i386/104670: The screen irreversibly scrambles when X is initiated.

Remko Lodder remko at FreeBSD.org
Sat Oct 21 23:40:24 PDT 2006


The following reply was made to PR i386/104670; it has been noted by GNATS.

From: Remko Lodder <remko at FreeBSD.org>
To: Nicholas <immortal_apparition at yahoo.com>
Cc: freebsd-gnats-submit at FreeBSD.org
Subject: Re: i386/104670: The screen irreversibly scrambles when X is initiated.
Date: Sun, 22 Oct 2006 08:36:24 +0200

 >> Description:
 > I have a toshiba Satellite, Intel Celeron M 1.6GH, 448MB RAM, ATI chipset (graphix, audio, and other stuff), and 40GB harddrive. I have FreeBSD 6.1 installed as a dual-boot with Windows XP Pro SP2. I have successfully installed the operating system and am able to use the command line. The problem is when I try to initiate the X server (kdm, xdm, Xorg, xinit, etc...) the screen goes blank as if to show the window manager, but when it comes back on it is all scrambled to the point where nothing can be seen  except for a scrambled square in the middle of the screen which is the mouse. When I try to go back to the command line (ctrl+alt+backspace) the screen changes from the first scrambles and displays a whole new set of scrambles. The only way to see even the command line again is to reboot the entire machine. I used a certain command (can't remember) with Xorg to generate 'xorg.conf.new' in '/root'. I can see that there is an ATI driver being initiated with X. I have no ide
 a 
 wh
 >  at to do. I have very little experience with *nix based OS's.
 >> How-To-Repeat:
 > Type 'xinit' in the command line.
 >> Fix:
 > 
 
 First of all thanks for taking the time to write this down!
 
 Sadly this is not a problem, but a userquestion (The big difference
 is that other might already have solved this, while problems need to
 be fixed by the developer team); but lets give it a try anyway (
 I WILL close the PR though and refer you to 
 http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions .
 
 Starting X implies "startx" and not "xinit".  Startx by default
 gives you a very simple window manager (if nothing else had
 been installed and/or configured to startup) but it is at least
 a start.
 
 Try it and you will see, please defer to the mailinglist i pointed
 out for more questions on the subject.
 
 Goodluck!
 
 Cheers,
 remko
 
 -- 
 Kind regards,
 
       Remko Lodder               ** remko at elvandar.org
       FreeBSD                    ** remko at FreeBSD.org
 
       /* Quis custodiet ipsos custodes */


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