Strange X login problem.
 

Hello,

I am using Slackware 10.2 in run level 4. When I boot the system I get KDM screen. When I select any user other than root, and login with correct password, then, the screen becomes black and comes back to KDM login screen. This happens 2 or 3 times. In the next attempt, login takes place properly. I am not able to find the reason for this. Can anybody suggest some solution?

Thanks for your help.

Anand

humn.. weird..

All that comes to mind is that your users have a faulty xinitrc, or none at all, tho then the login shouldnt work at all. Actually im not sure if xinitrc can interfeare with it, but its a possibility, and worth checking out. Another would be to:
And then figure out how to start an X manually, and kdm into it. I bet kdm knows how to get itself an X if there isnt one already, but you can find out the correct sequense from the init scripts that enpower runlevel 4, and tracde downwards from there the exact commands you need to run to emulate the kdm. Then youll have a terminal to look at when the login fails and see why it does fail.. (:

I ran into a similar problem just today.

My problem was that I had been experimenting with my tester login account. I use that account as my test bed to try ideas before applying system-wide.

For that account I had forgotten that yesterday that from the KDM I had modified the default GUI from KDE to TVM. By a slim chance of similarity, you might want check that you are still configured for KDE, which sounds like the GUI you are using based upon you using KDM.

Verify you are configured to use KDE at the KDM, not with the program script xwmconfig.

Another test is boot into init 3 and then start X/KDE using the startx command/script. If you're successful then that helps narrow the possibilities back to the KDM level. I ran the same test today. When I booted into KDE just fine from startx, that clued me to something funky on the KDM side. I then booted into init 4 and KDM. Then I looked at the default GUI in KDM. After seeing that the account was configured for TVM and not KDE, I then said what Homer Simpson says, "Doh!"

If that exercise fails to produce anything, and as you experience no issues logging as root, then login as root and then open the KDE Control Center. Spend some time investigating whether you have something configured awry in the Login Manager, which is what the KDM is called in the Control Center.

I hope this helps.

The problem is seen only when my previous session in KDM is XFCE. So, is there some thing wrong in starting of XFCE?

Anand

I use KDE exclusively, so perhaps some others here can help you more immediately and specifically. However, some additional thoughts:

Look in /usr/share/apps/kdm/sessions and verify you have files called xfce.desktop and xfce4.desktop. I'm guessing you do since you are already trying to select that option from within KDM.

Try logging into Xfce from the KDM as you described. When that fails as you have described then leave things hang for a moment and toggle to a plain console (Ctl-Alt-F2/F3/F4/F5/F6 etc., depending upon how you have your system configured). Then type ps ax and see if you have a process ID for Xfce. If you do then you know that some kind of effort is being made to start Xfce.

While you are in console as root, inspect your user account for a config file called .dmrc. The file is very small so just cat home/user-name/.dmrc and you hopefully will see that the KDM has selected Xfce as your GUI. The file should look something like this:

[Desktop]
Session=xfce4

The problem might be the file search path:

http://docs.kde.org/stable/en/kdebas...-with-kdm.html

If so then you might have to edit the xfce4.desktop file.

Try starting Xfce from run level 3 and startx. If that poses no problems then you know that Xfce is installed properly.

To run Xfce from console/startx, rather than KDM, you'll have to first run xwmconfig. If you xwmconfig as user and not root the tool basically copies the /etc/X11/xinit/xinitrc.xfce file to your home directory and renames the file .xinitrc. The startx script will see that this .xinitrc file exists and use that file to determine the appropriate GUI to use.

FWIW, on my box I can't get into TWM from KDM. Works fine from console/startx. That is the only other GUI installed on my box other than KDE. Thus, my testing ability is limited. Because I use KDE exclusively I am weak on playing with multiple GUIs from KDM. Hopefully that will change soon when I hopefully install Slackware on a second box and can experiment more.

I hope this helps.