Trouble Setting up this MD: get Can't start X on VIA EPIA box

[freymann]

My machine I intended to use in the master bedroom arrived today. I was able to load MythBuntu onto the internal hard drive and view live TV, see the guide, view recorded programs no problem.

So then I set it up to boot off the Network Card... it did the first step, rebooted, continued on. I see it getting to MythTV Backend and few more steps after that and then it just beeps once and a message window "Can't Start X" pops up. Nothing works from this point. I can press the power button and that does a shut down and halt.

Motherboard Specs:
Model Name    • VIA EPIA SP13000G
• VIA EPIA SP8000EG
Processor    • VIA C3™/ VIA Eden™ EBGA processor
Chipset    • VIA CN400 North Bridge
• VIA VT8237R-Series South Bridge
System Memory    • 1 DDR266/333/400 DIMM socket
• Up to 1GB memory size (I have 512MB)
VGA    • Integrated VIA UniChrome™ Pro AGP graphics with MPEG-2 decoder /MPEG-4 Accelerator
Expansion Slots    • 1 PCI
Onboard IDE    • 2 X UltraDMA 133/100 Connector
Onboard Serial ATA    • 2 SATA Connectors
Onboard LAN    • VIA VT6103 10/100 Base-T Ethernet PHY
Onboard Audio    • VIA VT1617A 6channel AC'97 codec
Onboard TV Out    • VIA VT1623M TV Encoder
Onboard 1394    • VIA VT6307S IEEE 1394 Firewire
Back Panel I/O    • 1 PS2 mouse port
• 1 PS2 keyboard port
• 1 RJ-45 LAN port
• 1 Serial port
• 2 USB 2.0 ports
• 1 VGA port
• 1 PCA port (SPDIF or TV out)
• 1 S-video port
• 3 Audio jacks: line-out, line-in and mic-in (Smart 5.1 Support)
Onboard I/O Connectors    • 3 USB connector for 6additional USB 2.0 ports
• 1 1394 connector for 1 1394 port
• 1 Serial port connector for a second com port
• 1 VIP connector
• 1 Front-panel audio connector (Mic-in and Line-out)
• 1 CD audio-in connector
• 1 FIR connector
• 1 CIR connector (Switchable for KB/MS)
• 1 LPT port connector
• 1 Wake-on-LAN connector
• 2 Fan connectors: CPU/Sys FAN
• 1 I2C connector
• 1 LVDS/TTL module connector (Optional)
• 1 +12V power connector
• ATX power connector
BIOS    • Award BIOS
• 4/8Mbit flash memory
System Monitoring & Management    • CPU voltage monitoring
• Wake-on-LAN, Keyboard Power-on, Timer Power-on
• System power management
• AC power failure recover
Operating Temperature    • 0~50°C
Operating Humidity    • 0% ~ 93% (relative humidity; non-condensing)
Form Factor    • Mini-ITX (6 layers)
• 17 cm x 17 cm

 I've tried some minor changes in the Web Admin page, like setting it up for unichrome, specifying the output, etc. After 3 tries nothing. This last time I made changes in the Admin page and used the regenerate image from there, and I'm about to head upstairs and try again.

 I'll let you know what comes up!

[totallymaxed]

My machine I intended to use in the master bedroom arrived today. I was able to load MythBuntu onto the internal hard drive and view live TV, see the guide, view recorded programs no problem.

So then I set it up to boot off the Network Card... it did the first step, rebooted, continued on. I see it getting to MythTV Backend and few more steps after that and then it just beeps once and a message window "Can't Start X" pops up. Nothing works from this point. I can press the power button and that does a shut down and halt.

Motherboard Specs:
Model Name    • VIA EPIA SP13000G
• VIA EPIA SP8000EG
Processor    • VIA C3™/ VIA Eden™ EBGA processor
Chipset    • VIA CN400 North Bridge
• VIA VT8237R-Series South Bridge
System Memory    • 1 DDR266/333/400 DIMM socket
• Up to 1GB memory size (I have 512MB)
VGA    • Integrated VIA UniChrome™ Pro AGP graphics with MPEG-2 decoder /MPEG-4 Accelerator
Expansion Slots    • 1 PCI
Onboard IDE    • 2 X UltraDMA 133/100 Connector
Onboard Serial ATA    • 2 SATA Connectors
Onboard LAN    • VIA VT6103 10/100 Base-T Ethernet PHY
Onboard Audio    • VIA VT1617A 6channel AC'97 codec
Onboard TV Out    • VIA VT1623M TV Encoder
Onboard 1394    • VIA VT6307S IEEE 1394 Firewire
Back Panel I/O    • 1 PS2 mouse port
• 1 PS2 keyboard port
• 1 RJ-45 LAN port
• 1 Serial port
• 2 USB 2.0 ports
• 1 VGA port
• 1 PCA port (SPDIF or TV out)
• 1 S-video port
• 3 Audio jacks: line-out, line-in and mic-in (Smart 5.1 Support)
Onboard I/O Connectors    • 3 USB connector for 6additional USB 2.0 ports
• 1 1394 connector for 1 1394 port
• 1 Serial port connector for a second com port
• 1 VIP connector
• 1 Front-panel audio connector (Mic-in and Line-out)
• 1 CD audio-in connector
• 1 FIR connector
• 1 CIR connector (Switchable for KB/MS)
• 1 LPT port connector
• 1 Wake-on-LAN connector
• 2 Fan connectors: CPU/Sys FAN
• 1 I2C connector
• 1 LVDS/TTL module connector (Optional)
• 1 +12V power connector
• ATX power connector
BIOS    • Award BIOS
• 4/8Mbit flash memory
System Monitoring & Management    • CPU voltage monitoring
• Wake-on-LAN, Keyboard Power-on, Timer Power-on
• System power management
• AC power failure recover
Operating Temperature    • 0~50°C
Operating Humidity    • 0% ~ 93% (relative humidity; non-condensing)
Form Factor    • Mini-ITX (6 layers)
• 17 cm x 17 cm

 I've tried some minor changes in the Web Admin page, like setting it up for unichrome, specifying the output, etc. After 3 tries nothing. This last time I made changes in the Admin page and used the regenerate image from there, and I'm about to head upstairs and try again.

 I'll let you know what comes up!

you need to install/configure the display drivers for the Via graphics chipset... see here http://wiki.linuxmce.org/index.php/Display_Drivers#Via_Chipsets

[freymann]

You need to install/configure the display drivers for the Via graphics chipset... see here http://wiki.linuxmce.org/index.php/Display_Drivers#Via_Chipsets

 Hmmm. Can I actually SSH into the box when it's at the "Can't Start X" message?

 It's also causing the core to act up too. It must have rebooted part way through the last reboot of the Via MD as the MD was coming up with a read only system and my admin web page broke down too.

 I've just shut everything off for the moment. Time for dinner.

[darrenmason]

Not sure if this helps you or not...

But one of the advatanges of the diskless MDs is that you can install software on them without them even being turned on.

Get a console on your core, go to the /usr/pluto/diskless directory. Then into your MD device number (get this from web admin if you don't know it yet).

Once you are in /usr/pluto/diskless/XX then do 'chroot .' and this chnges the root directory to your current directory.
You can then run your apt-get 's and it will install on that filesystem.

HTH
Darren

[freymann]

But one of the advatanges of the diskless MDs is that you can install software on them without them even being turned on.

Get a console on your core, go to the /usr/pluto/diskless directory. Then into your MD device number (get this from web admin if you don't know it yet).

Once you are in /usr/pluto/diskless/XX then do 'chroot .' and this chnges the root directory to your current directory.
You can then run your apt-get 's and it will install on that filesystem.

 Awesome.

 However, when I do that, I get:

root@dcerouter:/# apt-get build-dep xserver-xorg-video-via
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree       
Reading state information... Done
E: You must put some 'source' URIs in your sources.list

 and when I look in /etc/apt/sources.list there's:

root@dcerouter:/etc/apt# more sources.list
deb file:/usr/pluto/deb-cache/ ./ 
deb http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ gutsy  main restricted multiverse universe
deb http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ gutsy-security  main restricted multiverse universe
deb http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ gutsy-updates  main restricted multiverse universe
deb http://linuxmce.com/ubuntu/ ./ 
deb http://deb.linuxmce.com/ubuntu/ 20dev_ubuntu  main
deb http://deb.linuxmce.com/ubuntu/ replacements_ubuntu  main
deb http://deb.linuxmce.com/ubuntu/ replacements_debian  main

 

[freymann]

While waiting to hear back on that CHROOT issue, I fired up the MD and it's stuck at CAN'T START X but I can try to SSH into the MD. But what is the username/password combo that lets you in via SSH?

[freymann]

So I went into the Forum Chat and got a couple suggestions, which I thought I would document here for those coming in the future.

On the MD, when it popped up the "Can't start X" message window (and just stuck there) I pressed CTRL-ALT-F2 and logged into the terminal as root with no password.

I was trying to follow the instructions provided in a previous reply of this thread, relating to installing the via xorg drivers, and it failed, as noted in one of my previous messages.

It was suggested to add some lines to the /etc/apt/sources.list file under /usr/pluto/diskless/109 on the core (where 109 is the device number of the MD as shown in the web admin screen).

So, on the core, I edited:

/usr/pluto/diskless/109/etc/apt/sources.list

and I added at the very top:

deb-src http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ gutsy  main restricted multiverse universe
deb-src http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ gutsy-security  main restricted multiverse universe
deb-src http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ gutsy-updates  main restricted multiverse universe

and then issued a:

sudo apt-get update.

From there I was able to issue the commands to grab the xserver-xorg-video-via stuff as instructed in the link given earlier.

One oddball thing, of course, is after issuing a reboot and watching it boot off the network again, I still got "Unable to Start X". When I went and looked at /etc/X11 (on the MD) there was no xorg.conf file, but there was some old backup, so I copied it over, edited the file as instructed, though, wahoo, and tried again. Still no go.

I then tried:

sudo dpkg-reconfigure xserver-xorg

and walked through all that techno mumbo jumbo. It recognized the via video OK

I was able to get X to load on the command line afterwards (with no windows manager).

That's pretty well all I can do.

(after edit, close to 11pm)

My other PVR-150-MCE arrived today and I installed it in my AMD MD box and now it too won't boot up over the LAN, stuck on loading firmware in the IVTV area, and it completely whacks my network and disables all traffic until I power it off.

I think it's time to say thanks, but no thanks. 7 full days of banging of my head up against the wall and every time I turn around there is something wonky screwing up the system.

Tomorrow I think I will wipe my drive clean of LinuxMCE and give MythBuntu a try. Surely it can't be as rocky as LinuxMCE. Maybe in another year (or two) LinuxMCE will be more mature and I will revisit it, but it's time to get back to my life.