Hi,

I would like the esd and xscreensaver daemons (processes ?) to load automatically.

In slack, is there a config file where these are already located, and I just need to uncomment them?

If not, which file do you suggest I put them in, and what syntax, please?

If it matters, I'm running Slack 8.1 and enlightenment as my wm.

I would think a simple command in the /etc/rc.d/rc.local file to call "esd" would be sufficient to start the sound daemon. My system simply starts esd when it is required by the app. But I do not use sound events like system sounds, etc.

For xscreensaver, there is an extensive man page, man xscreensaver, available. You might to review it. It appears that it can be called directly, but not sure what resources are required, like X running or not, that might make it difficult for the rc.local file. It does discuss using it with xdm as a graphical login manager. That is generally at runlevel 4, instead of runlevel 3.

Others here may have more experience with the screensaver that they may be able to add. I just turn my monitor off, I know it is old fashioned but it works.

Please help me. I put the esd line in rc.local, and now I cannot boot my system at all.

I hear esd starting up with its chorus of beeps, and then the boot process simply stops.

I have the timout in lilo set to 0, due to a suggestion at the Simply Linux site, so I can't really put anything in there.

Please, please tell me I don't have to format and reinstall yet again.

This is one of the frustrating things about slackware...all I wanted was to start a sound server, and instead I now cannot boot.

If I have to reinstall again, it would be somewhat frustrating.

right, yeah that was a bit of a mistake, you did not make it fork (it doesn't without being told to with an ending & on the line). ok so firstly change that timeout to something useful (why did you do that??!?! here's an idea, never listen to Simply Linux again ). before that though, afaik you should be able to not process the rc.local file if you do the whole Press I to enter Interactive Mode thing (i presume slack does that too...?) then you should get to something resembling a login. then you should be able to edit the rc.local file. ifnot, just get a boot disk, or rescue disk like tomsrtbt to get in and change the file.

as a matter of fact though, you shouldn't need to tell esd to load, applications set to use it will typically spawn their own private instances on the spot.

as for xscreensaver, add it to /home/you/.xsession, not rc.local as i'm pretty damn sure it actually needs an X server to attach to...

Sorry about that m32, since it was a daemon; I thought it was the only way it would run was a background daemon. Adding the "&" after the command should allow it to fork as Acid stated. I have no idea about the chorus of beeps though.

I would suggest booting the Slackware install CD. Login and use the following command to mount your root file system.

mount /dev/hda1 /mnt

Substitute your root file system partition for the hda1 above. Then you can

cd /mnt/etc/rc.d
vi rc.local

If you are not familiar with vi as an editor then perhaps just "chmod 000 rc.local" instead. That will stop it from executing.

cd /
umount /mnt
and then reboot as normal. You can then edit the rc.local file as desired and also change the permissions back if needed from above.

chmod 755 /etc/rc.d/rc.local

You might want to work with esd stand alone first before actually using it in the rc.local file. Actually I verify everything before I put anything in my boot sequence. It is to easy to run a standalone script for testing just to make sure it performs as I desire. You can also create your own scripts and call them from the rc.local file as desired.

The man page for esd states the -nobeeps option can be used to disable startup beeps. (man esd)

unless you start esd with -nobeeps it plays a set of tones to prove it's working.

Thank both of you for replying.

I'll try your suggestions this morning.

I wasn't upset with the esd beeps--I like those--they tell me its running.

Right now, I'm going to see if I can get the system to boot, then I'll go from there.

Thanks, the above worked, and I'm posting this from the laptop that had the problem.

Thanks again to both of you, and actually, I'm glad I "messed it up," because thanks to your second tip, Excalibur, I now know how to get past bad rc. files. Learning this tip alone was very much worth it. I now feel a bit better about messing around with the rc files.


Further questions, though, if I may.

1. You both note that esd starts up automatically for you. I'm running enlightenment, and when I try to enable audio when esd is not running, I get a basic error telling me that audio can't be enabled. Same thing if I boot into Gnome, or KDE. Except with KDE, I get something about a directory. I don't remember what that was, but since I don't want to boot into anything but e right now, I wasn't worried.

Is there a different setting I should apply, as opposed to enabling the daemon? Its not really an "emergency," but its for things like cute noises when you iconify a tool, or close e, or what not.

2. Acid, the reason those emergency boot disks wouldn't work for me (currently), is that they aren't in iso format...since my linux laptop was down, I only had my windoze pc to post the above messages. See, the laptop only has one slot for both the cd and the floppy. You have to take out the cd player, pop in the floppy, and then go from there.

And if I take out the cd player, and try to mount floppy, nothing happens--at least, in my last distro (mandrake)...I haven't tried it in Slack.

In windows, there was a tool that would "stop" the cd player, and then allow me to take it out without any system errors, and then insert the floppy disk drive. Is there any such tool in linux/slack? Or iis it a matter of unmounting the cdrom, and then mounting the floppy?


Thank you both again.

Oh, and on this as well...I don't have the home/marcus/.xsession directory.

There is a home/marcus/.xsession-errors directory.

Should I make the .xsession directory?

it's a text file, not a directory. the contents is run, if it exsts, everytime X loads.

actually, logging into KDE again gave me a better error message:

/dev/dsp: can't load device (permission denied).

So, searched this forum and did the chmod 666 /dev/dsp, and now things seem to be working fine.

my .xsession text file didn't seem to work, but I'll see if I can figure that one out with the man file.

thanks again for all the help.

Sorry,

Just putting this in here in case anyone is doing searches looking for answers.

For enlightenment users:

edit .enlightenment/...e_session-XXXXXX.snapshots.0

put this at the end:

NEW: XScreensaver.xscreensaver
NAME: XScreensaver
CLASS: xscreensaver
CMD: xscreensaver -no-spash


Thanks to the enlightenment users mailing list for this tip. Hope that helps some other "noobs"