Re: xdm

[servis@purdue.edu]

*- Michael Stenner wrote about "Re: xdm"
> New xdm question:
> 
> My box is set up to start xdm automatically.  Can I start linux without
> xdm starting?  I would even settle for having it run but not on the
> screen.
> 
> Reason I care:
> 
> I had a video card go bad and I wasn't sure that my new video card could
> handle what xdm was going to automatically send it when my computer came
> up.  I'm pretty sure that using a root disk and then mounting / to edit
> stuff (that was already mentioned on this thread) would work, but it
> surprises me that there isn't a more elegant solution.
> 
> 					-Michael
> 

A few options:

1) Use your rescue disk to boot and then mount the partion that has
/etc on it under /mnt and edit /mnt/etc/X11/config and change the
xdm-start to no-xdm-start. Reboot.

2) Use lilo or loadlin(whatever boot method you used) to boot single
user and edit /etc/X11/config as in 1 and then hit ctrl-D to exit
single user and finish the startup as usual.

3) Let it go and if it starts but is totally screwed just hit
ctrl-alt-f1 to get to the first virtual terminal and login as root and
then issue '/etc/init.d/xdm stop'.  But if the xserver fails for
whatever reason you will get stuck in an infinite loop.  Xdm is
supposed to trap this and die after a few times but does not and has
many bug reports filled against it. #5635, #15897, #15898, #22544,
#23139, #22406, #27967. But if it does this you only choice is to hit
the reset and pray.


-- 
Brian 
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Mechanical Engineering                                bservis@usa.net
Purdue University                   http://www.ecn.purdue.edu/~servis
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