Mark Phillips said:
> Austin,
>
> Thanks for your fast response!
>
> Yes, startx does not work. I start it, the screen goes black, then the
> cross-hatch pattern appears then the screen goes back to the terminal
> mode with a message saying the X server was stopped.
>
> I don't know if I use kdm. I am using KDE, and that was working before I
> did apt-get upgrade.

Depending on the version change likely your XF86Config-4 file was
overwritten.  Do you have a known good copy of an XF86Config-4 file?  If
not, word of warning, ALWAYS back up a good copy before upgrading X.  You
can do an apt-get -u upgrade and it will show what WILL be upgraded so
that you can stop and backup files and such. :)  Postgres is another one
that you should pg_dumpall before upgrading *just in case*.

Since you use KDE, first thing I would do is check if an .ICEAuthority
file exists in your home directory.  If it does.  Delete it.  Then try to
startx again.  If it does not, then I would look in /etc/X11/ and see if a
backup version of XF86Config-4 exists (or dpkg-reconfigure xserver-xfree86
or whatever server you are using) to confirm your settings are correct.

-Derek