Hello.
I burned a CD with the 5.2 netinstall iso, and installed it onto a
laptop (Acer Aspire 3680). Note that I'm *totally* new to laptops.
The install went fine. But, when I boot it, it errors at the user login.
A screen comes up, stating that X11 cannot start, and that it's probably
the mouse.
A bit of investigating revealed that there is no Synaptics module
installed. It will boot into runlevel=3.
I tried the 'upgrade' option of the netinstall disk; it saw that 5.2 is
installed, and quit. |:(
The X wiki suggested that I try adding this to /etc/X11/xorg.conf:
Section "ServerFlags"
Option "AllowMouseOpenFail" "1"
EndSection
Using "cat xorg.conf", I see Section "InputDevice" ,
which refers
to the Synaptics module.
Being new-ish to linux, I can't figure out the text-based editor (vi) to
modify the file. I have "System Rescue CD" and "Ultimate Boot
CD", but
(apparently) they don't mount the installed system.
I have some Fedora install disks (if they'd be of any help) - but not a
rescue CD. It seems like CentOS doesn't have a rescue CD - would
Fedora's help?
I need to modify xorg.conf, or figure out how to install the Synaptics
module. How can I do that?
----- Original Message ----> From: Michael Klinosky <mpk2 at enter.net>> > The X wiki suggested that I try adding this to /etc/X11/xorg.conf: > Section "ServerFlags" > Option "AllowMouseOpenFail" "1" > EndSection > > Using "cat xorg.conf", I see Section "InputDevice" , which refers > to the Synaptics module. > > Being new-ish to linux, I can't figure out the text-based editor (vi) to > modify the file. I have "System Rescue CD" and "Ultimate Boot CD", but > (apparently) they don't mount the installed system. >vi is not too difficult. from the commandline prompt, type ; vi /etc/X11/xorg.conf then press the small letter "i" to allow u to insert text. use the arrow keys to navigate to an empty line and add the text u need. then press ESC. next type; :wq and hit enter. from the commandline use cat to see if the changes u made hv been recorded and then try to reboot.
On Sat, 2009-02-28 at 22:23 -0500, Michael Klinosky wrote: ...> I have some Fedora install disks (if they'd be of any help) - but not > a > rescue CD. It seems like CentOS doesn't have a rescue CD - would > Fedora's help?The CentOS install disk IS the rescue CD - try install CD #1 (or the DVD install images). Unfortunately if you only downloaded the netinstall image you may not have the correct media at hand. Live CD as suggested elsewhere could also be useful for rescue. May also want to try a USB mouse. The synaptics RPM is available from RPMforge. See http://wiki.centos.org/AdditionalResources/Repositories/ May also want to have a look at http://wiki.centos.org/HowTos/Laptops Laptops do tend to be problematic. Sorry you're having problems, but welcome to CentOS. Phil
On Sat, Feb 28, 2009 at 10:23 PM, Michael Klinosky <mpk2 at enter.net> wrote:> Hello. > I burned a CD with the 5.2 netinstall iso, and installed it onto a > laptop (Acer Aspire 3680). Note that I'm *totally* new to laptops. > > The install went fine. But, when I boot it, it errors at the user login. > A screen comes up, stating that X11 cannot start, and that it's probably > the mouse.It sounds like you have at least the video drivers functioning, if not the mouse...> A bit of investigating revealed that there is no Synaptics module > installed. It will boot into runlevel=3.Have you verified if the synaptics package itself is installed: rpm -q synaptics If not, is this laptop connected to the Internet? If so, you can do: yum -y install synaptics This will install the synaptics package, though doesn't install the module. Once this is done, you can look at the xorg.conf file itself. If you're not familiar with vi, there's another editor called "nano" that may be easier the first few times (after that, it pays to learn vi). The main things you need to verify are the following sections in the xorg.conf: Section "ServerLayout" Identifier "Layout0" Screen 0 "Screen0" 0 0 Screen 1 "Screen1" RightOf "Screen0" InputDevice "Keyboard0" "CoreKeyboard" InputDevice "Synaptics" "CorePointer" EndSection Section "InputDevice" Identifier "Synaptics" Driver "synaptics" Option "Device" "/dev/input/mice" Option "Protocol" "auto-dev" Option "Emulate3Buttons" "yes" EndSection> The X wiki suggested that I try adding this to /etc/X11/xorg.conf: > Section "ServerFlags" > ? ? ? ? Option "AllowMouseOpenFail" "1" > EndSection> > Using "cat xorg.conf", I see ? ?Section "InputDevice" ? , which refers > to the Synaptics module. > > Being new-ish to linux, I can't figure out the text-based editor (vi) to > modify the file. I have "System Rescue CD" and "Ultimate Boot CD", but > (apparently) they don't mount the installed system. > > I have some Fedora install disks (if they'd be of any help) - but not a > rescue CD. It seems like CentOS doesn't have a rescue CD - would > Fedora's help? > > I need to modify xorg.conf, or figure out how to install the Synaptics > module. How can I do that?