Re: Local Multi-User X (?) problems

[Kjetil K. <kj...@kj...>]

On Thursday 30 October 2003 12:48, Svetoslav Slavtchev wrote:
> > Yihaaaa! It works! disabling DRI and using the -prefbusid option
> > did the trick! Thanks a lot!
>
> happy to hear it :-)

Yup! My girlfriend is right now happily editing her documents in OO, and 
all is well! :-) It also looks like I can't use this as an excuse to 
buy more RAM, because it's not yet swapping... 

> so Andreas haven't updated his XFree binaries yet,
> i'll probably have to add it to the howto

It could perhaps be just the DRI that was the problem? 

> > Yes. I think I once read that if you build a kernel for a specific
> > system, and there is something you use all the time, compile it
> > into the kernel, if you use it just occasionally, compile it as a
> > module.
>
> that's probably OK,
> but the question is whether the init scripts
> can live with it

OK!

>
> althougt what happens if you decide to change some hardware,
> filesystem ?

That doesn't happen _that_ often, and besides, when it happens, it was 
probably time to get the latest kernel anyway! :-) A kernel compile 
doesn't take more than 20 minutes, and being an astrophysicist, I'm 
used to processes running for weeks... :-)

> it's more flexible to have most hardware compiled as module's

Yup, undoubtedly.

BTW, my bzipped kernel is currently about 1 MB.  

> > > > BTW, /proc/bus/usb/devices does not exist on my system,
> > >
> > > this is somewhat strange
> > > you must have it
> >
> > OK...
>
> probably your init script doesn't like
> built in support for usb,
> this is the case for mandrake as well
> if usb is built in the kernel, not as modules,
> service usb doesn't start -- it doesn't mount
> usbfs and there might be some issues with
> certain usb drivers
> you probably have to mount it yourself then

OK, I'll try Helge's advice, if it doesn't work, I'll compile it as a 
module. 

> > BTW, here's one point you might want to add something like this in
> > a Troubleshooting section of your HOWTO:
> >
> > Q: e2fsck complains I have a bad superblock after I enabled devfs.
> > In fact, it appears all the superblocks are bad, and I'm scared.
> > What do I do?
> >
> > A: Make sure devfsd is running.
> >
> > :-) This put me off for several days...
>
> it happened to me under debian too :-)
> but i don't think it's a good idea to add this to the howto,
> it's devfs issue and has nothing to do with bruby/ruby-2.6
> and there is a link to the devfs howto

Yeah, well, you have spelled it out clearly, that devfsd is needed, so I 
guess I can only blame myself. But when something like that happens to 
a newbie like me, the system is suddenly unbootable and the first thing 
you think about is "data corruption", a newbie is really put off... :-) 

The problem is, and why it took me so long, was the lack of keywords... 
I didn't realize it was a devfs problem, because I enabled devfs when 
booting the backstreet ruby kernel the first time. Besides, my HD has 
had a lot of problems (a physical problem actually, the IDE cable falls 
out if I just barely touch the chassis :-( ), so I was quite sure it 
was a kernel/hardware problem. It wasn't untill I tried booting my 
non-bruby 2.4.22 kernel with devfs I realized that was relevant. Then 
adding "devfs" to my google search for "e2fsck bad superblock" gave the 
answer immediately. So, I thought it could perhaps fit in an appendix?

Of course, this kind of stuff isn't really what newbies should be doing, 
but then... :-) 

> it's higly recomended to switch to gdm,
> as it does obey the specified start/stop order
> and the later is really important to avoid some lock ups
> with certain graphic cards on start/restart/ shut down
> of the X servers, and it does help to retain the VGA console

OK! I'll probably switch to GDM when I get time to look more into 2.6!


>
> > I guess I might as well ask right now: I was thinking about buying
> > a gadget where I can get two PS/2 ports from a USB-port, like this:
> > http://www.clasohlson.no/images/products/N/hi/A/324024_Xw4.jpg I
> > have no further specs on it, but do you guys think it would "work"?
> > The idea is to use one of those for the second keyboard and mouse.
>
> no idea,
> if it works under non ruby kernel, it should work under
> bruby/ruby-2.6 too
>
> may be searching for this particular adapter "+ linux" on google will
> give you some answers

Yup, there are stuff like that certfied for Linux, (as Aivils pointed 
out). I'll probably go out an buy one tomorrow. I was concerned if it 
could for example just send all its output to e.g. /dev/input/event2, 
and it would be both mouse and keyboard and difficult to tell apart. 
Mmmm, it was a whole lot of wires now... I figured it would be cool if I 
could have something like a Bluetooth box on my desktop with RS232, 
PS/2 and USB connections, and symmetric crypto between that box and a 
bluetooth PCI card in the machine... Anybody know if something like 
that exists? :-) 

> please check if putting
> Option "DRI" "false"
> for your second card works OK
> with DRI activated for the first card
> and drop a line
> (i'll add it to the howto if it works)

Yup, I'll do that once I'm alone on the box! :-) 

Cheers,

Kjetil
-- 
Kjetil Kjernsmo
Astrophysicist/IT Consultant/Skeptic/Ski-orienteer/Orienteer/Mountaineer
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