You don't actually even need to boot to single-user mode- hitting
ctl-alt-f2 will get you a text-mode login prompt. If you are scarce for
cycles once you've logged in, as root you can run ps to find xdm's
PID and kill it. NOTE: killing your X server is not enough- xdm will
merely bring up another server. Kill XDM first, and then you'll have a
fully functional text-mode box to play with your Xconfig files in.
-Luis
On Mon, 12 Apr 1999, Jens B. Jorgensen wrote:
>
> You don't need to reinstall. You system hangs because xdm is being run as
> part of the
> boot up. You need to boot into 'single user mode' to fix this problem. At the
> lilo
> prompt you'll need to type 'Linux single' where "Linux" is whatever label you
> used in
> your lilo.conf. This will bring you to a password prompt for the root
> account. Once
> logged in you can remove whatever boot file is starting xdm (I'm not sure
> what it
> would be since you're not using the standard debian package).
> /etc/init.d/xdm? For the
> debian package xdm startup is controlled by the file /etc/X11/config. There
> would be a
> line 'xdm-start-server' and 'start-xdm' which could be commented out or
> changed to
> 'no-start-xdm', and 'no-xdm-start-server'. You may then reboot into normal
> multi-user
> mode. Check /var/log/xdm-errors to see any error messages which may have been
> generated.
>
> "Small, Bradley" wrote:
>
> > I just installed the (slink) Debian distribution. It worked ok and seemed to
> > be rather painless. I got lilo working even though I installed to a second
> > disk in my system... So what's my problem? Here goes:
> >
> > I read the readme's and found that for my video card SiS 5597/5598 I would
> > need the 3.3.3.1 Distribution of XFree86, so I went to their ftp site and
> > D/L it. I followed the installation instructions and when I got done, I ran
> > XF86Config. This seemed to run ok, however, when all was said and done,
> > startx wouldn't show me anything on the screen. I could have lived with
> > that, as I might be able to troubleshoot it, however now when I try to boot
> > the system, it goes until I get he message that it is loading xfs and it
> > just sits there and does nothing further. I assume this is not normal.
> > However, the only advice I am getting from people on IRC is that I need to
> > reinstall. This would only be my 6th reinstall (as that thought already
> > occurred to me, and I had other problems earlier) but there should be
> > something I can do when I shell in from the rescue disk to bring this system
> > back to life.
> >
> > Can anyone help me? Please?
> >
> > Bradley
> >
> > --
> > Unsubscribe? mail -s unsubscribe [EMAIL PROTECTED] < /dev/null
>
> --
> Jens B. Jorgensen
> [EMAIL PROTECTED]
>
>
>
> --
> Unsubscribe? mail -s unsubscribe [EMAIL PROTECTED] < /dev/null
>
>
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