Slackware

schnappy · 03-03-2009, 11:11 PM

Hey,
So I've decided to get a bit more into Linux than just Ubuntu and typing "apt-get" to solve all my problems.

Hence I've decided to setup a small game-server project using slackware. (Put into the Desktop section since I'm still running x, KDE and other desktop features - my issues are desktop orientated)

So far I've managed to:
Install Slackware 12-2 from the DVD without any issues with the help of slackbook.

Edit xorg.conf using nano as root to load the via driver, so i could run startx.

Everything seams to be working fine at this stage. I've discovered the inbuilt VNC server which I've configured to my liking - except how do I make it automatically set to allow remote control?

So I've done all this as root. Now I'm wanting to make my new account for regular use, from there I will just use sudo when necessary. I've made my new account by doing this from konsole:
useradd username -p password

I then logged out and tried to login with my new account - password didn't work. So I logged back in as root - and ran:
passwd username
Then followed the prompts. Right! So my new account is working.

However, in my new account I've tried to run startx - but it just got a series errors along the lines of:
"timeout in locking authority file //.serverauth.4729"
"... //.Xauthority"

The second line repeats 3 times, and then x appears to start. But a white/grey box appears in the top left of my screen - "could not start kstartupconfig. Check your installation".

Now I'm a bit stuck. I'm guessing I need to go in as root and setup my new account to work with x? But I have no idea how. I'd appreciate it if you gave me a very brief explanation as to what each thing does - as I said, I'm wanting to get to know the basics of Linux in general. Not just Ubuntu nonsense.

Cheers

lumak · 03-03-2009, 11:58 PM

Never run X as root. It's possible the root account locked something some how.

as root or use su

Code:

ls -al /root

remove the .Xauthority and .xerverauth.4729 files if they are in /root (note that is root's home directory. It is not /) Generally, /root is empty because you don't log in as root. However, slackware does not impose a method for you su(do) and that's left up to the user to decide how they want to handle it.

Code:

man visudo

and other online resources will help you set up sudo the way you want it.

You should post future slackware related issues in the slackware forum http://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/slackware-14/

However, this issue was actually a general linux x question so it worked just as well here.

Good Luck

schnappy · 03-04-2009, 12:34 AM

Cheers
I deleted the Xauthority file, couldn't find the other... I just deleted the entire /root directory and remade it.

Still didn't fix it though... Should I just reinstall Slackware? Only issue I have is that I'm going to have to go through the package list again to take all the flesh off of the bones... which was frustrating.

/edit: Tried some things. When I run "kdm" as non-root user, it says that only root wants to run it. I try startfluxbox, get permission denied on '//.fluxbox'. Do I just have to chmod some folders? Which ones?

H_TeXMeX_H · 03-04-2009, 04:35 AM

Try this, assuming you start as root:

Code:

xorgsetup
xwmconfig
adduser
exit
<login as newly created user>
startx

schnappy · 03-05-2009, 09:29 PM

Well I just reinstalled completely, but thanks anyway - never know when that might come in handy

But the packet management really is lacking a bit. I realise it isn't really suppose to have any - but the kpackage wasn't working. I decided to give Fedora a go... I love it! Has everything in it I could need. Working great so far!