Trying to Tri-Boot Vector Linux 7 (Testing)

[RonB]

Hi,

I come hat in hand again.

As I mentioned in another thread, I installed Vector Linux 7 (Testing) on a third partition on my hard drive. I ran into some kind of error and it wouldn't load XWindows. When I installed it I used its Grub 2, which wouldn't boot my Vector Linux 6 or CentOS 5.5. So I booted my CentOS CD and used "linux-rescue" mode to reinstall Grub in CentOS. Vector 6 and CentOS are now booting fine but, when I copy the Vector Linux 6 boot section in grub (and re-title it, making changes for the different partition) I keep getting an "Error 2 -- File or directory... something... wrong" and it kicks me back into the Grub menu.

When I was booting with Grub 2, I got through the login menu without issue -- it was getting XWindows that was the problem.

Do I need to use different commands in Grub for Vector Linux 7?

Here are the two Vector Linux Grub entries...

title Vector Linux Standard Deluxe
        root (hd0,0)
        kernel (hd0,0)/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.27.12 root=/dev/hda1 splash=silent ro
        initrd (hd0,0)/boot/initrd
        boot
title Vector Linux 7 Test
        root (hd0,3)
        kernel (hd0,3)/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.33.4 root=/dev/sda4 splash=silent ro
        initrd (hd0,3)/boot/initrd
        boot

I've tried both "/dev/hda4" and "/dev/sda4" but both give me the same error. I should also mention that, before I rebuilt Grub in CentOS, I did try to set up Lilo in Vector 7 -- and that booted Vector 7 to the login screen, just like Grub 2.

Thanks for any pointers.

[RonB]

What I've been able to find...

Grub Error 2: Bad file or directory type.

Apparently older versions of Grub don't do well with 256 (something or others) and need ext3 to be formatted to 128 (whatevers). I think there may be other work arounds, but this is an issue that comes up with CentOS's version of Grub.

So I booted into VL 7 from the CD. Even after a reinstall, I had the same problem I had before. "Xclient file could not be found, using default Xterm session..." (then something about keeping your mouse over the window so it would have focus).

I tried running VASM and resetting the Xorg server several times, even to the Vesa settings. Login screen looked great and reflected the changes I made in Xorg, but I could never get to Xfce. Always the same error "Xclient file could not be found..."

Just in case it matters, my video card is a GeForce4 MX440. I didn't have any issues with video in SOHO 6, so not sure what this is (I'm guessing they both have close to the same Xorg Server.)

I was able to get online with Lynx and was able to ping Yahoo. I think the sound came up fine. Home directory was setup correctly, logins worked. Just can't get into the GUI.

At any rate I'm trying to beta test (actually alpha test). Anyone else have this Xclient file issue? I wasn't able to find it when doing a search on the site.

Thanks for working through my ramblings. If this post should be in a beta forum, I wouldn't mind it being moved. Thanks.

[toothandnail]

Sorry this hasn't been answered before. The "Xclient file could not be found, using default Xterm session..." error is due to an oddity regarding GDM (the session manager) in the alpha. To overcome it, when the boot gets to the login stage, select 'Options' (to the right of the user name prompt, then "Session". From the box that comes up, select Xfce4. When prompted, chose to make Xfce the default.

From that point on, you should have an Xfce session as standard.

Paul.

[RonB]

Sorry this hasn't been answered before. The "Xclient file could not be found, using default Xterm session..." error is due to an oddity regarding GDM (the session manager) in the alpha. To overcome it, when the boot gets to the login stage, select 'Options' (to the right of the user name prompt, then "Session". From the box that comes up, select Xfce4. When prompted, chose to make Xfce the default.

From that point on, you should have an Xfce session as standard.

Thanks. I currently have SOHO on that partition, but I'll try loading Vector 7 on it in the next day or so. I really did want to get a peek at what the newest Standard version was going to look like. SOHO is nice but I like the Standard version.

Again, thanks.

Well, it worked. I just went ahead and reinstalled VL 7 -- looks quite a bit different (almost "shoking" to the system). I don't know if I like the "Mac look," but I'm sure it can be modified. I'll do some testing and see how well it works.

Again, thanks.