Restart can't/won't boot to desktop

FTIO · 03-05-2022, 05:57 AM

Hi folks,

I started to notice my system was acting funny...getting slow, windows opening and closing after a second of hesitation, scrolling starting to get slightly jerky, things that I knew shouldn't be happening. (This is 15.0, on a Ryzen 7 machine with 32GB RAM)

It should have all the latest security patches that come out on the Slackware Security e-mail.

I figured, okay, a restart maybe will help things. I click it on the menu to turn the system off, and just a second after I did, I got a window pop-up telling me about something to do with Kwallet trying to be accessed or something, then it finally went to the black screen showing all the stuff running by as it was shutting down to reboot...but I noticed weird things in that too, but can't remember them as they went by too fast to write down and I wasn't expecting it.

Here's where it all happens...when it boots up, it gets to the black screen where things run by real fast, but it stops here:

Code:

INIT: cannot execute "/etc/rc.d/rc.4"
INIT: Id "x1" respawning too fast: disabled for 5 minutes

That will sit there that way for 5 minutes and keeps repeating the exact thing after those 5 minutes are up.

If I press 'enter', this is what I get:

Code:

INIT: switching to runlevel 6
INIT: sending processes configured via /etc/inittab the TERM signal
INIT: cannot execute "/etc/rc.d/rc.6"
INIT: no more processes left in this runlevel

Then it will remain that way indefinitely. If I try to reboot, the only way is to hard reset and the process does the exact same thing over and over no matter how many times I reboot.

Does anyone have any idea just what might be going on here and maybe an idea what to try? I can re-install, not having done too awful much yet, it's just a bad time to be doing this because of things in 'life' getting in the way, heh.

hazel · 03-05-2022, 10:27 AM

You could try booting to level 3 and using startx. If that works, then it's a problem with the display manager. All that rc4 does is to go through a list of possible DMs and run the first one it finds.

brianL · 03-05-2022, 10:49 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by FTIO

I did, I got a window pop-up telling me about something to do with Kwallet trying to be accessed or something.

Don't know if KWallet is causing the problem, but the first thing I do after installation & first boot is to disable it via System Settings, since I find it to be a nuisance.

FTIO · 03-05-2022, 12:52 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by hazel

You could try booting to level 3 and using startx. If that works, then it's a problem with the display manager. All that rc4 does is to go through a list of possible DMs and run the first one it finds.

Sounds like a plan but how do I do that again, please? It's been so long since I've had to do such a thing and my mind doesn't remember too well anymore... <sad-sigh>

hazel · 03-05-2022, 12:58 PM

I haven't changed boot runlevels for a long time either! But istr that you can use the level number as a parameter to the kernel command line and the kernel will pass it across to init.

JayByrd · 03-05-2022, 01:40 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by FTIO

Sounds like a plan but how do I do that again, please? It's been so long since I've had to do such a thing and my mind doesn't remember too well anymore... <sad-sigh>

Edit the following line in /etc/inittab:

Code:

# Default runlevel. (Do not set to 0 or 6)
id:4:initdefault:

Change this to 3 and reboot.

Tonus · 03-05-2022, 04:06 PM

Add "3" at the end of the kernel boot command line (without quotes) for grub. (Edit with "e")
For lilo add that after the menu entry at prompt obtained with Esc key