Xorg problems

[worker201]

Although this pertains specifically to Slackware, I suspect these same problems could happen in any distro.

X doesn't start. It gave a message (which I forgot to write down) about core pointers being missing. Well, there was no mouse attached, but the Thinkpad comes with a fully functional touchpad. I glanced over Xorg.conf, and saw that the mouse protocol is set to ps/2. According to a guy who installed Gentoo on a Thinkpad, this should just work. Any hints on how to get this going?

While I was in Xorg.conf, I took a look at the screen section. Supposedly, this screen is an SXGA+, and it should be able to handle 1400x1050 resolution. That particular mode wasn't listed.

Since I'm here, I might as well mention that I was unable to copy my Xorg.conf onto a usb stick - couldn't get the stick mounted. I used the command:

Code: Select all

mount -t vfat /dev/sdb /media/memory

But it said that it could not find a FAT filesystem there. According to my Windows machine at the office, it is in fact formatted FAT32. What's the deal here? The usb drive in question is a 2GB Forum SnowDrive Recon.

Sorry, it's been a long time since I configured a Linux system, and it's been a really long time since I did it with Slack. So I will probably have a lot of stupid questions with incomplete information over the next few weeks.

[Void Main]

Try /dev/sdb1 rather than /dev/sdb. Better yet, right after you plug it in what does this command output:

dmesg | tail

and this:

cat /proc/partitions

and this:

/sbin/lsusb

As I said, I also have a Thinkpad with both the synaptic touchpad and the red button mouse thingamabobber that I never use. I do have both mice working with no problem though. Here's my xorg.conf:

http://voidmain.is-a-geek.net/files/con ... f.thinkpad

[worker201]

Using sdb1 worked just fine, so that's taken care of.

I added all the synaptics things that your xorg.conf file had to mine (after backing up the original). But it couldn't find the synaptics driver. I guess that's the problem with using a 2.4 kernel! I'm going to get a 2.6 kernel going ASAP. Since I know how to build one, I can get all my drivers packed in, including the i810 and synaptics.

Go ahead and ask my why I haven't plugged a normal USB mouse in yet, just to get X running. Here's the answer - I'm sorta lazy.

[worker201]

Man, getting X working is much easier when you have the correct hardware support. Now that I have a kernel that supports the synaptics touchpad and the Intel945GM, xorgsetup worked very nicely. The specific touchpad section of xorg.conf doesn't appear to be necessary - although I'll probably put it in there just for correctness.

Too bad about Gnome being dropped from the Slackware system. Most of the window managers out there are too sparse for my tastes. And KDE looks like an elementary school computer. Now that I have X working, it's going to take a few more weeks just to find some sort of graphical environment that I can stomach.

[Void Main]

Man, getting X working is much easier when you have the correct hardware support. Now that I have a kernel that supports the synaptics touchpad and the Intel945GM, xorgsetup worked very nicely. The specific touchpad section of xorg.conf doesn't appear to be necessary - although I'll probably put it in there just for correctness.

Well I put it in there because I actually make some adjustments. Most importantly turning off the double tap crap. It annoys me to no end when the palm of my hand touches the pad and throws a double-click on something. I also desensitize it someone if I recall so it takes more finger pressure. I used to do that anyway. I think I also turned off the scrollbars stuff so that it only functioned as a way to move the cursur around the screen and require button pushes to actually click and double-click things. More like a normal mouse.

Too bad about Gnome being dropped from the Slackware system. Most of the window managers out there are too sparse for my tastes. And KDE looks like an elementary school computer. Now that I have X working, it's going to take a few more weeks just to find some sort of graphical environment that I can stomach.

Heh heh. I've been scratching my head watching you get all this stuff going and now I wonder even more why you picked Slackware. It seems like you are trying to end up with something other than Slackware. I can certainly understand if you're just looking to gain knowlege though.

[Tux]

Too bad about Gnome being dropped from the Slackware system. Most of the window managers out there are too sparse for my tastes. And KDE looks like an elementary school computer. Now that I have X working, it's going to take a few more weeks just to find some sort of graphical environment that I can stomach.

Dropline Gnome, um, 'drops' in very nicely.

[worker201]

Heh heh. I've been scratching my head watching you get all this stuff going and now I wonder even more why you picked Slackware. It seems like you are trying to end up with something other than Slackware. I can certainly understand if you're just looking to gain knowlege though.

Sometimes I ask myself the same questions. I have a MacBookPro running OSX at home, and a Dell Latitude d520 running XP (for work). Who really needs 3 laptop computers?! The truth is I just wanted a toy. When I worked at the university, I ran FC2,3,4,5 and had a great time using it as a daily desktop. Since then (last August), I haven't had a Linux computer to mess with. Honestly, I find doing all this somewhat ridiculous configuration fun - thus Slackware is more fun than Ubuntu or FC6.

Short time goals: get this thing fully configured, and working in every way possible, for my own entertainment.

Medium time goals: continue with my hobby of producing dvds out of video files - Linux has the best tools for this, and the command line is where the real power is.

Large time goals: create a virtual network featuring webservers, routers, DHCP and more. Plus learn some PHP and MySQL.

Xtra Large time goals: develop a navigation program similar to the one we use at work. What we use now is proprietary, requiring a $15,000 dongle to run, and we use it for things it wasn't meant to do. For my own satisfaction, I think it would be fun to design one directly suited to our needs that was free. As a navigator, I have plenty of time to study device message strings, and plenty of opportunities to test such a program in a live environment.

All the time goals: perl, C, PostScript.

For now, I've chosen Slackware as the platform to design and test this stuff on. If I find later that Slackware just isn't going to work, I can always switch. It's free after all (but I did make a donation).

[Void Main]

Very good. I didn't mean to sound like there was anything wrong with what you were doing, it just seemed odd that you got to the end and then were looking for GNOME. But you should have no problem getting that installed either. I don't know if I could live with 3 laptops. I think I am up to 7 running laptops now. :) Actually only 3 run regularly and two of those belong to my 2 kids. I have a few others that I run our Hillclimb event on at my dirt bike club.

[Calum]

Too bad about Gnome being dropped from the Slackware system. Most of the window managers out there are too sparse for my tastes. And KDE looks like an elementary school computer. Now that I have X working, it's going to take a few more weeks just to find some sort of graphical environment that I can stomach.

Dropline Gnome, um, 'drops' in very nicely.

actually i had great problems installing gnome using any of the accepted methods in slack 11 when i had it installed for a few days recently. Perhaps i am just dumb though.