XDM, KDM, GDM says no to consoles
 

Hmm, I've run into a rather strange problem.

Let me start at the beginning. The other night I decided to compile a new kernel, long story short, I was flabbergasted when I read on these boards that it only took ten minutes for some folks to compile a kernel when it usually took me up to 2 hours to do so, so I did some playing around to see what I was doing wrong.

Anyway, I was told that compiling the kernel with Gnome-terminal or an xterm may be the culprit in my long kernel compile times due to redrawing issues and whatnot. I decided to switch to a console by pressing alt-ctrl-F6 and I compiled the kernel there.

Worked great, took only 25 minutes to compile, I was happy as a pig in mud :)

Today I upgraded all the packages that Pat recently released for the "current" branch of Slackware. I had a few problems with programs that depends on Perl, but I fixed those. Everything else seemed hunky dory. I don't know why, but I'm happy that uname -a works now :)

Then a little while ago I decided to switch to a console by pressing alt-ctrl-F6, but nothing happened. WTF? I tried alt-ctrl-F1/F2/F3/F4/F5 and I got nothing. I didn't get a blank screen with a blinking cursor, I got nothing...I just stayed in my KDE session.

Hmm, I was able to switch to a console just before I re-compiled my kernel the other night so maybe it has something to do with the new kernel? "Damnit", I thought. So I went back to my previous kernel. Umm, no dice! Still can't switch to a kernel. "Oh God, am I gonna need to revert back to all those packages I upgraded today?" Blah!

Before doing that I decided to fool around a bit to see if I can't pinpoint the problem. "Maybe it has something to do with X?" I edited my inittab file to change the default run level from 4 to 3 and I rebooted.

Got to a console, logged in my regular user, lo and behold, I was able to switch to another console. "Aha! It does have something to do with X."

I decided to try to start X with "startx" instead of one of the *dm's. Got into KDE and umm, I was able to switch to a console. WTF?

"Ok, it's not X then, it was KDM". I killed X and then started KDM. Got into KDE and tried to switch to a console, no go. "Aha, KDM is the culprit! Hmm, don't tell me it's KDE and not KDM!"

Rebooted then started KDM and logged into Gnome...no go. Tried again with KDM and Fluxbox...no go. Again with GDM and Gnome...no go. "Eh?" Again with XDM and Fluxbox...no go.

Startx with Fluxbox...it works.

Ok, it's definitely the *dm's then. So what do the *dm's have in common? "X!", I thought. However, I've already established it wasn't X because it works with startx.

Now I'm stuck. I've pored through all the relevant configs I could think of and I've Googled around to no avail. I tried searching these boards, but the search kept timing out on me.

I'm at my wits end. Will someone just give me the friggin' answer without telling me to RTFM? :)

By the way, I saw something about "genkdmconf" or something like that, but that's for KDM only and I've established that the problem exists with KDM, GDM, and XDM...right?

LocoMojo

Look at /etc/inittab. The relevant section should look like:

If that's not it, I don't know.

Been there, done that.

Remember, it was working before I re-compiled the kernel. As far as I know, re-compiling the kernel has no affect on the inittab file?

At any rate, inittab is intact...I checked.

Thanks.

LocoMojo

P.S. - ps aux | grep agetty | grep -v grep gives me:

root 5152 0.0 0.0 1564 496 tty2 Ss+ Mar02 0:00 /sbin/agetty 38400 tty2 linux
root 5153 0.0 0.0 1560 496 tty3 Ss+ Mar02 0:00 /sbin/agetty 38400 tty3 linux
root 5154 0.0 0.0 1564 496 tty4 Ss+ Mar02 0:00 /sbin/agetty 38400 tty4 linux
root 5155 0.0 0.0 1560 488 tty5 Ss+ Mar02 0:00 /sbin/agetty 38400 tty5 linux
root 5156 0.0 0.0 1564 496 tty6 Ss+ Mar02 0:00 /sbin/agetty 38400 tty6 linux

Wasn't it working before you upgraded to current, though? I wasn't sure if the upgrade touched inittab or not, that's why I suggested it.

Looking at the dates in rc.d, I noticed that rc.M was modified. Have you checked it out? For some reason I refuse to believe the kernel has anything to do with it, but yet changes caused by upgrading to current seem impropable, too.

Edit: I just looked over rc.M, and I don't think that would cause problems. However, in rc.4, the line to start kdm reads:

exec /opt/kde/bin/kdm -nodaemon

Maybe you don't have the -nodaemon option there? The other managers have that option, too. Maybe that wouldn't make a difference, I don't know.

Edit2:
How did you install Gnome? Maybe upgrading slackware broke some stuff Gnome changed?

I agree, it can't be the kernel compile.

It has to be the upgrades. Something somewhere changed.

Or something just broke somehow.

The rc.M file changed? Hmm, I didn't see an rc.M.new file there. I just looked at it and I didn't see anything that would be relevant...

By the way, I forgot to mention another strange thing that happened. Before I went back to my old kernel, I was able to use the numberpad on my keyboard without the Num Lock being on. After I went back to my old kernel I couldn't...I had to have the Num Lock on in order to use the number keys.

Strange, eh?

LocoMojo

P.S. - The rc.4 file is good..."nodaemon" is there.

I have Dropline Gnome installed, it's been there since a year ago...I never use it. I don't know if Gnome would be the culprit though. The problem is with all the *dm's. It would be weird if Gnome was broken and it caused KDM and XDM to break too. Are they all tied in some way?

I've heard Dropline changes a lot of system files, so I thought maybe it changed something that could be related.

Maybe something is stealing your keystrokes? For example, in KDE I have to type Ctrl-Alt-Fn to switch vts, while you only need Alt-Fn when switching from a console. Maybe something started by runlevel 4 is taking those keystrokes to mean something else, and isn't letting them get to wherever they need to be to switch consoles. This would also be the numberpad culprit, I think.

This is true, but I haven't touched Dropline in about a year.

That's a possibility, I suppose. I've always had to use Alt-Ctrl-Fn as Alt-Fn never worked and it doesn't now either.

I don't think it has anything to do with runlevel 4 because when I startx from runlevel 3 it works, but when I use one of the *dm's from runlevel 3 it doesn't work.

As for the numberpad, it is working as it is supposed to work now that I've gone back to my old kernel.

I'm thinking it has to be related to the *dm's in some way, I'm just not sure how though.

Thanks again.

LocoMojo

I'm still fighting this problem.

Does anyone know what XDM, KDM, and GDM share in common that startx doesn't?

I can switch to a console after I log into X using startx, but I can't after logging into X via one of the *DM's.

Help? Anyone?

Thanks in advance.

LocoMojo

Take a look at the KDM config file:

/opt/kde/share/config/kdm

See if the following helps:

http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...62#post2035662

Another possibility is you may have the wrong keyboard setup in the kernel config, also as a module (Would explain why going back to old kernel doesn't help)

At this point, I figure any shot in the dark may help.

The kdmrc file checks out, it's been untouched. I know this because I backed it up a while ago and I just did a vimdiff on them and they are the same.

Besides, it isn't only KDM that's giving me problems, I'm also having the same problems with GDM and XDM so it has to be something that they all share somewhere. Something they share, but startx doesn't.

It's really mind boggling, I can't figure it out.

Thanks.

LocoMojo

Well, the keyboard works as it should when I use startx instead of one of the *DM's though.

LocoMojo

I also run into strange stuff using a *DM login too. My DRI won't work....Almost like there is another place that has a xorg.conf type file, and only accessed using runlevel 4....

I saw something somewhere... During one of the xorgsetup or xorgconfig... Not either one of those two. But there is another prog I tried once that had a 'weird' place it was going to put xorg.conf, not in /etc/X11 .

Some other xorg configuration program that had a 'GUI' type interface? My memory is shot.....

Here's an excerpt from 'man xorg.conf'....Hmmmm Hasn't helped me alot, tho.....

My bad. I overlooked your statement of "Rebooted then started KDM and logged into Gnome...no go. Tried again with KDM and Fluxbox...no go. Again with GDM and Gnome...no go. "

Probably true. However, that you can switch virtual terminals when launching X from the command line indicates the problem likely is not the kernel but from within the packages you updated.

Using the Ctrl key as an additional modifier is necessary because within KDE the Alt key is used a modifier key to select program menus and other GUI related shortcuts.

There are additional files that the DMs use, such as Xsession, Xservers, etc. Possibly something is universally hosed with one of those files. For KDE those related files are located in /opt/kde/share/config. For xdm in /etc/X11/xdm. I don't know where the related files are located for GNOME. IIRC, during the first launch, KDE copies several XDM files to its own directory. Regardless, if the problem occurs with all three DMs, then the problem must be common to all three DMs.