Linux on VMware can't boot!

[bachdieuhue]

Hi Pcguide!
I am using vmware 3.0 on winxp, and I've create a single vm with typical hardware. I've choosen linux os for the vm, and installed the red hat linux 7.3 on the vm. During the installation I did not use any account or booting password unless the administration password.
After the installation completed and the vm reboot, every thing seemed ok until the messages below appeared:
Hostlocal login:
Password:
I typed something in the first line then <enter>
I could not type anything In the second line, the cursor didn't move.
Would you help me to solve the problem? Thanks.

[john5211]

Hi there,

You might want to try the following...

If you didn't set up any user accounts during the installation process, then you have to log on as the superuser (administrator).

So, when you are presented with "localhost login:" type "root" (w/o quotes) and hit enter. At the password prompt, type in the password you chose for the superuser and press enter (and note that you should not see the cursor move; this is a security feature).

Depending on the type of installation you chose, you might be presented with the command prompt, or the graphical user interface may start up immediately. Either way, your first order of business should be to create a 'regular' user account for yourself.

HTH

John

[bachdieuhue]

Thanks John.

I can login the command prompt now:

[root@localhost root]#

How can I login the graphical user interface (GNOME or KDE)?

At the command prompt, I tried to type "startx" but the GUI didn't appear.

[mjc]

Did you configure the X-server?

[john5211]

As MJC said, you will need to configure the server for X-Windows to be able to use it.

With most distributions there are several programs you can use to configure it (with Red Hat you might try /usr/X11R6/bin/Xconfigurator , although there are several others that will work, some probably better). Make sure that you know the specs for your video card and monitor before you start.

John

[bachdieuhue]

I had tried to configure the vga card and the monitor but it returned with errors.

My monitor is Dell M780 (listed in the menu)
My vga card is Palit TNT2 M64 32MB (I chose NVIDIA TNT2(generic))

I also tried the standard option, but it's still the same problem.

Is there difference between installing linux on "vitual PC" and "real PC"?

hue:)

[john5211]

Well, I haven't ever tried installing linux (or any other OS) using a virtual PC program, but I assume that there is a set of issues relating to it (just like any other program...), and you might be encountering one.

However, to be honest, your description is rather vague (e.g. the setup 'returned with errors'). We might be able to isolate the problem better - and figure out if it is a problem with vmware or a Red Hat issue - if you could be more specific.

Try running the installation again and writing down exactly what errors you got that led to termination of the program, and let us know.

Also, for general troubleshooting and hardware compatability lists, you might want to look at the home page (http://www.xfree86.org/) for XFree86 (the X Windows system used by linux)

John

[bachdieuhue]

Hi!

I've tried re-installing Red Hat Linux 7.3 in VMWare 3.0, but I couldn't configure the X-server. So I've made a new partition on my HDD, and the installation of linux completed successfully! Now I can use the GUI. So I think that the problem is in the VMWare program.

But there are still some problem in linux.

1)The scroll button of my scroll mouse doesn't work.
2)No sound effect, and also no sound while playing audio CD.

And I have some questions:

1)How do I change the desktop's resolution?
2)Is there any program that can browse all the partition on the HDD(linux, FAT, NTFS)?

Hue.

[mjc]

The mouse should be able to be reconfigured, in Mandrake this is pretty easy to do, as there is a "control panel" to reconfigure the hardware. Just make sure that you select a wheel mosue (and you may actually have to configure the wheel otions for whatever you are using Gnome or KDE....)

The audio is the same thing, you may have to play around with sevearl different configurations to find the correct one. Which sound drivers are you using?


There is an NTFS driver for Linux, just can't remember where I saw it, but it is not fully developed yet and I believe it is read only....

[john5211]

You generally have to do two things in order to change the screen resolution.

First, when you set up the X server, you have to select multiple resolutions that your monitor/graphics card can handle (this might have been done automatically, depending on the configuration program that you used).

Once the resolutions have been set up, you can cycle through them by pressing [ctrl]-[alt]-[+] and [ctrl]-[alt]-[-].

So, for example, suppose during the set up program I select resolution/color depths of 600x480/16, 800x600/16, 800x600/24, and 1024x768/24. Then whenever I am runnig X, I can cycle through the 4 choices using the above key combinations.

Also, remember that you have to mount all of the partitions that you want to browse (as MJC said, you can mount FAT and FAT32 as read/write, but NTFS is read only, see here (http://linux-ntfs.sourceforge.net/info/index.html) for more on NTFS and Linux).

John

[mjc]

Thanks John, I was going to get back with the resolution change, but you beat me to it, ;) .

[bachdieuhue]

Well, I used the hardware browser to get the informations of my pc, and the hardware informations are returned as below:

-Sound card: ES 1988 Allegro-1 (ESS Allegro PCI Audio(in WinXP))
Driver: maestr03
Device: N/A

-Video card: NV6[Vanta] (nVidia TNT2 M64(in WinXP))
Driver: Card:RIVA TNT2
Device: N/A

As the info shown above, do I need to reconfigure both sound and video card? I've entered the "Control panel", but I didn't know how to reconfigure. Could you tell me how to reconfigure hardware in Red Hat Linux more clearly? Because this is the first time I try installing and using Linux.

Hue.

[mjc]

The first thing to do is to check and see if your sound card is on the hardware compatabilty list for the version of RH you have installed...

http://hardware.redhat.com/hcl/genpage2.cgi


If it is then...Configuring a Sound Card (http://www.redhat.com/docs/manuals/linux/RHL-6.2-Manual/getting-started-guide/s1-q-and-a-sound.html)

[john5211]

Hi Hue,

As I understand your situation, you are currently having two problems: (1) The sound doesn't work, and (2) you would like to be able to change screen resolutions (but the X-server works).

First the video:

In order to change resolutions, you need to set up your configuration file to list the resolutions that you would like to run X at. There are two ways to do this.

(1) from the command prompt, as root, run the program Xconfigurator (located in /usr/X11R6/bin). Let the program go through its defaults until you get to a screen where you select resolutions and color depths. From there, select the resolution(s) and depths that you would like to use.

(2) If you would rather edit the configuration file yourself, log on as root, cd to /etc/X11 and edit the file XF86Config-4 using a text editor (try pico if you don't already have a favorite). Towards the bottom of the file, you will find a section called Screen. It will list your video card, monitor, and default color depth. Directly below that, you will a subsection that says something like:

Subsection "Display"
Depth 24
Modes "800x600"

To add resolutions, just make additional subsections. If you do this, make sure that your monitor/video card can support the resolutions and color depth that you edit into the file; otherwise the X-server will crash (and you might hurt your hardware). Also make sure that you copy the syntax exactly (do change the values for the depth and modes, though :) ).

Whichever way you use, the next time you start the X-server, you will be able to cycle through the resolutions using the key combinations I listed above.

Now for the sound. The driver you listed is the correct one for your soundcard (BTW it is spelled with an o not a 0), and it should be supported in the 2.4 kernel without having to do anything. To find out exactly where the problem is, make sure that everything is plugged in and turned on (speakers, etc.) and that the volume is not all the way down. Next, from the command prompt, type 'locate *wav' (w/o quotes). You should get a list of wav files; try playing one by typing 'play {filename}' where {filename} is the name of one of the files you found in your search.

If you hear a sound, then the sound card is working and we just need to get the sounds in your desktop to use the soundcard. If you don't hear a sound, then we need to try to get the soundcard working (and if you get an error message or can't find a .wav file, then we still need to find a noise to play...).

Either way, post back and we will take it from there.

John

Edit: MJC is correct; try to use sndconfig to get your soundcard working correctly before you start looking deeper.

[bachdieuhue]

Hi every body,

First, I want to thanks John, mjc, and all the people who consider my situation.

Now, I can change the desktop resolutions, and the sound card works, but the sound is very very low although I've set the volume to max(in the playing program, and my speaker). In Winows, my sound card works very good. Is this the sound driver's problem?

Here is my XF86Config-4:

# XFree86 4.2.0 configuration generated by Xconfigurator 4.10.7

Section "ServerLayout"
Identifier "XFree86 Configured"
Screen 0 "Screen0" 0 0
InputDevice "Mouse0" "CorePointer"
InputDevice "Keyboard0" "CoreKeyboard"
EndSection

# Red Hat Linux 6.0 and later use the xfs font server for improved
# interactive performance

Section "Files"
FontPath "unix/:7100"
EndSection

# Module loading section

Section "Module"
Load "dbe" # Double-buffering
Load "GLcore" # OpenGL support
Load "dri" # Direct rendering infrastructure
Load "glx" # OpenGL X protocol interface
Load "extmod" # Misc. required extensions
Load "v4l" # Video4Linux
# Load "record" # X event recorder
# You only need the following two modules if you do not use xfs.
# Load "freetype" # TrueType font handler
# Load "type1" # Adobe Type 1 font handler
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
Identifier "Keyboard0"
Driver "keyboard"
Option "XkbLayout" "us"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
Identifier "Mouse0"
Driver "mouse"
Option "Device" "/dev/mouse"
Option "Protocol" "PS/2"
Option "Emulate3Buttons" "off"
Option "ZAxisMapping" "4 5"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
Identifier "DELL M780"
VendorName "Unknown"
ModelName "Unknown"
HorizSync 30 - 85
VertRefresh 50 - 160
Option "dpms"
EndSection

Section "Device"
Identifier "RIVA TNT2"
Driver "nv"
BoardName "Unknown"
EndSection

Section "Device"
Identifier "Linux Frame Buffer"
Driver "fbdev"
BoardName "Unknown"
EndSection

Section "Screen"
Identifier "Screen0"
Device "RIVA TNT2"
Monitor "DELL M780"
DefaultDepth 16
Subsection "Display"
Depth 24
Modes "1024x768" "800x600"
EndSubSection
Subsection "Display"
Depth 16
Modes "1024x768" "800x600"
EndSubSection
EndSection

Section "DRI"
Mode 0666
EndSection

Do I need to repalce "Emulate3Buttons" "off" with "Emulate3Buttons" "on"
to enable my mouse's scroll button?

Hue

[john5211]

Hey Hue,

What desktop environment are you using (Gnome or KDE)? I suspect that the volume problem that you are experiencing has to do with a setting in one of your control panels; try to look through all of your menus looking for control panels and anything that lets you adjust audio properties.

To double check that the problem is not with the driver/soundcard mix, exit X windows and follow the instructions above for playing a .wav file. if it plays at a decent volume then the issue is definitely one of the settings in your desktop environment.

About the mouse... UN*X OS's (including Linux) assume that the mouse you are using has 3 buttons, and many programs map a function to the third button. If your wheel mouse is the kind with a button in the wheel (so it clicks when you press down on the wheel) then pressing the wheel should be your third button, and you can leave the variable you mentioned set to "off." Setting it to "on" just means that you can mimic the third button by pressing the right and left button at the same time.

Either way, it won't make your wheel work. What kind of mouse is it (brand and model). You might have to reconfigure it to get it to work, but also bear in mind that you have to be using a program that supports scrolling with a mouse wheel for it to work correctly (AFAIK, not many do).

John

[bachdieuhue]

I use KDE environment. I found that there are differences while playing the multimedia:
(1)Playing the sound effects(wav) and the audio CD, the sound is very low. I nearly could not hear anything.
(2)When I try to play the *wav files in the game dir, the sound is good.

My mouse is a Samsung scroll mouse. In the Kconquer Web Browser, when I move the mouse pointer over the bottom or the top of web browser window, it will scroll automatically (I don't press any button on the mouse). But it doesn't work while browsing files (even I use the scroll button).

[john5211]

Hey Hue,

Well, let's see if we can get this mouse thing figured out. I think that the easiest way to fix things is to pretend that you have an intellimouse, and hope that Samsung's mouse is similar enough.

To do this, log out of the X-server and make sure that you are logged on as root. Execute the command '/usr/sbin/mouseconfig' (w/o the quotes). This will bring up a selection of mice to choose from. Select the Microsoft Intellimouse option (either the one for PS/2 or USB, depending on your mouse). Select emulate 3-button as per your preference, and choose OK.

To see if it worked, switch back to your user account and log into X, start Mozilla (the web browser), and try to use the wheel. If it works in Mozilla, then the wheel mouse is working. If it doesn't, you might try running the config program again and selecting other types mice, but you also might be out of luck.

For the sound, I am still a little confused. Is the following correct?

1) When you play a .wav file from the CD using a multimedia player, the sound is low

2) When you play a .wav file from your games directory using a multimedia player, the sound is OK.

Or is it more like:

1) As Above

2) When you play a .wav file from your game directory using the play command, the sound is OK (but when using a multimedia player the sound is low).

Depending on which scenario describes your situation, we should be able to narrow the problem down.

John

[bachdieuhue]

Well, my mouse is OK.

And the sound:
I opened the Control Center, and tried playing the sound effects (using the default player), the sound is very low. It was the same when I Played the audio CD (using CD player or XMMS), I don't know what kind of format it is.
I played the .wav in the game dir (using XMMS), the sound is good. But When I played the same .wav in the command prompt, the sound is very very low.

[john5211]

Hey Hue,

Glad your mouse is working. I'm not sure what is going on with your sound. My instinct is that there should be a configuration file for the CD player that you can play with to adjust the volume levels, but I don't know which file it is off the top of my head. You also might want to run sndconfig again. Lastly, did you look at the HCL from Red Hat? It could be that your soundcard is not fully compatible, in which case really strange things (like low sound) might happen.

Any way, good luck and perhaps others have a better idea of what might be going on.

John

[bachdieuhue]

John, you are right. my sound card is not full compatibale with RH Linux.
Anyway, thanks for your helps.

Hue