News Group Posts

id x respawning too rapidly

Date: Fri, 28 Dec 2001 17:12:06 -0500
From: Tony Lawrence <tony@aplawrence.com>
Subject: Re: (Newbie install question) AAAARRRRGH!?!?!? Help!!

Harry Hewat wrote:

 > Hi!
 >
 > I'm a newbie with Linux and have been trying to install redhat 7.1 
using the
 > CD that came with the "Linux Bible" by Candace Leiden (it's bollocks -
 > shoulda read the reviews on Amazon first).  The machine is a laptop (Acer
 > Travelmate 212TXV, 800Mhz Celeron, 128Mb RAM, 10Gb HDD).  I've got a 
couple
 > of questions:
 >
 > 1.  As soon as I boot it up the screen starts constantly flickering at
 > different intervals, eventually it prints --
 >
 > INIT: Id "x" respawning too fast: disabled for 5 minutes
 >
 > I guess this is to give a chance to fix the problem, but how?... say it
 > slowly and clearly so I can understand please :o)


id x is init trying to start your X session-= apparently misconfigured, 
so dying instantly.  You need to boot single-user and change your 
default init-sate so that it won't go graphical.

Single-user: hit a key as it starts up, you should get a lilo prompt. 
Type "linux single".

Once there, vi /etc/inittab and change the line that says

id:5:initdefault:
to
id:3:initdefault:

Then reboot and figure out what's wrong with your gui setup.

(if you do have a login without going single usere, just edit the file 
and reboot).



 >
 > 2.  During the idiot-proof (hoho) installation process, I chose to 
have both
 > KDE and Gnome, yet it just seems to be giving the normal Linux command
 > prompt.  How do I fire up one of the GUI's?


startx.

But it's broken as we know from above.


 >
 > 3.  I've set it up with 7 Linux Native partitions and a swap partition
 > (/boot, /usr, /opt, /var, /, /home, /temp, <swap>).  I've got another
 > partition without a mount point that I was going to reistall Windows on,
 > taking up the rest of my hard disk.  Is this correct?  How do I go about
 > doing it?  I've got a CD that came with the computer with Windows Me 
on it.


Probably is NOT going to work- that CD will wipe out your hard drive.

One  way to handle that sort of thing is to let it install, then use fips 
(it's on the cd, and it's a Dos program) to shrink the Windows down.. 
THEN you can install Linux on the newly freed space.

I have an old article about that at Installing Redhat Linux 6.0 
-that was RH 6, but the basic concepts are still the same).


-- 
Tony Lawrence
SCO/Linux Support Tips, How-To's, Tests and more: 

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