Intel video testing: It worked for a bit...

[Leon Stringer]

Robert Arendt wrote:
> Leon Stringer wrote:
>> Bob Arendt wrote:
>>> Leon Stringer wrote:
>>>> Robert Arendt wrote:
>>> To get more diagnostics, again try booting with "nomodeset 3"
>>> (to start at runlevel 3, without X).  Log into a VT and type:
>>>   startx /usr/bin/xterm -- -logverbose 255
>>>
>>> This should start an Xserver and xterm (yum install /usr/bin/xterm)
>>> on vt7.  This is sort of a failsafe mode - not even a window manager.
>>> It takes gdm and the rest of the gnome session out of the equation.
>>> When you exit the xterm, the Xserver will terminate.  The logverbose
>>> puts maximum debug into the /var/log/Xorg.0.log.
>>>
>> However, the basic startx xterm... test worked and I can load Metacity
>> and glxgears runs.
>>
>> So I'm a bit baffled, if I can get a minimal X running, what's missing
>> that prevents GNOME running?
>>
> Great!  Looks like the Xserver is mostly working.  It could be that
> gdm is having problems starting up, or pulseaudio might be hitting your
> system and causing it to lock up.
> 
> If you look in /var/log/messages just prior to the start of the current
> boot, do you see anything that could indicate a problem?  Also gdm
> (the login manager) is spitting out *lots* of diagnostics into the log.
> If it freezes, it's probably somewhere during gdm startup, since it
> starts X (maybe does sound and animations) before presenting a login box.
> 
> Instead of this fail-safe login, try starting gnome-session or kde
> instead of xterm.  As before, boot to runlevel 3, log in, and:
>   startx /usr/bin/gnome-session -- -logverbose 255
> or
>   startx /usr/bin/startkde -- -logverbose 255
> (I think startkde is the session startup script, not sure ...)
> 
> You should be able to log in as a non-root user and start a session
> this way.  If there are problems, you might consider starting from
> a new user's directory;  Some configuration changes seem to have made
> some gnome settings incompatible with previous versions.  Also new-users
> have "Desktop Effects" turned off by default (the "effects" cause a
> lock-up just as you describe).
> 
> If these work, then it's certainly something associated with gdm (gnome
> display manager).  It's the one that starts X, puts up a login screen,
> and possibly gets fancy with some sound and animation in F11 .. which
> might be killing you.  Although glxgears works, trying to enable
> "Desktop effects" froze me completely (no capslocks or network).
> If gdm is trying to do compositing, that may be the killer.
> 
> If the gnome-session login doesn't work, maybe it's not X at all ..
> maybe it's trying to play a sound and it locks up.  To test this,
> boot to runlevel 3, log in as root, and start pulseaudio manually:
>    pulseaudio --kill
>    pulseaudio --start
> then
>    paplay /usr/share/sounds/startup*.wav
> 
> There should be a number of files in that directory.  F10 has startup3.wav.
> If this works, pulseaudio probably isn't the killer.
>

startx gnome-session... loads X, then I'm prompted for my credentials 
for Network Manager but apart from that the screen is black. I tried 
creating a new user to rule out any of my config files but got the same 
results. But, unless you know this should work, I'm wondering if GNOME 
requires some to be launched by GDM to work. I'll see if I can comment 
out the items GNOME runs at startup to see if that makes a difference.

paplay worked so it's probably not that.

Not much fun, but thanks for all your suggestions...