XServer - Stopping and Starting...How?

[Jackal]

Hi, been a while since posting here. FC3 is running, relatively well, a few quirks, if I overclock my Athlon XP to 2.2 Gig. FC3 locks up during screen saver, although WinXP and 2K work fine.

Thinking maybe it's because I'm using the "Generic" GeForce 3 driver, I d/l and try to install Nvidia's Linux driver, but it complains about XServer running.

So I edit the Xorg.conf file - per Nvidia instructions, hit ctrl-alt-backspace to shutdown XServer (found that through a google search), after going through a few steps, and having it "rebuild" the xorg.conf file, I can boot back into FC3, however I can only get 800X600 Resolution, if I set it to 1024X768, it tells me I have to restart XServer, so I do the CTRL-ALT-BSPACE again, except it won't restart, and I have to ctrl-alt-del, which goes to init 6 restart, and I'm back at 800X600 again.

Any ideas?

TIA

Jackal

[Provicemo]

You can use the killall command to stop any processes by name
killall xdm or gdm or kdm would stop any login manager
then killall X to kill X11
that should be just about everything X related

[Sick Willie]

What would be better would be changing to runlevel 3 before installing the nvidia drivers by typing

init 3

in a virtual terminal (ctl-alt-f1 will get you here) while either logged on as root or using su. Install the drivers, edit Xorg.conf and then type

init 5

to restart X. Alt-ctl-backspace does not shut down the X server, it restarts it.

[jimmybgood]

Alt-ctl-backspace does not shut down the X server, it restarts it.

That's not exactly true. <Ctrl><Alt><Bsp> does indeed shut down the X server. It's init that notices that the Xserver has stopped and restarts it. This behavior can be changed by editing /etc/inittab, but I don't recommend changing a distributions signature configurations.

<rant>
The op hit upon pet peeve of mine and that's the default use of dangerously unstable screensavers. In Windows the screensavers are ancient, tried, true and stable. The xscreensaver collection, on the other hand likes to showcase the latest 3D capabilities with new and exciting screensavers. Actualy, I really enjoy them.

They shouldn't be turned on by default, however, particularly on production machines. I don't enjoy walking into an office full of panicing people, because the file server choked on a screensaver. Even worse, I couldn't take them off, because gnome depends on them. That's a bad choice for Red Hat Enterprise Linux. To add more insult to injuries, I've had machines lock up while I've tried to turn the damn screensavers off, because the configuration page insists on displaying a small preview of the screensaver.

So - screensavers - enjoy them, but don't ever turn one on without asking.
</rant>

[Sick Willie]

I'll defer on the finer points, I guess. If someone asked me how to shut X down, I wouldn't suggest alt-ctl-backspace, I would do init 3. In any case, what I described is a better way to shut X down for the purpose of installing nvidia's drivers.

[Ned Slider]

Be aware, that if you init 5 from run level 3 as root, you'll be left logged in as root (not wise!!). You'll need to switch to that terminal and log out after X has restarted. I fell for that one a while ago:

http://forums.pcper.com/showthread.php?t=349541

Ned

[Jackal]

thanks for all the quick replies, impressive indeed, however, most all of it is WAY over my head, I will read and try and sort it out! Thank You!

[Sick Willie]

Be aware, that if you init 5 from run level 3 as root, you'll be left logged in as root (not wise!!). You'll need to switch to that terminal and log out after X has restarted. I fell for that one a while ago:

http://forums.pcper.com/showthread.php?t=349541

Ned

I did forget to mention that! My bad.

[Ned Slider]

Yes - easy to forget that one and miss it. I was caught out by it before, and luckily noticed a root session sitting there when I did a ps ax

Ned

[themortarman]

Where are you trying to set the Screen resolution, in the System Settings >Display, or Preferences > Screen resolutions?

If you have not try Preferences > Screen resolutions.

[Senor Panadero]

Hey Jackal, you have a PM on an unrelated matter, and don't have e-mail set up. Would you check your inbox please? Thanks.

[Jackal]

Sorry about the popups, they should be gone now. , my bad.

[Ned Slider]

Sorry about the popups, they should be gone now. , my bad.

Yep - all fixed

Thanks Jackal

Ned

[Jackal]

Yep - all fixed

Thanks Jackal

Ned

NP, now since I am the ONLY person with access to my keyboard, should I just go to a console and type init3, then run Nvidia's installer, then once done type init5?

then of course edit the xorg.conf, per nvidia instructions?

[Sick Willie]

NP, now since I am the ONLY person with access to my keyboard, should I just go to a console and type init3, then run Nvidia's installer, then once done type init5?

then of course edit the xorg.conf, per nvidia instructions?

init 3, install, edit Xorg.conf and THEN init 5. Go back and log out of the virtual terminal.