[gentoo-user] Is starting xdm enough to see something in X?

[gentoo-user] Is starting xdm enough to see something in X?

[Mark Knecht]

Title sort of says it. I have an old machine that I'm setting up as a
Myth server. I didn't want X on the machine but I'm having trouble so
I emerged xdm and start it using /etc/init.d/xdm start. The  drivers
get loaded but I get a black screen. No error message in the X log
file.

I haven't messed with X at this level before. What's the minimum test
of X that would display a terminal or something very basic?

Thanks,
Mark

Re: [gentoo-user] Is starting xdm enough to see something in X?

[bn]

Mark Knecht ha scritto:
> Title sort of says it. I have an old machine that I'm setting up as a
> Myth server. I didn't want X on the machine but I'm having trouble so
> I emerged xdm and start it using /etc/init.d/xdm start. The  drivers
> get loaded but I get a black screen. No error message in the X log
> file.
> 
> I haven't messed with X at this level before. What's the minimum test
> of X that would display a terminal or something very basic?
> 

Have you tried

startx /usr/bin/xterm


?

Re: [gentoo-user] Is starting xdm enough to see something in X?

[Mark Knecht]

On Fri, May 22, 2009 at 11:49 AM, bn <brullonulla@gmail.com> wrote:
> Mark Knecht ha scritto:
>> Title sort of says it. I have an old machine that I'm setting up as a
>> Myth server. I didn't want X on the machine but I'm having trouble so
>> I emerged xdm and start it using /etc/init.d/xdm start. The  drivers
>> get loaded but I get a black screen. No error message in the X log
>> file.
>>
>> I haven't messed with X at this level before. What's the minimum test
>> of X that would display a terminal or something very basic?
>>
>
> Have you tried
>
> startx /usr/bin/xterm
>

Yes. Same black screen. Nothing else going on. The processes show up
in ps aux, X as root, xterm as me.

Re: [gentoo-user] Is starting xdm enough to see something in X?

[Matt Harrison]

Mark Knecht wrote:
> On Fri, May 22, 2009 at 11:49 AM, bn <brullonulla@gmail.com> wrote:
>> Mark Knecht ha scritto:
>>> Title sort of says it. I have an old machine that I'm setting up as a
>>> Myth server. I didn't want X on the machine but I'm having trouble so
>>> I emerged xdm and start it using /etc/init.d/xdm start. The  drivers
>>> get loaded but I get a black screen. No error message in the X log
>>> file.
>>>
>>> I haven't messed with X at this level before. What's the minimum test
>>> of X that would display a terminal or something very basic?
>>>
>> Have you tried
>>
>> startx /usr/bin/xterm
>>
> 
> Yes. Same black screen. Nothing else going on. The processes show up
> in ps aux, X as root, xterm as me.
> 

I've found before that if everything seems to be running (can list X 
processes and logs look fine) but you still don't see anything, it's 
possible it is your monitor. I used to use a really old 15" CRT for a 
server but it just wouldn't run X at anything over 640x480. Modern 
monitors will at least tell you if the resolution/refresh is out of 
limits, but older ones don't often. Try with a different monitor if that 
one is old or suspect.

~Matt

Re: [gentoo-user] Is starting xdm enough to see something in X?

[Mark Knecht]

On Fri, May 22, 2009 at 12:08 PM, Matt Harrison
<iwasinnamuknow@genestate.com> wrote:
> Mark Knecht wrote:
>>
>> On Fri, May 22, 2009 at 11:49 AM, bn <brullonulla@gmail.com> wrote:
>>>
>>> Mark Knecht ha scritto:
>>>>
>>>> Title sort of says it. I have an old machine that I'm setting up as a
>>>> Myth server. I didn't want X on the machine but I'm having trouble so
>>>> I emerged xdm and start it using /etc/init.d/xdm start. The  drivers
>>>> get loaded but I get a black screen. No error message in the X log
>>>> file.
>>>>
>>>> I haven't messed with X at this level before. What's the minimum test
>>>> of X that would display a terminal or something very basic?
>>>>
>>> Have you tried
>>>
>>> startx /usr/bin/xterm
>>>
>>
>> Yes. Same black screen. Nothing else going on. The processes show up
>> in ps aux, X as root, xterm as me.
>>
>
> I've found before that if everything seems to be running (can list X
> processes and logs look fine) but you still don't see anything, it's
> possible it is your monitor. I used to use a really old 15" CRT for a server
> but it just wouldn't run X at anything over 640x480. Modern monitors will at
> least tell you if the resolution/refresh is out of limits, but older ones
> don't often. Try with a different monitor if that one is old or suspect.
>
> ~Matt

Good point. I'll hook the machine up to a very good monitor later today. Thanks.

One question about this X stuff. Is there any difference at all at the
application level if I run an app displaying on the monitor of that
machine, or use ssh -X -Y -C and run the app displaying on a remote
machine?

If there is absolutely no difference then I don't need to bother with
this. If there is then I do. The real issue here is that Myth doesn't
work. If I can be certain that displaying Myth apps on a remote
screen, such as mythtv-setup or mythfrontend, is really the same then
I'll just do that. However those apps are currently failing so I'm
trying to eliminate issues, and possibly creating one I don't care
about in doing that!

Thanks,
Mark

Re: [gentoo-user] Is starting xdm enough to see something in X?

[Alan McKinnon]

On Friday 22 May 2009 21:19:40 Mark Knecht wrote:
> On Fri, May 22, 2009 at 12:08 PM, Matt Harrison
>
> <iwasinnamuknow@genestate.com> wrote:
> > Mark Knecht wrote:
> >> On Fri, May 22, 2009 at 11:49 AM, bn <brullonulla@gmail.com> wrote:
> >>> Mark Knecht ha scritto:
> >>>> Title sort of says it. I have an old machine that I'm setting up as a
> >>>> Myth server. I didn't want X on the machine but I'm having trouble so
> >>>> I emerged xdm and start it using /etc/init.d/xdm start. The  drivers
> >>>> get loaded but I get a black screen. No error message in the X log
> >>>> file.
> >>>>
> >>>> I haven't messed with X at this level before. What's the minimum test
> >>>> of X that would display a terminal or something very basic?
> >>>
> >>> Have you tried
> >>>
> >>> startx /usr/bin/xterm
> >>
> >> Yes. Same black screen. Nothing else going on. The processes show up
> >> in ps aux, X as root, xterm as me.
> >
> > I've found before that if everything seems to be running (can list X
> > processes and logs look fine) but you still don't see anything, it's
> > possible it is your monitor. I used to use a really old 15" CRT for a
> > server but it just wouldn't run X at anything over 640x480. Modern
> > monitors will at least tell you if the resolution/refresh is out of
> > limits, but older ones don't often. Try with a different monitor if that
> > one is old or suspect.
> >
> > ~Matt
>
> Good point. I'll hook the machine up to a very good monitor later today.
> Thanks.

You need to run an X-server, not the one that is displaying xdm because that 
will only run xdm and once you authenticate will launch an entirely different 
session. Either launch the failsafe session, it gives you twm on gentoo with a 
single xterm, or ditch xdm and run startx.

You can also run xinit (startx is a wrapper script around xinit that launches 
user-defined apps) and that gives you plain X without a window manager so you 
need to put at least xterm into .xinitrc

> One question about this X stuff. Is there any difference at all at the
> application level if I run an app displaying on the monitor of that
> machine, or use ssh -X -Y -C and run the app displaying on a remote
> machine?

No difference whatsoever for basic apps. X is network transparent, meaning 
that the X client reads and writes a Unix socket, TCP socket, or whatever else 
you can dream up. However, I'm sure you will find that recent fancy stuff like 
compiz and OpenGL don't work as expected.

> If there is absolutely no difference then I don't need to bother with
> this. If there is then I do. The real issue here is that Myth doesn't
> work. If I can be certain that displaying Myth apps on a remote
> screen, such as mythtv-setup or mythfrontend, is really the same then
> I'll just do that. However those apps are currently failing so I'm
> trying to eliminate issues, and possibly creating one I don't care
> about in doing that!

Running X apps locally locally tests your X libs and your X server.
Running X apps remotely tests the X libs

:-)

-- 
alan dot mckinnon at gmail dot com

Re: [gentoo-user] Is starting xdm enough to see something in X?

[Mark Knecht]

On Fri, May 22, 2009 at 12:54 PM, Alan McKinnon <alan.mckinnon@gmail.com> wrote:
> On Friday 22 May 2009 21:19:40 Mark Knecht wrote:
>> On Fri, May 22, 2009 at 12:08 PM, Matt Harrison
>>
>> <iwasinnamuknow@genestate.com> wrote:
>> > Mark Knecht wrote:
>> >> On Fri, May 22, 2009 at 11:49 AM, bn <brullonulla@gmail.com> wrote:
>> >>> Mark Knecht ha scritto:
>> >>>> Title sort of says it. I have an old machine that I'm setting up as a
>> >>>> Myth server. I didn't want X on the machine but I'm having trouble so
>> >>>> I emerged xdm and start it using /etc/init.d/xdm start. The  drivers
>> >>>> get loaded but I get a black screen. No error message in the X log
>> >>>> file.
>> >>>>
>> >>>> I haven't messed with X at this level before. What's the minimum test
>> >>>> of X that would display a terminal or something very basic?
>> >>>
>> >>> Have you tried
>> >>>
>> >>> startx /usr/bin/xterm
>> >>
>> >> Yes. Same black screen. Nothing else going on. The processes show up
>> >> in ps aux, X as root, xterm as me.
>> >
>> > I've found before that if everything seems to be running (can list X
>> > processes and logs look fine) but you still don't see anything, it's
>> > possible it is your monitor. I used to use a really old 15" CRT for a
>> > server but it just wouldn't run X at anything over 640x480. Modern
>> > monitors will at least tell you if the resolution/refresh is out of
>> > limits, but older ones don't often. Try with a different monitor if that
>> > one is old or suspect.
>> >
>> > ~Matt
>>
>> Good point. I'll hook the machine up to a very good monitor later today.
>> Thanks.
>
> You need to run an X-server, not the one that is displaying xdm because that
> will only run xdm and once you authenticate will launch an entirely different
> session. Either launch the failsafe session, it gives you twm on gentoo with a
> single xterm, or ditch xdm and run startx.
>
> You can also run xinit (startx is a wrapper script around xinit that launches
> user-defined apps) and that gives you plain X without a window manager so you
> need to put at least xterm into .xinitrc
>
>> One question about this X stuff. Is there any difference at all at the
>> application level if I run an app displaying on the monitor of that
>> machine, or use ssh -X -Y -C and run the app displaying on a remote
>> machine?
>
> No difference whatsoever for basic apps. X is network transparent, meaning
> that the X client reads and writes a Unix socket, TCP socket, or whatever else
> you can dream up. However, I'm sure you will find that recent fancy stuff like
> compiz and OpenGL don't work as expected.
>
>> If there is absolutely no difference then I don't need to bother with
>> this. If there is then I do. The real issue here is that Myth doesn't
>> work. If I can be certain that displaying Myth apps on a remote
>> screen, such as mythtv-setup or mythfrontend, is really the same then
>> I'll just do that. However those apps are currently failing so I'm
>> trying to eliminate issues, and possibly creating one I don't care
>> about in doing that!
>
> Running X apps locally locally tests your X libs and your X server.
> Running X apps remotely tests the X libs
>

Thanks Alan,
   OK, I switched to a known good monitor, left xdm turned off and
used startx at my command line. I see all the right stuff in ps but
still no video, and it seems that I've lost control of my keyboard as
I cannot use Alt-Ctrl-F2 to get to another console. (The machine
currently doesn't have a mouse)

MacMini ~ # ps aux | grep x
<SNIP>
mark      4643  0.0  0.2   3324  1348 tty1     S+   13:24   0:00
/bin/sh /usr/bin/startx
mark      4659  0.0  0.2   3680  1104 tty1     S+   13:24   0:00 xinit
/etc/X11/xinit/xinitrc -- -nolisten tcp -br -auth
/home/mark/.serverauth.4643 -deferglyphs 16
mark      4679  0.0  0.6   8216  3252 tty1     S    13:24   0:00 xterm
-geometry 80x66+0+0 -name login
mark      4694  0.0  0.6   8376  3488 tty1     S    13:24   0:00
xclock -geometry 50x50-1+1
mark      4695  0.0  0.6   8208  3252 tty1     S    13:24   0:00 xterm
-geometry 80x50+494+51
mark      4696  0.0  0.6   8196  3236 tty1     S    13:24   0:00 xterm
-geometry 80x20+494-0
root      4735  0.0  0.1   2840  1020 pts/3    R+   13:26   0:00 ps aux
root      4736  0.0  0.1   2060   580 pts/3    R+   13:26   0:00 grep
--colour=auto x
MacMini ~ #

If I use top in a terminal and kill startx and xinit then I get back
to my login console.

Possibly xorg-server-1.5 isn't compatible with a 2.6.24 kernel?

Maybe I should move this to the Power PC group. Likely I'll find
someone there with direct experience. Still, I appreciate the wider
audience of gentoo-user.

- Mark

Re: [gentoo-user] Is starting xdm enough to see something in X?

[Daniel da Veiga]

On Fri, May 22, 2009 at 17:46, Mark Knecht <markknecht@gmail.com> wrote:
> On Fri, May 22, 2009 at 12:54 PM, Alan McKinnon <alan.mckinnon@gmail.com> wrote:
>> On Friday 22 May 2009 21:19:40 Mark Knecht wrote:
>>> On Fri, May 22, 2009 at 12:08 PM, Matt Harrison
>>>
>>> <iwasinnamuknow@genestate.com> wrote:
>>> > Mark Knecht wrote:
>>> >> On Fri, May 22, 2009 at 11:49 AM, bn <brullonulla@gmail.com> wrote:
>>> >>> Mark Knecht ha scritto:
>>> >>>> Title sort of says it. I have an old machine that I'm setting up as a
>>> >>>> Myth server. I didn't want X on the machine but I'm having trouble so
>>> >>>> I emerged xdm and start it using /etc/init.d/xdm start. The  drivers
>>> >>>> get loaded but I get a black screen. No error message in the X log
>>> >>>> file.
>>> >>>>
>>> >>>> I haven't messed with X at this level before. What's the minimum test
>>> >>>> of X that would display a terminal or something very basic?
>>> >>>
>>> >>> Have you tried
>>> >>>
>>> >>> startx /usr/bin/xterm
>>> >>
>>> >> Yes. Same black screen. Nothing else going on. The processes show up
>>> >> in ps aux, X as root, xterm as me.
>>> >
>>> > I've found before that if everything seems to be running (can list X
>>> > processes and logs look fine) but you still don't see anything, it's
>>> > possible it is your monitor. I used to use a really old 15" CRT for a
>>> > server but it just wouldn't run X at anything over 640x480. Modern
>>> > monitors will at least tell you if the resolution/refresh is out of
>>> > limits, but older ones don't often. Try with a different monitor if that
>>> > one is old or suspect.
>>> >
>>> > ~Matt
>>>
>>> Good point. I'll hook the machine up to a very good monitor later today.
>>> Thanks.
>>
>> You need to run an X-server, not the one that is displaying xdm because that
>> will only run xdm and once you authenticate will launch an entirely different
>> session. Either launch the failsafe session, it gives you twm on gentoo with a
>> single xterm, or ditch xdm and run startx.
>>
>> You can also run xinit (startx is a wrapper script around xinit that launches
>> user-defined apps) and that gives you plain X without a window manager so you
>> need to put at least xterm into .xinitrc
>>
>>> One question about this X stuff. Is there any difference at all at the
>>> application level if I run an app displaying on the monitor of that
>>> machine, or use ssh -X -Y -C and run the app displaying on a remote
>>> machine?
>>
>> No difference whatsoever for basic apps. X is network transparent, meaning
>> that the X client reads and writes a Unix socket, TCP socket, or whatever else
>> you can dream up. However, I'm sure you will find that recent fancy stuff like
>> compiz and OpenGL don't work as expected.
>>
>>> If there is absolutely no difference then I don't need to bother with
>>> this. If there is then I do. The real issue here is that Myth doesn't
>>> work. If I can be certain that displaying Myth apps on a remote
>>> screen, such as mythtv-setup or mythfrontend, is really the same then
>>> I'll just do that. However those apps are currently failing so I'm
>>> trying to eliminate issues, and possibly creating one I don't care
>>> about in doing that!
>>
>> Running X apps locally locally tests your X libs and your X server.
>> Running X apps remotely tests the X libs
>>
>
> Thanks Alan,
>   OK, I switched to a known good monitor, left xdm turned off and
> used startx at my command line. I see all the right stuff in ps but
> still no video, and it seems that I've lost control of my keyboard as
> I cannot use Alt-Ctrl-F2 to get to another console. (The machine
> currently doesn't have a mouse)
>
> MacMini ~ # ps aux | grep x
> <SNIP>
> mark      4643  0.0  0.2   3324  1348 tty1     S+   13:24   0:00
> /bin/sh /usr/bin/startx
> mark      4659  0.0  0.2   3680  1104 tty1     S+   13:24   0:00 xinit
> /etc/X11/xinit/xinitrc -- -nolisten tcp -br -auth
> /home/mark/.serverauth.4643 -deferglyphs 16
> mark      4679  0.0  0.6   8216  3252 tty1     S    13:24   0:00 xterm
> -geometry 80x66+0+0 -name login
> mark      4694  0.0  0.6   8376  3488 tty1     S    13:24   0:00
> xclock -geometry 50x50-1+1
> mark      4695  0.0  0.6   8208  3252 tty1     S    13:24   0:00 xterm
> -geometry 80x50+494+51
> mark      4696  0.0  0.6   8196  3236 tty1     S    13:24   0:00 xterm
> -geometry 80x20+494-0
> root      4735  0.0  0.1   2840  1020 pts/3    R+   13:26   0:00 ps aux
> root      4736  0.0  0.1   2060   580 pts/3    R+   13:26   0:00 grep
> --colour=auto x
> MacMini ~ #
>
> If I use top in a terminal and kill startx and xinit then I get back
> to my login console.
>
> Possibly xorg-server-1.5 isn't compatible with a 2.6.24 kernel?
>
> Maybe I should move this to the Power PC group. Likely I'll find
> someone there with direct experience. Still, I appreciate the wider
> audience of gentoo-user.
>

Or you're using an intel card.
Set your VIDEO_CARDS variable in /etc/make.conf to "vesa" and
recompile xorg-server, then try again.

-- 
Daniel da Veiga

Re: [gentoo-user] Is starting xdm enough to see something in X?

[Mark Knecht]

On Fri, May 22, 2009 at 2:01 PM, Daniel da Veiga
<danieldaveiga@gmail.com> wrote:
<SNIP>
>
> Or you're using an intel card.
> Set your VIDEO_CARDS variable in /etc/make.conf to "vesa" and
> recompile xorg-server, then try again.
>
> --
> Daniel da Veiga
>
>

Hi Daniel,
   I'm happy to try that, but for the record in case someone comes
along and reads this thread later, lspci shows a Radeon in the system,
so I set VIDEO_CARDS that way:

MacMini X11 # lspci
0000:00:0b.0 Host bridge: Apple Computer Inc. UniNorth 2 AGP
0000:00:10.0 VGA compatible controller: ATI Technologies Inc RV280
[Radeon 9200] (rev 01)
0001:10:0b.0 Host bridge: Apple Computer Inc. UniNorth 2 PCI
0001:10:12.0 Network controller: Broadcom Corporation BCM4318
[AirForce One 54g] 802.11g Wireless LAN Controller (rev 02)
0001:10:17.0 Class ff00: Apple Computer Inc. KeyLargo/Intrepid Mac I/O
0001:10:18.0 USB Controller: Apple Computer Inc. KeyLargo/Intrepid USB
0001:10:19.0 USB Controller: Apple Computer Inc. KeyLargo/Intrepid USB
0001:10:1a.0 USB Controller: Apple Computer Inc. KeyLargo/Intrepid USB
0001:10:1b.0 USB Controller: NEC Corporation USB (rev 43)
0001:10:1b.1 USB Controller: NEC Corporation USB (rev 43)
0001:10:1b.2 USB Controller: NEC Corporation USB 2.0 (rev 04)
0002:20:0b.0 Host bridge: Apple Computer Inc. UniNorth 2 Internal PCI
0002:20:0d.0 Class ff00: Apple Computer Inc. UniNorth/Intrepid ATA/100
0002:20:0e.0 FireWire (IEEE 1394): Apple Computer Inc. UniNorth 2
FireWire (rev 81)
0002:20:0f.0 Ethernet controller: Apple Computer Inc. UniNorth 2 GMAC
(Sun GEM) (rev 80)
MacMini X11 #

MacMini X11 # cat /etc/make.conf | grep VIDEO
VIDEO_CARDS="fbdev radeon"
MacMini X11 #

I wasn't sure about the fbdev part. I just duplicated one of my x86 boxes.

The radeon driver does load and I don't see any complaints in the log file:

MacMini X11 # lsmod
Module                  Size  Used by
radeon                139784  0
drm                    80732  1 radeon
<SNIP>
agpgart                33344  2 drm,uninorth_agp
MacMini X11 #

Re: [gentoo-user] Is starting xdm enough to see something in X?

[Daniel da Veiga]

On Fri, May 22, 2009 at 18:12, Mark Knecht <markknecht@gmail.com> wrote:
> On Fri, May 22, 2009 at 2:01 PM, Daniel da Veiga
> <danieldaveiga@gmail.com> wrote:
> <SNIP>
>>
>> Or you're using an intel card.
>> Set your VIDEO_CARDS variable in /etc/make.conf to "vesa" and
>> recompile xorg-server, then try again.
>>
>> --
>> Daniel da Veiga
>>
>>
>
> Hi Daniel,
>   I'm happy to try that, but for the record in case someone comes
> along and reads this thread later, lspci shows a Radeon in the system,
> so I set VIDEO_CARDS that way:
>
> MacMini X11 # lspci
> 0000:00:0b.0 Host bridge: Apple Computer Inc. UniNorth 2 AGP
> 0000:00:10.0 VGA compatible controller: ATI Technologies Inc RV280
> [Radeon 9200] (rev 01)
> 0001:10:0b.0 Host bridge: Apple Computer Inc. UniNorth 2 PCI
> 0001:10:12.0 Network controller: Broadcom Corporation BCM4318
> [AirForce One 54g] 802.11g Wireless LAN Controller (rev 02)
> 0001:10:17.0 Class ff00: Apple Computer Inc. KeyLargo/Intrepid Mac I/O
> 0001:10:18.0 USB Controller: Apple Computer Inc. KeyLargo/Intrepid USB
> 0001:10:19.0 USB Controller: Apple Computer Inc. KeyLargo/Intrepid USB
> 0001:10:1a.0 USB Controller: Apple Computer Inc. KeyLargo/Intrepid USB
> 0001:10:1b.0 USB Controller: NEC Corporation USB (rev 43)
> 0001:10:1b.1 USB Controller: NEC Corporation USB (rev 43)
> 0001:10:1b.2 USB Controller: NEC Corporation USB 2.0 (rev 04)
> 0002:20:0b.0 Host bridge: Apple Computer Inc. UniNorth 2 Internal PCI
> 0002:20:0d.0 Class ff00: Apple Computer Inc. UniNorth/Intrepid ATA/100
> 0002:20:0e.0 FireWire (IEEE 1394): Apple Computer Inc. UniNorth 2
> FireWire (rev 81)
> 0002:20:0f.0 Ethernet controller: Apple Computer Inc. UniNorth 2 GMAC
> (Sun GEM) (rev 80)
> MacMini X11 #
>
> MacMini X11 # cat /etc/make.conf | grep VIDEO
> VIDEO_CARDS="fbdev radeon"
> MacMini X11 #
>
> I wasn't sure about the fbdev part. I just duplicated one of my x86 boxes.
>
> The radeon driver does load and I don't see any complaints in the log file:
>
> MacMini X11 # lsmod
> Module                  Size  Used by
> radeon                139784  0
> drm                    80732  1 radeon
> <SNIP>
> agpgart                33344  2 drm,uninorth_agp
> MacMini X11 #
>
>

I see, you would have something wrong in your dmesg if that was the
problem. Anyway, using vesa is still the easy way to get X working
plain and simple.

I just bring that up because some time ago an old machine here at work
had similar (almost identical) issues with video, and since it was a
simple kiosk machine, I changed it from the original (nvidia) driver
to vesa and it worked.

-- 
Daniel da Veiga

Re: [gentoo-user] Is starting xdm enough to see something in X?

[Neil Bothwick]

[-- Attachment #1: Type: text/plain, Size: 713 bytes --]

On Fri, 22 May 2009 12:19:40 -0700, Mark Knecht wrote:

> If there is absolutely no difference then I don't need to bother with
> this. If there is then I do. The real issue here is that Myth doesn't
> work. If I can be certain that displaying Myth apps on a remote
> screen, such as mythtv-setup or mythfrontend, is really the same then
> I'll just do that. However those apps are currently failing so I'm
> trying to eliminate issues, and possibly creating one I don't care
> about in doing that!

My mythbackend box does not have xorg-server installed. I run
mythtv-setup over SSH with no problems.


-- 
Neil Bothwick

When you are out of whack, the best thing to do is to order more whack.

[-- Attachment #2: signature.asc --]
[-- Type: application/pgp-signature, Size: 198 bytes --]

Re: [gentoo-user] Is starting xdm enough to see something in X?

[Mark Knecht]

On Sat, May 23, 2009 at 1:06 PM, Neil Bothwick <neil@digimed.co.uk> wrote:
> On Fri, 22 May 2009 12:19:40 -0700, Mark Knecht wrote:
>
>> If there is absolutely no difference then I don't need to bother with
>> this. If there is then I do. The real issue here is that Myth doesn't
>> work. If I can be certain that displaying Myth apps on a remote
>> screen, such as mythtv-setup or mythfrontend, is really the same then
>> I'll just do that. However those apps are currently failing so I'm
>> trying to eliminate issues, and possibly creating one I don't care
>> about in doing that!
>
> My mythbackend box does not have xorg-server installed. I run
> mythtv-setup over SSH with no problems.
>
>
> --
> Neil Bothwick

Yes, I can on my existing backend server, but on the new one I'm
building it doesn't seem to work.  I attempted to follow the
instructions here:

http://www.mythtv.org/docs/mythtv-HOWTO-6.html

but for some reason it wouldn't work reliably. I think there may be 2 issues:

1) Somethign about my understanding of the mysql permissions
(privileges?) over the network not being right.

2) Something about having two backend servers on the network.

The frontend config files aren't very network aware as they hardwire
an IP address in them. Additionally there's something new with a
config.xml file which I just found out about and might be conflicting
with changes I made by hand to the mysql.txt file.

I've just in the last few minutes done a drop on the mythconverg
database and I'm starting over from scratch.

Thanks,
Mark

Re: [gentoo-user] Is starting xdm enough to see something in X?

[Dale]

Mark Knecht wrote:
> Title sort of says it. I have an old machine that I'm setting up as a
> Myth server. I didn't want X on the machine but I'm having trouble so
> I emerged xdm and start it using /etc/init.d/xdm start. The  drivers
> get loaded but I get a black screen. No error message in the X log
> file.
>
> I haven't messed with X at this level before. What's the minimum test
> of X that would display a terminal or something very basic?
>
> Thanks,
> Mark
>
>
>   

I don't know if this still applies or not but may be worth a try.  I
used to test X by doing startx.  It's a ugly thing but it tells you if
it works or not.  No clue on if that would help Mythtv either.

Dale

:-)  :-)