Mariano Kamp wrote:
Hi, I installed woody and after booting the machine x hangs the whole machine (at least numlock doesn't work anymore). Is there anyway to interrupt the startup procedure to prevent x from starting?
At the "boot:" prompt, enter something like "linux single" to start the kernel named/symlinked "linux" in single-user mode. Once you're in, you can find the offending session manager (gdm, xdm, kdm, wdm ,etc) and disable it (in various ways - "apt-get remove [?]dm", rename/delete the startup script, rename/delete the symlink to the startup script, "exit 0" as the first executable line in the startup script, use the "update-alternatives" system to disable it, etc).
I am also wondering what the reason for that is? Issuing startx byhand does work.
Probably because startx calls a different window manager than the automatic startup does (or the problem is in your sesssion manager - more likely).
Does anybody know where I do set the window manager (xdm etc?).
"session manager", not "window manager". Assuming you have multiple session managers installed, you can configure which one will be active using the "update-alternatives" tool. Or you can manually edit the scripts in /etc/init.d or the symlinks in /etc/rc2.d (assuming run level 2 is your default runlevel and this is the location from which the session manager is being started).
Kent