Weird Cursor on New install of 7.0 (Solved!)

[wmichaelb]

Hi, I installed V7.0 on a test machine, and found two problems:
1.) The GUI installer would absolutely not open. After a long string of X.org messages, the system simply shut down without ever installing. I typed "install" and used the old installer to get the system on to the disk.

2.) My cursor is simply two lines of four fuzzy smudges each; there is no arrow. I tried to change it in the Settings Panel, but to no avail. Does someone have a suggestion?

Thanks in advance!

[caitlyn]

What video card/chipset are you using?  Can you post the output of lspci and lsmod?

Thanks.

[wmichaelb]

caitlyn: thanks for your kind reply.

lspci:
0:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation 82945G/GZ/P/PL Memory Controller Hub (rev 02)
00:01.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82945G/GZ/P/PL PCI Express Root Port (rev 02)
00:1b.0 Audio device: Intel Corporation N10/ICH 7 Family High Definition Audio Controller (rev 01)
00:1c.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation N10/ICH 7 Family PCI Express Port 1 (rev 01)
00:1c.1 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation N10/ICH 7 Family PCI Express Port 2 (rev 01)
00:1c.2 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation N10/ICH 7 Family PCI Express Port 3 (rev 01)
00:1d.0 USB Controller: Intel Corporation N10/ICH 7 Family USB UHCI Controller #1 (rev 01)
00:1d.1 USB Controller: Intel Corporation N10/ICH 7 Family USB UHCI Controller #2 (rev 01)
00:1d.2 USB Controller: Intel Corporation N10/ICH 7 Family USB UHCI Controller #3 (rev 01)
00:1d.3 USB Controller: Intel Corporation N10/ICH 7 Family USB UHCI Controller #4 (rev 01)
00:1d.7 USB Controller: Intel Corporation N10/ICH 7 Family USB2 EHCI Controller (rev 01)
00:1e.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801 PCI Bridge (rev e1)
00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corporation 82801GB/GR (ICH7 Family) LPC Interface Bridge (rev 01)
00:1f.1 IDE interface: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) IDE Controller (rev 01)
00:1f.2 IDE interface: Intel Corporation N10/ICH7 Family SATA IDE Controller (rev 01)
00:1f.3 SMBus: Intel Corporation N10/ICH 7 Family SMBus Controller (rev 01)
01:00.0 Ethernet controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL8111/8168B PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet controller (rev 01)
05:00.0 VGA compatible controller: nVidia Corporation G98 [GeForce 8400GS] (rev a2)
05:00.1 Audio device: nVidia Corporation High Definition Audio Controller (rev a1)

lsmod:
module                  Size                   Used by
fuse                       51559                 3
nouveau                473283               2
ttm                         39995                1 nouveau
drm_kms_helper    18228                1 nouveau
drm                         128651              4 nouveau,ttm,drm_kms_helper
i2c_algo_bit            3718                  1 nouveau
mxm_wmi               1053                  1 nouveau
wmi                          6295                 1 mxm_wmi
video                        9731                 1 nouveau
snd_seq_dummy      1035                 0
snd_seq_oss             21907               0
snd_seq_midi_event 3924                1 snd_seq_oss
snd_seq                    36499               5 snd_seq_dummy,snd_seq_oss,snd_seq_midi_event
snd_seq_device        3853                 3 snd_seq_dummy,snd_seq_oss,snd_seq
snd_pcm_oss            28741               0
snd_mixer_oss          10545               2 snd_pcm_oss
speedstep_lib           2558                  0
acpi_cpufreq             4677                  1
freq_table                  1763                 1 acpi_cpufreq
mperf                         937                   1 acpi_cpufreq
snd_hda_codec_hdmi 17445              4
usblp                           8087                0
snd_hda_codec_realtek   201951       1
snd_hda_intel              16321             4
snd_hda_codec          51458               3 snd_hda_codec_hdmi,snd_hda_codec_realtek,snd_hda_intel
intel_agp                    8014                 0
intel_gtt                      9727                 1 intel_agp
ppdev                          4251                 0
processor                     21842               1 acpi_cpufreq
snd_hwdep                  4128                 1 snd_hda_codec
i2c_i801                       6330                 0
parport_pc                   16387               0
agpgart                        19211               4 ttm,drm,intel_agp,intel_gtt
snd_pcm                      48666               4 snd_pcm_oss,snd_hda_codec_hdmi,snd_hda_intel,snd_hda_codec
r8169                            31046              0
parport                         21892               2 ppdev,parport_pc
thermal_sys                 9985                 2 video,processor
i2c_core                        13898               5 nouveau,drm_kms_helper,drm,i2c_algo_bit,i2c_i801
snd_timer                     12858               2 snd_seq,snd_pcm
mii                                2883                 1 r8169
rtc_cmos                       6673                 0
button                           3510                 1 nouveau
snd                                36298               18 snd_seq_oss,snd_seq,snd_seq_device,snd_pcm_oss,snd_mixer_oss,snd_hda_codec_hdmi,snd_hda_codec_realtek,snd_hda_intel,snd_hda_codec,snd_hwdep,snd_pcm,snd_timer
sg                                 18020                 0
evdev                           6626                   3
soundcore                     3736                  2 snd
hwmon                          1093                  1 thermal_sys
snd_page_alloc             5143                  2 snd_hda_intel,snd_pcm

I built this machine from an Asrock ConRoe1333-GLAN board with a 3.6 GHz Pentium D, 2 GB of Ram, an MSI N8400GS video card with 512MB of DDR3, and a 40 GB IDE drive, if that helps.

Thanks in advance for any insight you can offer. I could reinstall without losing anything at this point, if that will help. I really like what I've seen so far in Vector.

[caitlyn]

OK, the problem is almost certainly an issue with the nouveau driver and your NVidia GeForce 8400GS chipset.   The good news is you definitely don't have to reinstall.  When you did the original installation did you choose the AUTO option for xorg.conf or did you choose VXCONF?  If you chose AUTO (which makes sense, BTW) you can try running vxconf from the command line as root.  vxconf may or may not produce a better configuration for nouveau.  You'd then have to restart X and see how it works.

If vxconf does not solve the problem I'd then install the proprietary NVidia driver which will almost certainly fix the issue.  Vector Linux makes that a rather easy task but I'd try vxconf first.  The GEForce 6100SE chipset on my desktop doets work with nouveau but only after tweaking the configuration.  Hopefully vxconf can automate that process for you.

Anyway, let us know how it works with vxconf and we can go from there if the problem persists or gets worse.

[wmichaelb]

caitlyn: thank you so much, that worked! I ran auto#2, logged out and logged back in, and voila! a cursor.

I did lose Cairo dock, which I was able to restart from the menu, and had to adjust the resolution again.
But hey, I'm a happy camper, just puzzled why Nouveau didn't do this right to start with.

Hope the next one is this easy for you!

[caitlyn]

Nouveau has interesting quirks, but it is getting better   Glad that worked for you.