heywood on 8/8/2017 at 15:06
I think most people in your situation install to and boot from a USB thumb drive. You can buy 8GB USB drives for under $10.
voodoo47 on 8/8/2017 at 15:38
yeah, but what I'm trying to do here is to get an os working without doing that.
heywood on 8/8/2017 at 16:27
Why, is your machine unable to boot from USB? Or is this some sort of self-imposed challenge?
voodoo47 on 8/8/2017 at 18:50
sort of. anyway, I think I know what's going on with the panels not being visible and most stuff doing nothing - pretty sure the os is being dumb and is displaying everything on another invisible desktop/nonexistent monitor. fun.
Zerker on 8/8/2017 at 22:46
That's weird. Usually when you start Xfce for the first time, it should ask you whether you want one blank panel or the default layout. The default layout is usually the choice to pick there :)
If nothing else, you should still be able to right click on the desktop and open a terminal or something. There should also be an emergency "Applications" menu in the right click options that you can launch anything from there.
Even with the multi-desktops, that only affects your open applications, not the panels themselves. The X server should never try to use a monitor that isn't connected either...
If you don't get a right click menu EITHER, you can try using ssh (e.g. via (
https://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/putty/) PuTTY) to connect while you're logged in (or just use Ctrl + Alt + F1 for a text display) and run
ps -A | grep xf to ensure the applications are actually running. You should see xfce4-session, xfce4-panel, xfwm4 and xfdesktop. If using Ctrl + Alt to switch, it's usually Ctrl + Alt + F7 to get back to the graphical display.
Also double check you didn't end up running out of space with df -h, that can cause some really weird stuff to happen.
Nameless Voice on 8/8/2017 at 23:30
I'm reminded of a time when I tried to install a Linux desktop on one of the servers at work. It refused to output the desktop to the VGA port at the front of the server, and it took me ages to figure out that it would only output to the other VGA port on the back of the machine.
Never did find a way to fix that, I just had to fight with cables to get one to reach the back of that rack.
voodoo47 on 9/8/2017 at 08:17
the machine does have a secondary output (DP), so there is a chance the os is being confused by that. no option to disable it in BIOS, unfortunately.
the right click menu works, but can't do much as most of the stuff I open from there will (I think) display on the inviso-desktop (which is located in the upper left part of the screen, I can "feel" it with my mouse there). I'm currently trying to download a pre-compiled xubuntu-16.04-core iso, which is only 553MB so there is a very good chance it will fit the drive (the guy who puts the core isos together only keeps the latest version available for download, and 17.04-core is too large, and also has that inviso-desktop problem (ran it in live cd mode). the 16.04-core iso is not available as a direct download anywhere, but its torrent seem to be live, so I'm trying that, hopefully the one guy who is still seeding will keep doing so for a few more hours).
regular xubuntu 10.04 is small enough to fit, but is a bit too outdated to be usable - Firefox is old and flash plugin is not installing, and I'm not aware of any way of getting them up to date (so gmail and youtube would work properly - that's basically what I need to get running).
there is (
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Installation/MinimalCD) an official way how to install 16.04 core without the pre-compiled iso, but no luck with that so far - it simply won't offer the choice screen in the end (I'm stuck in the console without a root password instead). //aha - some progress, looks like I wasn't using the correct minicd. trying to install lubuntu minimal now (LXDE is supposed to be smaller than Xfce), as long as it fits the drive, we'll have a victory. //nope, won't complete, probably not enough space. will try to finish downloading that pre-compiled iso. //nope, just a tiny bit too large to fit.
Zerker on 9/8/2017 at 21:16
Okay, before you wipe the machine, try to open the 'Settings Manager', then immediately press Alt + Space, then M. The window will now snap to your mouse and you should be able to move it onto the visible display.
Then switch to the Display control panel screen and disable the phantom display.
...or if you already have (sounds like it), try again if you reinstall.
If somehow you have trouble getting the Display option from the settings manager open, but can get a terminal open (needs to still be in X11 mind you), you can use the xrandr to query your displays and/or disable them. For example, the output on my machine is:
Code:
$ xrandr
Screen 0: minimum 8 x 8, current 4160 x 1600, maximum 16384 x 16384
DVI-I-0 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)
DVI-I-1 connected primary 2560x1600+1600+0 (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 646mm x 406mm
2560x1600 59.86*+
1280x800 59.91
HDMI-0 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)
DP-0 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)
DP-1 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)
DVI-D-0 connected 1600x1200+0+0 (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 367mm x 275mm
1600x1200 60.00*+
1280x1024 75.02 60.02
1152x864 75.00
1024x768 75.03 60.00
800x600 75.00 60.32
640x480 75.00 59.94
So, I'm assuming your displayport is called 'DP-0'. This command should disable it:
Code:
xrandr --output DP-0 --off
If nothing else, you can try opening a terminal then typing it blind :)
voodoo47 on 10/8/2017 at 06:33
ok, progress - the alt+space M trick allowed me to get rid of the phantom desktop (which was indeed there), so I can actually do stuff. audio works now (was just muted), and also managed to enable the panel, so as long as youtube can be made to work without lagging horribly (flash not installed?), the Debian install is ready to go.
any tips on how to install flash? apt install is complaining about no availability, and I can't find any place where I could manage sw sources. or maybe get rid of firefox and install chromium? //lets try that. //yeah, that was a mistake, this install is toast, can't login anymore. will start from scratch - would it be ok to omit ssh server this time? each bit of saved space is good (but system utilities are better kept installed, I reckon).
Al_B on 10/8/2017 at 09:11
ssh server should only be important if you want to remotely log in over the network (or use sftp). Can be useful in an emergency situation (e.g. if the display breaks down) but may not be important for your use. It shouldn't take up too much space if you decide to leave it.