FC4 does not work, "out of the box" for me; GUI/X11 fails

[Daniel B. Thurman]

Sigh...  well, I was knocked out two days trying
to figure out how to get FC4 installed... and after
many stupid trials and errors I finally "got it" but
not after trying all the *wrong way* to solve the issue
but hey - I learned alot but lost two frigging days and
long hours....

If your GUI install fails, then simply try the 'linux text'
installation pathway. Ok, simple enuf...

Now, the next trick is... when you reboot, and if you find
that grub fails (in a mysterious state, as I did), then you
can put your Fedora rescue disc in and reboot.

When Fedora rescue comes up, just hit the return key and
continue through to the end where the last thing you do
is to 'chroot /mnt/sysimage'

Where is where I got screwed: DO NOT ATTEMPT TO SETUP YOUR
INTERNET CONNECTION AND CONTINUE ON THINKING THAT YOU CAN
DO A YUM UPDATE!!!!  IT WILL NOT WORK AND YOU CANNOT UNDO
THE DAMAGE!!!!  Sorry - caps button was on for emphasis.

ok, now edit: /etc/inittab and change your default boot level
from '5' to '3' and save the file.  Then remove your CD and then
type in 'exit' twice to do a reboot.

What will happen is that your system will boot in level 3 and
grub comes up, you can continue on without editing and adding
your boot level (I just did not know how to do it and on WHAT
line to add the boot level.)

Once the system prompts for your login, enter 'root' and the
password and then once in, you can do:

yum update xorg-x11

and it will properly be installed.  Then once installed, edit
the /etc/inittab and revert the change from '3' back to '5',
save it, and reboot.

Now, you are on your way.  The big slammer of course is that
when you do the REST of the yu, update, you have 899MB of
updates to download and install.  It will take the rest of
your day (and night perhaps) to install it all.

Note: Some people advocate that you install 'everything' and
it was fine from FC1 to FC3 but unfortunately, with FC4 there
are dependency issues with cman, GFS, dls(?) and gnbd and you
may want to remove these from your installation first before
yum updating.  More time.

So - my experience with FC4 was horrible. Worst installation job
I have experienced over one stupid little (major) release.  However,
I have installed FC4 and now I am installing and confiring the my
system which will take me another day.

Note: what the frick....  why is SENDMAIL telling me that
postmaster at mydomain.com missing!?!?!?  Sheesh, will wonders
never cease...

Dan

-- 
No virus found in this outgoing message.
Checked by AVG Free Edition.
Version: 7.1.361 / Virus Database: 267.12.5/149 - Release Date: 10/25/2005