Sometimes X and KDM/KDE won't start....

justin_p · 09-19-2009, 06:49 AM

I have a SW 13 install that is running strong. I truly love it. No real hiccups. Sometimes X won't start. This is on a reboot or when I power-up the machine in the morning. Everything seems to be fine during the start-up then once X starts I don't kicked back to a prompt saying there was an error I get to a black screen with a blinking cursor and if I move the move I get a rectangle to move around the screen. Like I said, it isn't everytime. I have a 32bit install with my NVIDIA card with the NVIDIA driver installed. I have looked at the logs but nothing seems to stick out. Also, I have tried it with the desktop effects on and off. KDM is set to autologin.

So....any thoughts....?

stinkytaco · 09-19-2009, 10:45 AM

I have a similar problem but with a different set of circumstances. I use SLiM (though I was using KDM) and have an Intel Graphics card (915resolution driver). Sometimes X just won't start and won't kick me back to a terminal. Just hangs and I have to hard reboot. Don't know if they are two separate problems or not...

justin_p · 09-19-2009, 01:38 PM

Once I turned off auto-logon, there was no issue. Weird.

justin_p · 09-20-2009, 08:05 AM

Even with auto log in turned off, it did the same thing off a cold start this morning. I am going to dig in the logs.

Justin

Woodsman · 09-20-2009, 11:03 AM

I like to have two boot options for any system on my hard drives: one for run level 3 (init 3) and one for run level 4 (init 4). Although run level 4 is nice for many people, troubleshooting X issues is easier from run level 3.

You also can modify the run level by editing /etc/inittab.

Either way, boot into run level 3. Login at the command prompt. To start X/KDE use the startx command, which actually is a shell script.

If you get slapped back to the command line, examine the X logs:

grep '(EE)' /var/log/Xorg.0.log
grep '(WW)' /var/log/Xorg.0.log

X normally will boot with warning (WW) messages, but often will not boot with error (EE) messages.

justin_p · 09-20-2009, 01:03 PM

Woodsman: I could get X to start going over to a console, logging in and starting X.

I found the issue in my logs. KDM was timing out waiting for X to fully start. It has to do with the NVIDIA driver taking a few seconds to start. The explanation and the solution here: http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=524751