h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Hooookayyyy...

Booted from DSL CD.

Got a nice picture of a penguin. It went through all the right sort of checks and scans, until...

xauth: creating new authority file /home/dsl/.xauthority

giving up

xinit: No such file or directory (Errno2): unable to connect to X server
xinit: No such process (Errno2): Server error

Then it gave me a command prompt line. Any ideas? What's a boy to do?

Traveller in Time no details of DSL distribution
"Configure the X-server and the Windows Manager. . "

Err...we've lapsed into another language again. One in which I understand the individual words, but not when they're grouped into sentences.

The DSL Distro: whatever is the latest one on their site.

'Configure the X-serverr and Windows Manage'...how?

I'd kind of expected a desktop to appear before my eyes. Was I being naive?

Traveller in Time not familiar with 'DSL'
"That is what we (?) had expected too. As I am not familiar with the configuration program/ used components in this distribution, I can only suggest the broad solution.

There has gone something wrong during installation, the programs where not on the CD, not enough space, dangling dependencies. . .

Most likely there where warning messages during the install. Seen any ? "

Edward, try using the command 'startx' at the command prompt. Do you get the same errors?

Tried 'startx'

It told me it was using the same settings for x as a previous session...

...then gave me the same error message as before.


Should it be this tricky?

No, it shouldn't be this tricky.

You can look in the general message log using the 'dmesg' command. Try 'dmesg | less' (this justs spits the messgae log to the screen, then less sets it up so you can scroll back and forth through the log rather than have it just stream past your eyes). At the start there will be all sorts of stuff about what hardware it finds during bootup. Somewhere near the end there should be messages about trying to start the X session. What does it say there?

Phew! All this booting between Linux and '98 is tiring!

Nope, nothing obvious about X at the end of the dmesg log. No obvious error messages anywhere. It seems to be finding the right sorts of hardware...knows that I've got a bidirectional printer, a tablet, etc.

Try a different version of DSL?

Ah...there's another version which may work better with older machines, apparently. Not torrented, so it will be with me...eventually.

Traveller in Time in his basement
"There are more people with the same problem.

Part of the problem seems to be starting X as root.

< http://www.damnsmalllinux.org/f/forum-2-10-0-0.html >

"

Yup! This person: http://www.damnsmalllinux.org/f/topic-3-10-10344-0.html has had precisely the same problem. No responses yet.

>>Part of the problem seems to be starting X as root.

See...again...all or the individual *words* make sense...<smiley)

I think I might know about this problem, but I can't remember the solution!

I think there's another command you need to use instead of startx. It's to do with the fact that you have an old computer, or an old monitor, or both.

Try 'xstart' maybe?

>>>"Part of the problem seems to be starting X as root."
>>See...again...all or the individual *words* make sense

I'll explain. On Unix, there are 'normal' users, and then there's root. The root account on a Unix system is a user account with 'administrative' privileges - that is, the power to read, write and execute any file and directory on the system. The root account (or 'superuser') is password-protected in most Unix systems, which is one reason why Unix is much harder to compromise than pre-NT versions of Windows (on Windows 98, for example, you are always running as an 'administrator'; you can 'accidentally' delete system files).

To become root, you use the 'su' command, or to run one program as root, you can use 'sudo', followed by the command. You will be prompted for a password if there is one.

In connection with that annoying problem, you might also want to see http://damnsmalllinux.org/wiki/index.php/Xsetup.sh

Well, hello. Welcome to my very first post in Mozilla, from a Linux machine.



Who's a clever boy, then?

For the record...

Reading the forums, I figured out for myself that xsetuo.sh might be worth trying. Did that, then startx. Got a DSL .htm page, but couldn't move my mouse on it. Ran startup again, and by trial and error found the right serial mouse port. Which took me to an oversized .htm page which I couldn't close. So...setup again and changed the screen resolution and here I am. I thought you guys ought to be the first to know.

Cor! Good, innit>

But you do have to have at least half a brain to get anywhere. I'll keep you posted with newbie experiences! Thanks for the help so far.

Traveller in Time lynxing in (command mode browser)
"Congratulations

Actually sound like the first solution I proposed: configure the system. "

Errrr.....Can anyone point me towards the equivalent of Windows Explorer.....?

Traveller in Time basic
"Do you have midnight commander? mc

File managers can be found under the index of file manager now I understand the words but fail to know where this distribution has 'hidden' the applications

Hmm, here is one drawback of Linux, everyone prefers their own 'environment' (posting from musof)"

Traveller in Time on an Apple
"One can not specialise in everything (iMac OS9 IE5.something)"

Akshully...I've found my file manager. Not as not as nice as I'd like, but I can change that later. But...it can only see my small hd, which I used to call D: and it calls hdd1, but not my large one (the '98 boot - C.

Furthermore...why are hdd1 and all my other devices (CD, floppy, SD reader) under something called /mnt ?