video group.

What else could I have messed up?

 

[Lifthanger]

this fits your symptoms:

http://lists.freebsd.org/pipermail/freebsd-questions/2007-June/152652.html

 

[I.M.O.G.]

Theres also a "Error in locking authority file" message after X fails. I tried deleting .Xauthority in my home directory thinking maybe there was a stale lock file, and then my system just locked up hard the next time I tried to startx, and the screen appeared slightly corrupt, not exactly black like it was before. Completely different than before tho, because it also was non-responsive - I had to use the power button to reboot.

 

[I.M.O.G.]

Ok the big problem is resolved, X and KDE are both working fine now.

2 things were wrong. One part was that I had configured X for discrete graphics, yet in bios I had it switched to Integrated. The T400 has intel GMA and ATI radeon graphics, and I had thought I had set it correctly but I must have switched it and forgot when I was troubleshooting. Once I corrected that, and also deleted the Xauthority I issued startx and it put me right into a full KDE environment.

I had overlooked MRD's comments about locate, but that should take care of that also. Thanks for all the input guys.

EDIT: Is it normal to feel dirty when using KDE? I've used Gnome in Ubuntu and XFCE the last time I ran Gentoo... First impression on both were that I liked them. KDE on the other hand just feels icky - can't put my finger on it yet, so I'll just chalk it up to being different for now. Lets hope it grows on me.

 

[Shelnutt2]

to fix your small issue, run updatedb as root, depending on the amount of files it might take a long time. You'll have to keep updating the database when you change things or else locate will not be aware of the new files. I just have it as a cron job weekly.

 

[Captain Newbie]

Ok the big problem is resolved, X and KDE are both working fine now.

2 things were wrong. One part was that I had configured X for discrete graphics, yet in bios I had it switched to Integrated. The T400 has intel GMA and ATI radeon graphics, and I had thought I had set it correctly but I must have switched it and forgot when I was troubleshooting. Once I corrected that, and also deleted the Xauthority I issued startx and it put me right into a full KDE environment.

I had overlooked MRD's comments about locate, but that should take care of that also. Thanks for all the input guys.

EDIT: Is it normal to feel dirty when using KDE? I've used Gnome in Ubuntu and XFCE the last time I ran Gentoo... First impression on both were that I liked them. KDE on the other hand just feels icky - can't put my finger on it yet, so I'll just chalk it up to being different for now. Lets hope it grows on me.

XFCE > KDE > gnome, in my opinion. XFCE is the best windowing environment I've used. Ever.

 

[curtis1552]

I personally Like GNOME, it doesn't have all the fancy stuff KDE does, but you can get a lot of window candy that XFCE doesn't have. I've tried KDE 3.5 and 4, but the layout just turns me off. It's mostly the menus I think, and I like the way that GNOME (defaults) with two bars (I know that you can do it in KDE but I just like GNOME better).
I can't stand Flux either - the menus again, I don't want a menu when I right click, I want alternative options for the desktop. It just really bothers me.
Anyway, good luck and have fun!

 

[petteyg359]

I personally prefer KDE over anything else for my main system, and use Fluxbox on systems where I need a DM, but don't need all the features. Have never liked GNOME (default interface feels too much like a Mac, and I've never liked the Mac feel). Haven't ever taken the time to try XFCE, though.

 

[curtis1552]

If you don't like the gnome feel you won't like XFCE because they're very similar.

 

[MRD]

Maybe the "dirty" feeling is because of the resemblance it bears to windows in terms of placement of icons and menus and such.

 

[ihrsetrdr]

Is it normal to feel dirty when using KDE? I've used Gnome in Ubuntu and XFCE the last time I ran Gentoo... First impression on both were that I liked them. KDE on the other hand just feels icky - can't put my finger on it yet, so I'll just chalk it up to being different for now. Lets hope it grows on me.

+1




Gnome
XFCE
KDE

 

[Lifthanger]

there's no need for hope .
you can install as many desktop environments as you like.
just choose the session in kdm.

I really like XFCE, but with growing experience I'm back to fluxbox.
Love the tabbing feature. Both are great though.