[plug] Computer Hardware Upgrade - Same Debian Install Someth ing similar

[Lyndon Kroker]

Hi guys,

I just finished putting Woody on my K7 Athlon machine but getting X working 
wasn't easy.

I gave up on trying to reconfigure with dpkg.  Interestingly the problems I 
was having with X (V4) were mostly related to poorly configured sections of 
/etc/X11/XF86Config-4.  I too have an Nvidia card (nv).

In the end I used xf86cfg to at least get the server going.  If you just 
start the program without any options you will create an initial config file 
in your home directory (I think it's something like XF86Config.new).  If you 
start xf86cfg and your mouse doesn't work you may have to make a symbolic 
link in the /dev directory.  For a PS/2 wheel mouse for example, I had to do 
this:

ln -s /dev/psaux /dev/mouse

That was the first problem solved.  Now I was able to use the mouse to do the 
rest of the configuration.  The next problem was caused by the fact that the 
xf86cfg program default is to save a modified copy of the config file to 
/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/XF86Config.  Debian uses /etc/X11/XF86Config-4!  (That was 
another couple of hours - I'm just learning Debian!)

I should mention that before you save your config you should really rename 
the original config file to XF86Config-4.orig (or whatever).

When you first start xf86config you can specify which config file to load:

xf86cfg -xf86config /etc/X11/XF86Config-4

One tip that might prove useful.  Complete as much configuration as possible 
before saving and exiting.  The first few times through, I didn't enter my 
monitor's horizontal and vertical sync rates.  The result was a running X 
server but I was limited to 640x480.

I have just a few more things to get sorted out.  Because I used xf86cfg 
exclusively to set up my config, I am missing certain things like the font 
server and certain modules.  I hope to go through the original dpkg config 
file and add some of the lines back in to my new config flie.

A bit long winded, sorry.  I hope that this will help others to avoid some of 
the pits I fell in to.

Cheers,

Lyndon J Kroker



> Any suggestions
> i have a somewhat similar problem on a Woody install. I could not get x to
> work on a Nivida card I manages to configure the graphics using
> dpkg-reconfigure xserver-xfree86 but then lost the keyboard and mouse. On
> startup I get a graphic login but not mouse or keyboard. How do I get a
> text login so I can reconfigure X??