can't access gui in 32_13.1 - SOLVED

[jbs1136]

Couldn't figure out a decent title, hope this will get some interest. I wanted to put a copy of the 32 on my computer just for the use of Quicken. Didn't want to go though all of the multilibs, building, etc to get wine on 64 and thought a simple solution would be to have 32 & 64 on the same computer. I have and AMD Athalon 64. I have three hard drives: SATA, ATA and ATA. the sata is the main drive. I backed up all of my data and installed the 32 bit version first. I let it install lilo. I rebooted and installed the 64 bit version and again ran lilo. When I rebooted I started the 64 and everything worked fine. I rebooted and tried the 32 bit and everything seemed to be okay until I got to the log in screen. The mouse and keyboard were not working. The cursor would not move and the keyboard presses were not recognized. I tried ctrl-alt-fkeys(everyone of them), ctrl-alt-del/backspace, etc and nothing happens.

After several attempts I went back and reinstalled the 32 bit version and skipped the lilo installation. Still the same problem. I get to the login screen and nothing works. I made sure that both sda2 & sda3 were bootable.

thanks for any suggestions,

john

harddrive partitions: sda
1 - 2g - swap
2 - 10g - Quicken (32 bit version)
3 - 10g - salix-main (64 bit version)
4 - extended
5 - 5g - tmp
6 - 40g - home
7 - 179g - /mnt/files

sdb - I had the 32 on here but decided to put everything on one hard drive

sdc - 160g - /mnt/backups

My lilo.conf:

Code: Select all

# LILO configuration file
# generated by 'liloconfig'
#
# Start LILO global section
boot = /dev/sda
#compact        # faster, but won't work on all systems.
# Boot BMP Image.
# Bitmap in BMP format: 640x480x8
  bitmap = /boot/salix.bmp
# Menu colors (foreground, background, shadow, highlighted
# foreground, highlighted background, highlighted shadow):
  bmp-colors = 255,20,255,20,255,20
# Location of the option table: location x, location y, number of
# columns, lines per column (max 15), "spill" (this is how many
# entries must be in the first column before the next begins to
# be used.  We don't specify it here, as there's just one column.
  bmp-table = 60,6,1,16
# Timer location x, timer location y, foreground color,
# background color, shadow color.
  bmp-timer = 65,29,0,255
# Standard menu.
# Or, you can comment out the bitmap menu above and
# use a boot message with the standard menu:
#message = /boot/boot_message.txt

# Append any additional kernel parameters:
append="quiet  vt.default_utf8=1"
prompt
timeout = 300
# Normal VGA console
vga = normal
# VESA framebuffer console @ 1024x768x64k
# vga=791
# VESA framebuffer console @ 1024x768x32k
# vga=790
# VESA framebuffer console @ 1024x768x256
# vga=773
# VESA framebuffer console @ 800x600x64k
# vga=788
# VESA framebuffer console @ 800x600x32k
# vga=787
# VESA framebuffer console @ 800x600x256
# vga=771
# VESA framebuffer console @ 640x480x64k
# vga=785
# VESA framebuffer console @ 640x480x32k
# vga=784
# VESA framebuffer console @ 640x480x256
# vga=769
# ramdisk = 0     # paranoia setting
# End LILO global section
# Linux bootable partition config begins
image = /boot/vmlinuz
  root = /dev/sda3
  label = salix-main
  read-only  # Partitions should be mounted read-only for checking
# Linux bootable partition config ends
# Linux bootable partition config begins
image = /boot/vmlinuz
  root = /dev/sda2
  label = Quicken
  read-only  # Partitions should be mounted read-only for checking
# Linux bootable partition config ends

[Shador]

It seems like the system is really frozen. Too confirm this can you press those buttons in sequence REISUB together with AltGr + Print pressed. These use the Magic SysRq facility to request the kernel to reboot in a (safe) manner.
In any case can you upload your syslog and Xorg.0.log somewhere (e.g. pastebin.org).

[jbs1136]

@Shador,

I posted these two files as requested. One thing I forgot to mention in the first post. I rebooted, hit tab and then entered Quicken 3 and booted to the cli. Everything worked fine. I logged in as root, then I entered startx and the gui came up warning me I was in root but the keyboard and mouse were frozen. I had to hard reboot. I am going to write down your instructions and reboot as soon as I post this.

thanks,

john

syslog
http://www.adrive.com/public/1ac0a770c2 ... 6ac9a.html

X.org.O.log
http://www.adrive.com/public/6e32df8c8d ... 005bb.html

[jbs1136]

I rebooted to 32 bit version, tried the keys you said and nothing happens. the REISUB were all in caps but I couldn't get the caps lock key to work. It is like everything is there except the keyboard and the mouse. Wasn't for sure what the AltGr key was so I used the Alt key. Was that right? I have a microsoft multimedia keyboard from a few years back.

thanks,

john

[Shador]

This one made we wonder:

Linux salix-main 2.6.33.4 #3 SMP Wed May 12 23:13:09 CDT 2010 x86_64

And that's the problem:

image = /boot/vmlinuz
[...]
image = /boot/vmlinuz

You need to create a mountpoint on the system you run lilo on (e.g. /mnt/quicken if you run it on the 64bit install).
Then you need:

image = /boot/vmlinuz
[...]
image = /mnt/quicken/boot/vmlinuz

Otherwise you're using the same (64bit) kernel for both.

EDIT:
What you did is fine. It's really hanging then. No need to utilize caps lock though; upper-case had no special intentions.

[jbs1136]

That makes a lot of sense. I try sometimes to read some of the logs but outside of dmesg most don't make a lot of sense for me . I am leaving now to pick up my granddaughter from the school bus and will follow your instructions as soon as I get back home. I post my success later this evening.

thanks for all of the help,

john

[jbs1136]

Your suggestion worked great. I adjusted lilo.conf as suggested but ended up having to add /mnt/Quicken/boot/vmlinux to get it to work. The first time I tried it woithout the boot path and it couldn't find it. I really appreciate your help.

Thanks again,

john