Archive for May, 2011
Backtrack 5 is out! Do you get a kernel panic when you startx? The FIX is here!
by Bill on May.18, 2011, under Hardware, Security, Tutorials, Whining
So, being someone who used Backtrack daily for my career, I routinely make sure I’m current with Backtrack. So Backtrack 5 is out, I went and grabbed x64 KDE version, backedup up my PSKL directory on BT4R2, and blew it away…
First thing, startx didn’t load from the DVD until I removed some cache files…
rm /root/.kde/cache-root/icon-cache.kcache
rm /root/.kde/cache-root/plasma_theme_Volatile.kcache
rm /root/.kde/cache-bt/icon-cache.kcache
rm /root/.kde/cache-bt/plasma_theme_Volatile.kcache
So finally startx loaded and I was able to use the graphical installer to install it to my hard drive on my laptop.
When I rebooted, I did startx, and got a kernel panic (blinking caps lock light). So I’m like, “M’kay, x64 kde is borked…” so I grabbed x64 gnome, repeat process, same things, x32 gnome, repeat process, same thing. ok, it’s NOT borked, I’m just not doing it right.
so I searched and searched, found nothing immediately useful. (I could bore the heck out of anyone with some of the searches I did to get at this one…)
Finally, I found this kernel parameter: i915.modeset=1
they should rename that to “setbrokentofixed=1”
So, put that at the end of your GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT in your /etc/default/grub and update-grub!
Boom, I appended that and now startx works and I can enjoy the BT5 goodness… Now I just gotta configure my metasploit account on there and put my pskl directory back with all out awesome scripts.
Enjoy BackTrack 5!
Update (June 15th 2011): Talking with a few others, including the great comments here, you might need this like in your /etc/default/grub
Alternative line from Daveonator:
GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT=”text splash vga=791 i915.modeset=1″
then update-grub.
Try it, and let us know.
