Hi all

I have installed Red hat Linux 8.0 on a 200Mhz MMX computer.
Everything went fine until i rebooted it up for the first time.

All the messages during the boot up the screen was OK until it shows
the localhost login 3 times and then I get a blue screen with a darker
blue frame with strange signs in like two buttons. From ther the
computer hangs and I cant do nothing.

It seems like a display problem? Maybee wrong resolution or is it my
graphical board that is wrong configured somehow? The board is a S3
Trio64V2-dx/GX (775/785)

Pls is there any who can help me?

In article <68e51b25.0404041304.5a08edb4@posting.google.com >,
pethunholm@msn.com (Peter) writes:
>
> I have installed Red hat Linux 8.0 on a 200Mhz MMX computer.
> Everything went fine until i rebooted it up for the first time.
>
> All the messages during the boot up the screen was OK until it shows
> the localhost login 3 times

Could you please elaborate on this? Are you saying that the screen clears,
displays a GUI (NOT a text-mode) login prompt, clears, displays the same
GUI login prompt, and so on for three times? Or is something else
happening? If it's repeatedly displaying the GUI login and then crashing,
that sounds like an X configuration problem. If it gets as far as
displaying the login prompt, my first guess is that the system is having
problems finding your mouse; problems with the video card usually prevent
it from creating a display at all.

> and then I get a blue screen with a darker
> blue frame with strange signs in like two buttons.

Can you tell if this is text-mode or GUI? What do you mean by "strange
signs in like two buttons"? I'm afraid I have no idea what you're trying
to describe there. Are you saying you've got a couple of GUI buttons with
peculiar symbols in them; that you've got a pair of text-mode buttons with
text-mode gibberish in them; or something else?

> From ther the computer hangs and I cant do nothing.

It's possible that the computer isn't hung, but the display's just bad.
Try hitting Ctrl-Alt-F1. If you get a text-mode login: prompt, you can use
that to use Linux in text-mode and to diagnose the problem.

Assuming the system's really hung, though, a workaround is to try booting
the install CD and using the emergency rescue features to edit the
/etc/inittab file in your installation. (This will be mounted somewhere
else, though, like /mnt/etc/inittab. I don't know offhand where RH8 puts
it in its emergency recovery mode.) This file will have a line that looks
like this:

id:5:initdefault:

Change the "5" to a "3" so that the line reads:

id:3:initdefault:

This change will cause the system to boot into text mode rather than into
X. Unfortunately, making this change requires a moderate understanding of
Linux's text-mode operations, and from your post, I'm not sure if you've
got that level of expertise. Try doing what you can and post another query
with details about how far you got to get some more help.

--
Rod Smith, rodsmith@rodsbooks.com
http://www.rodsbooks.com
Author of books on Linux, FreeBSD, and networking

rodsmith@nessus.rodsbooks.com (Rod Smith) wrote in message news:<v33q4c-6s2.ln@speaker.rodsbooks.com>...
> In article <68e51b25.0404041304.5a08edb4@posting.google.com >,
> pethunholm@msn.com (Peter) writes:
> >
> > I have installed Red hat Linux 8.0 on a 200Mhz MMX computer.
> > Everything went fine until i rebooted it up for the first time.
> >
> > All the messages during the boot up the screen was OK until it shows
> > the localhost login 3 times
>
> Could you please elaborate on this? Are you saying that the screen clears,
> displays a GUI (NOT a text-mode) login prompt, clears, displays the same
> GUI login prompt, and so on for three times? Or is something else
> happening? If it's repeatedly displaying the GUI login and then crashing,
> that sounds like an X configuration problem. If it gets as far as
> displaying the login prompt, my first guess is that the system is having
> problems finding your mouse; problems with the video card usually prevent
> it from creating a display at all.

The screen display: "Localhost login" in textmode. It clears and comes
up again 3 times and clears and then I get the strange text mode
window with a light blue background. and a dark blue smaller window.
In the darkblue rectangel there is two smaller rectangels with text
gibberish on black bakground inside. (What I called buttons).
It's my first try with Linux so I dont know how the graphical login
window is supposed to look?

>
> > and then I get a blue screen with a darker
> > blue frame with strange signs in like two buttons.
>
> Can you tell if this is text-mode or GUI? What do you mean by "strange
> signs in like two buttons"? I'm afraid I have no idea what you're trying
> to describe there. Are you saying you've got a couple of GUI buttons with
> peculiar symbols in them; that you've got a pair of text-mode buttons with
> text-mode gibberish in them; or something else?
>
> > From ther the computer hangs and I cant do nothing.
>
> It's possible that the computer isn't hung, but the display's just bad.
> Try hitting Ctrl-Alt-F1. If you get a text-mode login: prompt, you can use
> that to use Linux in text-mode and to diagnose the problem.
>
> Assuming the system's really hung, though, a workaround is to try booting
> the install CD and using the emergency rescue features to edit the
> /etc/inittab file in your installation. (This will be mounted somewhere
> else, though, like /mnt/etc/inittab. I don't know offhand where RH8 puts
> it in its emergency recovery mode.) This file will have a line that looks
> like this:
>
> id:5:initdefault:
>
> Change the "5" to a "3" so that the line reads:
>
> id:3:initdefault:
>
> This change will cause the system to boot into text mode rather than into
> X. Unfortunately, making this change requires a moderate understanding of
> Linux's text-mode operations, and from your post, I'm not sure if you've
> got that level of expertise. Try doing what you can and post another query
> with details about how far you got to get some more help.

I did some google and by means of adding a 3 in the startup sequency I
managed to boot up linux in text mode. Then the computer stopped at
the text "localhost login:" and after that it's not possible to do
nothing. I tried the Ctrl-Alt-F1 hovever nothing happens. Maybe as you
say it's problem with the keyboard?

Since the computer doesn't have any original USB card there is a PCI
usb card installed. Maybe this causing problem for linux? During boot
sequensy linux say that it's installing USB keyboard and USB mouse, so
therefore it causing the system to hang or maybe not only takes
command from the keyboard at the login prompt?

Thanks in advance for any help. This is my first try with Linux.
Everybody say it's great! However I got problem so therefore I doubt
that? Shall I restore good old Windows 98 again? ;-) But normally I
never give up when it comes to computers and since I still think that
Linux is the future.

In article <68e51b25.0404050051.a6e93c2@posting.google.com> ,
pethunholm@msn.com (Peter) writes:
>
> The screen display: "Localhost login" in textmode. It clears and comes
> up again 3 times and clears and then I get the strange text mode
> window with a light blue background. and a dark blue smaller window.
> In the darkblue rectangel there is two smaller rectangels with text
> gibberish on black bakground inside. (What I called buttons).
> It's my first try with Linux so I dont know how the graphical login
> window is supposed to look?

A text-mode "localhost login:" is a Linux text-mode login prompt. When
the screen clears, chances are the system is TRYING to start X, and when
the "login:" prompt returns, the attempt to start X has failed. Normally,
after a few tries most distributions give up and give you a text-mode
login, but it sounds like something's gone badly wrong and corrupted your
video card's text-mode display by that time.

> I did some google and by means of adding a 3 in the startup sequency I
> managed to boot up linux in text mode. Then the computer stopped at
> the text "localhost login:" and after that it's not possible to do
> nothing. I tried the Ctrl-Alt-F1 hovever nothing happens. Maybe as you
> say it's problem with the keyboard?

Ordinarily at a "login:" prompt you should be able to type your username
at the keyboard to log in. If you can't, then chances are either the
computer's hung or the keyboard's not working. If you haven't tried
typing your username, though, do so. Ctrl-Alt-F1 is what you type to
bring up this very prompt, so if you've done nothing but type
Ctrl-Alt-F1, it's not surprising that nothing's happened. ;-)

> Since the computer doesn't have any original USB card there is a PCI
> usb card installed. Maybe this causing problem for linux? During boot
> sequensy linux say that it's installing USB keyboard and USB mouse, so
> therefore it causing the system to hang or maybe not only takes
> command from the keyboard at the login prompt?

Are you saying you've got a USB keyboard? On the x86 platform, those are
pretty rare. Still, I'd expect RH8 to be recent enough to have decent USB
keyboard support, but maybe not... Does your USB card have a BIOS in
which you can set options? If so, try fiddling with any "legacy keyboard"
options it might have. If not, can you try a PS/2 keyboard? Even just
using one temporarily might let you update your Linux kernel to one with
better USB keyboard support or add appropriate options to enable better
support using the provided software, if that's the problem.

Another option is to use another distribution -- either a more recent one
in the RH line (like Fedora Core 1) or a different one entirely (SuSE,
Mandrake, Debian, or whatever). Unfortunately, I have no specific
suggestions for distributions with good USB keyboard support. Also, one
problem with this approach is that an old 200MHz computer will likely be
very slow with modern versions of KDE and GNOME. You'll want to stick
with older versions of these environments or use slimmer desktop
environments (like XFce) or even raw window managers (like IceWM or
WindowMaker). You can worry about that later, though; for now, the
priority is obviously to get you logged in!

--
Rod Smith, rodsmith@rodsbooks.com
http://www.rodsbooks.com
Author of books on Linux, FreeBSD, and networking

rodsmith@nessus.rodsbooks.com (Rod Smith) wrote in message news:<qb7s4c-

> A text-mode "localhost login:" is a Linux text-mode login prompt. When
> the screen clears, chances are the system is TRYING to start X, and when
> the "login:" prompt returns, the attempt to start X has failed. Normally,
> after a few tries most distributions give up and give you a text-mode
> login, but it sounds like something's gone badly wrong and corrupted your
> video card's text-mode display by that time.
>
>
> Ordinarily at a "login:" prompt you should be able to type your username
> at the keyboard to log in. If you can't, then chances are either the
> computer's hung or the keyboard's not working. If you haven't tried
> typing your username, though, do so. Ctrl-Alt-F1 is what you type to
> bring up this very prompt, so if you've done nothing but type
> Ctrl-Alt-F1, it's not surprising that nothing's happened. ;-)
>
> > Since the computer doesn't have any original USB card there is a PCI
> > usb card installed. Maybe this causing problem for linux? During boot
> > sequensy linux say that it's installing USB keyboard and USB mouse, so
> > therefore it causing the system to hang or maybe not only takes
> > command from the keyboard at the login prompt?
>
> Are you saying you've got a USB keyboard? On the x86 platform, those are
> pretty rare. Still, I'd expect RH8 to be recent enough to have decent USB
> keyboard support, but maybe not... Does your USB card have a BIOS in
> which you can set options? If so, try fiddling with any "legacy keyboard"
> options it might have. If not, can you try a PS/2 keyboard? Even just
> using one temporarily might let you update your Linux kernel to one with
> better USB keyboard support or add appropriate options to enable better
> support using the provided software, if that's the problem.
>
> Another option is to use another distribution -- either a more recent one
> in the RH line (like Fedora Core 1) or a different one entirely (SuSE,
> Mandrake, Debian, or whatever). Unfortunately, I have no specific
> suggestions for distributions with good USB keyboard support. Also, one
> problem with this approach is that an old 200MHz computer will likely be
> very slow with modern versions of KDE and GNOME. You'll want to stick
> with older versions of these environments or use slimmer desktop
> environments (like XFce) or even raw window managers (like IceWM or
> WindowMaker). You can worry about that later, though; for now, the
> priority is obviously to get you logged in!

Thanks Rod for taking the time to help me.
I dont have any USB keybord but I have a additional PCI USB card
installed so I thought that this caused the problem. I removed the
card and installed RH 8.0 again but still same problem so it's
obviously not the USB card.

However now I found out that I'm able to switch to text mode login
promt by means of hitting Alt+F1 and come back to the blue crashed
screen with Alt+F7. I've learned that this switch between X-windows
and textmode. In textmode I'm able to log in and also able to check my
system files for the graphical card and I been fiddeling around but
I'm rather lost and don't know where to check?

The reason why Linux X-windows crash is the graphical card as you
previously suggested! My graphical card of type S3 86C775 Trio64V2/DX
which caused others problem to! I haven't been able to find any
solution to it. I posted another query to this forum regarding the
trio card also as you maybe have seen. Also I been trying different
drivers but still I cant get it to work? What driver do the
installation disk use?

What do you think is the best way to proceed? Install newer version of
RH like Fedora? Maybe best and easiest way out is to install another
graphical card?

Hope for more help and thanks again.



It's like you said previously
S3 86C775 Trio64V2/DX

In article <68e51b25.0404060202.1768965d@posting.google.com >,
pethunholm@msn.com (Peter) writes:
>
> The reason why Linux X-windows crash is the graphical card as you
> previously suggested! My graphical card of type S3 86C775 Trio64V2/DX
> which caused others problem to! I haven't been able to find any
> solution to it. I posted another query to this forum regarding the
> trio card also as you maybe have seen. Also I been trying different
> drivers but still I cant get it to work? What driver do the
> installation disk use?

Chances are the installation routine used a generic VGA or SVGA driver.
Try locating the Device section (beginning with the line 'Section
"Device"') in the XF86Config or XF86Config-4 line and change the Driver
line to read 'Driver "vga"' or 'Driver "vesa"'. These options might or
might not work. If they do, the results will likely be disappointing --
you may have very low resolution, low refresh rate, low color depth,
and/or slow speed.

I can't really offer much help on this card specifically, since I don't
have any experience with it. There are some newsgroups devoted to X, and
you might try posting your query there. I'm not sure which one would be
most appropriate, but try comp.windows.x to start.

> What do you think is the best way to proceed? Install newer version of
> RH like Fedora? Maybe best and easiest way out is to install another
> graphical card?

It's possible that a more up-to-date distribution (or the X server
component, to be more precise) would do better, but I don't know that for
a fact. Replacing the video card would almost certainly fix the problem,
provided you do the research to discover what's supported under your
version of XFree86, but of course that'll cost you money unless you happen
to have a spare or can trade with somebody.

--
Rod Smith, rodsmith@rodsbooks.com
http://www.rodsbooks.com
Author of books on Linux, FreeBSD, and networking

rodsmith@nessus.rodsbooks.com (Rod Smith) wrote in message news:<tpuu4c-bja.ln@speaker.rodsbooks.com>...
> In article <68e51b25.0404060202.1768965d@posting.google.com >,
> pethunholm@msn.com (Peter) writes:
>
> Chances are the installation routine used a generic VGA or SVGA driver.
> Try locating the Device section (beginning with the line 'Section
> "Device"') in the XF86Config or XF86Config-4 line and change the Driver
> line to read 'Driver "vga"' or 'Driver "vesa"'. These options might or
> might not work. If they do, the results will likely be disappointing --
> you may have very low resolution, low refresh rate, low color depth,
> and/or slow speed.
>
> I can't really offer much help on this card specifically, since I don't
> have any experience with it. There are some newsgroups devoted to X, and
> you might try posting your query there. I'm not sure which one would be
> most appropriate, but try comp.windows.x to start.
>
> > What do you think is the best way to proceed? Install newer version of
> > RH like Fedora? Maybe best and easiest way out is to install another
> > graphical card?
>
> It's possible that a more up-to-date distribution (or the X server
> component, to be more precise) would do better, but I don't know that for
> a fact. Replacing the video card would almost certainly fix the problem,
> provided you do the research to discover what's supported under your
> version of XFree86, but of course that'll cost you money unless you happen
> to have a spare or can trade with somebody.

Hi again Rod

I tried to install VESA driver with high but then everything stopped
Both in X and text mode. So no more RH 8.0!

I've downloaded RH 9.0 so I will install that version instead!
Hopefully this will solve the problem. Maybe Slackware is a better
option for my old machine?

In article <68e51b25.0404062336.2e4bf948@posting.google.com >,
pethunholm@msn.com (Peter) writes:
>
> I've downloaded RH 9.0 so I will install that version instead!
> Hopefully this will solve the problem. Maybe Slackware is a better
> option for my old machine?

Ordinarily Slackware is a good choice for older or otherwise limited
hardware, because it tends to install less unnecessary cruft than do most
other distributions. In your case, though, the problem appears to be a
buggy driver for your video card, and for that, Slackware might or might
not be any better than Red Hat -- but probably not, assuming we're
talking about distributions of the same vintage.

--
Rod Smith, rodsmith@rodsbooks.com
http://www.rodsbooks.com
Author of books on Linux, FreeBSD, and networking