VL 5.8 SOHO problems after update

[tinnitus]

I recently purchased VL 5.8 SOHO the install was easy and I did an update after that I get a couple errors during booting /boot/bitmap/boot.xpm not found press any key to continue. Worked around that by selecting a different boot screen.

unable to locate opt/kde/hare/apps/kdm/themes/glasslight-SOHO selected a different theme solved that.

Not sure what to call this one - KDE Splash Screen? the screen loading before booting into desktop, the screen is there but garbled - can't read what is being loaded. Desktop loads after that so no big deal but I don't like the looks of it. Can't impress my friends with that <wink>.

Last - I seemed to have stalls - or freeze up. You cannot close an open app. The kicker works sometimes. Ctrl+Alt+Esc kills nothing. Ctrl_Alt-Backspace sometimes solves the stall/freeze. A reboot is required most of the time. Not sure where I go from here. Thanks in advance.

The box is an Dell XPS Intel Centrion Duo - 2gb Ram - WD Raptor Drive - ATI Radeon 1800 Graphic card set at 1680x1060.

[bigpaws]

The freezes you are referring to. Is there a particular
application that you are using when this happens?

The freezing is a possible indication of a hardware
problem. One area to check would be your RAM.
Windows can run with bad RAM Linux kernel on
the other hand is not quit so forgiving.

Bigpaws

[tinnitus]

Thanks for the reply and tip. I have checked memory via a BIOS memory test util and one test program on a Linux Distro Disc (PCLinux I think) no errors reported. I also carried out a Hard  test using Spinrite and no problems there. The stall/freeze are random it can occur when the box is at an idle state or searching a large chess database or using no app.

Thanks again
John

[BlueMage]

Does the problem also occur if you run another distro via liveCD?  The symptoms you describe are still generally indicative of hardware problems (I know this because my laptop suffers similar - on both Windows and VL, apparently randomly)

[tinnitus]

Thanks for the reply. None that I have notice, I don't use Windows but I will try a live Linux CD and pay attention this time. The box is very new but that does not mean it cannot have hardware problems so I'm not ruling it out and will try VL on another system.
John

[tinnitus]

I test the box using PCLinux and MePis live Disc. No freezing/stall occurred. When I thought more about this incident it is not hardware related because there was no issue before I upgraded VLSOHO 5.8.  I'll just go back to the 5.8 distro I purcahsed or move on.

[Tigerwolf]

The first problem of theme selection seems to be a typo in the path where it's looking for the theme:

Code:

opt/kde/hare/apps/kdm/themes/glasslight-SOHO

The "/hare/" part should be  "/share/".

The garbled splash screen I have seen also.  It happens because of the resolution set for your video card during the LILO setup done as part of the boot.   Look at /etc/lilo.conf and select a different VGA mode.  To do this, comment out (with #) the existing vga=<something> line, and uncomment one of the others.  If you have vga=791,  try vga=790.  Some video cards with limited memory can't do a full 1024x768 screen with 64K colors.    Also, some of the VL splash screens are 'hicolor' and will look very odd (pix is ok, but colors blotchy) when displayed on a screen only capable of fewer colors.  If you look in /etc/lilo.conf, you will see a bootmap=<path to boot screen bitmap image>  listed, likely pointing into /boot/bitmap/   You can try changing that bitmap image if necessary.  VL5.8 supplied a couple images in the /boot/bitmap directory.

I can't comment much on the freezeups, but it's important to note what applications are running at the time, and what, if any, specific commands or actions cause it to occur.    It sounds like X may be dying at times, which can leave the existing screen visible but with everything frozen.   If Ctl-Alt-Backspace does nothing, it's likely X is already dead.   You can try doing Ctl-Alt-F1  or Ctl-Alt-F2 to see if you can get to a text console.    In some cases, you can regain some control, and you may be able do 'startx' to get X going again,  but if something's crashed really badly, it can leave the machine unstable even then.

[tinnitus]

Thank-you for the reply and advice. I'll have a look at your suggestion. I think I may have solved the stall/freeze problem as I did notice my mouse was a little rough (stiff) during chess games. I changed the "Protocol" to "Auto" in xorg.conf and so far so good. I'm not going to worry about the splash screen as I d/l VL 5.9 - it is operating well on the other computer.

Thanks again,
John

[cabu]

I solved the same or something like this by enter the "control center" and change de Theme. Then i put it back and works fine.

Cabu