Fedora Setup

nataku954 February 11, 2005 at 06:01:33 Pacific
XP Pro, pentium m 1.5/ 512mb RAM

I figured that i would try out fedora core 3 while i wait for my debian disks to download. After installing the program to my virtual hard drive i cannot get it to boot. I know that it is due to video card issues, but i do not know a command to get me into the setup or config file for fedora or if there even is one for that matter. Can anyone help out?

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3Dave February 11, 2005 at 09:37:43 Pacific

"...i cannot get it to boot..."
What happens when you try? How far does it get?

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nataku954 February 11, 2005 at 10:32:45 Pacific

Sorry for not going into detail...i had to get to class. When i boot i get an "INIT: Id "5" respawning too fast: disabled for 5 minutes" error. This occurs right before I am prompted for login name and password. Sometimes i get far enough to enter the user name. The 5 in the quotes is usually the first to appear and sometimes i will get another number or an x. I read around on the internet and one source said video card....so i figured i'd try to get into a config and reset the video card driver. After further searching i am beginning to doubt this theory, but i'd still like to get it to work.

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3Dave February 14, 2005 at 01:06:25 Pacific

It sounds as though your X server is not configured correctly. I am unsure if fedora has a special tool (redhat used to have something like redhat-config-xsetup), having a quick look on the net it could be called system-config-display. Failing that you may need to edit /etc/X11/XF86Config (could be XF86Config-4 or xorg.conf) by hand.
What error do you get if you type startx? Examining /var/log/XFree86.0.log or /var/log/Xorg.0.log might help find out what's wrong.
Until you fix the problem you can edit /etc/inittab to get the computer to boot into text mode. Change the line:
id:5:initdefault:
to
id:3:initdefault:

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nataku954 February 14, 2005 at 13:21:57 Pacific

Where exactly am i supposed to type startx. I cannot login. And if i try it in the grub command line it says invalid command.

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nataku954 February 14, 2005 at 13:27:09 Pacific

sorry..it did not say "invalid" it said "unrecognized command"

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Related Posts

3Dave February 15, 2005 at 01:43:06 Pacific

At the grub prompt type:
linux 3
This should boot you into runlevel 3 (text
mode) instead of runlevel 5 (graphical
login). That's what the "INIT: Id 5" is
referring to. From there you should be able
to log in as root and try to fix the
problem.

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nataku954 February 15, 2005 at 08:09:40 Pacific

I get the same "unrecognized command" error when i enter "linux 3"

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3Dave February 16, 2005 at 01:37:54 Pacific

My mistake, I use lilo too much! At the grub
prompt press "e" to edit the boot command
and append the runlevel to the end, eg:
kernel /vmlinuz-2.4.18-5 ro root=/dev/hda2
3

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nataku954 February 16, 2005 at 05:16:01 Pacific

I changed the runlevel...same problems...any other ideas???

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#10

3Dave February 16, 2005 at 09:21:05 Pacific

Can you boot from the fedora CD, choose
"rescue" and then try the following
commands:
# chroot /mnt/sysimage
# pico /etc/inittab
Then look for a line that reads
id:5:initdefault:
and change it to
id:3:initdefault:
You can now try and fix the system as
mentioned in a previous post. When you
reboot you should just get a text login.
Once you have the command "startx" working
edit back /etc/inittab.

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#11

nataku954 February 17, 2005 at 08:00:32 Pacific

ive changed the runlevels...tried reinstalling...tried the rescue disk...nothing seems to work...i guess im going to have to stick to Mandrake...its the only one that works with my virtual pc.

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#12

jsalcedo February 17, 2005 at 12:18:39 Pacific

I am having the same problem with Fedora Core 3, in Virtual PC 2004...
Does anyone have any ideas to solve this problem??
Any help will be greatly appreciated!

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#13

3Dave February 21, 2005 at 02:15:39 Pacific

Is the PC set to automatically log a user in
after booting? Can you do an interactive
startup in fedora like you can with
mandrake?

If mandrake works, you can use the X config
file from that on fedora. The file will be
either /etc/X11/XF86Config(-4)
or /etc/X11/xorg.conf.

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#14

nataku954 February 21, 2005 at 09:24:40 Pacific

Mandrake and Fedora are on separate virtual hard drives and i do not believe they will be able to see any of each other's files.

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#15

3Dave February 22, 2005 at 04:28:18 Pacific

Boot mandrake, copy /etc/X11/XF86Config(-4)
or /etc/X11/xorg.conf to a floppy/cd and
transfer it that way....

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#16

arun123 February 26, 2005 at 15:32:34 Pacific

I am having the same problem as Nick. I am able to get to the command prompt only by using the rescue disk. I changed the inittab to start at runlevel 3. but I still get the respawned too fast error. Many of the above responses refer to X setup but at this point doesn't seem to have anything to do with X since we are just trying to get text mode to work ? Nick or others - any better suggestions would be much welcome !
Regards
Arun

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#17

Spock March 10, 2005 at 10:32:52 Pacific

Fedora core 3 is broken on some of the latest Intel P4 versions, and is also broken on Virtual PC. There is some tricks to get it working under Virtual PC. Here are the steps to get it running: http://vpc.visualwin.com/Notes/FedoraCore.3.Final.html

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