Trisquel 5.5 64-bit Live USB boot problem
First of all, it is nice to see a truly free operating system development. Outstanding effort!
Now to my problem.
I would like to try Trisquel 5.5 64-bit for my PC. So I made a Live USB using unetbootin and try to boot from it.
On the boot menu I chose "Try Trisquel without installing" and it ended up in a console.
Referring to the manual I should try "startx", so i did and it did nothing than giving me:
Xinit: giving up to X server: Connection refused
My skill level in GNU/Linux is somewhat newbie.
So, what should I do to get through this?
For reference:
CPU: Intel E2150
Mainboard: Gigabyte G31M-ES2L
RAM: 2x2GB (4GB)
GPU: AMD Radeon HD 6570 1GB
Many thanks.
What would be interesting to see is the actual error message returned by 'startx' (before it writes that the connection is refused).
Your problem is pretty weird because, as far as I know, the radeon driver, shiped with Trisquel, is perfectly able to handle 2D, which is all that is required to start the display manager and then the GNOME Classic desktop.
If I were you I would deactivate (or even remove) the video card and use the Intel graphic chipset. It perfectly works with Linux-libre, hence any 100% free GNU/Linux distribution such as Trisquel. When I write "perfectly", that includes 3D acceleration that you do not get with the current state of Linux-libre.
I have recently installed Trisquel onto a computer that had an nVidia video card. Linux-libre better handles this brand than AMD but I decided to remove the video card and use the Intel graphic chipset. It now works much better!
I am dual-booting the same machine with Windows and the Radeon is needed. So removing the Radeon is not an option.
Here are the things before "connection refused":
(==) Using system config directory "usr/share/x11/xorg.conf.d"
(==) Failed to load module "fglrx" (module does not exist, 0)
(II) [KMS] drm report modesetting isn't supported.
(EE) open /dev/fb0: No such file or directory
(EE) RADEON (0): Chipset: "TURKS" (ChipID=0x6759) requires KMS
(EE) Screen(s) found, but none have a usable configuration
Fatal server error:
no screens found
--- end ---
Hope those error messages can give some clues.
Can you disable the Radeon via BIOS?
I am pretty shure that this behaviour is caused by your AMD graphic adapter. They rely on firmware which is not included in Trisquel. Either try with an Intel on-board GPU or a NVidia GPU.
There is no option to disable the Radeon in BIOS.
Even if there ever will, I cannot do that because I am using the same machine with Windows. I do a lot of graphic intensive application in Windows so removing the Radeon is not an option.
I was hoping to be able to use both Windows and Trisquel in dual-boot without removing the Radeon.
Is this possible or should I forget about Trisquel in this machine?
I guess it is possible if you use Vesa or framebuffer only as Xorg driver but you will lack any 3D functionality.
You might also be more limited with the maximum default resolutions (e.g. 1024x768 max).
Oh yes, you should consider a test installation of Trisquel to a USB stick (if you are out of HDD space) and try to launch Xorg without any xorg.conf
This will most likely use Vesa as default instead of radeon. If things get worse you might need to generate a basic xorg.conf by calling Xorg --configure (or something like this) and configure Vesa by hand.
Without /etc/X11/xorg.conf, X auto-configures itself and this is the default behavior that is raising troubles to stan. To ask for the vesa driver you need to explicitly tell it in /etc/X11/xorg.conf. Something like that:
Section "Device"
Identifier "Configured Video Device"
Driver "vesa"
EndSection
Section "Monitor"
Identifier "Configured Monitor"
EndSection
Section "Screen"
Identifier "Default Screen"
Monitor "Configured Monitor"
Device "Configured Video Device"
EndSection