[Legacy OS] Boot hangs after Xorg/Xvesa choice

[breversa]

Hello Everyone,

This is my first post on this forum, as I've tried Puppy Linux for the first time this week-end (yay, another new way to give a second life to old hardware ! ).

I've successfully tried Puppy Linux 4.3.1, then Toutou Linux 4.3.1 (french version) on an old but improved Toshiba Satellite Pro 4600 (Pentium III 700MHz, 512MB RAM, 40GB HDD), built around 2000 I think (but über-equipped with diskette and CD-ROM drives, IR interface, 10/100MB NIC, dual PCMCIA cards reader... and WiFi too !! ). Both run fine with Xorg graphic server.

I then decided to give Legacy OS 2010 (formerly TEENpup, right ?) a try.

It boots fine (although it does take a few minutes to copy pup_214.sfs to tmpfs), lets me choose my (french) keyboard layout and then pick either Xorg or Xvesa as X server.


However, both fail shortly after :

If I choose Xorg, I get

Code: Select all

Legacy OS is Probing your Video hardware, please wait...
.........
_

(the final underscore is a continuously blinking cursor)


If I choose Xvesa, I get

Code: Select all

Type 'xwin' to start Xvesa graphics server.
cat: /etc/videomode: No such file or directory
cat: /etc/videomode: No such file or directory
Starting X with video mode  and mouse psaux...
_

(the same blinking cursor)

Nothing else happens afterwards (I've waited for 1/4h at least), the cursor just keeps blinking...


Any idea where this error comes from, and how to get Legacy OS to boot ? Maybe some boot parameters ?

[gnomic]

This could have gone in the thread discussing whether Legacy boots or not. Avoiding forum clutter.

What is the video card in your machine? lspci command in a terminal will reveal the answer.

Can you get to a console by CTRL+ALT+F3? Any response to CTRL+ALT+BACKSPACE?

xorgwizard might help if you can get to a prompt. Any special reason for using vesa instead of a specific driver for your video?

[sneekylinux]

when trying it in xvesa,did you type xwin as it asked??

[breversa]

Hi gnomic and sneekylinux, and thanks for replying !


The video card is apparently a Trident CyberBlade/XP.

Neither Ctrl+Alt+Fx nor Ctrl+Alt+Backspace give any result (no tty, no X reboot).

Nor can I get to any prompt, so I cannot try xorgwizard or xwin (the blinking cursor I get is no command prompt).

I have no special reason for Xvesa, except trying all the available options.

[gnomic]

Perhaps Legacy doesn't have the driver for your card? I will boot it later and see what drivers are supplied. Will try to report results in a day or two.

My silly question about why you were trying the vesa/xvesa options - that would be because it's one of the only choices you have in this situation This is what happens when you lose the first version of a post and then try again in a hurry.

I think I have a similar chip in an old Tosh laptop, K6/400 Mhz. If I recall correctly this boots with antix. You might want to try the roughly 200MB live CD of antix.

[breversa]

Hi gnomic,

No worries ! I've never heard of antiX ; it looks like yet another distro for old hardware, right ? I'll try and give it a try, thanks for the hint.


I played with Legacy OS a bit last night and discovered the following : if I Ctrl+C at the blinkking cursor, I DO get a prompt !

However, xorgwizard, xwin, startx, startfluxbox, startkde all do the same : they run xorgwizard which again lets me choose between Xorg and Xvesa... and hangs again afterwards.

[gnomic]

'By default Lighthouse now boots with xforcevesa nomodeset to a prevent a blank screen with some display cards.'

Hi there, noticed this suggested boot parameter on the Lighthouse Pup site. Could be worth a try in your case, nowt to lose. Interesting that the system is actually booted. All you need now is a non-gui web browser like lynx, links, elinks etc, and you'll be away laughing

[gnomic]

Hi there,
Looked in Legacy and found there is a trident driver included. So looks like that is not your problem here.

The Trident I have is actually on a desktop machine which has a dodgy BIOS, so haven't been able to check it out with Legacy as yet. I will drag it out of the cupboard at some stage.

[breversa]

Hi gnomic, thanks for your time and sorry for the late reply (I had a very busy week-end).

I tried to boot Legacy OS with

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boot# puppy xforcevesa nomodeset

but still got the xorgwizard screen. However, I was not able to test what happens afterwards as the battery died and had no power cord handy.

I'll try again tonight (GMT+2), but as you say, I see no reason why Legacy OS would NOT have a driver that vanilla Puppy has.

So... any other idea, anyone ?

[breversa]

I might possibly be the silliest man on Earth : I forgot to add that this laptop no longer has a screen (it's been plied off because broken), and consequently, I'm using the video output to a standard LCD screen.

But that setup has always worked flawlessly "out of the box", be it to run Kubuntu, Mandriva, Puppy Linux, Toutou Linux, and even Legacy OS until the post-xorgwizard stage, so I don't think it would suddenly be a problem...

[john biles]

Hello breversa,
As Legacy OS is based on Puppy 2.14 which was released 3 years ago maybe the monitor your using isn't supported?

Here's something interesting; Ubuntu 10.04 won't boot all the way in to a working desktop on this PC. Older versions of Ubuntu had no problem with it. I can't remember when the last distro didn't work!

It's hard even for Ubuntu to provide a distro that works with all hardware.

I can offer no solution, may be someone else can.

[breversa]

G'day John, and thanks for dropping by !

The LCD screen is a plain old 17" NEC MultiSync LV17m manufactured in 2004... Nothing exotic at all.


I feel that Legacy OS fails to "chain" to whatever comes after xorgwizard. Or more precisely, that xorgwizard fails to finish properly (I can kill it by Ctrl+C and then start it again...).

Which just made me think of this idea : since I can get a prompt by killing xorgwizard, maybe I can also have a look at some logs (I hope to find something useful in /var/log...) !

[gnomic]

You might want to have a look in /etc/x11. Legacy is probably using xorg.conf. Sometimes there is a hidden file in the user's home directory called .xsession-errors. Or it could be hiding in /root.

You might try Xorg -configure in a terminal to see if that does anything sane. Or at a pinch, try an xorg.conf from one of the distros that have managed to get X Window up and see if that will work in Puppy.

Any chance by the way that the screenless lappie wants you to press some button to get output on the external screen? Suppose not, since you are getting some output.

LCD screens want to work at a specific resolution generally, and usually at lowish frequencies, often 60 Hz.

xrandr could be a command to fiddle about with.

[gnomic]

Hi John,

Have enjoyed using the fruits of your labour.

If 10.04 doesn't work on a machine where earlier versions did, could it be an example of the joys of kernel modesetting perhaps? New, improved, but sorry, no video output for you. Speaking as a proud owner of an Intel 852/855 GM machine - if I had a million dollars for every time I've been left staring at a blank screen with the only way out a hard reset/power cycle, I'd be pretty rich.

[breversa]

NEWS !
(and erratum as well)

Contrary to what I said earlier, I CAN get to a prompt by Ctrl+Alt+Fx !

I had a look in /var/log (and especially Xorg.0.log), found out that the X config is saved in /root/xorg.conf.new, and when trying it with

Code: Select all

X -config /root/xorg.conf.new

(as suggested in the log), all I get is a blank screen with the monitor OSD displaying IIRC "Frequency range out of bounds"... so you might just have pinpointed the issue here !

More news after my lunch break tests.

(I'll definitely owe you one if it works, gnomic ! )

[gnomic]

Waiting with bated breath for the good news

Monitor specs should be sniffed out via DDC (see for example en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Display_Data_Channel) on just about any screen made this century. Murphy strikes every now and then. Have tried Legacy on a couple of 17" CRTs, but not an LCD aside from on a laptop.

[breversa]

Aww, sorry to keep you waiting, but I won't get to play with this lappie this week anymore (military reserve training is great, but takes a big bite on my geeking time !)...

However, I DO remember seeing stuff about DDC in the Xorg.0.log...

Just for the records, I'll see if the same happens with my other Belinea screen.


But don't hold your breath, I'd hate to lose my most active helper !

[gnomic]

Hi there, have you taken off the uniform yet, and got back to the geek?

[breversa]

Hi gnomic, and sorry for the long wait. I actually gave a little up (does that phrase have any meaning ??), but following you previous message, I tried some more things :

- changing the screen did not produce anything different : switching form NEC MultiSync LV17m to Belinea screen gave the exact same result.

- booting on Toutou Linux, copying the xorg.conf file to a USB stick, rebooting on Legacy OS, letting xorgwizard fail, copying the xorg.conf file and trying to start X did not give anything good either (not even a useful error message).

Actually, I'm now a bit lost, as I don't even know where to look for clues, error messages, logs, etc.

I'm thinking on giving up booting Legacy OS on this laptop, leave Toutou Linux as it is, and try Legacy OS on another old laptop I have (yeah, I do shop at my job's refuse bins )...

[john biles]

Hello breversa,
Sorry to read about your woes with Legacy OS I hope another old Laptop brings you joy. It's funny but I have a number of test PC's / Laptops and they all boot up fine. I recently even installed Legacy OS on a Duo Core 2007 model Acer Laptop and everything works except Wifi due to the Broadcom Chip used. Not supported. That's OK as it duel boots with Kubuntu.

Also thank you gnomic for your ideas and time given to try and help breversa