Not having the best luck installing F15 Beta - need a nudge in the right direction

jimbux · #1 22nd May 2011, 07:02 AM

Downloaded Fedora-15-Beta-x86_64-DVD.iso the other day, verified the download, burned the DVD - let the DVD do the self-check, then installed on one of my machines (AMD 64 X2 Dual Core 3800+). I've had F11 and F13 running on that machine successfully before, so the machine is good.

I went with most of the defaults (except used ext3 for / and /home) during the install, and got as far as logging in with a newly created username, but when the desktop was coming up - it just stopped at the point that it showed a menu bar at the top of the screen - with the time in the center and a couple of other details in the menu bar but otherwise was just an empty screen with a nice muted colored stripped background devoid of any other items on the desktop. The keyboard and mouse would not respond, and I couldn't interact at all with the machine. Rebooting several times didn't help.

I tried installing from scratch again - altering a few steps. No dice - even worse actually - not even the menu bar showed up (but got the nice colored screen).

So, one more install from scratch (with a newly burned disc - and rechecked) but selected "minimal install" not realizing that wouldn't install any graphics/desktop etc.

So at least I could log in as root - so I enabled my networking and "yum updated" everything. Then installed the group "Gnome Desktop Environment" and "X Window System". Still can't figure out how to actually get the machine to boot up to gnome.

Any hints? I've poked around to see if I can find answers here but come up empty handed.

Any helpful hints to get me rolling again?

Thanks!

leigh123linux · #2 22nd May 2011, 07:09 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jimbux

Downloaded Fedora-15-Beta-x86_64-DVD.iso the other day, verified the download, burned the DVD - let the DVD do the self-check, then installed on one of my machines (AMD 64 X2 Dual Core 3800+). I've had F11 and F13 running on that machine successfully before, so the machine is good.

I went with most of the defaults (except used ext3 for / and /home) during the install, and got as far as logging in with a newly created username, but when the desktop was coming up - it just stopped at the point that it showed a menu bar at the top of the screen - with the time in the center and a couple of other details in the menu bar but otherwise was just an empty screen with a nice muted colored stripped background devoid of any other items on the desktop. The keyboard and mouse would not respond, and I couldn't interact at all with the machine. Rebooting several times didn't help.

I tried installing from scratch again - altering a few steps. No dice - even worse actually - not even the menu bar showed up (but got the nice colored screen).

So, one more install from scratch (with a newly burned disc - and rechecked) but selected "minimal install" not realizing that wouldn't install any graphics/desktop etc.

So at least I could log in as root - so I enabled my networking and "yum updated" everything. Then installed the group "Gnome Desktop Environment" and "X Window System". Still can't figure out how to actually get the machine to boot up to gnome.

Any hints? I've poked around to see if I can find answers here but come up empty handed.

Any helpful hints to get me rolling again?

Thanks!

They call that mess gnome3

, try a KDE install instead or any other DE.

jimbux · #3 22nd May 2011, 07:40 AM

Thanks Leigh - so are you saying that there is no way for me to get gnome up and running? I thought F15 was shipping in 3 days - surely there's a way at this point isn't there?

I think the problem right now isn't that gnome isn't working, but that I don't know how to configure the system by hand so that it boots to gnome. Usually the installer does that for me, but since I chose "minimal" that didn't happen so I'm in unfamiliar territory.

Note, I do actually have F15 installed and can log in (init level 3 I believe it's called) as root with the monitor and keyboard acting as a dumb terminal. I've even updated everything on the system so that it's current. What's the next step?

If gnome3 really is a non-starter, for sure I'll jump ship to KDE - but I must be close to getting this working.

leigh123linux · #4 22nd May 2011, 08:00 AM

Is this what it looked like when it froze?

jimbux · #5 22nd May 2011, 02:24 PM

There were fewer icons in the upper right, and no birds sitting on branches (just blue bars) otherwise, yes it looked like that.

**nirik** · #6 22nd May 2011, 02:38 PM

as a side note, I'll point out that the beta was released over a month ago now.

You may want to wait for tuesday and the final 15 release... too many bugs and issues to name have been fixed.

jimbux · #7 22nd May 2011, 03:18 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by nirik

as a side note, I'll point out that the beta was released over a month ago now.

You may want to wait for tuesday and the final 15 release... too many bugs and issues to name have been fixed.

I hear ya - I figured I could install then update to get the fixes. I had some time this weekend so I figured what the heck.

I'm giving more serious consideration to just going with KDE anyway as it's apparently build on qt (reading wiki posts now) and an important piece of software I use is also built on qt, so that might be good... anyway, not sure if that matters - but it's pushing me in that direction.

Miikka · #8 22nd May 2011, 03:22 PM

That is how it is supposed to look like. The only problem seems to be your mouse not working.

jimbux · #9 22nd May 2011, 03:40 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Miikka

That is how it is supposed to look like. The only problem seems to be your mouse not working.

Good to know, thanks. However, the mouse worked prior to logging in, plus when I installed, and as I say, this computer has had other versions of Fedora installed on it fine. Note, no keyboard input seemed to do anything either. (I hit cntl-alt-del, tab, F1 through F12, bang randomly on keys... etc. nothing did anything, to all appearances the computer was unresponsive.)

leigh123linux · #10 22nd May 2011, 04:02 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jimbux

Good to know, thanks. However, the mouse worked prior to logging in, plus when I installed, and as I say, this computer has had other versions of Fedora installed on it fine. Note, no keyboard input seemed to do anything either. (I hit cntl-alt-del, tab, F1 through F12, bang randomly on keys... etc. nothing did anything, to all appearances the computer was unresponsive.)

The keyboard and mouse issue could be a kernel issue.

JEO · #11 22nd May 2011, 04:15 PM

If the keyboard and mouse stop working after you log in, then maybe the X server is crashing (gnome 3 requires working 3-d hardware acceleration). Older versions of Fedora didn't require that.

jimbux · #12 24th May 2011, 05:32 AM

Just a quick follow up since this forum is going to be closed tomorrow. I decided to go with KDE (after the proper release tomorrow I can wait a day

) I've been out of the loop on Fedora/linux related stuff for about six months now, and only just jumped back in the other day to play around. I haven't dug too deeply, but just on the surface poking around the forums here, I'm getting a pretty serious vibe from you heavy hitters that gnome3 sucks! Well, that settles it. KDE for me.

Thanks for the replies above, always appreciated folks!

CU soon.

jtfolden · #13 24th May 2011, 06:17 AM

Wow... why not actually try the official release with Gnome 3 first instead of relying on other's opinions?

If I listen to other people, I'd miss out on a lot I enjoy.... including Gnome 3, which I happen to think is great!

Miikka · #14 24th May 2011, 02:01 PM

I also like Gnome 3. It sure is different than 2, but that doesn't bother me.

Don't listen to the grumpy old men who like to keep their things as they were years ago

(don't take this seriously, please)

jimbux · #15 24th May 2011, 02:41 PM

ha! Ok - keeping an open mind. :-)