LinuxQuestions.org - [SOLVED] New install issues

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New install issues

Hi gang!

I just did a new install...and all went by the book...except for a little something: I cannot log in. :banghead:

Install specs: Arch-XFCE4-GDM

I get up to the point where GDM shows, but only as a grey square in the center of the screen. I gave the .xinitrc exec rights, so the script can run. Polkit and consolekit are installed (running?) as well...

What paragraph of the manual did I miss?

Thanks!

Thor

Does it boot correctly to a command line? What happens if you then try to run 'startx' from there? Is there anything in /var/log (particularly /var/log/Xorg* and /var/log/gdm*) ?

Hope this helps,

Quote:

Does it boot correctly to a command line? What happens if you then try to run 'startx' from there? Is there anything in /var/log (particularly /var/log/Xorg* and /var/log/gdm*) ?

- it boots correctly to the command line. When i turn GDM off (in /etc/rc.conf) I can log into a usable system
- startx (for the non-root user) gives a black screen - after issuing it from the command line. No way to ctrl-alt into a console to shut down in a contolled manner, a nuke is all option I have then...
- I dont see any errors in the logs

More than likely, I forgot to do some (crucial) setting, after all, how does the GDM even know what user to present? Should'nt I set something to allow it to run, read, or otherwise do something?

Thor

PLease post

/etc/rc.conf
/home/user/.xinitrc

You need to make sure dbus is loaded prior to gdm ( I use slim) and you launch through .xinitrc. Sample lines below from mine.

I have seen some users not do this which drives similiar issues.

Code:

# -----------------------------------------------------------------------

# DAEMONS

# -----------------------------------------------------------------------

#

# Daemons to start at boot-up (in this order)

#  - prefix a daemon with a ! to disable it

#  - prefix a daemon with a @ to start it up in the background

#

# If something other takes care of your hardware clock (ntpd, dual-boot...)

# you should disable 'hwclock' here.

#

DAEMONS=(hwclock syslog-ng dbus nnetwork networkmanager sshd cupsd netfs crond alsa slim)



---------------



!/bin/sh

#

# ~/.xinitrc

#

# Executed by startx (run your window manager from here)



if [ -d /etc/X11/xinit/xinitrc.d ]; then

  for f in /etc/X11/xinit/xinitrc.d/*; do

    [ -x "$f" ] && . "$f"

  done

  unset f

fi



# exec gnome-session

# exec startkde

exec ck-launch-session dbus-launch startxfce4



exec ck-launch nm-applet &

Hi

Thanks for this info...by the way, I just moved to Slim, but I cannot type anything...maybe a helpful hint...

rc.conf

Quote:

#
# /etc/rc.conf - Main Configuration for Arch Linux
#

# -----------------------------------------------------------------------
# LOCALIZATION
# -----------------------------------------------------------------------
#
# LOCALE: available languages can be listed with the 'locale -a' command
# DAEMON_LOCALE: If set to 'yes', use $LOCALE as the locale during daemon
# startup and during the boot process. If set to 'no', the C locale is used.
# HARDWARECLOCK: set to "", "UTC" or "localtime", any other value will result
# in the hardware clock being left untouched (useful for virtualization)
# Note: Using "localtime" is discouraged, using "" makes hwclock fall back
# to the value in /var/lib/hwclock/adjfile
# TIMEZONE: timezones are found in /usr/share/zoneinfo
# Note: if unset, the value in /etc/localtime is used unchanged
# KEYMAP: keymaps are found in /usr/share/kbd/keymaps
# CONSOLEFONT: found in /usr/share/kbd/consolefonts (only needed for non-US)
# CONSOLEMAP: found in /usr/share/kbd/consoletrans
# USECOLOR: use ANSI color sequences in startup messages
#
LOCALE="en_US.UTF-8"
DAEMON_LOCALE="no"
HARDWARECLOCK="UTC"
TIMEZONE="Europe/Brussels"
KEYMAP="be-latin1"
CONSOLEFONT="161"
CONSOLEMAP=
USECOLOR="yes"

# -----------------------------------------------------------------------
# HARDWARE
# -----------------------------------------------------------------------
#
# MODULES: Modules to load at boot-up. Blacklisting is no longer supported.
# Replace every !module by an entry as on the following line in a file in
# /etc/modprobe.d:
# blacklist module
# See "man modprobe.conf" for details.
#
MODULES=()

# Udev settle timeout (default to 30)
UDEV_TIMEOUT=30

# Scan for FakeRAID (dmraid) Volumes at startup
USEDMRAID="no"

# Scan for BTRFS volumes at startup
USEBTRFS="no"

# Scan for LVM volume groups at startup, required if you use LVM
USELVM="no"

# -----------------------------------------------------------------------
# NETWORKING
# -----------------------------------------------------------------------
#
# HOSTNAME: Hostname of machine. Should also be put in /etc/hosts
#
HOSTNAME="Asgaard"

# Use 'ip addr' or 'ls /sys/class/net/' to see all available interfaces.
#
# Wired network setup
# - interface: name of device (required)
# - address: IP address (leave blank for DHCP)
# - netmask: subnet mask (ignored for DHCP) (optional, defaults to 255.255.255.0)
# - broadcast: broadcast address (ignored for DHCP) (optional)
# - gateway: default route (ignored for DHCP)
#
# Static IP example
# interface=eth0
# address=192.168.0.2
# netmask=255.255.255.0
# broadcast=192.168.0.255
# gateway=192.168.0.1
#
# DHCP example
# interface=eth0
# address=
# netmask=
# gateway=

interface=eth1
address=192.168.1.3
netmask=255.255.255.0
broadcast=192.168.1.255
gateway=192.168.1.1

# Setting this to "yes" will skip network shutdown.
# This is required if your root device is on NFS.
NETWORK_PERSIST="no"

# Enable these netcfg profiles at boot-up. These are useful if you happen to
# need more advanced network features than the simple network service
# supports, such as multiple network configurations (ie, laptop users)
# - set to 'menu' to present a menu during boot-up (dialog package required)
# - prefix an entry with a ! to disable it
#
# Network profiles are found in /etc/network.d
#
# This requires the netcfg package
#
#NETWORKS=(main)

# -----------------------------------------------------------------------
# DAEMONS
# -----------------------------------------------------------------------
#
# Daemons to start at boot-up (in this order)
# - prefix a daemon with a ! to disable it
# - prefix a daemon with a @ to start it up in the background
#
# If something other takes care of your hardware clock (ntpd, dual-boot...)
# you should disable 'hwclock' here.
#
DAEMONS=(hwclock syslog-ng dbus udev slim network netfs crond )

and .xinitrc

Quote:

#!/bin/sh
#
# ~/.xinitrc
#
# Executed by startx (run your window manager from here)

if [ -d /etc/X11/xinit/xinitrc.d ]; then
for f in /etc/X11/xinit/xinitrc.d/*; do
[ -x "$f" ] && . "$f"
done
unset f
fi

# exec gnome-session
# exec startkde
exec ck-launch-session dbus-launch startxfce4
# ...or the Window Manager of your choice

By the way, I used your examples to get the squirt to breathe, but it's still a dead dodo...

I'm somewhat surprised I cannot type anything in Slim (the better alternative I must confess, thanks for hinting out that one) nor can I switch to an other console...
I have licked that one before, but I'll be d**ed if I remember what I did...maybe I am getting old :D

Thor

Quote:

Originally Posted by Thor_2.0 (Post 4647300)

I'm somewhat surprised I cannot type anything in Slim (the better alternative I must confess, thanks for hinting out that one) nor can I switch to an other console...

I had that once with Arch, it was simply because I forgot to install mouse and keyboard drivers for X.

Quote:

I had that once with Arch, it was simply because I forgot to install mouse and keyboard drivers for X.

Mhwell...I may have installed more than required (but that's not lethal, here) but still no input. I rearranged the daemons array...udev, dbus and then Slim all the way as last...
I'm beginning to suspect I'm not even in a console.
I just edited the slim.conf, but did'nt find anything of interest...

Oh well, I'm off to snoozeville now!

Sleep tight, world!

Thor

I would personally start over and retrace your steps compared to the instructions. It would probably be quicker than troubleshooting.

Good luck.

Quote:

I would personally start over and retrace your steps compared to the instructions. It would probably be quicker than troubleshooting.

Possibly the best idea...there's nothing to learn here :( so, I may just either redo the install, or simply give up on Arch for this (difficult) machine and go for Debian instead...

Hi,

I can call this solved. The sloution was ... reading the manual more attentively...
I needed to activate KMS (early on, preferably) to make the nVidia card happy...

Solved...

Thanks for bearing with me, gang!

Thor

Cool .. Another Member of Team Arch ;)

Quote:

Another Member of Team Arch

Yeah!!! I'm happy to have it running, the other ones did'nt give me the level of control I needed (am I getting to be a control freak ;) ??? Nah, it's my Arch-itis acting up again...) so ... yeah!

Team Arch Rules!!!!

Whee!

On a serious note, I needed the partitioning and package selection to be extra-fine-tuned for this particular setup. It's not really a firecracker of a PC (as mentioned Duron just below 1000Mc, 512Mb ram, 80Gb disk and a 6200 nVidia card) so "the works" would possibly have brought the thing to its knees...

Thor