MD first pxe boot "Failed to Start X" - where do I start debugging?

[jamo]

<background blurb>

I have searched this quite a bit on the forums and elsewhere but perhaps I know too little to search effectively.. be gentle with me. I am patient but still at barrier-to-entry stage.

I'm busy setting up my first MCE ever. Very exciting. At the moment I'm trying to set things up with the hardware I've got and then when I get the hang of things I'll expand/ rebuild the system as required. Don't want to go and purchase a whole lot of hardware before I know what it's all about.
</background blurb>

Anyway, Have setup the core/hybrid OK so far, I think. So my next step was to try to PXE boot an old IBM thinkpad as a Media Director just to test the concept and see if I could get it to work. If I can, it may become a media director or something in my final system.

PXE boot worked fine but gets to a point where screen is blue and a text box entitled "AVWizard" gives the message "Failed to setup X". There is an OK button but pressing enter or clicking or anything is unresponsive.

I am able to ctrl-f2 and log in to the machine via text login.

Some questions:

I'm assuming that this machine is now trying to do what I did on the core with the first reboot- go through the AVWizard choosing screen resolution, sound options etc? Is that correct? But it isn't able to even start the X-server to get the basic graphics up and running to do that?

Before anyone asks, I doubt the video card is NVidia and I'm prepared for the fact that the old and incompatible hardware could be a problem. Still, I'd like to at least try to resolve what is up.

How do I start debugging this? Is there some background reading I need to do?

TIA
James

[bongowongo]

Could you please tell us what hardware you are using for MD?
Your MD should have a supported NIC, and preferably Nvidia. ATI is a no-no

Your core should have two network cards 1 external -> internet, and one for internal network -> for your MD's

[jamo]

Thanks for the quick response, BW.

Core has two NICs as required, and MD NIC seems to be fine as the MD can boot (at least the Kubuntu part) without a problem.

Will try to figure out what the video card is for the MD but most probably not NVidia. I know this is wrong but since I have the darned thing I would like to try to get it working. Will post what it is as soon as I know.

[bongowongo]

You can also boot up with /nosplash, so you could see what is happening

[jamo]

OK, some more info. //rubs eyes red from lack of sleep//

The MD I'm trying to setup is an IBM Thinkpad T30 2366 RG5. As such, it has, yes, an ATI graphics card. Specifically, ATI Mobility Radeon 7500 chipset. Gulp.

So... obviously if I buy new hardware I will make sure it is NVidia, but it would be nice to use this old notebook for something. I know ATI cards aren't well supported in MCE but I wouldn't mind tinkering and *trying* to get it working to some degree. Any suggestions?

BW, you mentioned a /nosplash or something boot? How exactly do I do that with an MD and what is the advantage? It does boot up and I am able to ctrl-f2 log in via the text interface. Presumably, the fact that X can't start means that I can't setup AV at all, which means at the moment all I have is a PXE booted text terminal?

In order of preference I'd like to be able to
1) Have a fully fledged MD capable of driving video, audio and acting as an orbiter
2) Have a half-baked MD capable of driving audio and being used as an X-terminal to the core
3) Have a quarter-baked MD capable of driving audio

So I'm going to keep on keeping on trying to set up the X side of things and then look at the other options if that fails.

Moving on:

To try to sort out the X issue-

Should I try to do a standalone install of Kubuntu 8.10 on the MD (forget the pxe boot story for now) and see if I can get X setup to work on it..... and then if that works, try to force those settings into the MD files so that X will work when it PXE boots? Does that sound like a plan?

[bongowongo]

No, there is no standalone install, only netinstall.

I have the same issue with an ATI system. I have no time to dig into this, but it could have something to do with your Xorg.conf file.
If arrive at the text terminal, could you logon, and do a dmesg?
You should really google, I have little experience with videocards.
But it could be that the nvidia drivers are standard loaded. Which shouldn't in your case

[jamo]

To clarify on the standalone install thing, what I mean is that I disconnect the MD from the whole MCE thing and just install stock standard Kubuntu 8.10 on it as if it is a simple PC. Then I go through the X configuration and setup on that, and if I can get X working I use the settings / config files from that setup to tinker with the setup once I reconnect it to the MCE system.

That's my idea, anyway.... we'll see what happens. I'll post here the results. Please feel free to put in suggestions or comments if anyone else can think of anything to assist or clarify.

[Zaerc]

http://wiki.linuxmce.org/index.php/Display_Drivers 

[jamo]

Thanks for the link Zaerc.

Still tinkering through but it's getting late and I need my beauty sleep. What I have discovered is how to stop the relevant xorg.conf.pluto.avwizard file being overwritten every time the MD boots up... sounds like a no-brainer in the wiki - force exit from usr/pluto/bin/XConfigure.sh but you have to get the *right* Xconfigure.sh- there is one for the relevant MD as well in /usr/pluto/diskless/XX/usr/pluto/binXConfigure.sh !! (where XX is your MD number).

However, it still isn't quite right... seems now to be deleting my customised xorg.conf.pluto.avwizard when the MD boots (rather than overwriting) and then falling back to some defualt settings. Hmmm....

Anyway, I'll tinker more when I get more time.

[Kramden]

I had what appears to be the same situation with a Dell Inspiron laptop with ati video. I followed the second post in this thread and it fixed my issues.

http://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/ubuntu-63/x-server-wont-load-after-8-10-upgrade-680377/

Good Luck

[jamo]

Thanks for the link Kramden. Tried those steps from the thread (re-install of radeon drivers) but still no dice- same results on boot of MD.

Will have to dig a bit further into the logs. My strategy remains to try to get an appropriate xorg file for the MD and get it to read that when it boots up, rather than the default which overwrites each time.