[SOLVED] PCLos 02 2013 wont get to desktop

[Big_al]

Hi everyone.

OK, So I have been using full monty for over a year now and the old drive I installed it on is showing signs of failing I think as every now and then I get a boot fail and a message to manually run fsck.  Time for a new drive i think.  I figured, since I havent used half of the apps in full monty I would go back to just PCLos.

I downloaded the latest.  Put it onto usb using unetbooting.  When I boot though, it doesnt go straight to desktop, it goes to a login prompt.  I tried login as guest and root, did the 'startx' and get an error saying something about no nvidia module.  OK, so I guessed bad ISO, but just incase, I put it into my laptop (Dell, with intel graphics) and hey presto, it works.  Good iso after all.  

After some searching, I found out about XFdrake.  tried it, found my graphics card.  It said there was a driver avaiable.  selected this option, and it said reboot, so I did.  Trouble is, it wont reboot (or poweroff for that matter), it gets to a message 'no more processes running at this level'.

I have left it like this whilst making a coffee but it went no further.  Hit the reset on my pc but to my dismay, I'm stuck back at the login prompt and when I try 'startx' I get the same old message about:



failed to load module 'dri' (invalid module, 0)
failed to load module 'nvidia' (module does not exist, 0)
No device detected

fatal server error:
No screen detected.


Apart from someone saying 'get another graphics card' (Difficult as this is an 8yr old agp system with an nvidia gforce fx5200),   any suggestions guys??

Cheers

Al.

[JohnW_57]

http://www.pclinuxos.com/forum/index.php/topic,112261.msg958707.html#msg958707  ??

JohnW

[Big_al]

Hi john,

Just read all the post you directed me too.  I had a fishy feeling it may be my graphics card is too old, lol.  I'm a little confused though, according to the nvidia geforce website, my card is compatible with the new 173.14.36 drivers, then other websites say not.

It's getting a little late here this evening, but tomorrow I will try the neauvou driver and then try to rollback to the older driver if I get into gui.

Will let you know soon as I can,

Cheers,

Al.

[DeBaas]

I get a boot fail and a message to manually run fsck

If not only your HDD is a bit older check your system time when you startup after a (longer) time.
Maybe your clock and BIOS back-up battery is nearly dead, mostly a CR2032 type.
Linux is not happy with big time differences between file/log stamps and system time.

[fwkjr149]

I have the same problem and it is the video card. Tried to install with way better card and the OS loaded fine . Yeah I know  can't seem to part ways with the old stuff but the OS are getting picky.

[JohnW_57]

I have the same problem and it is the video card. Tried to install with way better card and the OS loaded fine . Yeah I know  can't seem to part ways with the old stuff but the OS are getting picky.

http://www.pclinuxos.com/forum/index.php/topic,112936.msg964378.html#msg964378

JohnW

[gseaman]

There is a fixed nvidia173 in test. Use nouveau to get to the desktop, then add the test section, upgrade dkms-nvidia173, and xorg-driver-nvidia173. Then remove the test section. Even if you are not a full tester, but you want to use the iso, this should get you going.

Galen

[Big_al]

I must be doing something wrong, cos I'm not getting anywhere here.

Nowt wrong with my cmos battery or anything else...the hard drive is an old ide 40Gig, and of unknown origin but it has done me for 14 months.  Anyway....tried using the nuevou drivers, still wont get to desktop with 'startx'.

Bear in mind I am booting from live usb.  I have logged in as root, just run XFdrake, rebooted then back to login prompt, logged in and 'startx'...same error.  I have deleted xorg.conf file, rebooted, 'XFdrake --auto' then 'startx'...same error.

When I say I run XFdrake, I select the nouveu driver, disable translucency, disable hardware mouse pointer, select the same resolution I am running now (1280x1024 24bit 60hz).  It offers to run a test and even that fails.  I think maybe ebay for a different 8xagp card??


I got a feeling this reboot is my problem because it wont reboot.  after typing reboot, I get the PClos splash saying shutting down, then back to terminal screen saying 'no more processes running at this level'.  I then have to hit my reset button.  Could this be causing issues with the XFdrake settings??

I'm tempted to try to just clone this drive onto a newer one for now just to keep monty running.

Al.

[Just17]

Bear in mind I am booting from live usb.  I have logged in as root, just run XFdrake, rebooted then back to login prompt, logged in and 'startx'...same error.  I have deleted xorg.conf file, rebooted, 'XFdrake --auto' then 'startx'...same error.

Are you running LiveUSB WITH persistence?

If not then all changes will be lost on reboot.

[Big_al]

Bear in mind I am booting from live usb.  I have logged in as root, just run XFdrake, rebooted then back to login prompt, logged in and 'startx'...same error.  I have deleted xorg.conf file, rebooted, 'XFdrake --auto' then 'startx'...same error.

Are you running LiveUSB WITH persistence?

If not then all changes will be lost on reboot.

No I'm not....I used unetbootin to make the live usb and it only gave me an option of persistence for another distro (12.10).  Thats me stuffed then I guess?

Al.

[Just17]

Bear in mind I am booting from live usb.  I have logged in as root, just run XFdrake, rebooted then back to login prompt, logged in and 'startx'...same error.  I have deleted xorg.conf file, rebooted, 'XFdrake --auto' then 'startx'...same error.

Are you running LiveUSB WITH persistence?

If not then all changes will be lost on reboot.

No I'm not....I used unetbootin to make the live usb and it only gave me an option of persistence for another distro (12.10).  Thats me stuffed then I guess?

Al.

No, not stuffed ........  use the tool provided in PCLOS to do it.

Prepare one partition of the USB device (of sufficient size) formatted to ext4, and then run the PCLinuxOS LiveUSB Creator utility.
It is, I believe, under ........  Menu - More Applications - Configuration

Read the info carefully as it is your first time to use it.

You may select one or a few boot options to be available when booting.

When asked ......  apply the Grub bootloader to the MBR of the USB device (required for the first run).

If you meet difficulties, open a separate thread 


It might be an idea to read this .....  a little old but nonetheless relevant I think .......

http://www.pclinuxos.com/forum/index.php/topic,82277.0.html

[kjpetrie]

Rebooting after changing the video driver is recommended to produce a clean start on the installed system, but on a livecd/usb (unless persistent) it will just undo the change which has only been applied in RAM. Usually, just restarting X is sufficient to get to a desktop.

[Big_al]

OK guys, I'm officially losing hair over this now, !!!

Just kidding.  I took Just17's advice, created a live usb with PCLOS live usb creator to add persistence.  Still no joy.  The usb works a treat, straight into grub, use the persistence option and hey presto, back to the login prompt.

I have tried configuring the nouveau to several different options.  Reducing resolution, colour depth, refresh, display type (flat panel and monitor)  but am getting another error but essentially saying cant find device and ending back at the login prompt.  If you guys want to see the log file or the Xorg.conf, I have copied them off my usb drive, here's the last section of the Xorg.0.log:  (this was with basic 800x600 flat panel settings)


 (II) LoadModule: "nouveau"
[   878.206] (II) Loading /usr/lib/xorg/modules/drivers/nouveau_drv.so
[   878.262] (II) Module nouveau: vendor="X.Org Foundation"
[   878.262]    compiled for 1.10.3, module version = 0.0.16
[   878.262]    Module class: X.Org Video Driver
[   878.262]    ABI class: X.Org Video Driver, version 10.0
[   878.262] (II) v4l driver for Video4Linux
[   878.262] (II) NOUVEAU driver
[   878.262] (II) NOUVEAU driver for NVIDIA chipset families :
[   878.262]    RIVA TNT        (NV04)
[   878.262]    RIVA TNT2       (NV05)
[   878.262]    GeForce 256     (NV10)
[   878.262]    GeForce 2       (NV11, NV15)
[   878.262]    GeForce 4MX     (NV17, NV18)
[   878.262]    GeForce 3       (NV20)
[   878.263]    GeForce 4Ti     (NV25, NV28)
[   878.263]    GeForce FX      (NV3x)
[   878.263]    GeForce 6       (NV4x)
[   878.263]    GeForce 7       (G7x)
[   878.263]    GeForce 8       (G8x)
[   878.263]    GeForce GTX 200 (NVA0)
[   878.263]    GeForce GTX 400 (NVC0)
[   878.263] (--) using VT number 8

[   878.286] (WW) Falling back to old probe method for v4l
[   878.286] (EE) [drm] No DRICreatePCIBusID symbol
[   878.286] (EE) No devices detected.
[   878.286]
Fatal server error:
[   878.286] no screens found

As an alternative, my mobo has 8xagp port (I know its old), can you guys think of an agp card that would definitely work that I could possibly find on ebay or somewhere similar.  I have no need to buy a new machine as yet as this is doing all I ask of it for now (simple office duties plus other basics)

Again guys, many thanks for all help given here.

Al.

[Just17]

The usb works a treat, straight into grub, use the persistence option and hey presto, back to the login prompt.

Glad it worked for you. 

In case it was not clear ......  to make use of the changes made during persistence mode you must always boot using persistence.

Using the standard boot will give you the default ISO without any changes.

[Big_al]

The usb works a treat, straight into grub, use the persistence option and hey presto, back to the login prompt.

Glad it worked for you. 

In case it was not clear ......  to make use of the changes made during persistence mode you must always boot using persistence.

Using the standard boot will give you the default ISO without any changes.

Yeah, the persistence boot option is good, now all I need to do is get to the desktop, lol.  thanks for this tip though.

Al.