White Screen After Reboot (Fedora 8)

[Tod Merley]

>> Reply below <<

On Dec 5, 2007 2:06 AM, Marwan Aziz <marwan at wanmar.com> wrote:
> Good Morning Tod,
>
> Thanx for the quick reply. I did the 'CTRL-ALT-F1' thing and I got the login
> screen. I then looked at the files that you suggested. The only warning I saw
> was in the messages file:
>
> gdm-simple-greeter[2938]: WARNING: Unable to load image: Couldn't recognize the
> image file format for file '/usr/share/backgrounds/infinity/infinity.xml'
>
> I am not sure where it is getting this value from. On a side note, how do I
> mount my USB drive so I can copy the files you mentioned?
>
> Thanx for your help
>
> - Marwan
>
>
> Quoting Tod Merley <todbot88 at gmail.com>:
>
> > On Dec 4, 2007 6:44 PM, Marwan Aziz <marwan at wanmar.com> wrote:
> > > Hi There,
> > >
> > > I just rebooted my Fedora 8 desktop and after going through the startup
> > screen
> > > (which shows all of the details of the startup) instead of getting to the
> > login
> > > screen, I get a white screen and the only visible thing is the mouse
> > pointer.
> > > Here are the details of my machine:
> > > - HP Pavilion a1654n
> > > - Intel Viiv Core 2 Duo E6300
> > > - Nvidia GEforce 7500LE
> > > - Fedora 8 (2.6.23.1-49.fc8)
> > >
> > > I do not know what to do to fix this. Please help.
> > >
> > > Thanx.
> > >
> > > - Marwan
> > >
> > >
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> > >
> >
> > Hi Marwan Aziz!
> >
> > I would like to think so.
> >
> > Lets try some things:
> >
> > 1. Do a "ctl+alt+F1" and see if it brings up a tty login screen.  If
> > so, log in as root - go to /var/log and at least look at Xorg.0.log,
> > dmesg, and messages.  If you can, copy the files to a flash drive or
> > other removable media.
> >
> > 2. If the "ctl+alt+F1" does not work do the above from a live CD.
> >
> > 3. Examine the files for clues.  You are looking for warnings and errors.
> >
> > 4. Google the errors along with hardware information (video card -
> > mother board (chipsets)).
> >
> > 5. If no errors there check the disk file system integrity (man fsck).
> >  It is probably not wise to repair any errors found at this time.
> >
> > Please let us know what you find.
> >
> > Tod
> >
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>
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> >
>
>
>
>
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Hi Marwan Aziz!

It sounds like file "/usr/share/backgrounds/infinity/infinity.xml" may
be corrupted.  I would recommend that you do check the disk.  The file
is probably the sign on screen you seem to be missing or at least is
used by the program that makes that screen.

I guess I would see if I could find the file on the Fedora 8 Live CD.
If I did I would copy it to your hard drive where the corrupted file
exists.  Make a copy of the (apparently) corrupted file first so you
can replace it if this fix does not work.

If this fix does not work we will need to find out which package the
greeter utility is in - uninstall and then install it probably using
yum.

I just tried a flash drive while signed on as root in my tty1.  When I
plugged the drive in about ten or so seconds later (I am using an
older laptop) several lines appeared -- apparently automount or hal
trying to automount the usb flash drive.  In my case I am fully signed
on in my X session as me but in my tty1 as root.  When I did the
ctl-alt-F7 selecting my X (Gnome) session it had an error message
telling me that SElinux had prevented the mount process.  In your case
the machine may well be in the root context at the time you put the
flash drive in.  It may fully mount - or - automount may not be active
at that level so you may see nothing at all when you try this.

Following is a copy of a session showing how I see the drive - unmount
it (it automounts quite successfully in the Gnome session), mounting
it, showing it in mount - etc .. (silly errors included - hardware
wise it is at /dev/sdb):
-------------------------------------------
[root at localhost tod]# mount
/dev/sda3 on / type ext3 (rw)
proc on /proc type proc (rw)
sysfs on /sys type sysfs (rw)
devpts on /dev/pts type devpts (rw,gid=5,mode=620)
tmpfs on /dev/shm type tmpfs (rw)
none on /proc/sys/fs/binfmt_misc type binfmt_misc (rw)
sunrpc on /var/lib/nfs/rpc_pipefs type rpc_pipefs (rw)
/dev/sdb on /media/disk type vfat
(rw,nosuid,nodev,uhelper=hal,shortname=lower,uid=500)
[root at localhost tod]# umount /dev/sdb
[root at localhost tod]# mount
/dev/sda3 on / type ext3 (rw)
proc on /proc type proc (rw)
sysfs on /sys type sysfs (rw)
devpts on /dev/pts type devpts (rw,gid=5,mode=620)
tmpfs on /dev/shm type tmpfs (rw)
none on /proc/sys/fs/binfmt_misc type binfmt_misc (rw)
sunrpc on /var/lib/nfs/rpc_pipefs type rpc_pipefs (rw)
[root at localhost tod]# mount -t vfat /dev/sdb /media/disk
mount: mount point /media/disk does not exist
[root at localhost tod]# cd media
bash: cd: media: No such file or directory
[root at localhost tod]# cd /media
[root at localhost media]# ls
sda1  sdb
[root at localhost media]# mount -t vfat /dev/sdb /media/sdb
[root at localhost media]# mount
/dev/sda3 on / type ext3 (rw)
proc on /proc type proc (rw)
sysfs on /sys type sysfs (rw)
devpts on /dev/pts type devpts (rw,gid=5,mode=620)
tmpfs on /dev/shm type tmpfs (rw)
none on /proc/sys/fs/binfmt_misc type binfmt_misc (rw)
sunrpc on /var/lib/nfs/rpc_pipefs type rpc_pipefs (rw)
/dev/sdb on /media/sdb type vfat (rw)
[root at localhost media]# cd sdb
[root at localhost sdb]# ls
1996-01-a-large_web.jpg                                 MCECwriting
AofAnsweredPrayer.wav                                   MHC-Volunteering
AofSalvation.wav                                              MHCxCounsel
[root at localhost sdb]# umount /dev/sdb
umount: /media/sdb: device is busy
umount: /media/sdb: device is busy
[root at localhost sdb]# cd ..
[root at localhost media]# umount /dev/sdb
[root at localhost media]# mount
/dev/sda3 on / type ext3 (rw)
proc on /proc type proc (rw)
sysfs on /sys type sysfs (rw)
devpts on /dev/pts type devpts (rw,gid=5,mode=620)
tmpfs on /dev/shm type tmpfs (rw)
none on /proc/sys/fs/binfmt_misc type binfmt_misc (rw)
sunrpc on /var/lib/nfs/rpc_pipefs type rpc_pipefs (rw)
[root at localhost media]#
----------------------------------------------
When I did this in tty1 I found that the file system type msdos also
worked with this flash drive.  It was there that I also made the
/media/sdb directory.

See man mount for details.

Good Hunting!

Tod