RE: Debian (Woody) Problem With startx
Thanks to everyone for all their help. What fixed it in the end was:
"update-alternatives --config x-session-manager"
and choosing GNOME. Great, thanks one and all.
-----Original Message-----
From: Kent West [mailto:westk@acu.edu]
Sent: 17 March 2004 22:50
To: debian-user@lists.debian.org
Subject: Re: Debian (Woody) Problem With startx
Roland Dunn wrote:
>Hi,
>
>I've just installed DEBIAN (Woody) on my machine. When I run startx to
>launch X, it seems to launch X, I see the cross mouse cursor, (I can
move
>the mouse cursor) the KDE screen pops up, goes through the first couple
of
>icons on the startup screen (looks like a nucleus and electrons type
icon,
>then a cog icon), then flashes the keyboard/mouse icon, then goes back
to
>standard console screen.
>
>
>
What I would do, just for testing purposes, is to try a different window
manager (than the desktop environment KDE). You can do this by creating
a file in your home directory named ".xinitrc" and put a single line in
it with the name of a different wm, such as "icewm" or "fluxbox" (make
sure to "apt-get install icewm fluxbox" first). Then run "startx". If
that gets you a GUI, then you know the problem is KDE-related rather
than X-related.
<snip>
>But this didn't work either. Things seem to point to the fact that it
fails
>on the mouse/keyboard, but the error log isn't particularly helpful
really.
>
>Any ideas anyone? What is particularly strange is that if I run XFree86
>instead of startx, I get the standard X screen (not KDE), and I can
control
>the mouse fine. So perhaps it isn't the mouse that is the problem.
>
>
>
Which indicates pretty much the same thing as my suggested test above.
Still, I'd try my suggestion, so that you can add "startx" to the
equation.
>The other thing that's a bit wierd is that I was sure during install I
chose
>gdm to be my default window manager - where is this set? Where is X
told
>which manager to use?
>
>
>
If you haven't rebooted or run "/etc/init.d/gdm start" since installing
gdm, it won't be running.
BTW, "gdm" is a "session manager", or "login manager", rather than a
"window manager". The "window manager" would be what puts the frames and
corner buttons, etc around the various windows that show up on your GUI,
and would be such things as icewm, fluxbox, twm, sawmill/fish, and xfce.
KDE and Gnome are "Desktop Environments", which are more than window
managers, but which typically include (or work with) a window manager.
You can configure which session manager to run with "dpkg-reconfigure
gdm" or "dpkg-reconfigure xdm", etc, depending on which wm's you have
installed. Or you can play with the symlink at
/etc/alternatives/x-session-manager, but it'd probably be better to run
"update-alternatives --config x-session-manager".
To configure the default wm, you can play with the symlink at
/etc/alternatives/x-window-manager, but if you do that, it'd probably be
better to run "update-alternatives --config x-window-manager"
>So, any ideas as to either how to fix this or where to look would be
*very
>very* welcome.
>Thanks, Roland.
>
>
>
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