[CS-FSLUG] How do I fix screen configuration from the command line?

[Ed Hurst]

Ruth, I'm afraid Fred is no longer on the list right now. Maybe I can help.

Ruth Marlene Friesen wrote:

> "Your dma on the hard drive is turned off. It may really slwo down the fsck 
> process." (I can't find that 'dma' in Bios).

We'll do this one first. I am guessing you installed SUSE using the
"failsafe" option. I had to do that with SUSE 9.3 on my machine. The fix
is simple, but will *seem* complicated because you have to edit a text
file. Since you can't get the X server working, you'll have to do it on
the console.

You probably installed something called "joe" which is a text editor for
the console. Once you have booted SUSE, login as root. Then navigate to
your Grub config directory:

   cd /boot/grub

Then, open the menu file in joe:

   joe menu.lst

That file ends in "LST" but in lower case letters. The PGDN and arrow
keys should work as normal, so move down the file until you see a long
line that starts with: "title SUSE LINUX 9.3". The next line should be
indented and starts with "kernel". Using the arrow keys, run down the
length of that line until you see a "ide=nodma" and delete that part.

When you have done that, hit the keys: CTRL+k then x. That should save
the file and close the editor. It will save a backup copy of the file by
adding a tilde (~) at the end (menu.lst~) in case you need to put
restore it.

Now just type the command "reboot" and see if that error during boot
goes away.


> There were also lines about  --
> ....................................................................
> "using config file /etc/X11/Xorg.cong
> (WW) MGA. No matching Device section for instance (BUS ID PCI:1:0:0) found.
> (EE) Screen 0 deleted because of no matching config section.
> (EE) Device(s) deleted, but none match base in the config file.
> Fatal server error: no screens found
> Please contact the Xorg Foundation support at http://wiki.Xorg for help.
> Please also check the logfile at "/var/log/Xorg.0.log for additional 
> information.
> X10: fatal 10 error 104 (connection reset by peer) on x server ".0.0"
> after 0 requests (0 known processed) with 0 events remaining."
> ................................................................

Here, the problem is your xorg.conf file requires a call to some portion
of your hardware that cannot be found:

"(WW) MGA. No matching Device section for instance (BUS ID PCI:1:0:0)
found."

Looks like you have a Matrox video card, hmmm? Okay, if you were
successful with fixing the DMA issue, then lets have a try at this one.
Navigate in the console /etc/X11/

  cd /etc/X11

Then open the configuration file in joe again:

   joe xorg.conf

Scroll down until you see something like this:

-----------------------
Section "Device"
  BoardName    "mga"
  BusID        "1:0:0"
-----------------------

At the start of that line "BusID" simply put one hash mark (#), which is
what we call "commenting out" the line. This keeps X.org from reading
it. Then, while still logged in as root, run "startx" and see what
happens. If it fails, post the response here if you can.


-- 
Ed Hurst
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