[lug] Hanging during initialization...

[Nate Duehr]

I had some problems a while back with xfs on "potato" also.  You could
try removing xfs only (it's not required for running X) and see if you
can get things to come up.  

If you remove the xdm package on Debian, you'll not automatically go
into X and can use "startx" or whatever other method you like of
starting your X server for testing purposes.  (Debian ties whether or
not xdm is installed -- or gdm, or kdm, you get the idea -- to whether
or not to run X by default at startup.  Remove xdm and you'll have
complete control of the machine while you're troubleshooting.  Then you
can reinstall it later once everything's working.

If you're planning on using any true-type fonts, you may consider
replacing xfs with xfs-tt later on also -- some of the TrueType stuff is
"non-free", meaning that xfs is available as two packages.  One is all
free software (xfs) one has true-type support compiled in (xfs-tt).

On Tue, Apr 10, 2001 at 09:08:46AM -0600, celttechie (Brian Jarrett) wrote:
> A little background:
> I've been learning a lot the last few days in trying to get XFree86 4.0.2 running on my new Debian 2.2 installation.  This latest problem has me stumped.  
> The 4.0.2 install asked about running the X font server and I said yes.  I know that it is linked in the rc2.d directory to be loaded on startup.  When my machine goes to init level 2 it tries to load xfs but hangs.  I've tried CTRL-c and several other combinations but the only thing that seems to respond is CTRL-ALT-DEL.  I've also found that by hitting CTRL-c _before_ getting to the point of launching xfs, I cause the file system to stay in read-only mode and can get to a login prompt.  After logging in, though, I can't modify anything because it's all read-only.
> 
> Here are my questions:  
> Is there any way to keep the scripts in rc2.d from running?
> Can I force it into single user mode?  Will that help?
> Is there a way for me to re-mount the read-only filesystem so I can make the changes needed?
> 
> If there is some way to get xfs not to load I think I'd be able to get into the system fine and have everything else working.  Once I did get past this block, though, the next question would be "Why did xfs hang?"
> 
> Any light shed on this problem is appreciated...
> 
> Brian

-- 
Nate Duehr <nate at natetech.com>

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