Re: I screwed up gdm3, can't recover - need help with systemctl - more details

[songbird <songbird@anthive.com>]

Thomas H. George wrote:
...
> Following previous suggestions installed both xdm and kdm.  If
> default-display-manager is set to xdm when xdm is started I get the
> Debian login window and can only login as root. The login is successful
> to the gnome desktop. Tried to switch users but could not. Exited.

  ok, so root works under xdm.


> If the default-display-manager is set to kdm when kdm is started I get
> the kdm login window. If I try to login with my user name my password
> is not recognized. If I try to login as root the login is not allowed.

  yes, most systems do not allow a direct login as root
when set up initially.  i don't recommend working around
this either as it is a good idea to have only authenticated
users changing to root after they sign in.


> If the default-display-manager is set to gdm3 I get the message
> gdm.service failed and the journal output as in the previous posting.

  if the gdm3 is not starting because your hardware is
not good enough then that could be the overall problem.
that xdm works says you have a functioning system of
some kind.

  since you're trying things out...  for a system that looks 
like previous Gnome give MATE a try as it will not need so 
much hardware support.

  another method to try is to boot as sysvinit (in the
grub menu under the default boot there should be a line
for this), but i think this is a hardware issue since 
xdm can run and so i think you'll not get gdm3 going
there either, but you may get a more informative error
message and perhaps something in the X session logs.


  songbird