I recently installed xfree86 4.0 on my computer. After some initial setup problems I got it to run. The resolution was poor but it was running so I was happy with it.

Trying to improve the resolution I gave it settings using xf86config that apparently conflict with my monitor or graphics chip. Now when I start my computer it works properly until it reaches the login. Instead of going into X properly the monitor flashes. It is black for a few seconds and then displays the normal login screen for a very brief moment. It doesn't seem to accept input while the monitor is blacked out. I can't login because I have a hard enough time entering my username (which i can see) because of the flashing. There is no way I can enter my password and hope to get it correct.

I would appreciate any advice on how to get my system to allow me to log in so I can change the settings on it. I would also appreciate it if someone could suggest a link to information about setting up X on a computer that uses a graphics chip on the motherboard instead of a seperate graphics card. I think that this is where the problem was. I checked the monitor settings I selected online and they should work.

Thanks for your time.

I figured out a way to do it. Pressing ctrl-c while x is loading stops it and gives me the normal login prompt.

Hi,
I saw your problem, i feel that as far as i know this problem normally occurs when your chipset or your graphic driver is not properly supported by X server. Try to have a look into the directory
/usr/X11R6/bin

if you have an executable by name XFree86 then try to run

XFree86 -configure

this will create a file XF86Config.new in your root directory which you can copy to your /etc/XF86Config file, make sure to take the backup of the previous file.

you can try all this with booting into runlevel 3

try man XFree86

With regards

What is is the display adapter in your computer ?

I might add to this, you should set this machine to boot you into console mode only, then to start X just type "startx" from the command line - after you've logged in, and while you can still fix things that are broken!

The only way I ever pick graphical logins is if I'm rock-solid confident that I will *never* have an issue with the machine's video, which is rare.

For editing configuration files from the console, I like either emacs (just type "emacs ./" and it will automatically load "dired" mode and you can navagate your machine just like a file manager), lynx ("lynx ./" accomplishes essentially the same thing), and last mc (midnight commander, but be careful with it - it's easy to shoot yourself in the foot with it!)

Help...lost webmaster and changed servers for security reasons. Unfortunately, I have no clue about a lot of things. When setting up a new domain, mailboxes do not work. I may be missing something in setting the domain that is obvious to someone out there, but the jr. webmaster who is helping me hasn't worked on a server before. I had no problem setting them up on the old server (mailboxes) but tests just keep returning with 'host lookup did not complete' and 'unroutable mail domain' .
What am I missing?