FC10 "startx" script not working?
 

Hi Guys

I installed FC10 this weekend after several satisfied years using FC6.

I always preferred booting in runlevel 3, then only starting X when I needed it.

With my vanilla FC10 install this is not working - if the startx script is called in runlevel 3 (i. e. text mode), X does start but KDE itself does not start up... all I'm left with is the classic X screen with the "X" cursor on it, and no GUI.

I have not changed what services run in the different runlevels.

If I boot "normally" into runlevel 5, KDE does start and works normally.

How can I fix this?

Not that I have not done any updates to the system yet (lack of connectivity and bandwidth costs for yum / the updater)

Thanks,

Stefan, unfortunately Fedora 9 and 10 have effectively removed this, since they no longer use the xorg.conf file to create the X session, it's done more automagically in runlevel 5 and the other graphical run levels. I came across this issue when trying to use F9 as a VM in VirtualBox.

Hi!

Thanks for replying.

Ouch, that's bad news. So it IS possible, but nobody will / can tell you how... Sounds like the Windows Way of Doing Business... :)

Yep I mostly want this because I raytrace sometimes, and it doesn't make sense to waste all that processor time and extra RAM to run an X-server when you just want all system time and resources devoted to the load of rendering a scene - which can be done 100% fine in RL 3 in text mode.

Thanks anyway,

I'm not a Fedora expert, but I found this advice from here:http://forums.fedoraforum.org/showthread.php?t=213068
use the command instead of startx, see how you go. That will start the gnome display manager, the default display manager for Fedora, however, I don't know does that preserve your console session! Give it a try and see how you go.

Hi there

Thanks! I'll give it a try when I get home this afternoon. Instead of gdm, maybe I can try kdm - I'm using KDE as desktop.

Anyway, thanks a lot, I'll report back if it works...

Yup, KDM is the display manager for KDE, so hopefully that will work for you. Let us know how it goes.

Hi again guys

Didn't work - running KDM from the text terminal in runlevel 3 did get me a weird looking login screen in X where I could enter username and password. After doing this the system just beeped several times and did nothing. After CTRL+ALT+BACKSPACing back into the text terminal, several screens of errors seemed to have occurred. (I can't cut and paste them, they had scrolled past already).

I know I can probably pull a log somewhere, but where?

But then, that also probably indicates that calling kdm is not the way to get into X -AND- start KDE from the text terminal in RL 3.

By "weird looking" I mean that I have a login screen after a RL 5 boot, but the one I got after doing "kdm" in a RL3 looks very... erm... old with a cursor that looks like it comes from Red Hat Linux 3...

I can't think that this can bee TOO complicated - usually guys have problems with X that won't start - I can start X, but not KDE! Boo hoo...

Anyway, thanks for the replies... any other ideas?

Regards

Other things I've seen:
startkde

Take a look a this idea, it's for slackware, and involves using different grub entries for different runlevels, i know it's not exactly what you are looking for, but it might point you in the right direction: http://humanreadable.nfshost.com/sdeg/dual_startup.htm

This page: http://www.manpagez.com/man/1/startx/, which is the man page for startx, gives some useful information, try and figure out from your home directory what files are used by fedora to govern your x session, and compare. You may yet be able to run startx, just with some command line arguments!

I just do:
#rm /etc/X11/xorg.conf
#startx

Good luck!