Can't graphically log into system

[eroica]

hello,

i lost power to mandrake 9.1 system and ever since when i boot i have lost the graphical login. I go into a command line where i have to issue startx command. I went into MCC and checked under Display manager and MdkKdm is still choosen. I also went to XFDrake and choose boot to a graphical login but still no good. I was hoping someone could point me in right direction to getting graphical login back. Is there a config file I can manually edit or something else i'm missing?

 

thanx,

alan

[ianw1974]

In /etc/inittab you can check the default runlevel, which is usually "5" to boot gui, or "3" if you want command line.

 

Not sure if you have 3 or 5 in here.....

[eroica]

yeah i believe i'm setup to boot graphical here are the relevant lines from inittab:

id:5:initdefault:

 

# System initialization.

si::sysinit:/etc/rc.d/rc.sysinit

 

i even tried switching to kdm thinking that might rewrite whatever went bad but i still boot to prompt and have to issue startx command which is a real pain

 

alan

[scarecrow]

Maybe your /etc/inittab points to a broken dm?

Somewhere it should include something like

x:5:respawn:/usr/gnome/bin/gdm -nodaemon

(or whenever is the location of your DM of choice).

Get sure that the path mentioned in inittab is valid, and the manager not broken.

It might be just a broken DM theme- what happens if you use XDM?

Edited December 18, 2005 by scarecrow

[eroica]

u know its funny u should mention that. I was googling and found a post that sid last line of inittab should be"x:5:respawn:/usr/bin/X11/xdm -nodaemon" my inittab has no such last line!

now ive switched to kdm in MCC i'm wondering should i switch it back to mdkkdm. the only question then is where is the mdkkdm dm located? and can i reinstall the theme if broken?

[eroica]

yeah that was it. i typed in last line:

id:5:initdefault:

 

# System initialization.

si::sysinit:/etc/rc.d/rc.sysinit

 

l0:0:wait:/etc/rc.d/rc 0

l1:1:wait:/etc/rc.d/rc 1

l2:2:wait:/etc/rc.d/rc 2

l3:3:wait:/etc/rc.d/rc 3

l4:4:wait:/etc/rc.d/rc 4

l5:5:wait:/etc/rc.d/rc 5

l6:6:wait:/etc/rc.d/rc 6

 

# Trap CTRL-ALT-DELETE

ca::ctrlaltdel:/sbin/shutdown -t3 -r now

 

# When our UPS tells us power has failed, assume we have a few minutes

# of power left. Schedule a shutdown for 2 minutes from now.

# This does, of course, assume you have powerd installed and your

# UPS connected and working correctly.

pf::powerfail:/sbin/shutdown -f -h +2 "Power Failure; System Shutting Down"

 

# If power was restored before the shutdown kicked in, cancel it.

pr:12345:powerokwait:/sbin/shutdown -c "Power Restored; Shutdown Cancelled"

 

 

# Run gettys in standard runlevels

1:2345:respawn:/sbin/mingetty tty1

2:2345:respawn:/sbin/mingetty tty2

3:2345:respawn:/sbin/mingetty tty3

4:2345:respawn:/sbin/mingetty tty4

5:2345:respawn:/sbin/mingetty tty5

6:2345:respawn:/sbin/mingetty tty6

 

x:5:respawn:/usr/bin/mdkkdm -nodaemon

 

and now i get graphical login. One thing i still get is console splash screen for a couple seconds b4 ui kicks in. can i move the respawn line up in initab to eliminate console appearing at all. i seem to remember going right from lilo screen to login screen...

 

thanx,

alan