X fails to load in live CD without “toram” option

[Anonymous]

Almost done with tests with live CD/DVD (optical media), before proceeding to try testing with live USB.

However there’s one last issue I saw:
If booting *without* the “toram” boot option, X always fails to load. When finishing booting system starts in command line, and typing “startx” results in error that “failed to connect to server”, or something like that.
With the “toram” option, there have been no problems until now.

Current rig:

demo@antix1:~
$ inxi -Fxz
System:
  Host: antix1 Kernel: 4.9.0-264-antix.1-amd64-smp x86_64 bits: 64 
  compiler: gcc v: 8.3.0 Desktop: IceWM 2.3.4 
  Distro: antiX-19.4_x64-base Grup Yorum 20 May 2021 
  base: Debian GNU/Linux 10 (buster) 
Machine:
  Type: Laptop System: Gateway product: NE-522 v: V2.02 serial: <filter> 
  Mobo: Gateway model: NE-522 v: V2.02 serial: <filter> UEFI: Insyde v: 2.02 
  date: 05/03/2013 
Battery:
  ID-1: BAT0 charge: 1.6 Wh condition: 23.4/37.0 Wh (63%) 
  model: SANYO AL12A32 status: Charging 
CPU:
  Topology: Dual Core model: AMD E1-2500 APU with Radeon HD Graphics 
  bits: 64 type: MCP arch: Jaguar rev: 1 L2 cache: 1024 KiB 
  flags: avx lm nx pae sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 sse4a ssse3 svm 
  bogomips: 5589 
  Speed: 1200 MHz min/max: 800/1400 MHz Core speeds (MHz): 1: 800 2: 1000 
Graphics:
  Device-1: AMD Kabini [Radeon HD 8240 / R3 Series] 
  vendor: Acer Incorporated ALI driver: radeon v: kernel bus ID: 00:01.0 
  Display: server: X.Org 1.20.4 driver: ati,radeon 
  unloaded: fbdev,modesetting,vesa resolution: 1366x768~60Hz 
  OpenGL: 
  renderer: AMD KABINI (DRM 2.49.0 4.9.0-264-antix.1-amd64-smp LLVM 7.0.1) 
  v: 4.5 Mesa 18.3.6 direct render: Yes 
Audio:
  Device-1: AMD Kabini HDMI/DP Audio vendor: Acer Incorporated ALI 
  driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel bus ID: 00:01.1 
  Device-2: AMD FCH Azalia vendor: Acer Incorporated ALI 
  driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel bus ID: 00:14.2 
  Sound Server: ALSA v: k4.9.0-264-antix.1-amd64-smp 
Network:
  Device-1: Qualcomm Atheros QCA8171 Gigabit Ethernet 
  vendor: Acer Incorporated ALI driver: alx v: kernel port: 2000 
  bus ID: 01:00.0 
  IF: eth0 state: down mac: <filter> 
  Device-2: Qualcomm Atheros QCA9565 / AR9565 Wireless Network Adapter 
  vendor: Lite-On driver: ath9k v: kernel port: 2000 bus ID: 05:00.0 
  IF: wlan0 state: up mac: <filter> 
  Device-3: Lite-On Atheros AR3012 Bluetooth type: USB driver: btusb 
  bus ID: 4-2:5 
Drives:
  Local Storage: total: 223.57 GiB used: 591.6 MiB (0.3%) 
  ID-1: /dev/sda vendor: A-Data model: SU650 size: 223.57 GiB 
Partition:
  ID-1: / size: 3.63 GiB used: 591.6 MiB (15.9%) fs: overlay source: ERR-102 
Sensors:
  System Temperatures: cpu: 53.5 C mobo: 37.0 C gpu: radeon temp: 53 C 
  Fan Speeds (RPM): N/A 
Info:
  Processes: 125 Uptime: 3h 19m Memory: 5.28 GiB used: 336.0 MiB (6.2%) 
  Init: SysVinit runlevel: 5 Compilers: gcc: 8.3.0 Shell: bash v: 5.0.3 
  inxi: 3.0.36 
demo@antix1:~
$

In other few tested rigs this issue doesn’t happen.

Oh, and on a brief side note, independently of this issue, I tried @Xecure’s past advise regarding usage of the “toram” option. Supposedly one needs to add the “menus=s” boot option in conjunction with it.
However, this did absolutely nothing, and not using the option still boots the system seemingly fine.
Also, this boot option is not mentioned at all in the Antix wiki, and only barely mentioned in the FAQ website. And there, it mentions nothing about “menus” boot option accepting any kind of value…
Was there a reason behind it?

Thanks again.

[Member Xecure]

Helpful

Up

0

::

It is possible that, because of slow reading speeds, it works best with toram option. Probably you could see if it loads the incorrect video driver looking at the
inxi -Gxx
output on non-toram.

The use of menus=s is for saving changes on live session on UEFI boot (not useful on Legacy boot, and will not work on CD/DVD, only on writable live media). So that the user would not need to write “toram” on each boot, but that it remembers it (as I said, only for writable media).

There seems to be a newer method on antiX 21 that saves changes for bot UEFI and legacy boot menus, but I still don’t know or have experimented with this boot parameter.

menus is a (specially used for) UEFI boot parameter to show menu options during boot (to select language, timezone, desktop, etc.), and the “s” option is the last text menus option, to save live changes.

I will revise and continue the wiki table and see how I organize it better.

antiX Live system enthusiast.
General Live Boot Parameters for antiX.

[Anonymous]

Helpful

Up

0

::

because of slow reading speeds

The problem might be solved by revising the live init script, (or the appropriate helper utility)
to detect whether it has been booted from (?SR0)(?non-writable media)(?non-USB device) and, if so, set a much more generous timeout duration.

[Anonymous]

Helpful

Up

0

::

When booting without “toram” option, inxi output for graphics is:

demo@antix1:~
$ inxi -Gx:
  Device-1: AMD Kabini [Radeon HD 8240 / R3 Series]
  vendor: Acer Incorporated ALI driver: N/A bus ID: 00:01.0
  Display: server: X.Org 1.20.4 driver: ati,vesa
  unloaded: fbdev,modesetting,radeon tty: 120x30
  Message: Advanced graphics data unavailable in console. Try -G --display
demo@antix1:~
$
demo@antix1:~
$ inxi -Gx --display:
  Device-1: AMD Kabini [Radeon HD 8240 / R3 Series]
  vendor: Acer Incorporated ALI driver: N/A bus ID: 00:01.0
  Display: server: X.Org 1.20.4 driver: ati,vesa
  unloaded: fbdev,modesetting,radeon tty: 120x30
  Message: No advanced graphics data found on this system.
demo@antix1:~
$

The extra -x option only gives the chip ID, which doesn’t change.

[Member Xecure]

Helpful

Up

0

::

Anonymous wrote:

vendor: Acer Incorporated ALI driver: N/A

vs

Anonymous wrote:

vendor: Acer Incorporated ALI driver: radeon

If in non-toram boot you use the boot parameter
load=radeon
Does anything change?

• This reply was modified 1 year, 7 months ago by Xecure.

antiX Live system enthusiast.
General Live Boot Parameters for antiX.

[Anonymous]

Helpful

Up

0

::

From the log file of the booting process (just the part of interest):
demo@antix1:~

$ cat /var/log/live/live-init.log
[...]
  Scanning for hardware specific video modules ...
  Found KMS video module(s) amdgpu radeon
[...]
demo@antix1:~
$

Which is the same whether “toram” or non-“toram” cases.

So in boot parameters I tried “load=amdgpu,radeon”. The result:

Could not load module amdgpu
Could not load module radeon

at almost very beginning of booting process, so it’s not logged in live-init.log file.
And this happens on both “toram” and non-“toram”, just that in “toram” modules/drivers are actually loaded.
And as mentioned before, this whole issue does not happen in other PCs/laptops.

By the way, may I ask what are the default boot options “quiet splasht disable=lxF” for? They’re not documented in the wiki, and poorly in the FAQ…

Thanks again.

[Forum Admin anticapitalista]

Helpful

Up

0

::

Press F1 Help at live boot screen.

antiX-gfxboot

Philosophers have interpreted the world in many ways; the point is to change it.

antiX with runit - leaner and meaner.

[Author]

Posts