No screens found?!

[Snake-Eyes]

Fresh install of Debian 3.1r2, and when i get to the console login, i login as my user (not root, for clarification), type "startx" and it comes up with the error "No screens found." I've done some reading about it, but can't find any answers that i can do without help (ie. answers came up like "post x.xxx log").

 

[kostas]

post your xorg.conf file. it's found in /etc/X11/xorg.conf.

That's assuming you installed X server.

 

[Snake-Eyes]

I don't know how to do that. I explained that in the last sentence or two of my post. I'll try brute-forcing my way to viewing said file.


Edit: I'm 90% sure i installed X server. Either way, i tried "dir /etc/X11" and it did not list xorg.conf file. I typed "/etc/X11/xorg.conf" and it said "-bash: /etc/X11/xorg.conf: No such file or directory.

 

[The General]

su

apt-get install x-window-system x-window-system-core

dpkg-reconfigure xserver-xorg

Choose the VESA driver instead of the NV driver.

/etc/init.d/gdm start

You have to open those text files with a text editor, that is why it is not working. I like vim or vi, so

vim /etc/X11/xorg.conf

will open the file for you.

 

[jakec]

Ok, are you root when you try to access the file, you need to be, what distro are you using, what file editor do you use (eg gedit)

this is how you get into the Xorg: sudo gedit /etc/X11/xorg.conf

if not in Ubuntu just type su as oppose to sudo and & if you don't use gedit try another file editor like Vim.


or just go to the Run feature in your menu and type /etc/X11/xorg.conf that will open the folder then click the icon called Xorg.conf

hope this Helps,

Jake

EDIT: reply posted whilst typing

 

[The General]

^ That sudo stuff doesn't work in Debian, and you don't have to be root to read the files. So just su and type the root password.

 

[Snake-Eyes]

Jake, for clarification, i'm using the latest (i believe. It's 3.1 r2) version of Debian, and i am unable to get into the GUI. Stuck at the shell log in.

General, i'll try that out and get back to you in a few.

 

[The General]

If you are using sarge, you will get frustrated with how old it seems, I recommend that you upgrade to etch, but do that once you have everything working.

 

[Snake-Eyes]

After entering su and apt-get, i punch in dpkg-reconfigure, and get this;

Package 'xserver-xorg' is not installed and no info is available. Use dpkg --info (=dpkg-deb --info) to examine archive files, and dpkg --contents (=dpkg-deb --contents) to list their contents. /usr/sbin/dpkg-reconfigure: xserver-xorg is not installed.

Everything up to this point worked.

Edit: For reference,

vim /etc/X11/xorg.conf

produced nothing. A screen came up with a bunch of tildas (~) which, i assume from messing around, mean absolutely nothing.

Also,

gedit /etc/X11/xorg.conf

gave me

(gedit:2379): Gtk-WARNING **: cannot open display:

I take it xorg.conf is not a valid file?

 

[kostas]

you can't use gedit which is a GNOME application if you don't have a gui
. use nano instead