trying to get an autologin on slack 14 xfce

diptenkrom · 10-07-2012, 12:14 PM

i am setting up a netbook with slackware for learning reasons. i have chanegd the appearance to my liking and have altered lilo to boot in 5 secs rather than 2 mins, which seemed like an extreme. i have gotten xfce to autoboot, instead of having to issue the 'startx' command. now i am having difficulty getting an autologin.

as i don't use the machine for anything important, and do not care if someone gains access to it, spare the it is not advisable comments please. i did not install KDE or Gnome, so those files that you could edit for autologin are not there. it is straight xfce4. any help would be appreciated.

i have searched to no avail. plenty of info for xfce on other distros and for kde on slack, but no real answers for slack with xfce4.

piratesmack · 10-07-2012, 02:55 PM

One way you can do it is to install lxdm from SlackBuilds.org, open /etc/lxdm/lxdm.conf in a text editor, and edit it like this

Code:

## uncomment and set autologin username to enable autologin
autologin=your_username

## default session or desktop used when no systemwide config
session=/usr/bin/startxfce4

You can use a different display manager like Slim if you want, but the config file will probably look slightly different.

lkraemer · 10-07-2012, 05:20 PM

dipkentrom,
I'm also new to Slackware with XFCE Desktop, and I would appreciate it if you share what you have done so far to change the Lilo bootup time, and how to get startx running on boot. I've read it somewhere in my searches, but I didn't bookmark it, and now my Senior Moment's are keeping me from finding it again. (If I don't make detailed notes, and documents on what I do, I can't repeat the process. Problem is I have one heck if a time finding those documents.)

Any info you share is greatly appreciated.

THANKS.

Larry

the3dfxdude · 10-07-2012, 06:22 PM

Couldn't you put something like this at the end of rc.local?

su -l $username startx &

The best part of that is you can use runlevel 3 and not have to configure xdm/kdm/lxdm/slim. You'll still get all your ttys too.

The worst part is you might want to prevent the logouts if you want to do it that way.

mrascii · 10-07-2012, 07:49 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by lkraemer

dipkentrom,
I'm also new to Slackware with XFCE Desktop, and I would appreciate it if you share what you have done so far to change the Lilo bootup time, and how to get startx running on boot. I've read it somewhere in my searches, but I didn't bookmark it, and now my Senior Moment's are keeping me from finding it again. (If I don't make detailed notes, and documents on what I do, I can't repeat the process. Problem is I have one heck if a time finding those documents.)

Any info you share is greatly appreciated.

THANKS.

Larry

Welcome to Slackware! Rather than "hijack" this thread you should have started a new thread in the forum.

What you are looking to change is the timeout line in /etc/lilo.conf. Here it is set for 5 seconds. You will need to edit this file as root and then run lilo for the change to take effect.

Code:

# Append any additional kernel parameters:
append=" vt.default_utf8=0"
prompt
timeout = 50
# Normal VGA console

To boot into the graphical environment change this line in /etc/inittab. Replace 3 with 4.

Code:

# Default runlevel. (Do not set to 0 or 6)
id:3:initdefault:

You can edit these files from the command line using nano. The nano menu is at the bottom of the screen and the ^ means to press the Ctrl key and then the letter to preform that action. So, ^o writes out or saves the file and ^x exits the program.

Backing up any configuration file before editing is a good idea.

Code:

cp -a /etc/inittab ~/inittab-$(date +%Y%b%d)

The diff command will confirm that you have no unwanted edits and that you only changed the lines you intended to change.

Code:

diff /etc/inittab ~/inittab-2012OCT07
< id:4:initdefault:
---
> id:3:initdefault:

DNA
AKA mrascii

mrascii · 10-07-2012, 08:05 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by diptenkrom

i am setting up a netbook with slackware for learning reasons. i have changed the appearance to my liking and have altered lilo to boot in 5 secs rather than 2 mins, which seemed like an extreme. i have gotten xfce to autoboot, instead of having to issue the 'startx' command. now i am having difficulty getting an autologin.

Passwords are stored in the /etc/shadow file. You should use vipw -s to edit the file and remove the password string. The password is the encrypted string following your user name and starts with a $. Be sure not to remove the colons that bracket the password. vipw uses vi by default so it's not very intuitive.

Root can assign a new blank password. So, this may be much easier than editing /etc/shadow.

Code:

root@none:~# passwd dna
Changing password for dna
Enter the new password (minimum of 5 characters)
Please use a combination of upper and lower case letters and numbers.
New password: 
Bad password: too short.  
Warning: weak password (enter it again to use it anyway).
New password: 
Re-enter new password: 
passwd: password changed.

DNA
AKA mrascii

T3slider · 10-07-2012, 08:16 PM

Setting a blank password doesn't (or if it does, shouldn't) autologin, and it makes things like ssh potentially dangerous unless you deny that user access (though I believe PermitEmptyPasswords defaults to 'no', which would eliminate the security threat but prevent user login). The best way to do this is through the display manager while maintaining a real password.

mrclisdue · 10-08-2012, 03:53 AM

I setup autologin in (what-has-become) a few simple steps garnered from posts 2 & 5 in this thread:

http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...ut-gui-374338/

except that one needs to no longer edit login.defs (as of 12.0, iirc).

cheers,

diptenkrom · 10-08-2012, 05:29 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by lkraemer

dipkentrom,
I'm also new to Slackware with XFCE Desktop, and I would appreciate it if you share what you have done so far to change the Lilo bootup time, and how to get startx running on boot. I've read it somewhere in my searches, but I didn't bookmark it, and now my Senior Moment's are keeping me from finding it again. (If I don't make detailed notes, and documents on what I do, I can't repeat the process. Problem is I have one heck if a time finding those documents.)

Any info you share is greatly appreciated.

THANKS.

Larry

all of what mrascii said is correct. the only thing i would add is to "run" lilo the command is "/sbin/lilo" (as root) this reloads the .conf file to lilo so it will take the settings. it you edit the file and do not do that command, it won't take effect.

as for not being able to find things again or your notes, a suggestion I have is to email yourself links to what might be important. set up another email, or use one that you don't use much to send the links to so they don't get lost in the mess of other emails you might have... that is how I repeat the process myself. most email clients or webmail access sites will allow you to set up various folders so that you can organize the messages. so use that to your advantage, and then you don't have to keep up with actual papers...