Nearly every time I try to login (either root or user) I get a blank screen for about 15 seconds and then turns into diagonal lines. I hit ctrl+alt+bksp and it takes me back to the login. I change the session to last and log in again and everything comes up normal. This happens both on CDE and JDS. I'm confused can someone please help?

btw, I'm using Solaris 10 on an x86.

Thanks


Drew

I never experienced that.
Are there any interesting X server error logs ?

Here's the output from dmesg:

Aug 22 11:18:16 aragorn gdm[332]: [ID 944828 daemon.warning] gdm_slave_session_s tart: /home/abarnes is not owned by uid 101.
Aug 22 11:18:21 aragorn gdm[332]: [ID 702911 daemon.error] failsafe dialog faile d (inhibitions: 0 0)
Aug 22 11:18:27 aragorn gdm[332]: [ID 702911 daemon.error] failsafe dialog faile d (inhibitions: 0 1)
Aug 22 11:18:39 aragorn gdm[332]: [ID 702911 daemon.error] failsafe dialog faile d (inhibitions: 1 1)
Aug 22 11:18:39 aragorn gdm[332]: [ID 702911 daemon.error] gdm_slave_xioerror_ha ndler: Fatal X error - Restarting :0
Aug 22 11:18:39 aragorn gdm[332]: [ID 325038 auth.alert] adt_ah(ADT_logout): NUL L
Aug 22 11:18:50 aragorn sendmail[341]: [ID 702911 mail.alert] unable to qualify my own domain name (aragorn) -- using short name
Aug 22 11:18:50 aragorn sendmail[340]: [ID 702911 mail.alert] unable to qualify my own domain name (aragorn) -- using short name
#
Xorg.0.log looks like regular configuration information. Are there any others I should look at?

gdm errors looks odd,
googling 'gdm "failsafe dialog failed"' returns reports showing this issue is not unique to Solaris.

it's the same with the CDE manager as well, is it controlled by gdm?

It may, the one you use between gdm and dtlogin is a setting choice.
From your logs you are using gdm.

yeah, I was using dtlogin for awhile and was having the same problem. I changed to gdm to see if using it would solve the problem. Are there any shared config files between CDE and JDS that could cause this problem?

Interesting, if it's not GDM, then it may be the X Server, did you tried switching from/to Xorg or Xsun ?

I normally use xorg because I'm more familiar with it, but I did, try Xsun briefly, apparently some of my settings were wrong and I got a little impatient. I will revisit it tonight. I'll let you know how it turns out.

Well, I ran kdmconfig, chose the Xsun server and verified my configs. I rebooted with the reboot - - -r and got to the gdm screen. I was able to log on and off several times both as root and as a regular user without any problems. I'm not real sure why it makes a difference.. Should I ditch my xorg.conf or at least rename it so Solaris doesn't get confused?

btw, thanks jlliagre You saved me a lot of time and headscratching

XOrg is open source (X11.6.8.2), so you may try to find where it hangs ...
XSun is (still?) proprietary, based on older X11 releases (X11 6.4, 6.6 and 6.8 + parts of XFree86 4.3) but probably more tested and debugged.
See http://www.opensolaris.org/os/community/x_win/ for details.
No, Solaris (XSun) can't be confused as it uses different configuration file and format, you can keep your xorg.conf.

After rebooting twice, I'm getting the same thing. It seems like the default session (JDS) is being forgotten. Funny thing is, it won't remember when I set CDE as the default either. Where should I look next?

Last environment used is recorded in ~/.dmrc

I'm wondering if I'm looking at this the wrong way... Instead of a login problem, could it have to do with how I'm shutting down? I usually use init 5 or "reboot" as su from a console. As it shuts down, I don't see any of the messages that usually fly by in Linux. Is there a better way to shut down or reboot?