Xorg Install failed - Missing directories?

PeggySue · n00b Joined: 19 Dec 2009 Posts: 73 Location: Devon, UK

With more than a little help from the forums I have built a Gentoo system from the minimal install disk and stage 3 over the internet on my Dell Vostro 1000 laptop. My next step is to install X.

I followed the handbook and
Device Drivers --->
Input device support --->
<*> Event interface
is enabled in my kernel.

I set
INPUT_DEVICES="evdev synaptics"
VIDEO_CARDS="radeon"
in make.conf and did emerge xorg-server, env-update and source /etc/profile.

Next came a trial startx which flashed the screen a couple of times and then returned to the command line. My Xorg log suggests that my Radeon Xpress 200M graphics was found and the correct driver loaded but the mouse and keboard modules weren't found.
I have pasted the log to http://pastebin.com/m31cc8b12

The instructions to get a basic keyboard/mouse combination say

sera · Retired Dev Joined: 29 Feb 2008 Posts: 1017 Location: CET

Do you have hal and dbus installed?

PeggySue · n00b Joined: 19 Dec 2009 Posts: 73 Location: Devon, UK

Hi sera,

The pretend emerge said it would install hal and dbus so I did that. I assume I should put hal and dbus in my make.conf USE Flags to set them globally, so I will do this.

"/etc/init.d/hald start" started hald but "/etc/init.d/dbus start" didn't start dbus it so I did a reboot! hald and dbus were not in the default run level so I used rc-update add hald default (and dbus). hald and dbus are now started and in the default run level.

I copied across the fdi policies (I am using a UK keyboard) and did startx but the output was the same. (No mouse, kbd, xterm etc.).

I am running without an xorg.conf. I have been following the instruction manual and one isn't created. I don't even have an X11 directory.

If hal and dbus are required is there an omission in the instructions? and how should I report that?

Thanks.
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dtjohnst · Apprentice Joined: 23 Apr 2006 Posts: 178

I don't know which walkthrough/howto you're using, but I'd recommend this one:

http://www.gentoo.org/doc/en/xorg-config.xml

It does mention HAL. More importantly is the Xorg -configure section which will create an xorg.conf for you.

PeggySue · n00b Joined: 19 Dec 2009 Posts: 73 Location: Devon, UK

Yes. That's the instructions I am following. It does mention hal but I should have said it doesn't mention installing Hal or dbus. I am only installing the packages called for by the instructions. I have no knowledge of the dependencies.

I get as far as

DONAHUE · Posted: Mon Dec 28, 2009 7:14 pm Post subject:

These add-on guides matter as the software outstrips the documents:
http://www.gentoo.org/proj/en/desktop/x/x11/xorg-server-1.5-upgrade-guide.xml
http://www.gentoo.org/proj/en/desktop/x/x11/libxcb-1.4-upgrade-guide.xml
http://www.gentoo.org/proj/en/desktop/x/x11/xorg-server-1.6-upgrade-guide.xml

Also put the correct XSESSION in /etc/env.d/90xsession (global)
or in your .bashrc (per user)

(if former, don't forget about env-update).

For example: (I use gnome)

PeggySue · n00b Joined: 19 Dec 2009 Posts: 73 Location: Devon, UK

I moved on. Tried the Xorg -configure (after editing 10-x11-input for ctrl_alt_bksp) and then X -config /root/xorg.conf.new.

I got a blank screen; no mouse or keyboard and no way out. Ctrl-Z, Ctrl-C and Ctrl-Alt-Bksp have no response. As you might expect if you have no keyboard!!
_________________
My time machine is broken which is odd because it was working tomorrow.

PeggySue · n00b Joined: 19 Dec 2009 Posts: 73 Location: Devon, UK

Hi Donahue,

Thanks for the tips. The links look interesting and differ from the basic instructions. I will give it a go tomorrow.

Thanks.
_________________
My time machine is broken which is odd because it was working tomorrow.

Total MAdMaN · n00b Joined: 04 Aug 2009 Posts: 14

dtjohnst · Apprentice Joined: 23 Apr 2006 Posts: 178

cach0rr0 · Posted: Mon Dec 28, 2009 11:21 pm Post subject:

IIRC adding

DONAHUE · Posted: Tue Dec 29, 2009 2:23 am Post subject:

My kernel config for radeon driver:

DONAHUE · Posted: Tue Dec 29, 2009 4:18 am Post subject:

This check list has helped me (and others):
If:

sera · Retired Dev Joined: 29 Feb 2008 Posts: 1017 Location: CET

PeggySue,

dbus is not necessarily needed for X itself, but a lot of applications running in X will make use of it. You most likely want it, as I guess otherwise applications won't behave as you expect them to.

Not having hal and dbus in your useflags most likely means you are not using the desktop profile. The desktop profile is meant as a solid base for gentoo being used with X. I recommend using it at least till you get more familiar with gentoo.

PeggySue · n00b Joined: 19 Dec 2009 Posts: 73 Location: Devon, UK

Many thanks for all the responses; I am totally blown away by the level of support. Hopefully I can give something back when I get this going. Clearly the instructions need a bit of a revamp with missing dependencies and updates; I will try to log what really needed to happen in the hope this will help.

cach0rr0:
'equery' was command not found but after Donahue's check list it reports:
x11-drivers/xf86-input-synaptics-1.2.0
x11-base/xorg-server-1.6.5-r1

Donahue:
My system passed your check list but a couple of observations:
INPUT_DEVICES: I included synaptics for my touch-pad
The USE flags also included the default settings and dbus which I added after the main build. So I hadn't run make after adding hal and dbus; I emerged them, started them from the command line and added them to the default run level so dbus and hald were already in the default run level and there was no xorg.conf to hide in /etc/X11.

After a reboot the startx gave a few flashes of the screen and returned me to the command line. Xorg.0.log suggests my keyboard and synaptics touchpad are now found, but no window!

I have yet to go through Donahue's upgrade links for libraries etc. I will do this before loading the desktop environment.

Sera's suggestion to install the desktop is tempting and looks to be the surest way of getting things going and I do need the laptop working soon. Before I do that, does any one want me to record anything from my system to try to track down why X won't stay up? If I do install the desktop we won't know what has happened with X. If that is the way it goes I will do another install on spare space on my desktop to see what goes wrong. The instructions to build from a minimal install, through stage3 and then X should be made to work.
_________________
My time machine is broken which is odd because it was working tomorrow.

DONAHUE · Posted: Tue Dec 29, 2009 6:05 pm Post subject:

Post result of:

sera · Retired Dev Joined: 29 Feb 2008 Posts: 1017 Location: CET

Installing a DM now doesn't change anything but making it possible for the startx test to succeed.

You won't loose anything by trying what I suggested. You probably rather not install xdm if you do not intend to use it. As it is the loginmanager which needs the most knowledge to use I think gdm or kdm are better choices for you. Exploring the internals is easier on a mostly functioning system. Knowing the DM you are gonna install influences the choice as well.

PeggySue · n00b Joined: 19 Dec 2009 Posts: 73 Location: Devon, UK

The big revelation is that I have been under the misapprehension that Xorg managed the windows as well as creating them and I thought Gnome etc. just managed the desktop!

Before I installed the desktop:
/etc/env.d/90xsession has Xsession=Gnome and
emerge xdm tells us that xdms, xdm and libXdmcp would be merged.

Following sera's recipe:

I selected profile 2 (Desktop).

The output from emerge -avuND world said 2 config files in /etc had to be updated. So I figured out that a) they were hidden files and b) they weren't in /etc! I found etc-update and this helped me find the files. ssh was auto-merged because it was considered trivial and /etc/pam.d/system-login only had 1 additional line so I merged that as well.

emerge ...drivers and utilities went by without issues.

emerge gnome gdm took a while; over 10 hours, probably 11 hours, (I went to bed!) This was on an AMD 64 X2 Athlon @1.7 GHz laptop but I awoke to a pleasant surprise - a working Gnome desktop! Many thanks for all the support we made it! I now have to get printing and the wireless going, change the keyboard, try the simple profile, figure out why logical volume manager is there etc. but hopefully I can cope with that.

Just two parting questions if I may.

If I wanted a system that booted to the command prompt but would run applications like Firefox in a window would I have stopped the process before "emerge gnome gdm" and emerged xdm or would I still need gdm? I assume I can get to a system like that by setting my DISPLAY_MANAGER to xdm.

Is it worthwhile flagging my problem to the documentation team, and if so how? My problem was that I followed the minimal install which worked OK (on the second pass, but that was probably my fault). At page 53 "Where do we go from here" I then went to the main documentation page http://www.gentoo.org/doc/en/list.xml and selected "X server configuration HowTo" which was first in line after the installation options. http://www.gentoo.org/doc/en/xorg-config.xml But, using "Find" on this page doesn't show a single occurrence of xdm or gdm; also it assumes you have hal installed which the minimal install doesn't do.

There are lots of routes to various Gentoo configurations but some paths are shared. My suggestion would be to head each section with "This section will build you a xxxx feature" and "before you start this you need to have done yyyyy".

Thanks again for the help. I really like the Gentoo philosophy and it has just the right level of challenge!
_________________
My time machine is broken which is odd because it was working tomorrow.

sera · Retired Dev Joined: 29 Feb 2008 Posts: 1017 Location: CET

For firefox you will need a window manager (WM). Desktop manager (DM) is a term for a WM with some extras. Gnome and KDE are the major DMs (both have a bit more than just some extras :wink:

).

Twm(default X WM) was bundled wit X until recently and this is what the documentation expects when you issue startx. This is obviously no longer the case. I wasn't aware of that before this thread either.

It's always hard to write documentation for user with a lot less background knowledge than oneself. So tips on what caused misunderstandings from your point of view and how it could have been avoided are likely welcome.

Xdm, gdm, kdm basically do all the same. Xdm is sure the most lightweight of those and certainly something to consider if you use another WM/DM than gnome or kde and still want to comfortably boot into a graphical environment by default. Gdm and kdm are supposed to work out of the box, not so xdm.

All of them do the same job, so have somewhat different features, and therefore you only need one of them.

DONAHUE · Posted: Thu Dec 31, 2009 4:45 pm Post subject:

PeggySue · n00b Joined: 19 Dec 2009 Posts: 73 Location: Devon, UK

Thanks for the inputs.

I am progressing and have managed to get wireless going. It was painful but educational and I have copies of wpa_supplicant.conf all over the place!! Different people have different ideas where it should be. Again the instructions would have been fine iff I had met the prerequisites of loading the correct kernel module before starting.
Printing to a remote printer is well under way.

I will need to figure out how to stop eth0 waiting for a dhcp address at boot up but apart from that the system is becoming quite tidy.

Donahue: To the best of my recollection: I used emerge -pv xdm to find that xdm xdms etc were not loaded and then followed sera's recipe. The output from ls -l /etc/init.d/xdm* is now

sera · Retired Dev Joined: 29 Feb 2008 Posts: 1017 Location: CET

The default location for wpa_supplicant.conf on Gentoo is /etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf

To not wait for the timeout of eth0 there is the package ifplugd.

Wireless-tools only offers WEP encryption. This was ok 10 years ago.

@DONAHUE,
/etc/init.d/xdm comes with x11-apps/xinit which is a dependency of x11-base/xorg-server. No need to install xdm. The name of the init script is misleading in this regard.

Deathwing00 · Posted: Fri Apr 02, 2010 12:08 pm Post subject:

Moved from Installing Gentoo to Desktop Environments.