theos:

Thanks very kindly for that suggestion on how to scroll . . . but it still doesn't give me the ability or skills to post that info here on the forum?? When you say "print out" I'm taking it that you mean printing on the TTY screen?? Any "text file" from "cat" would be where?? and then how could I get that to the forum??

If there was somewhere where the correct info could be found online that I could compare my results from . . . and then I could post the differences or no differences that would be great. Otherwise I see lines of data but no idea what I should be seeing or if there is one specific line item that I should be looking for, what that would be . . . .

e.e.p.

I'll rephrase.

cat displays the contents of a file and places it on your screen. nano is actually a text editor, but is the easiest way to scroll through a large file, like a log. Eventually, I want to have all this info in the guides.

theos:

OK, thanks for the clarification of terms, very helpful; I think I've done some commands with "nano" before, but none of it is etched in my mind in terms of diagnostics in Linux. Again, even if I can "nano" those commands that JD asked for, how am I going to get them either posted here?? Or, how can I get to what they should look like for my iMac so I can compare them between let's say my iBook and what's "printed out" on the TTY screen of the iMac and note the changes rather than typing out 20 lines of text manually . . .????

e.e.p.

I avoided the question... because there is no simple answer. With a broken system, I can't know what you have or don't. I mean, you could ftp the files, or ssh and copy them out, or put them on a USB stick, but those are all a lot more involved than just recording it.

I'm a bit lost, can you please update me on where you are. Are you still using the 85% system, or have you reinstalled, or what? This is so I know what to gear my solutions towards, because if it isn't a complete system, there are too many variables.

theos:

Simply put, "X" has been disabled . . . because the second attempt at the install went well except for the GUI screen issues--the same that swordkiing was reporting on his emac, with windows dropping down below the bottom of the screen, rough color transitions, etc. When I tried to add the imac8.txt xorg.conf file . . . the screen went totally away. JD suggested doing a clean install using an old iso, but swordking's experience with that made me hesitate given that his install required so much work just to get it to work . . . seems like 11 is cool on laptops, but rougher on desktops??? JD asked me for a few command outputs logged in as single user, etc, which I first could not do and then after a power failure an error window opened asking me about "do I want to disable X?" and I said yes. Recently, I got an error window telling me that "X has been disabled, would you like to see a report?" and I said yes, and I hand copied it out . . . it tells various data about the system.

Right now I'm just looking to simply get X re-enabled if I can, the system using the 3.1 kernel is there and I can run commands in the TTY window, maybe if I do this "nano" approach there won't be too much info to hand copy and type out. I was just wondering if the xorg.conf file could be added back in; JD asked me for a link to everymac for my exact computer and I posted that in this thread, but haven't heard back from him on any of that in terms of whether it tells him anything or not. And then there was the problem of the latest commands that he asked about where the screen loaded the data and scrolled down so fast I couldn't see how much was there, and I couldn't scroll back up either, so now I could try it again using "nano" in front of his commands. I wouldn't know how to "ftp" or "irc" the outputs.

e.e.p.

Gents:

saw this post on another thread where this person also experienced the "X server crashing" after installing 11, and then he knew enough to fix it . . . . It seems like it relates to my issues with X being disabled . . . ?? I posted the link to everymac awhile back but didn't hear back as to whether imac8 is the correct file or whether it should be another one, etc. I'm hoping to try to run the other commands this weekend using "nano" so I can scroll through and write the results out . . . .

e.e.p.

you have a G4 iMac 400 iLamp, try the following:
boot into single user mode, at the yaboot prompt type:

then login with root password
then do the following

CTRL-D to resume booting
if it fails go to a tty (CTRL-Alt-F1)
and give me the output of

try to get that /var/log/Xorg.0.log file out of the system with a USB stick or SSH into the box and try to get it.

I'd really like to help here, because I went through similar difficulties with my eMac 700 g4 (early G4s seem to be a different animal than the later models). However, I decided to reinstall MintPPC9.3 on the eMac, and haven't looked back. MintPPC11 works just fine on my iMac 600 G3, with the proper xorg.conf, but was a real pain getting X11 and wireless internet going on the eMac. Maybe you should just bite the bullet and re-install, or just go to straight Debian Squeeze. It's really not that big of a deal.

SKi

@JD: OK on the imac8.txt . . . that is what I used before, I didn't run the wget as single user so that might make a difference. I am planning on running the command, but I just need to get the time to do it. I did get a new USB stick in the hopes that if I have to reinstall it might be faster to do it over and over with the USB stick instead of burning a CD each time. Certainly it wouldn't make things worse to re-do the mv imac8 action and see what happens. But in terms of getting the /var/log file out of my system with USB or SSH I'd be happy to do that but I have no knowledge of how . . . I'm planning to "nano" it and write it down--I'll post back with that data when I get there. Thanks for the confirmation on my iLamp 800 xorg.conf file, this gives me lots of stuff to try out and do . . . .

@SKi: Thanks also for your thoughts, it is interesting how well the 9.2 to 11 went on my iBook and using the same CD to install on the iMac did not go well. And certainly 9.3 is always an option to run on my "ancient" PPC machines . . . went into the local Mac store/repair shop this week and asked about an issue I was having with my iBook . . . the gal behind the counter gave me this look like I was speaking in tongues, "are you sure it's an iBook? it's the the G4?, it's white?" . . . another guy also was looking at me like I was the ancient mariner . . . "we haven't had parts for those for years . . . ." Anyway, sure even "straight Deb Squeeze" . . . could be fine . . . it's certainly easier to get Linux loaded into PPC computers than it is to the Intel Macs . . . . It just seems to be so close on getting 11 set up in the iMac, it's there, I can run command line stuff, I just have lost my X . . . (whatever X is, I've lost it and I want it back) :- )))

e.e.p.

@JD:

I ran the "wget /mac.linux.be" command last night and just like when I tried to do the "xorg-server-video-nv" command . . . it failed; this time it said "unable to resolve host address 'mac.linux.be'" or "name or service not known" . . . I tried it 4 or 5 times with the same results. It's a bit strange since I can run "apt update/upgrade" and it will "get" the packages just fine. So I moved on the next suggestion and I "nano'd" the /var/log as posted above and it gave me it said 140 lines . . . of which I mostly copied the (WW) lines. I can or would type those out and attach them later, but there were 4 or so lines that said "The directory '/usr/share/fonts/X11/cyrillic' does not exist, entry deleted from font path." With the others saying the same thing except having /X11/100dpi, /X11/75dpi, /X11/Type1.

Another line further down had (WW) "fonts.dir" not found or valid in '/var/lib/defoma/x-ttcidfont-conf.d/dirs/TrueType" . . . and has been deleted; with suggestion to "run 'makfontdir' on '/var/lib/defoma/x-ttcidfont-conf.d/dirs/TrueType" . . . which I did not know how to do. Under that line was again repeated the (WW) The directory /usr/share/fonts/X11/cyrillic does not exist.

Then, further down: "Warning, couldn't open module 'nv' . . . failed to load module 'nv' (module does not exist 0) No drivers available." [Which when I tried to get the 'nv' module last week it said "package not found"]

And then "Fatal server error: no screens found" please consult the X.Org Foundation support at http://wiki.x.org

So, is it possible to somehow run that "makefontdir" command, find the missing 'nv' module and the missing screen?? Or is this all an effort in futility, not that I'm against futile efforts, I'm very much for them . . . any ideas?

e.e.p.