Aravind Gottipati wrote:
Hi, I am running XFree86 Version 4.2.1.1 on debian unstable. I have tried to run xdm in the past and it has always ended up locking my keyboard and the Xfree86 process ends up taking upto 95% CPU. I had the same problem with gdm too. The mouse works fine, but the keyboard is completely dead. At this point I have to log in remotely and kill the process, the keyboard never recovers and I end up rebooting the box. I have seen some previous posts saying that xdm garbles up the display after the first login and then locks up. But I have never been able to get xdm to work at all. I spoke with some users on #debian (OPN) and there were some others who said they had similar problems with xdm. I do not have any of these problems when I run plain X (using startx). I had some suggestions (from #debian on OPN) that the problem was with my X configuration. I got the exact same results even when I tried running xdm using a config file generated by xf86cfg. I am running xdm with the default config files installed by the package. Could you guys give me pointers to what could be possibly wrong with this? If you need to look at any config files etc.. let me know and I will post them to the list. Do I need to file a bug report about this? or is something wrong with my configuration? Thank you Aravind Gottipati
I have been using the GDM version of XDM on my home LAN (4 computers) for over 2 years now without seeing this sort of problem. During that time I have used XFree86 versions 3.6, 4.0, 4.1, and 4.2 from various distros. I have experimented with pure XDM and KDM along the way, but finally went with GDM because I like it better and it is easier to set up. So, there must be two sides to this story if you are having problems, as you point out. I would "suspect" it is a configuration issue, since some installs work OK (at least one I know about..mine :)
I am talking here about that portion of XDM/GDM/KDM that allows you to display remote computer"s on your screen (multi-user, multi-computer). If you are having problems with just getting XDM /GDM / KDM to run as a Display Manager in a multi-user/single-computer mode, the I would even more strongly suspect a config problem. However, since I am running "testing" here for X, I cannot absolutely rule out a bug in your software....
From the above, the initial possible "differences" I see are the following: 1. I am using a mix of testing/unstable. X is from the "testing' tree.2. I always use "dpkg-reconfigure xserver-xfree86" to set up my X installs instead of xf86cfg (??). 3. My use is not full-time, but somewhat intermittant. Definately not a "production" environment like you would see in a University computer lab for example.
4. Hardware?? (particular video cards, etc.)I would be happy to work with you, either on-list or off-list, by comparing systems and setup proceedures to detect any differences. That might help isolate the "problem" area. I am not a "guru", especially on X, but I do have a "working" system! Even IF it ultimately is a config problem, I believe the XDM/KDM/GDM setup docs are quite confusing and could use some work.
Cheers, -Don Spoon-