[SOLVED] command line shows up upon boot

theAdmiral · 06-27-2013, 10:00 PM

After requesting to have help to resolve some troubling advice in another forum not related to LinuxQuestions.org, I received some advice along the lines of upgrading Gnome when I was running Squeeze.

The advice read as follows:

Quote:

fully update your squeeze system
change your /etc/apt/sources.list file to
deb http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian/ wheezy main
deb http://security.debian.org/ wheezy/updates main
apt-get update
apt-get dist-upgrade

To make a long story short, I followed the advice and now when I restart my computer, the computer boots into a command line. To get into my window manager I have to provide my login username, password, and the command:

Code:

$ startx

Upon entering this command, my window manager loads effortlessly (although at this time it is loading the wrong mode, i.e.--classic instead of Wheezy default--a problem which I have posted another new thread about).

Anyway, what I want to do is this: upon cold start or restart, display shows the typical login dialog where I press "Enter" with my name highlighted, and enter my password to log in to my desktop/computer/etc. and get some work done.

Can somebody help me fix this problem, please?

Much thanks in advance for your help.

rosehosting.com · 06-27-2013, 11:07 PM

Open your /etc/inittab file and change the line that looks like this:

Quote:

id:3:initdefault:

to

Quote:

id:5:initdefault:

Save the file and restart the machine.

theAdmiral · 06-27-2013, 11:44 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rosehosting.com

Open your /etc/inittab file and change the line that looks like this:

to

Save the file and restart the machine.

Thank you for your suggestion. I tried it and got the same behavior. So I put the "2" back in there where it was originally. If it should definitely be something else, then by all means let me know. Otherwise, I will leave that the way it is. But, if there is some other change you know of, that I should make, please let me know.

Much thanks for your help in advance.

jdkaye · 06-28-2013, 10:16 AM

Is the gdm3 package installed?
jdk

theAdmiral · 06-28-2013, 10:18 AM

I presume the gdm3 package is installed because I can boot into Gnome 3.4.2.1 from the command line.

273 · 06-28-2013, 10:48 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rosehosting.com

Open your /etc/inittab file and change the line that looks like this:

to

Save the file and restart the machine.

For Debian the default runlevel should be 2, not 5, though that makes no difference.

As to the problem in hand -- I'd say

Code:

apt-get install gdm3

ought to solve it. GDM3 isn't required to run gnome it's just the session manager.

theAdmiral · 06-28-2013, 11:00 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by 273

For Debian the default runlevel should be 2, not 5, though that makes no difference.

As to the problem in hand -- I'd say

Code:

apt-get install gdm3

ought to solve it. GDM3 isn't required to run gnome it's just the session manager.

Code:

apt-get install gdm3

This did take care of it! Thanks.

jdkaye · 06-28-2013, 11:27 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by theAdmiral

I presume the gdm3 package is installed because I can boot into Gnome 3.4.2.1 from the command line.

As you can see, it's not good to "presume". It's better to check. For example to check if a package is installed takes 2 seconds. Type this on the command line:

Code:

aptitude search gdm3

This example checks if gdm3 is installed. If it isn't you will see this:

Code:

~$ aptitude search gdm3
p   gdm3                                          - Next generation GNOME Display Manager                  
p   gdm3:i386                                     - Next generation GNOME Display Manager

If it is installed you will see this (I use KDE so my example is kdm).

Code:

~$ aptitude search kdm
i   kdm                                           - KDE Display Manager for X11                            
p   kdm:i386                                      - KDE Display Manager for X11

In this example you notice that kdm is installed (the "i" means "installed"). But the 32bit version is not installed.
Easy, innit.
jdk