Re: Display Manager Problems -- CRY FOR HELP
Andreas Rippl wrote:
On Wed, Feb 16, 2005 at 09:56:30PM -0500, David A. Cobb wrote:
I had everything working - almost. So, naturally, I messed it up.
Ah, you must be a true geek...repair it until it's broken...:)
:-) That's me
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!
That seems to indicate that you touched something else...???
Urm. Yes -- /etc/profile
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.
Do you have any kind of firewall installed?
No (At least, I don't think so).
After once walking away to brew some coffee, I discover that in fact the
progie isn't entirely deaf to the keyboard. I ignored the lack of
feedback and typed my username. [ This was gdm ].
When I came back about 5 minutes later, there was my echoed username.
So I typed a return and went away again. I long wait later, it did come
back with a password prompt. So, again I replied and went to eat
dinner. When I came back, the "Your session lasted less than 10
seconds" message was up. Pretty sad for a session that took 20 MIN to
initiate! Curiously, the check-box for showing my .xsession-errors was
immediately recognized. However, with the errors showing, the
horizontal scroll-bar was not sensitive. [ 30-second lag between click
and action ]. The error was:
/etc/gdm/PreSession/Default: Registering your session with wtmp and utmp
/etc/gdm/PreSession/Default: running: /usr/bin/X11/sessreg -a -w
/var/log/wtmp -u /var/run/utmp -x "/var/lib/gdm/:0.Xservers" -h "" -l
":0" "superbiskit"
/etc/gdm/Xsession: Beginning session setup...
mkdtemp: private socket dir: Permission denied
Xsession: X session started for superbiskit at Thu Feb 17 21:36:26 EST 2005
open: Permission denied
LOOKS LIKE 'X', rather than gdm, is hosed. I'm about to try
re-configuring it. I really, really hope I don't need to tear it out
entirely and re-install it, but maybe that would be for the best!
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!!!
A way to getting your mail (and whatever else) from a root x-session
(not that I am saying you should run X as root!!!):
login: ssh -X user@localhost
and then starting your x-application from the command line
should give you access to your mail
Can anyone help me out of this mess??
Thanks in advance.
--
To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-REQUEST@lists.debian.org
with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact
listmaster@lists.debian.org
Reply to: