Display Manager Problems -- CRY FOR HELP
I had everything working - almost. So, naturally, I messed it up.
I was seeing results that looked as though my login scripts --
specifically /etc/profile -- were not being executed. As it turned
out, that wasn't the problem.
However, before I found the real problem, I went and touched the
/etc/gdm/PreSession/Default script. Thereafter, nothing seems to make
gdm work. I purged it, made sure /etc/gdm was gone, re-installed it ---
failure! I re-installed EVERYTHING gnome-xxx plus gdm, gdm-themes ---
failure!
The failure is of a very wierd type. I boot to "starting gdm."
The display driver puts up the nVIdia splash, then clears to grey; it
paints the background of the login dialog -- a light grey box with a
white spot where the "username" input will be. Then there is a
painfully long delay. While I'm waiting, I can move the mouse cursor
around, and it changes when it passes over the input-box-to-be.
After maybe as much as five MINUTES delay, the dialog foreground gets
painted. However, it does not accept input either from the keyboard or
from clicking mouse buttons.
In a state of desperation, I swiched my default-display-manager to
xdm. Now I have a new set of problems: xdm will not validate any
"normal" username. I really do know my password, but it gives me
Login Invalid. Just to make sure, I had my wife try it and she could
not log in either. However, it does let me in as "root" -- proving
something, I'm not sure what. At least it proves that both keyboard and
mouse are functioning, even if gdm doesn't want to listen to them.
That leaves me with all the reasons it is a bad thing to log into X as
root. Especially, I can't run X applications successfully under other
usernames. That has made a real mess of my email archive!!!
Can anyone help me out of this mess??
Thanks in advance.
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