Failed to Start X server on new LXDE installation

[alphaace]

Hi Everyone,

My advisor asked me to wipe one of the old dell Optiplex GX 260 machines for a new student rotating into the lab. I made a brand new LXDE CD and tried installing. It kept giving me an X-server could not start. I then pulled the video card out and connected it through the on board vga and that seemed to work fine. However, now that pclos is installed, I need to get it working with the card. I've done all the system updates (under VGA) but still the same problem.

When the computer starts up the x-org error file says (showing only the relevant bit as I can't copy and paste):

(EE) NVIDIA(0): Failed to allocate/map the primary surface!

Fatal server screen error:
AddScreen/ScreenInit failed for driver 0.

Further the detailed error log (again showing the relevant bit) says:

NVIDIA(0): Virtual Screen size determined to be 1280x1024
NVIDIA(0): Unable to get display device CRT-0's EDID; cannot compute from CRT-0's EDID.
NVIDIA(0): DPI set to (75,75); computed from buil in default
-> Depth 24 pixmap format is 32 bpp
NVIDIA(0): Initialized GART
NVIDIA(0): Failed to allocate/map the primary surface

I think the problem is coming in when it says the screen size is 1280x1024. That is incorrect. The screen size should be 1024x768...

Thank you for your help!

[daniel]

try XFdrake in failsaveboot, should fix your problem

[alphaace]

Just tried it, no luck.

[daniel]

try

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xrandr --prop
Do you get some informations, post it please

EDIT:

and post the output from

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cat /etc/X11/xorg.conf

[alphaace]

Hi,

The first command gives me "Can't open display"

Not sure how to get the output of the second command as I don't have a gui!

[daniel]

okay, but if you enter the second command there will something display, or?
cat is an terminal tool...

[daniel]

An another idea is

failsaveboot
Save your current xorg.conf file with:

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mv /etc/X11/xorg.conf /etc/X11/xorg.conf.save
then type

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Xorg -configureThis will generate a new Xorg.conf in /root directory...
Then copy it to X11 directory

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mv /root/xorg.conf.new /etc/X11/xorg.confreboot and hope it will work...

Daniel

[alphaace]

Hi,

That didn't work either, however I realized that perhaps it wasn't reading the EDID information correctly. I didn't have the EDID specs for this monitor but I read that the nvidia proprietary drivers have problems with this. I switched to the noveau drivers and it worked like a charm.

Many thanks for your help though! I do appreciate your time and effort!