(Newbie install question) AAAARRRRGH!?!?!? Help!!
Harry Hewat
I'm a newbie with Linux and have been trying to install redhat 7.1 using the
CD that came with the "Linux Bible" by Candace Leiden (it's bollocks -
shoulda read the reviews on Amazon first). The machine is a laptop (Acer
Travelmate 212TXV, 800Mhz Celeron, 128Mb RAM, 10Gb HDD). I've got a couple
of questions:
1. As soon as I boot it up the screen starts constantly flickering at
different intervals, eventually it prints --
INIT: Id "x" respawning too fast: disabled for 5 minutes
I guess this is to give a chance to fix the problem, but how?... say it
slowly and clearly so I can understand please :o)
2. During the idiot-proof (hoho) installation process, I chose to have both
KDE and Gnome, yet it just seems to be giving the normal Linux command
prompt. How do I fire up one of the GUI's?
3. I've set it up with 7 Linux Native partitions and a swap partition
(/boot, /usr, /opt, /var, /, /home, /temp, <swap>). I've got another
partition without a mount point that I was going to reistall Windows on,
taking up the rest of my hard disk. Is this correct? How do I go about
doing it? I've got a CD that came with the computer with Windows Me on it.
I appreciate any help you people can give. Cheers
Nate
Tony Lawrence
> Hi!
>
> I'm a newbie with Linux and have been trying to install redhat 7.1 using the
> CD that came with the "Linux Bible" by Candace Leiden (it's bollocks -
> shoulda read the reviews on Amazon first). The machine is a laptop (Acer
> Travelmate 212TXV, 800Mhz Celeron, 128Mb RAM, 10Gb HDD). I've got a couple
> of questions:
>
> 1. As soon as I boot it up the screen starts constantly flickering at
> different intervals, eventually it prints --
>
> INIT: Id "x" respawning too fast: disabled for 5 minutes
>
> I guess this is to give a chance to fix the problem, but how?... say it
> slowly and clearly so I can understand please :o)
id x is init trying to start your X session-= apparently misconfigured,
so dying instantly. You need to boot single-user and change your
default init-sate so that it won't go graphical.
Single-user: hit a key as it starts up, you should get a lilo prompt.
Type "linux single".
Once there, vi /etc/inittab and change the line that says
id:5:initdefault:
to
id:3:initdefault:
Then reboot and figure out what's wrong with your gui setup.
(if you do have a login without going single usere, just edit the file
and reboot).
>
> 2. During the idiot-proof (hoho) installation process, I chose to have both
> KDE and Gnome, yet it just seems to be giving the normal Linux command
> prompt. How do I fire up one of the GUI's?
startx.
But it's broken as we know from above.
>
> 3. I've set it up with 7 Linux Native partitions and a swap partition
> (/boot, /usr, /opt, /var, /, /home, /temp, <swap>). I've got another
> partition without a mount point that I was going to reistall Windows on,
> taking up the rest of my hard disk. Is this correct? How do I go about
> doing it? I've got a CD that came with the computer with Windows Me on it.
Probably is NOT going to work- that CD will wipe out your hard drive.
The way to handle that sort of thing is to let it install, then use fips
(it's on the cd, and it's a Dos program) to shrink the Windows down..
THEN you can install Linux on the newly freed space.
I have an old article about that at http://pcunix.com/Linux/linrh60.html
-that was RH 6, but the basic concepts are still the same).
--
Tony Lawrence
SCO/Linux Support Tips, How-To's, Tests and more: http://pcunix.com
Sinister Midget
> Hi!
>
> I'm a newbie with Linux and have been trying to install redhat 7.1 using
> the CD that came with the "Linux Bible" by Candace Leiden (it's bollocks
> - shoulda read the reviews on Amazon first). The machine is a laptop
> (Acer Travelmate 212TXV, 800Mhz Celeron, 128Mb RAM, 10Gb HDD). I've got
> a couple of questions:
>
> 1. As soon as I boot it up the screen starts constantly flickering at
> different intervals, eventually it prints --
>
> INIT: Id "x" respawning too fast: disabled for 5 minutes
>
> I guess this is to give a chance to fix the problem, but how?... say it
> slowly and clearly so I can understand please :o)
My guess is it has a problem with your video stuuf. I'll address what can
be done at the end of the next question.
> 2. During the idiot-proof (hoho) installation process, I chose to have
> both KDE and Gnome, yet it just seems to be giving the normal Linux
> command prompt. How do I fire up one of the GUI's?
This relates to the other. It's trying to go graphical and it can't for
whatever reason. The text stuff you see is normal when it can't go
graphical.
The best thing to do since this is a brand-spnaking-new install, reinstall
and choose a text-based login. Once there you can login at the very
least. Getting to a desktop is done with the command 'startx' (noquotes).
If that fails, you can still login as root and attempt to fix it.
An alternative is to boot (at the prompt) 'linux single' (noquotes) and
try fixing the graphical stuff.
Whichever case you follow, you'll be at a commandline. The command to fix
the X stuff is 'Xconfigurator" with no quotes and must be run as root
(already root if using single user mode above). Then you may have to
experiment with getting X to work.
I can't be too helpful with laptop settings. I haven't used one in
several years and was brand new then and got really lucky it worked right.
> 3. I've set it up with 7 Linux Native partitions and a swap partition
> (/boot, /usr, /opt, /var, /, /home, /temp, <swap>). I've got another
> partition without a mount point that I was going to reistall Windows on,
> taking up the rest of my hard disk. Is this correct? How do I go about
> doing it? I've got a CD that came with the computer with Windows Me on
> it.
You might be better off installing 'Doze first and let linux handle the
booting. It can do it quite well, and M$ is notoriously anal about
wanting to be the first thing on a drive unless you play some games with
fooling it. ME might be different, I have no idea. The 9X versions and
back were not able to be second unless you fooled them into not knowing
they were.
--
Failure is not an option. It comes bundled with your Microsoft product.
Joshua Stone
> Harry Hewat wrote:
>
> Probably is NOT going to work- that CD will wipe out your hard drive.
>
> The way to handle that sort of thing is to let it install, then use fips
> (it's on the cd, and it's a Dos program) to shrink the Windows down..
> THEN you can install Linux on the newly freed space.
>
> I have an old article about that at http://pcunix.com/Linux/linrh60.html
> -that was RH 6, but the basic concepts are still the same).
>
It depends on the CD. If it's a "system recovery" CD, then it might be
correct that the CD will try to hose the whole drive. However, if it's a
distribution "Windows ME" CD, you might still have a shot.
However, Windows is very particular, and it needs to have a primary
partition to install on, and if I understand the previous post, it sounds
like the Windows partition you left is way the heck up in the extended
partition.
Run "fdisk /dev/hda" and from the main menu type "p" and press enter. If
the partition number for the windows partition you left available is not
less than 5, then it's an extended partition, and Windows won't want to
install on it...
If you DO try to install WinME on it after Linux, ME will kill the boot
sector, so you will have to keep a boot floppy that will let you get back
into Linux later so that you can reinstall Lilo (or Grub, or whatever)
later...
-Josh O-
FRank
might help.