Hello,

My computer dell gx110 has installed ubuntu server 8.04.
Later I installed xubuntu desktop.
Now at the first time when i connect a monitor and try to login.
I read this error message;

Your session only lasted less then 10 seconds. If you
have not logged out your self, this coud mean that
there is some installation problem or that you may be
out of diskspace. Try logging in with one of the
failsafe sessions to see if you can fix this problem.

View for details ~/.xsession-errors

I did not logged out.
And I do not have out of disk space.
I do not know how to fix this problem.

This is my xsession-errors file;
--------------------------------
/etc/gdm/Xsession: Beginning session setup...
Setting IM through im-switch for locale=nl_NL.
Start IM through /etc/X11/xinit/xinput.d/all_ALL linked to /etc/X11/xinit/xinput.d/default.
/usr/bin/startxfce4: X server already running on display :0
** Message: Querying XF86Misc extension
** Message: XF86Misc extension found
** Message: Querying Xkb extension
** Message: Xkb extension found
** Message: Querying XINPUT extension
** Message: XINPUT extension found
** Message: Querying Xkb extension
** Message: Xkb extension found
xfce4-session: Unable to load failsafe session, exiting. Please check
the value of the environment variable XDG_CONFIG_DIRS
and make sure that it includes the following path:

/etc/xdg

I presume (maybe incorrectly) you have followed the above advice which is part of the output you have posted?

I try to find where and wich file I must change.
But I am a beginner and I do not know how to find a solution for this problem? And if there is a solution. I can not understand what kind of a solution.

The output of the solution from the error file give me not anough information for what i must do to solve this problem.

I tried a command like;
$XDG_CONFIG_DIRS
But it give no output.

My xfce is based on gdm caus I find the directory /etc/init.d/gdm
And I did not find the directory /etc/init.d/xdg or xdm

So my question is, what is the problem and wich solution ask this problem.

Please thanks for help if you can give me the right solution that will work right.

can you post the output of and if it returns no values, please let me know.

With or without echo, is what you mean.

But it gives nothing, with or without. It does not matter, just nothing;

Ok, you seem to be missing all the environment variables for xdg. Seems highly unusual. Can you tell me how you installed xubuntu desktop? Did you do something like this:
or was it another method you used?

Does it matter? I like to know why for study?
I just installed with;
sudo tasksel

That's easy.
But after it is not easy.

A solution like install xubuntu form a cd will destroy my server information. So that is not a nice solution.
When i get the idee to download torrents and to configure my sftp server.
I did install xubuntu desktop. May be i get more wishes, but i do not hope so difficult.

I always thanks the people who helps me. Caus that's the only way to learn and get forward with linux idee's and wishes.

So, what is the next step?

Please try the command This will not disrupt the data on your server. However, as always, it is good practice to have a working backup that you can restore from in case of problems, so please ensure you have a backup prepared.

I did sudo apt-get install xubuntu-desktop;
After this, i tried to login normal, but still get the error.
And this is my output with an error;

user@computer:~$ sudo apt-get install xubuntu-desktop
[sudo] password for tovar:
Pakketlijsten worden ingelezen... Klaar
Boom van vereisten wordt opgebouwd
Reading state information... Klaar
xubuntu-desktop is reeds de nieuwste versie.
0 pakketten opgewaardeerd, 0 pakketten nieuw geïnstalleerd, 0 te verwijderen en 10 niet opgewaardeerd.
17 pakketten niet volledig geïnstalleerd of verwijderd.
After this operation, 0B of additional disk space will be used.
Instellen van hplip (2.8.2-0ubuntu8.1) ...
Creating/updating hplip user account...
Adding user hplip to group scanner
waarschuwing: --update is opgegeven maar /var/run/hplip bestaat niet
Removing any system startup links for /etc/init.d/hplip ...

Instellen van avahi-autoipd (0.6.22-2ubuntu4.1) ...

Instellen van avahi-daemon (0.6.22-2ubuntu4.1) ...
* Reloading system message bus config... [ OK ]
Fixing up startup script priorities...
* Starting Avahi mDNS/DNS-SD Daemon avahi-daemon [ OK ]

Instellen van hpijs (2.8.2+2.8.2-0ubuntu8.1) ...
Instellen van foomatic-db-hpijs (20070813-0ubuntu2) ...
Instellen van policykit (0.7-2ubuntu7) ...

Instellen van hal (0.5.11~rc2-1ubuntu8.2) ...
Your account has expired; please contact your system administrator
chfn: PAM authentication failed
adduser: `/usr/bin/chfn -f Hardware abstraction layer haldaemon' returned error code 1. Exiting.
dpkg: fout bij afhandelen van hal (--configure):
subproces post-installation script gaf een foutwaarde 1 terug
Instellen van policykit-gnome (0.7-2ubuntu1.1) ...
dpkg: vereistenproblemen verhinderen de configuratie van gnome-mount:
gnome-mount is afhankelijk van hal; maar:
Pakket hal is nog niet geconfigureerd.
dpkg: fout bij afhandelen van gnome-mount (--configure):
vereistenproblemen - blijft ongeconfigureerd
dpkg: vereistenproblemen verhinderen de configuratie van gnome-power-manager:
gnome-power-manager is afhankelijk van hal (>= 0.5.10); maar:
Pakket hal is nog niet geconfigureerd.
dpkg: fout bij afhandelen van gnome-power-manager (--configure):
vereistenproblemen - blijft ongeconfigureerd
dpkg: vereistenproblemen verhinderen de configuratie van hal-cups-utils:
hal-cups-utils is afhankelijk van hal; maar:
Pakket hal is nog niet geconfigureerd.
dpkg: fout bij afhandelen van hal-cups-utils (--configure):
vereistenproblemen - blijft ongeconfigureerd
Instellen van libnss-mdns (0.10-3ubuntu2) ...
First installation detected...
Checking NSS setup...

dpkg: vereistenproblemen verhinderen de configuratie van network-manager:
network-manager is afhankelijk van hal (>= 0.5.7.1); maar:
Pakket hal is nog niet geconfigureerd.
dpkg: fout bij afhandelen van network-manager (--configure):
vereistenproblemen - blijft ongeconfigureerd
dpkg: vereistenproblemen verhinderen de configuratie van network-manager-gnome:
network-manager-gnome is afhankelijk van network-manager (>= 0.6.5); maar:
Pakket network-manager is nog niet geconfigureerd.
dpkg: fout bij afhandelen van network-manager-gnome (--configure):
vereistenproblemen - blijft ongeconfigureerd
dpkg: vereistenproblemen verhinderen de configuratie van update-notifier:
update-notifier is afhankelijk van hal; maar:
Pakket hal is nog niet geconfigureerd.
dpkg: fout bij afhandelen van update-notifier (--configure):
vereistenproblemen - blijft ongeconfigureerd
dpkg: vereistenproblemen verhinderen de configuratie van xfce4-session:
xfce4-session is afhankelijk van hal; maar:
Pakket hal is nog niet geconfigureerd.
dpkg: fout bij afhandelen van xfce4-session (--configure):
vereistenproblemen - blijft ongeconfigureerd
dpkg: vereistenproblemen verhinderen de configuratie van xubuntu-desktop:
xubuntu-desktop is afhankelijk van gnome-mount; maar:
Pakket gnome-mount is nog niet geconfigureerd.
xubuntu-desktop is afhankelijk van hal; maar:
Pakket hal is nog niet geconfigureerd.
xubuntu-desktop is afhankelijk van xfce4-session; maar:
Pakket xfce4-session is nog niet geconfigureerd.
dpkg: fout bij afhandelen van xubuntu-desktop (--configure):
vereistenproblemen - blijft ongeconfigureerd
Processing triggers for libc6 ...
ldconfig deferred processing now taking place
Fouten gevonden tijdens behandelen van:
hal
gnome-mount
gnome-power-manager
hal-cups-utils
network-manager
network-manager-gnome
update-notifier
xfce4-session
xubuntu-desktop
E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)
user@computer:~$

Ok, I'm getting some of it, but unfortunately I don't know dutch/flemish/afrikaans, so cannot be detailed. It seems to me that your account is corrupted, tho how that has happened I am not sure. Have you backed up?

Please post output of

user@computer:~$ getent passwd | grep hal
haldaemon:x:116:125::/var/run/hald:/bin/false
user@computer:~$

No, i did not backup. I just installed xubuntu desktop.
I did think, a backup is not neccesary for installing a desktop.

My hardware is a dell gx110
It takes 22 watt.
I have two harddisk of 250GB
main harddisk - /
second harddisk- /home

So a backup from the main to the /home is a solution for backup.
I did not jet find the commands to make a backup.

I find on my command line with the arrow buttons a message.
The message is; the hal is not configured.
And there is more that is not configured;
xfce-session
gnome-mount
hal
network-manager
and some difficult more....

HAL: Hardware Abstraction Layer. All modern operating systems have this. It means that your computer hardware is abstracted to the OS using software drivers. This is your problem, can't understand why tho. Again, before going any further, please make a backup using rsync or tar or one of the backup utilities provided. There are many, and this will save you more pain later.

Yes I will make a backup in the next days.