Editing inittab & rc.4 works, but starts Gnome, not KDE
 

Hello,

Whee, I'm a Slackware newbie! I was a bit surprised that SW 10 passed my "newbie test": installed without a hitch and I got into a GUI (KDE) at a reasonable resolution, set up my dialup, and got online. This is my first post here.

If I edit /etc/inittab (change runlevel to 4) and comment out the Gnome lines in /etc/rc.d/rc.4, I boot directly into...Gnome! The only way I have been able to get into KDE is to reset to runlevel 3 and run "startx". Is there some other script or process taking over, or what?

Thanks,

John

Re: Editing inittab & rc.4 works, but starts Gnome, not KDE
 

If you are booting into runlevel 4 you should be seeing either GDM, KDM, or XDM which with give you a way to log into accounts AND choose which environment you wish to be in. I commented out the GDM lines in rc.4, so my system boots to KDM on bootup. You can log into KDE as root and go to the Control Center and change KDM settings if you wish to log into a specific user on bootup.

I hope this helps!

xwmconfig and choose your favorite one and startx after.

Thanks for the replies. I already commented out the Gnome stuff in rc.4, and set up users on boot from KDE Control Center. I had also already specified KDE as the enviro. during install, and it was still set when I checked xwimconfig.

I set runlevel back to 4 and I noticed that if I go into "Menu" at the prompt I can select KDE, and it will default to that the next time.

But, I get the following message before I get to the Menu prompt:

"Your login shell is not listed in etc/shells."

What entry do I need in that file?

John

My /etc/shells file looks like this:

/bin/bash
/bin/tcsh
/bin/csh
/bin/ash
/bin/ksh
/bin/zsh


I did a full install of slackware 10 and this is an unedited file. Did you do a custom install and not install all the shells?

You can change it with the chsh command:

example
johndoe@darkstar:~# chsh
Changing the login shell for johndoe
Enter the new value, or press return for the default
Login Shell [/bin/bash]:
johndoe@darkstar:~#

make sure you have the file /etc/bash or /etc/whatever_shell_you_want


good luck - tw

My /etc/shells file is identical to yours, but I have no /etc/bash file. When I run chsh it shows bash as the default. Now what?

John

I'm sorry - i made a mistake

your bash file should be in /bin, not /etc. (along with the other shells)

check to see if you have /bin/bash

Also, does the error show up logging in as root? or just your user(s)?
Did you do a full install or did you pick and choose?

Yes, I have /bin/bash. The error shows up before I log in. It's the first thing you see in the GUI, just before the login screen. Maybe something in one of the boot scripts is calling a shell that's not in /etc/shells (since bash is there, must be something else)?

John

did you try the chsh command to see which shell you are using?

what is the result of that?

I tried referencing your error by searching for it online
"Your login shell is not listed in etc/shells" - it got many results.

I'm starting to run out of ideas... good luck, and I'll check back.. -tw

It's fixed!
 

Thanks for the help!

I seem to have fixed this. Somewhere along the line while trying to get an automatic boot into KDE, I went into Control Center, Sys Admin, Login Manager, Convenience, and set "enable auto login" to checked. I must have been confused about the text mode login vs. the GUI login (probably still am, need to study this).

Anyway, all is well, and I can move on to the next newbie topic, to be posted soon.

Thanks again.

John