mirrorshades Posted January 26, 2004 Report Share Posted January 26, 2004 I'm new-ish to the forums here (been lurking for about a month or so), but I figured I'd post my first problem to see if the great minds can help out. Here's the setup: - IBM thinkpad 380ed laptop - Pentium 166mhz, 80 megs ram - Mandrake 9.1, 2.4.x kernel (whatever the default with 9.1 is) - X version 3.3.6 (...I believe, not the 4.x version) Here's the problem: During the install, I configured the system to start in runlevel 5. GDM comes up properly, and I can sign in using either root or a user account I set up for myself. However, the laptop takes a long time to start up when the gdm is invoked; I modified /etc/inittab to start in runlevel 3, figuring I could just 'startx' if I wanted to (using GNOME in case it makes a difference). When I sign in as root, typing 'startx' begins X normally. However, when I sign in as my user account, it gets as far as a blue background and the "watch" mouse pointer, then just sits there (the hard disk eventually stops). It's not frozen -- <Ctl><Alt><Bksp> will terminate it normally. Based on the last few lines of output from 'startx' on the console screen, nothing immediately jumps out at me as causing an error message. I'm fairly comfortable with a linux command line, but troubleshooting X is a strange and intimidating beast for me. I seem to recall having a problem similar to this before that was corrected by modifying permissions on a file in my home directory. Not sure if this is the same, though. Anyone have any ideas that might get me going in the right direction? I'm sure there may be output/log files that may provide more useful info -- but as I mentioned, I'm not as familiar with X as I'd like to be. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest BooYah Posted January 26, 2004 Report Share Posted January 26, 2004 I'm fairly comfortable with a linux command line, but troubleshooting X is a strange and intimidating beast for me. Likewise, maybe take a look at /var/log/Xfree86.0.log or something like it; ~/.xession-errors; and check what's in your ~/.xinitrc as well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chris z Posted January 27, 2004 Report Share Posted January 27, 2004 what exactly did you edit in /etc/inittab? are you sure you didn't accidentally edit anything else besides the run level? the problem you are describing (starting to login, blue background screen, then frozen mouse pointer) usually means something is wrong with video settings. (incompatable or wrong video driver, monitor refresh rate, screen resolution, etc). check into what BooYah said & post your inittab & the log files BooYah mentioned for better trouble shooting, please. Chris Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mirrorshades Posted January 27, 2004 Author Report Share Posted January 27, 2004 Mouse pointer moves normally -- it's just stuck as the little watch. I only made the one change to /etc/inittab -- I commented out the original line and retyped it below, changing the 5 to a 3. Note that the problem also happens if I start in runlevel 5 and then issue an 'init 3' at the console, then log in as user and type 'startx'. Also don't think it's a video issue since: 1) no problems in runlevel 5; and 2) if I log into runlevel 3 as root and do a 'startx', X starts up normally -- so it seems to be something related to the user account in particular. (Though as I mentioned, I'm not an X guru by any stretch, so it may very well be.) I will post copies of the requested files later today. Thanks for the help so far. Just remembered: there doesn't seem to be a /var/log/X[anything] on the system (though the .xsession-errors did seem to have some stuff in it). Anywhere else I could look for system-level X logging? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gowator Posted January 27, 2004 Report Share Posted January 27, 2004 I reckon you might be starting a different window manager as root or perhaps don't have one for the user??? Why not try and start at RL 3 and login as user then try starticewm or similar....?? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aRTee Posted January 27, 2004 Report Share Posted January 27, 2004 Try the following, instead of startx: X & (this starts only X, no wm, no de, ... use ctrl-alt-F1 to go back to your console) export DISPLAY=:0 (this sets the variable DISPLAY to the first display; counting starts at 0 in the digital age.. in any case, this makes it 'known' to any apps that they should connect to the X/graphical server ":0" to give their graphical output) startkde & (to start kde; you could do "gnome-session" if you prefer gnome, or "icewm" or .... -- use ctrl-alt-F7 to go to your graphical session) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gowator Posted January 27, 2004 Report Share Posted January 27, 2004 Looking at the RAM I would probably try something like icewm first.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mirrorshades Posted January 27, 2004 Author Report Share Posted January 27, 2004 Thanks for the continued suggestions -- will try them all out tonight. Looking at the RAM I would probably try something like icewm first.... I had actually started with IceWM, but GNOME seems to perform "just about" as well. Good enough for me anyway. :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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