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

[Leon Stringer]

Bob Arendt wrote:
> Leon Stringer wrote:
>> Robert Arendt wrote:
>>
>> 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...
> You've stumped me at this point.  There do appear to be issues starting
> a gnome-session as root;  Lots of gnome desktop bits don't want to run
> as root.  For me it will start from runlevel 3 as an ordinary or new user.
> But on this laptop the the backlight control is eratic.  Maybe this
> translates into some sort of erratic video control for a connected monitor.
> Also my laptop screen is a mere 1024x768.
> 
> Last parting words - you might check using xrandr through an external
> terminal.  To make Xserver authorization work, find the auth file:
>   $ ps -eo args |grep X
>   xinit /usr/bin/gnome-session -- /usr/bin/X -logverbose 255 -auth 
> /home/me/.serverauth.3625
>   /usr/bin/X :0 -logverbose 255 -auth /home/me/.serverauth.3625
>   $ export XAUTHORITY=/home/me/.serverauth.3625
>   $ export DISPLAY=:0
>   $ xrandr
> Screen 0: minimum 320 x 200, current 1024 x 768, maximum 1024 x 1024
> VGA disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)
> LVDS unknown connection 1024x768+0+0 (normal left inverted right x axis 
> y axis) 0mm x 0mm
>    1024x768       60.0*+   60.0
>    800x600        60.3
>    640x480        59.9
> 
> .. So you can check with xrandr your display modes, and make sure
> that X is trying to do something compatible with your monitor.
> Also check that /var/log/Xorg.0.log for info that could indicate
> an error.
> 
> Plus, you can check to see what gnome is doing:
>   ps --forest -u newusername -o pid,ppid,args
> where "newusername" is your test username that's starting gnome.
> 
> Perhaps someone knowledgeable about gnome startup can help
> Leon triage this test case?
> 
> Cheers,
> -Bob Arendt
> 

Hahahahaha! (Maniacal laughter)

I managed to get GDM working with the VESA driver and specifying details 
about my monitor but I got the same results when logging into GNOME! 
i.e. my results above were a red herring, the black screen was how GNOME 
runs on my system.

The reason? My system has been screwed by yum/rpm/Package Manager!

Hahahahaha! (More maniacal laughter)

You see, when I did startx gnome-session ... and entered my credentials 
for NM, it brought the wireless NIC up. So I thought it's got to be 
worth running a yum update. But it complained that there was an existing 
transaction queued, please run yum-complete-transaction. So I did. And 
it started removing 1300 packages.

So I now have a non-working system!

Hahahahaha! (Okay, enough with the maniacal laughter).

In short Bob, your advice was very helpful and got my system to run as 
well as it could. I'm certainly giving up for now. At least until the 
beta...

For the people who do yum/rpm/Package Manager you've got a pretty 
powerful weapon there, apply for DARPA funding!