I've used ubuntu and kubuntu and want to try something new so I installed slackware. I ran the setup, booted from my hard drive and got a command line. I was able to log in as root, but have no clue what to do. I just want to get to the gui...

try startx

Just to make this permanent do as root:
Now it should launch kdm by default.

umm.
Thanks, very much, sHy. I found your two very terse comments, both, quite instructive.

I did not understand that "nano" represents a type of editor. I just recently discovered the commands for the vi editor, consequently, I was somewhat surprised by nano.

I have uncomfortably discovered, however, that upon changing the single character "3" to "4" in the command representing the default condition, in this file, inittab, I lose XFCE, altogether, and instead, now have the behometh KDE.

Nothing wrong with KDE, if one is running a supercomputer, but on my slow, old PIII system, it takes about five minutes just to boot up. All I did was change one number. I did not change or run xwmconfig, as you wrote, above.

When I did check xwmconfig, the program confirmed my choice of XFCE, which boots much faster.

So, my questions to you, then are these:

First, why does KDE arise, even though I have selected XFCE, and despite the fact that XFCE is the acknowledged interface, according to the command which you provided, above?

Second how can I invoke XFCE with a runlevel corresponding to 4, i.e. to achieve automatic login, bypassing all the login/password garbage, and without the need to type, mindlessly, "startx"?

Thanks again for your excellent assistance, in the quote above.

CAI ENG

Look at this: http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Start_X_at_Boot...check out the part that references /etc/inittab.

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Thank you mudangel. The code at your link seems to suggest a change of inittab to level 5, rather than 4....

It is a tad complex....

CAI ENG

KDE doesn't arise, KDM arises. Which is the login manager. From there you can select sessions and choose "XFCE" from the list.

If you mean you don't want KDM login manager at all, then you can use some other managers like SLIM or Qingy or even passwordless logins! Let me know if that's what you intend.

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OK, but, it looks like KDE, and it boots just like KDE, (i.e. VERY slowly), and it presents the same "error" messages regarding some sort of server, akonadi or some such thing, as does KDE, and it has the same desktop appearance, wallpaper and layout as KDE. If there is a choice for sessions, I don't observe it. Perhaps there is a drop down menu, which must be selected? If so, from where? From the Kickoff Application Launcher?

Now we're getting somewhere!!!

Hot Dog. This is great. That is exactly what I want. Passwordless login.

I want to boot up into the desktop without any passwords, as ROOT, not as user, because, among other reasons, on my computer, the sound card only works under root, not under user. With KDE, I was able to configure the session manager to accept absence of password for the user, but, not for root. So, there must be a better method available. Moreover, I seek to avoid KDE like the plague.

What I would like is to have the lightest desktop manager available, with internet (seamonkey is my browser of choice) and no passwords or logins. Power on, desktop appears, one click to internet. End of story. Ideally, boot should not take longer than windows 95, which is about 20 seconds on this 12 year old 800 MHz PIII. Right now, it takes minutes......

Remove all KDE packages from the computer, and you will never see KDM, but instead get XDM as the graphical login manager.

Automatic login as root without typing a password is not recommended, but KDM can do this for you. If your reason is that only root has sound, then I suggest you read the Slackware documentation on group membership for user accounts.
Your user should be in the "audio" group in order to hear sound in X.

Also, please open a new thread to address your specific issues if you have further questions. You should not be hi-jacking somebody else's thread.

Eric

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Read slackbook first.http://www.slackbook.org/

Maybe you were just having a bad day, or perhaps you were overwhelmed with other work, and therefore had little opportunity to read the preceding messages.

Here they are again, for your reconsideration, as to whether or not I have "hijacked somebody else's thread."

(By the way, if I had hijacked it, I still would persist in denying any validity to your claim, since the purpose of this forum is to ask and answer questions, regardless of the degree of tidiness by which the questions have been placed on the forum.)

1. THAT WAS NOT MY sentence, it was "newbrains'". He is the originator of this thread. Now how is my reiteration of this same goal, i.e. accessing the gui without all the childish, nonsensical login crap, as if we were still living in 1973, OFF THE TRACK of this thread? How am I subverting the OP of this thread, by seeking clarification of the following responses to "newbrains'" query?

2. Now then, "Alien Bob", to what is sHyLoCk referring, when he writes "...to make this permanent...? Isn't sHyLoCk referring, precisely, to the very question of "newbrains'", viz, how one can go about reaching the desktop, directly, from power on, bypassing all of the login nonsense?

3. Having performed the suggestions of sHyLoCk, and arriving at an unexpected result, I replied with several questions aimed at elucidating the reason why the result expected did not arise, in conformance with his written suggestions. I have not yet heard back from sHyLoCk, and maybe never will, but, in the interim, I am expecting Mr. Alien Bob, that in the future, if you think that I, or any other forum members, have "hijacked" a thread, then I urge you to contact someone in charge of the forum, and ask them to send a private email message to the supposed offender. In fact, please do that now, so that I may shout at them very loudly, about your conduct.

Was that my goal? Was I not seeking, just as was (according to my understanding) "newbrains", access to the desktop ("gui") without need to login?

How is removing KDE going to aide my goal or "newbrains'"? Here's what you write, in a subsequent sentence of your remarkable post:

So, let's summarize, shall we? Alien Bob recommends removing all KDE packages, so that one will not be able to perform an automatic login as root....

a. How does one, having eliminated all KDE, then login automatically, as root, without a password, in harmony with "newbrain's initial inquiry", if one no longer has available the program that is necessary to accomplish that task, i.e. KDM?

b. If it is possible to accomplish the same goal, using "XDM", then, what steps must be taken, vis a vis the inittab file in /etc? Are there any other steps required in this process, if KDE has been entirely removed? Perhaps "newbrains" needs KDE, I do not. However, there is no clear explanation for how to accomplish the goal of bypassing the login, for ANY of the other desktop managers?

Umm. This may be excellent advice, however, it would be simpler to answer the following questions:
a. Is this characteristic unique to ALL Linux/Unix distributions, or just to Slackware?
b. Is there any logical rationale for this discontinuity? For example, does only root have access to the CDROM? Only root can go on the internet? Only root can look at the directory structure? Only root can use a word processor? Only root can play a video?

Why in the world would anyone emasculate an operating system in such a fashion? I can appreciate that, forty years ago, when times were tough, and half a gigabyte of RAM cost 20 million dollars, it may have been prudent to limit the three hundred users of the same cpu to only a few critical components, like the keyboard (since the mouse hadn't yet been invented), displaying only text on the monitor, without graphics.

But times have changed. Why is the default setting not enabled for all components of the operating system, for all users??? This seems to me to be a critical philosophical point, which may indeed explain why it is so difficult to address "newbrains'" question. Maybe Linux is not the answer. Maybe I should go back to windows 95, where the question of accessing the sound card, never arose. It is shocking to me, to read your answer,...I hope this unfortunate situation is something unique to Slackware, and not to all of Linux/Unix.

How absurd to deny a user access to his own computer's entire capabilities. That's one of the most idiotic sentiments I have ever encountered in the realm of computer lore. What an utterly wretched operating system.

CAI ENG

if wanting to run xfce as user run xwmconfig as user

You are free to go back to Windows, or Ubuntu, or wherever you came from. I am not stopping you.
If, however, you would have taken the trouble to actually read some of the Slackware documentation, all of your questions would have been answered.

Still, you are hi-jacking this thread. See you in a new thread.

Eric

caieng;

Yes, you did hijack the thread. Please start a new thread with a short summary of your question and current status.

thanks