I was installing mandrake 6 and the xwindows portion screwed up

[fenris]

I was installing mandrake 6 and the xwindows portion screwed up and now I can't get X to work at all. linux works in command line mode. On trying this command:<br>
rpm -qa ¦grep XFree86 I get a list of packages.<br>
<br>
XFree86-libs-3.3.3.1-58mdk<br>
XFree86-xfs-3.3.3.1-58mdk<br>
XFree86-3.3.3.1-58mdk<br>
XFree86-100dpi-fonts-3.3.3.1-58mdk<br>
XFree86-75dpi-fonts-3.3.3.1-58mdk<br>
XFree86-cyrillic-fonts-3.3.3.1-58mdk<br>
XFree86-ISO8859-2-1.0-9mdk<br>
XFree86-ISO8859-2-100dpi-fonts-1.0-9mdk<br>
XFree86-ISO8859-2-75dpi-fonts-1.0-9mdk<br>
XFree86-ISO8859-2-Type1-fonts-1.0-9mdk<br>
XFree86-ISO8859-9-2.1.2-10mdk<br>
XFree86-VGA16-3.3.3.1-58mdk<br>
XFree86-XF86Setup-3.3.3.1-58mdk<br>
XFree86-Xnest-3.3.3.1-58mdk<br>
XFree86-Xvfb-3.3.3.1-58mdk<br>
XFree86-SVGA-3.3.3.1-58mdk<br>
<br>
<br>
When I go to XF86Setup and try to choose a video card it says that it can't find the <br>
SVGA server /usr/X11R6/bin/XF86_SVGA<br>
<br>
How can I get the setup programs to work?<br>
<br>
Troy

 

[robherc]

How big is the /usr/ partition on your HDD? I know I ran out of space on a smaller HDD that I was tring to cram RedHat6.0 onto & ended up with the same problem.....it's caused by Xfree86 being one of the last filesets to be loaded onto the HDD; if you run out of room it just skipps copying whatever files at end of the install that won't fit.<br>
<br>
My Suggestion:<br>
Try giving Red Hat a little more space on the HDD; then re-install the whole OS & see if it doesn't work then. (Mine's working great now that I'm using a 1.5GB partition instead of the 420MB HDD ;-)<br>
<br>
<br>
-Robherc

 

[AndyBo]

I've had the same problem as robherc. As a rule of thumb, if you want to go for the "Install Everything" option you need around 1Gb these days. Even a "Minimum" install on most distributions eats up the best part of 200-300Mb+.<br>
<br>
If you can't get the disk space, spend some time manually disabling packages you don't want or need. And when you're offered the chance of making a configuration floppy, take it It'll save you a lot of time if you ever need to re-install.

 

[fenris]

Thanks for the replys. My partitions exist on a 1.2 Gb hard drive and range in size from:<br>
<br>
partition size<br>
/ 100<br>
/home 400<br>
/usr 600 <br>
swap 100<br>
these are rough values as I don't have access to the exact values<br>
<br>
Which partitions should change and by how much?<br>
The funny thing is that RH6 went in with no problems on this partition setup, but I am having the problem with Mandrake 6.

 

[AndyBo]

Hmmm, might not be the partition size, then. You should have enough space there to fit everything on. Saying that, though, drop /home by around 200Mb and add 100Mb to / and /usr, to be on the safe side.<br>
<br>
Something to check first, though, before you go down the reinstall path...<br>
<br>
I've seen distributions install X into either /usr/X, /usr/X11 or /usr/X11R6. I've not seen a Mandrake 6 install, but see if it's put X into /usr/X or /usr/X11. If it has, and /usr/X11R6 doesn't exist, just link whatever X directory it has created to /usr/X11R6. (eg, ln -s /usr/X /usr/X11R6) Some of the X utilities and setup programs (including XF86Setup) will be looking for X11R6.<br>
<br>
HTH.

 

[kjstrat]

fenris, it sounds like the wrong Xserver got loaded upon installation. Doublecheck the video card you've got in this computer and then run Xconfigurator. You might have to rpm a new Xserver.<br>
<br>
I'm running Mandrake 5.3 on an old 486 and had a similar problem when I upgraded the video card. Xconfigurator would not setup the new Xserver until I installed one. Had to do a little detective work.

 

[fenris]

I have solved the problem, I got a new (well used ) video card, an sis and it works fine know. I never liked that STb card it was always causing problems with my Dad's windows 95&98 machine.<br>
<br>
Thanks to all, your advice was excellant