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Re: X server will not start

 
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Steven Schweda
Honored Contributor

Re: X server will not start

> [...] no menu comes up.

You checked _all_ the graphics outputs?

I don't know any more than I did some months
ago, but I think that you may be chasing off
in the wrong direction.

If the console stuff is appearing on the
ELSA-like card ("comet0"), then it would
seem that the VGA capability of the built-in
chip is being ignored about as much as you
could hope for. If all the ECU-related
activity is intended to disable its VGA
capability, then I'd say you're beating a
dead horse.

Of course, disabling the VGA capability of
the built-in chip is not the same as
completely disabling the chip (which is
probably not possible/practical, as desirable
as it might seem to be).

> [...] X server still has same errors in
> /var/X11/xdm/xdm-errors.

Same as what?

I did recently replace an ELSA card with an
ATI Radeon 7500 in an XP1000. That involved
changing the "args" section of
/var/X11/Xserver.conf (->
../cluster/members/{memb}/X11/Xserver.conf)
to get the resolution, depth, and other
display properties set as I wished.

If the X server software now sees two
available chips/cards (old Cirrus, new
ELSA-like), then you may need some special
multi-head X configuration stuff to get
things to work as you'd like. Naturally, I
know nothing about dealing with more than one
graphics interface.

Another random thought: In my fiddling, I
found this command sequence to be useful:

/sbin/init.d/xserver stop
/sbin/init.d/xserver start
Capt J S McKenzie
Frequent Advisor

Re: X server will not start

Hi Steven
Thanks for keeping faith and continuing to try!

The work with the ECU is in response to Xman's post. I quote from April 11

"To install a Graphics Card upgrade, you will need to disable the on-board Graphics card by moving the VGA jumper on the mother board to the OFF position. (Check your hardware manual for the pin location)

Then you will need to run the EISA Config utility to disable the on-board graphics option within the bios.

Only after doing this will you be able to get another graphics card to be recognized by the system."

As you say the VGA seems to be coming from the Elsa like card because the messages file says comet0 is console and yes I checked the other monitor output at the top of the cabinet and no output was present.

The error messages from Xserver in /var/X11/xdm/xdm-errors are:-

xdm error (pid 1205): error binding socket address 177

Fatal server error:
Failed to establish all listening sockets
xdm error (pid 1205): server unexpectedly died
xdm error (pid 1205): Server for disply :0 can't be started, session disbled.


Dave Turner of Island Computers suggested that I should reinstall Tru64 so I backed the current system up to DLT and first tried doconfig -a to build a new kernel. I did that twice, once with existing vmunix and once with genvmunix but no change.

I then started the installation from CD which must have all the drivers but it failed to start the Xserver and said if I wanted to continue I had to restart with 'restart nogui'.
After getting to the same point three times I aborted as I could not see the point of reinstallation if it could not create a working Xserver from the hardware as currently installed.

Perhaps Rick Retterer can re-post re the ECU??

stuart mckenzie
Steven Schweda
Honored Contributor

Re: X server will not start

Ok. I had lost track of the idea that the
ECU stuff could _totally_ disable the Cirrus
chip, not just the VGA part.

Anything interesting in "/var/dt/Xerrors"?

Send some e-mail to me at sms@antinode-org
(more or less), and I can point you to my
collection of ECU stuff. Of course, my
actual ECU experience is nil, as my junk is
all non-EISA.
Capt J S McKenzie
Frequent Advisor

Re: X server will not start

OK Steven wilco.

No nothing in var/dt/Xerrors just a repeat of xerrors

failed to establish all listening sockets
server unexpectedly died
server cannot be started for display :0
jim owens_1
Valued Contributor

Re: X server will not start

First a warning that all I know about tru64 xserver and graphics comes from beating my head on the desk trying to setup my workstation.

The recommended reinstall is one way that usually works for me but sometimes it is confused by the hardware and doesn't get all the options correct.

I never used a 1000A, but I think with J27 set OFF you should not need the ECU change for tru64. You should have the ELSA VGA switch ENABLED so the console works. I recommend being at the latest firmware 5.7 (SRM 5.7-83 will be displayed with "show config | more").

I (painfully) know that "doconfig -a" doesn't build in the correct driver for any graphics option board. This is because "all options" means just "kernel features" and not "hardware support".

You need to edit your config file and use "doconfig -c" to build the kernel. In the config file you should see:

# Static Driver Definitions

followed by "config_driver" lines.

You want to add the line:

config_driver comet

AND comment out or delete any lines with these other graphics drivers:

# config_driver ati64_vga
# config_driver s3trio
# config_driver vga
# config_driver cirrus
# config_driver qvision
# config_driver wd
# config_driver p3g
# config_driver radeon
# config_driver tga
# config_driver pvp

then build the kernel and copy it to /vmunix

... Now moving on to Xserver.conf

1) make sure it has

! device <
! >

(device is commented out) and not something like:

device <
< _dec_e3sc lib_dec_e3sc.so e3scInitProc p00e01091 >
>

which would be enabling different graphis.

I set these for ELSA to match my monitor:

args <
-pn -nice -2 -screen 1280x1024 -depth 24 -vsync 75
>

Note those are the highest settings that work together with the 8MB card.
Capt J S McKenzie
Frequent Advisor

Re: X server will not start

Ahh we are getting somewhere although I am going to keep trying to get an ECU working.

I added the driver line and rebuilt the kernel then put in the args as suggested and got the following errors in /var/dt/Xerrors (the errors in xdm-errors were the same)

Illegal -depth option: using default 4
Illegal -screen0 option; using default 640x480
Illegal -vsync0 option; using default 60
Permedia-2 on screen 1: visual class -3404696 is not supported
Permedia-2 on screen 1: only TrueColor available for depth 24
Screen 1 Unknown (4D10T assumed) (Permedia-2 8MB) - TrueColor, 24 bpp, 1024x768, 75Hz X
connection to :0.0 broken (explicit kill or server shutdown).


Illegal -depth option: using default 4
Illegal -screen0 option; using default 640x480
Illegal -vsync0 option; using default 60
Permedia-2 on screen 1: visual class -3404696 is not supported
Permedia-2 on screen 1: only TrueColor available for depth 24
Screen 1 Unknown (4D10T assumed) (Permedia-2 8MB) - TrueColor, 24 bpp, 1024x768, 75Hz X
connection to :0.0 broken (explicit kill or server shutdown).


Illegal -depth option: using default 4
Illegal -screen0 option; using default 640x480
Illegal -vsync0 option; using default 60
Permedia-2 on screen 1: visual class -3404696 is not supported
Permedia-2 on screen 1: only TrueColor available for depth 24
Screen 1 Unknown (4D10T assumed) (Permedia-2 8MB) - TrueColor, 24 bpp, 1024x768, 75Hz X
connection to :0.0 broken (explicit kill or server shutdown).


Illegal -depth option: using default 4
Illegal -screen0 option; using default 640x480
Illegal -vsync0 option; using default 60
Permedia-2 on screen 1: visual class -3404696 is not supported
Permedia-2 on screen 1: only TrueColor available for depth 24
Screen 1 Unknown (4D10T assumed) (Permedia-2 8MB) - TrueColor, 24 bpp, 1024x768, 75Hz X
connection to :0.0 broken (explicit kill or server shutdown).



Fri Dec 1 16:46:55 2006
error (pid 1053): Server for display :0 can't be started.


This is surely more hopeful. How does it think there are two screens? And I wonder how to get the Elsa card clone properly recognised.
Capt J S McKenzie
Frequent Advisor

Re: X server will not start

Hurray, success!!
The output from the Xerrors suggested that the system was working with two screens. That indicated to me that the ECU HAD to be run to disable VGA on the Cirrus. The problem was that the ECU just froze.
The answer is the circular nature of the procedure.

What you do is this once you have a valid working ECU diskette:-

1) remove any new graphics card
2) enable vga on j27 jumper
3) plug monitor into vga port
4) load the ECU and follow instructions above by Xman to disable VGA in firmware.
5) do NOT exit by rebooting but instead switch off computer
6) move J27 jumper to disable
7) refit the graphics PCI card
8) boot
9) Bingo


All you need to do now is to tailor your card in Xserver.conf so that it works with the monitor and you should have a working GUI.


Thanks to all who have contributed and it shows that perseverance pays.
Steven Schweda
Honored Contributor

Re: X server will not start

Does the ECU stuff say "disable VGA" or
"disable Cirrus (completely)"?

I'd guess that the jumper disables the VGA
part for the console, but not the whole chip
(so the X server still sees it), while the
ECU can disable the whole chip (so that even
the X server won't see it). But that's only
a guess.

In any case, thanks for adding the how-to
summary to the archives. (And I'm glad that
you finally got it to go. But, hey. What
could go wrong?)
Capt J S McKenzie
Frequent Advisor

Re: X server will not start

Yes it appears that is the case. The J27 disables the hardware but not the firmware so to really, really disable vga you have to do both. The ECU said disabling vga not disabling Cirrus.
Next trick is to get card working at proper resolution.
Steven Schweda
Honored Contributor

Re: X server will not start

> [...] to get card working at proper resolution.

For my Radeon 7500, I added this to
/var/X11/Xserver.conf :

args <
-pn -depth 24 -screen0 1280x1024 -vsync0 75 -vclass TrueColor
>

A stop-start is needed for these things to
take effect.

"man Xserver" offers details.