Booting to a GUI with Slack

I haven't had to use xf86config with my slack 10 (never has issues finding my laptop graphics card) but you are correct Gore. It's called Xorg and is more a Xwindows thing than slack specific. For those interested check out this page

XFree86 got discontinued so most distros are switching to Xorg, however there are no huge differences in setting up the system via xorg.conf and xorgconfig.

Actually, all you really need to do is X --configure, last I recalled.

Seems somebody is still having problems. The problem is:

Quote:

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hi i would have posted this in the thread you did but i lost the link to it what i wanted to say was i did what you hade said and it did not work when it boots it says init level 4 now but when it is done booting the screen goes blank do you have any suggestions on what i should do. thank you for any help.

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It sounds like the X server (the graphical interface system) is starting but is not configured properly. If issuing the command startx from a text prompt gives the same symptoms, this is likely your problem.

Change the /etc/inittab file back to start in runlevel 3 so you can actually do something. Now run xorgcfg. You'll need to know things like the refresh rate of your monitor and how much video RAM you have and such. It'll also ask a bunch of questions about the mouse; if you're using a USB mouse, I don't know how to set that up. I assume you know which video card you're using too.

If you're not sure of some thing, just use trial and error; start with the lowest settings and work your way up.

To get out of a black screen like that, press CTRL+ALT+BACKSPACE. This will not-so-gracefully terminate the X server and drop tou back into a text prompt. Then you can try a different configuration with xorgcfg. The GUI can be restarted again with startx.

You may also need do download and maybe compile video drivers for your card, but that shouldn't be too hard if the vendor gives enough instructions.

Once you find a working configuration, then go back and change inittab to start in runlevel 4 again.

Ok thanks for your help will do it now.

wow now it is starting to piss me off a bit. i put in my information
vertical refresh rate 50 ~ 160Hz
horizontal frequency 30~70kHz

and my video card ram is 128MB i still get an error message.

WHen it asks for the video card, tell it you're using a generig VESA-compatible card, that sometimes works for me.

ok will do and i just want to say thanks for all of the help.

O you would not believe this I found out what the problem was the values in the xorg.conf file wear not changing that’s why it would not work no matter what I put in for the values so I changed them manually and saved it now it works. I just have one more question when I installed slackware I had it install every thing and there is not much their just nmap and a couple of other things I thought slack ware came with stuff like ethereal and some others. It doesn’t matter but I was just wondering.

I don't think Ethereal is part of the general Slackware distribution. I always compile it from source anyway to add a few extras to it. It is available at www.ethereal.com.

(hmph... Squid is blocking the Ethereal homepage here. Who on Earth would call that an ad site?)

The menu system that Slackware builds into KDE isn't exactly top-notch, so you'll have to find a lot of the stuff on the HD yourself.

The complete list of Slackware packages can be found here.

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ethereal.com was blocked because it ended in real.com, which I do want blocked. D'oh!
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