[SOLVED] F16 Hangs on Startup

[sloosley]

This afternoon, I installed akmod-VirtualBox and DKMS from the F16X64 repo.

When I reboot, my system hangs, regardless of the kernel (most recent or previous). After the blue Fedora symbol, a screen-full of text runs and stops (hangs), stating something about starting the display.

I'm a confessed newbie = totally clueless: What do I do? Thanks! (And double thanks for your patience.)

------------------- (edit) -----------------

I booted into the shell (Ctrl+Alt+F6), removed VirtualBox and DKMS, but no joy. F16 still hangs after Plymouth. FWIW, I'm not running/have not installed any propitiatory drivers; I'm using the stock Intel. However, I have installed several graphical front-ends - KDE, XFCE, and LXDE.

Bottom line: I can boot into the shell (Command prompt), but not the graphical.

Suggestions on what to try, short of a fresh install?

[sloosley]

Hmm. No advice on how to recover, if it's even possible ...

Am I to conclude that occasional, unexpected, unexplainable, and unrecoverable system failures come with the Fedora project?

[rurikc]

Boot into text mode.

Then just start the plain X (just type 'X' at the prompt, you may need to be root, can't remember, try first as non-root).

Be prepared for a system hang but most likely either:

-- you will be returned to the text console with some error message as to why X can't start

__or__

-- you will be presented with a gray graphical screen with a X mouse pointer.

If you get the text, note the errors and start from there ...

If you get the GUI, the Ctrl+Alt+Backspace (that's Backspace, _NOT_ Delete) should normally kill it, otherwise switch to an alternative console and kill it from there. Then next start 'startx' from CLI and see what gives.

These are the first troubleshooting steps, can't give you more without a feedback because there are too many possibilities ...

Good Luck

[sloosley]

@rutikc thanks. We're making progress!

When I try to start X, it fails - Fatal server error: no screens found.

I checked the /var/log/Xorg.0.log and it gives the same fatal error. It seems as if when I installed VirtualBox it may have messed up my GPU driver or display or something.

Not sure what to try. Thanks again!

----------------------------

It's fixed! Amazingly, VirtualBox left a config file in /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d which hosed my machine. Thanks for your help!!

[cmleff]

I have exactly the same issue, and was not sure where to start as I am a newbie as well. I also had the same results, and when i tried X-config, I got 6 EE messages having to do with modules relating to virtualbox.
At the bottom of all that it says:

Number of created screens does not match number of detected devices.
Configuration failed.
server terminated with error (2) closing log file.

It seems that it is trying to load a virtual device or something, I'm not sure. Like I said I am a newbie as well, so I was just trying to hang back and see what help may come about. A friend suggested that I may need to manually edit the config file. I don't really know how to manually edit the config file so I am currently reading (slowly) about it at

http://docs.fedoraproject.org/en-US/...xorg.conf.html

[rurikc]

AFAIK modern native Linux drivers are, as a general rule, able to start X without any configuration.

Alternatively Nvidia propritary driver needs a config, normally in /etc/X11/xorg.conf
(I think that ATI Catalyst is the same but I don't know for sure).

So, most likely you need a proper xorg.conf

Please note the error messages that X gives, _before_ the no screen found. They may provide valuable clues.

For nvidia (proprietary) check nvidia-xconfig (package and utility). It should get you started.

Alternatively nouveau (free) should not need any xorg.conf (actually it may even be detrimental to have one, may confuse the driver).

I have no experience with ATI but it should work similarly.

BOILERPLATE WARNING: make backups and ensure you have a backup plan.

Good Luck

PS: If you need a xorg.conf don't start from scratch, it is too time consuming even for an expert. Use an utility to generate a boilerplate config then tweak that one as needed. Last time I checked with nvidia proprietary tools as packaged in RPM Fusion non-free repo you seldom need to edit directly the config.

PS2: AFAIK the normal virtualization engine in F16 is KVM. Is quite good, see Proxmox. Alternatively look at VMPlayer (may require some simple paching). (I wouldn't mess with VirtualBox but then this is me

[sloosley]

@cmleff this is admittedly dangerous -- one newbie helping another. That said, this is what I did:

Assuming that you can get to the shell (Ctrl+Alt+F6 when it hangs booting), at the command prompt:

1) uninstall VirtualBox
2) try to reboot and see if that solves your problem; if not then
3) from the shell, look in the /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d directory
4) delete anything that is foreign to your system (in my case, this was a stray VirtualBox config file)
5) cross your fingers and reboot

[cmleff]

Before Fatal server error... I get
EE - no devices detected

---------- Post added at 07:07 PM ---------- Previous post was at 07:02 PM ----------

I was actually trying to get help. Didn't mean to seem like I was trying to help anymore than to help someone else to see what the issue is because it seems like we may have the same issue created by the same cause.
sorry for any confusion
I tried to uninstall virtualbox by typing as su
yum remove VirtualBox
it replied that it couldn't find it, but not just that but VirtualBox VMs
I then typed
yum remove VirtualB*
and I got the same reply.
My friend was as confused by that as me, and so I was trying to go another route.

lol... misunderstood your reply for a moment... it has been a long day

Tried again. I had to search and find full package name and got it removed but no dice so I guess I have to mess with configuration.

I got GUI. Thank you!

Similar Thing happened to me. Here's how I fixed it:
Logged in as root, then went to /etc/X11/ and renamed the file xorg.conf to xorg.conf.bak
then just rebooted and we came back online.

It seems something created that file (wrongly), when it boots just fine without it.

Hope this helps.