Fedora 8 -- Fail to start x-window on boot [SOLVED]

tx836519 · #1 4th September 2008, 02:58 AM

I recently upgraded (gutted an old box and re-populated it with new parts) a machine and have installed and tried to set up Fedora 8 on a couple of different motherboards. I first tried three different BioStar 945GC-M7TE motherboards that used the Intel 945 Chipset and Intel GMA950 video chip. Because of other problems, I abandoned the BioStar board and installed an ECS G31T-M motherboard using G31 Northbridge and ICH7 Southbridge chipsets. This new board resolved all but one problem that I noticed on all of these boards: After the cabinet internal components reach normal operating temperature, Linux boot cannot negotiate proper video mode to start x-windowing.

After shutting down the system for a few minutes, Fedora 8 will boot with no problem, starting x-windows and launch Gnome. Once up and running, the system run weeks on end with no problem.

Is anyone else experiencing this problem indicating a problem with Fedora 8 startup or am I plagued with two boards with similar design deficiencies?

marcrblevins · #2 4th September 2008, 09:01 AM

Can you reseat your cards? Rephrase, take all the cards out, blow dust bunnies away, reinsert the cards. Does it have proper ventilation?

tx836519 · #3 4th September 2008, 03:59 PM

The current MB exibited the problem within 6 hours after installation (just long enough to slowly build in some chip core temp). The case has a cabinet fan that is working and has free flow. The cabinet is clean, having been assembled, disassembled and re-assembled approximately monthly for the past four months. The video chip is on the MB in the case of all four boards, therefore there is no card seating problem. Removing the side panel and setting up an external fan helps, but does not totally alleviate the problem which seems to say that increasing the volume of air flow from the cabinet fan will not fix the problem. The unit is operating in an air conditioned space where the temperature is maintained at 72 to 75 degrees. The only problem is during boot when negotiating x-windowing startup mode. When it starts, the system will run with no problem. CPU temperatue is consistently maintained at 26 to 28 degrees C across low to high CPU loading (High load test is a system security scan where the CPU averages about 60% utilization for about one hour).

tx836519 · #4 15th September 2008, 05:48 PM

Since opening this thread, there have been two or three updates to my Fedora 8 installation, two of which contained modifications the the kernel requiring reboot. I have noticed a change in the messages during boot and the hardware probe sequence -- it used to post messages for four probes to to hard disks that did not contain a Fedora system and now it just boots without these messages.

Also, since this, I have not had a single instance where x-windows failed to start.

Does anyone know what the latest updates did?

marcrblevins · #5 16th September 2008, 11:42 AM

What are the latest package installed?

Code:

tail /var/log/yum.log

tx836519 · #6 18th September 2008, 08:10 AM

Thank you, Marc. I've added another command to my to my working knowledge.

That does list the packages of recent downloads, but because of later updates, it did not show the packages downloads I was referring to. Is there a way to look back farther? -- ken

tx836519 · #7 18th September 2008, 08:42 AM

Being a newbie to Linux, I'm still a bit dense! When I looked up the tail command, I understood the problem -- it only displays the last ten lines. Here are the packages in the two updates that I was referring to:

Sep 10 14:25:16 Updated: fedora-release - 8-6.transition.noarch
Sep 10 14:45:50 Updated: libxml2 - 2.6.32-2.fc8.i386
Sep 10 14:49:05 Updated: openoffice.org-core - 1:2.3.0-6.16.fc8.i386
Sep 10 14:49:12 Updated: libtiff - 3.8.2-11.fc8.i386
Sep 10 14:49:15 Updated: meanwhile - 1.0.2-6.fc8.i386
Sep 10 14:49:39 Updated: libpurple - 2.5.1-1.fc8.i386
Sep 10 14:49:41 Installed: pth - 2.0.7-3.i386
Sep 10 14:49:45 Updated: bind-libs - 32:9.5.0-29.P2.fc8.i386
Sep 10 14:49:58 Updated: selinux-policy - 3.0.8-114.fc8.noarch
Sep 10 14:52:07 Updated: selinux-policy-targeted - 3.0.8-114.fc8.noarch
Sep 10 14:55:11 Updated: selinux-policy-devel - 3.0.8-114.fc8.noarch
Sep 10 14:55:20 Updated: libtiff-devel - 3.8.2-11.fc8.i386
Sep 10 14:55:28 Updated: openoffice.org-langpack-en - 1:2.3.0-6.16.fc8.i386
Sep 10 14:55:31 Updated: openoffice.org-xsltfilter - 1:2.3.0-6.16.fc8.i386
Sep 10 14:55:48 Updated: libxml2-devel - 2.6.32-2.fc8.i386
Sep 10 14:56:21 Updated: tzdata - 2008e-1.fc8.noarch
Sep 10 14:56:32 Updated: tzdata-java - 2008e-1.fc8.noarch
Sep 10 14:56:34 Updated: ql2400-firmware - 4.04.04-1.fc8.noarch
Sep 10 14:56:36 Installed: libksba - 1.0.2-3.fc8.i386
Sep 10 14:56:40 Installed: dirmngr - 1.0.0-6.fc8.i386
Sep 10 14:56:55 Updated: openoffice.org-calc - 1:2.3.0-6.16.fc8.i386
Sep 10 14:56:57 Installed: pinentry - 0.7.4-1.fc8.i386
Sep 10 14:57:12 Installed: gnupg2 - 2.0.9-2.fc8.i386
Sep 10 14:57:15 Installed: gpgme - 1.1.5-4.fc8.i386
Sep 10 14:57:17 Installed: pygpgme - 0.1-6.fc8.i386
Sep 10 14:57:20 Updated: libedit - 2.11-1.20080712cvs.fc8.i386
Sep 10 14:57:23 Updated: bind-utils - 32:9.5.0-29.P2.fc8.i386
Sep 10 14:59:03 Updated: pidgin - 2.5.1-1.fc8.i386
Sep 10 14:59:08 Updated: openoffice.org-graphicfilter - 1:2.3.0-6.16.fc8.i386
Sep 10 14:59:17 Updated: openoffice.org-writer - 1:2.3.0-6.16.fc8.i386
Sep 10 14:59:42 Updated: openoffice.org-impress - 1:2.3.0-6.16.fc8.i386
Sep 10 14:59:47 Updated: openoffice.org-draw - 1:2.3.0-6.16.fc8.i386
Sep 10 14:59:54 Updated: openoffice.org-math - 1:2.3.0-6.16.fc8.i386
Sep 10 14:59:59 Updated: libxml2-python - 2.6.32-2.fc8.i386
Sep 10 15:00:45 Updated: yelp - 2.20.0-12.fc8.i386
Sep 10 15:00:51 Updated: vpnc - 0.5.1-5.1.fc8.i386
Sep 10 15:01:00 Updated: yum - 3.2.19-3.fc8.noarch
Sep 10 15:01:03 Updated: yum-utils - 1.1.15-1.fc8.noarch
Sep 10 15:01:07 Updated: perl-libs - 4:5.8.8-41.fc8.i386
Sep 10 15:02:07 Updated: perl - 4:5.8.8-41.fc8.i386
Sep 10 15:02:08 Updated: perl-suidperl - 4:5.8.8-41.fc8.i386
Sep 10 15:02:10 Updated: perl-ExtUtils-Embed - 1.26-41.fc8.i386
Sep 10 15:02:14 Updated: perl-devel - 4:5.8.8-41.fc8.i386
Sep 10 15:02:16 Updated: perl-Test-Harness - 2.56-41.fc8.i386
Sep 10 15:02:21 Updated: perl-ExtUtils-MakeMaker - 6.30-41.fc8.i386
Sep 11 16:57:34 Updated: hal-libs-0.5.10-4.fc8.i386
Sep 11 16:57:53 Updated: samba-common-3.0.31-0.fc8.i386
Sep 11 16:57:57 Updated: curl-7.18.2-5.fc8.i386
Sep 11 16:57:59 Updated: pygobject2-doc-2.14.2-1.fc8.i386
Sep 11 16:58:07 Updated: curl-devel-7.18.2-5.fc8.i386
Sep 11 16:58:15 Updated: samba-client-3.0.31-0.fc8.i386
Sep 11 16:58:24 Updated: hal-0.5.10-4.fc8.i386
Sep 11 16:58:27 Updated: pygobject2-2.14.2-1.fc8.i386
Sep 11 16:58:34 Updated: iptables-1.4.1.1-2.fc8.i386
Sep 11 16:58:38 Updated: iptables-ipv6-1.4.1.1-2.fc8.i386
Sep 11 16:58:51 Updated: samba-3.0.31-0.fc8.i386
Sep 11 16:58:54 Updated: libsmbclient-3.0.31-0.fc8.i386
Sep 11 17:01:01 Updated: BackupPC-3.1.0-3.fc8.noarch
Sep 11 17:01:03 Updated: hal-devel-0.5.10-4.fc8.i386
Sep 11 17:01:05 Updated: pygobject2-devel-2.14.2-1.fc8.i386
Sep 12 21:49:53 Updated: kernel-headers-2.6.26.3-14.fc8.i386
Sep 12 21:52:11 Installed: kernel-devel-2.6.26.3-14.fc8.i686
Sep 12 21:52:18 Updated: libxml2-2.7.1-1.fc8.i386
Sep 12 21:52:33 Updated: libxml2-devel-2.7.1-1.fc8.i386
Sep 12 21:54:23 Installed: kernel-2.6.26.3-14.fc8.i686
Sep 12 21:54:28 Updated: libxml2-python-2.7.1-1.fc8.i386

I was wondering if any of this could have affected boot up to change the initial messages prior to decompressing the kernel and then, after loading udev, the x-window startup?

tx836519 · #8 9th October 2008, 05:23 PM

My last post was optimistic that since I had not seen the problem in a while that the recent updates had somehow addressed the issue. NOT!

I am still having the problem at times. I did notice something when booting my other Fedora 8 box. On this machine, I use a KVM switch to use one monitor on both the Linux and Win XP boxes. If I am booting Linux but switch to the windows machine before video negotiation, Gnome will come up at the wrong resolution. I believe that means that the boot process is querying the monitor and not finding it since it is not connected. I wonder if this means my problem could be with the monitor? -- ken

tx836519 · #9 22nd October 2008, 03:25 AM

OK! It's official now, the monitor is queried during boot up and was indeed my problem with X failing to start. I remedied my monitor problem and have now been booting reliably for about a week.

This problem is solved. - ken