Can't boot to kde
I inadvertently cut the power to the room where my PC was
running Debian 4.0. Now when I boot I get as far as the usual
screen with: the debian logo and the date & time in the bottom
right corner; the "Session Type" and "Menu" tabs at the bottom left
corner and the "Welcome to redcube" window in the middle with space
for my user name ("robin") and password. Now, however, when I press
enter after choosing a desktop (kde or gnome) from the "Session Type"
tab the screen goes black for a few seconds and then returns to its
previous state: i.e. kde (or gnome) won't start.
However, if I choose
"Console Login'" from the Menu tab login, as euther root or robin, succeeds. Use of ls -a suggests that my HD is ok. Under either robin or root, if
I don't enter any thing for several minutes line after line of the form "DROPPED IN=eth0
OUT=MAC=ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff: (A lot more stuff follows which I haven't
included)" appear.
If I log in as root and run startx the gnome desktop opens. But if I log in as robin and run startx neither kde nor gnome opens but I get a message which looks like it might be part of /var/log/Xorg.0.log.
Here are some things I have tried that didn't help:
logging with TWN, Twn or Failsafe
aptitude reinstall kdm
dpkg -reconfigure kdm
aptitude reinstall kdebase
aptitude remove kdebase, then aptitude install kdebase
creating a new user and attempting to start kde
I have checked /var/log/Xorg.0.log and xsession-errors but couldn't find anything that looked important.
Many kind people from the Calgary Linux Users Group have given me suggestions but so far the problem persists. I would appreciate any help you could give me.
Robin Carter
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