I did a little research on Xorg error 104 and a little more
experimentation on this computer system and have come to the conclusion
that error 104 properly translates to something like: "your hardware won't
work with our interface and we have no clue why it won't work either".
The research on bugzilla suggested it had something to do with a mouse
being plugged into the computer. Okay no problem I'm totally blind but
don't have a problem with walking so I remove the mouse from the computer.
The error still happens whether the mouse is plugged into the computer or
not. Also, the setup program for x configuration runs into that same
error. Now here's where this whole situation gets real curious. This is
not preventing me from typing telinit 5 at the command prompt and when I
do that I get to the short beep and manage to log into X and then
gnopernicus comes up talking. Unfortunately root is all that can run
telinit 5 so I have ethernet cable disconnected if I go into X that way.
I do know the minimum memory requirement for X is 192M and I have only
128M on this very old and out of warranty Dell now. In the interests of
furthering Science next week I will get a memory upgrade on this machine
and try all of this again. If the situation goes away, a better message
for error 104 is insufficient memory. It will be the end of next week
when I next write on this list about this topic because by then I'll have
a little more information. By the way, the mouse I had plugged in was a
microsoft intellimouse.
