I was gonna start on some programming homework, and since its lots simpler just to boot Linux and work in SciTE, that''s what I tried to do. So everything boots normally, it goes to start X, that nice nVidia logo showed up, and that was it. It never went any further. It flashed back and forth to the console, and finally let me know something was wrong. According to the logs it was unable to load the font ''fixed.'' WTF? Just all of a sudden it''s unable to load some kind of font?! I''m noticing a pattern here. Linux seems to have problems with just RANDOMLY screwing up. MAYBE I pushed the wrong button the last time I was root, but I can''t remember doing ANYTHING the last time I was root that would have even given me the oportunity to cause this. Several times I''ve booted Linux before and there was some kind of crazy error that didn''t used to be there. And I''ve noticed other people having the same problems. So, first off, how do I fix this, and second, what''s the deal? Is it a problem with Mandrake? Linux? *nix? Cause it''s really begining to make me upset. Maybe I did do something, but I don''t think so. But I''m tired of people telling me how infallible Linux is and if theres a problem it MUST be my fault. Just like that time Linux froze and I had to reboot and when I reboot the Linux partition was scrambled. People told me that was impossible, and that I should just run this diagnstic command (fsck or something like that) but it didn''t work. "No, that''s impossible. Do it again." I think it says something that I haven''t reformatted or reinstalled Windows 98 on this machine since I put the new hard drive in it two years ago and it still basically works, but I''ve had to reinstall Linux due to some kind of problem I couldn''t fix many many times. Sure, sometimes the problems were obviously my fault, but sometimes it just craps out on me, like this time.

i assume you use mandrake
i assume mandrake uses a font server

a) your font server may be screwed up (do a ps aux, see if its running)
b) your font paths may be screwed up (see if something like unix://7701 is in your font path in XF86Config. also check you font server config to make sure its serching the right directories (and also doesn''t alias ''fixed'' to something that doesn''t exist.))
c) your font dir is screwed up (use mkfontdir)
d) your ''fixed'' font is screwed up (reinstall fonts package)

SOOoo...

Have you been messing with true type font things lately?

and, its always your fault. trust me. I''ve never had a problem that wasn''t caused by something i did. even on windows, except that those problems are often impossible to fix, or understand WHY what I did caused that problem...

Ok, that's impossible. lol

Maybe you removed a package, and this package removed some fonts package (a dependency case)?

In that case you'd just need to reinstall the fonts package... urpmi is your friend.

But who needs X anyway? Just kidding...

Victor.

EDIT: typo...

[edited by - -vic- on June 22, 2003 6:57:00 PM]

Grrrrr! I fixed it. You know what it was? My Linux partition was FULL. Apparently all hell breaks loose when the disk is full. I think I like Windows'' approach better (they use, I think, the equation c = (1/f)^2, where "c" is the chances of a feeze and "f" is the amount of free space you have). That way you know way ahead of time when it''s getting full instead of it suprising you like that.

Heh,

You do realize that when you make a filesystem that you can set what is typically called ''minfree''? Basically, this is a percentage of blocks that will be reserved for only the root user -- i.e. 10% minfree will allocate 10% of the partition size to being only writeable by root and it will appear to be full at 90% of the actual size to normal users and reporting tools. It''s a good idea to set this percentage on partitions critical to the system ( i.e. not your pr0n partition ).

Typically, most filesystems set a default for this percentage.. but if you''re happily writing away as root and you never bother to look at your disk space you''re going to get a rude awakening anyway.


Good day,

.zfod

quote: Original post by zfod
...partitions critical to the system ( i.e. not your pr0n partition )

o_O Since when is pr0n not critical?

quote: Original post by Doc
o_O Since when is pr0n not critical?

Well, no need for minfree on your pr0n volumes. However, maybe a little RAID 5 or RAID 1+0/0+1 and hourly snapshots to your geographically diverse disaster recovery pr0n array along with electronic vaulting for archival purposes.


.zfod

The beauty of linux/unix is that you can setup syslog, your own scripts, or use some other 3rd party script/program to warn you of impending disk space issues, and you can customize your own special tests for just about anything, cpu usage, file size, or future nose picking dates.

I don''t know about Mandrake, but if it''s like most other distro''s, you''ve likely got some email with reports about system status in root''s mail spool (usually /var/mail/root)...

-- Aaron

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