Fedora 11 GDM startup
 

Hi,

How is the GDM started in Fedora 11. I checked the /etc/init.d directory but there seem to be no files there pertaining to the gdm startup.

_
Harsha

In fedora 12 there is a file called /etc/X11/xinit/Xclients which mentions starting gnome-session

Hi smoker,

The file you were referring to doesn't have anything related to the starting of GDM. It selects a desktop session among the existing ones.

I am guessing the /sbin/init program which is an ELF executable starts the GDM when instructed to go to runlevel 5.

Regards,
Harsha

I tracked the boot as far as plymouth, which is a binary so I don't know what happens then.

I just found a file that seems to be the one you want. You may not have it on fedora 11 though ...
/etc/X11/prefdm

It seems to handle starting GDM or KDM or XDM or WDM

I am running Fedora 13 and Smoker's explanation holds true for me. If file /etc/sysconfig/desktop exists then file /etc/X11/prefdm will launch the display manager specified. If not, it will first attempt to launch GDM then KDM. I believe that /etc/sysconfig/desktop will exist only if you have more than one display manager installed. Any changes to this process would be fairly significant so it is likely that Fedora 11 is same.

Cheers, Lou

Thank you guys,

Currently, I don't have access to my Fedora 11 machine. I shall check on it soon and revert.

I found this link after searching on the Smokers Explanation.
http://www.linux.com/archive/feed/151682
It says that there is a tighter integration with plymounth and starting of the GDM.

-
Harsha

Harsha,

I'm not new to Linux but I am new to LQ. I think if you're satisfied that your question/problem has been resolved then it should be flagged to indicate this. Since I'm new here, I don't know how to do this. Maybe somebody could enlighten us.

Also, you should hit the 'Thanks' button on one of Smoker's responses if you feel he/she helped you at all.

Cheers, Lou

@LouRobytes
While I appreciate your sentiment, I have no idea whether we have solved a problem or even pointed Harsha in the right direction.

As I said, I appreciate what you're saying, but the Thanks are just numbers on a page, they don't really matter.
And I'm not sure we could say this is "solved" just yet. Too much Fedora hackery going on to be sure ...

For myself, I don't like the fact that all this Plymouth chicanery is all about something that is only briefly seen while booting. I have uptimes measured in months so how do I benefit from an improved boot gui ?

Mad.

Regarding marking the thread as resolved, I can't say for sure because I've never posted a new thread here, but I think it might be under Thread Tools at the top of each thread.

Cheers

Lou,

I don't mind hitting the 'Thank you' button, I am just waiting to hit for a post which answers best the question. And, regarding making the thread SOLVED, i know how to make it but i think it is too early for me to mark it so as we haven't conceded on how the GDM starts up.

I made the following advancements:
-The plymouth seems to be a GUI for boot process and it doesn't seem to start the GDM.
-I disabled the RHGB quiet boot while booting the kernel and the system displays all the startup processes. But, nowhere I found anything relevant to X or GDM. In this case, the X is starting on VT 1. I then shifted to VT 1 TUI and killed X (killall Xorg) from there. The X restarted on VT 7; Strange!
-Then, I booted to runlevel(RN) 3 and started the GDM manually, as root. It then started on VT 7. It would then show the same login screen, but when entered the correct password, it aks a question which I never saw before. It is something like this: Do you want to enable Security Context? [N]. If given either choices, Y or N. It would say 'Unable to start session'
-While still in RN 3, after stopping the GDM with #gdm-stop. I started X, #startx, and I am able to see the desktop without any login screen which is as intended as we have directly started the X without GDM and the xinitrc file will start the gnome-session.
-I carefully observed the console output while changing the RN from 3 to 5. It only shows three new services being started, again, none related to GDM or X.
-Sniffing out some suspicion with the init scripts, I found that fedora since fedora 9 uses Upstart(http://upstart.ubuntu.com). I downloaded the source to examine it. I tried to compile but the build fails due to some dependencies. Right now, I am across a firewall and certain download sites are being blocked, so, i will have to try from home.

Smoker,

Even I don't like the Graphical boot. But, I think many novice users find it comforting to see the system boot that way. AFAIK, Fedora boasts faster boot with the improved gui. It may not be helpful for servers and desktops, but for netbooks it is a must.

Thanks for your time.

Regards,
Harsha

I found the following in Plymouth README:

I guess it is the one which is starting GDM.

Regards,
Harsha

Hi all

As I said, I'm not new to linux but I'm clearly in over my head here so I'll just watch for now. Hope you find what you're looking for.

Cheers, Lou

Just for information to users reading this thread:

Since /etc/inittab has been simplified to the single indication of "default runlevel, all other services are started by init, in an event driving way quite like in SFM of Solaris, from the list in :
/etc/event.d/
(replacement of all what were described previously in /etc/inittab)
/sbin/init and /etc/event.d are part of standard upstart rpm package.

So if you look in method (script) of :
/etc/event.d/prefdem
you see:
exec /etc/X11/prefdm -nodaemon
as previously in old style /etc/inittab entry.

If you look inside:
/etc/event.d/plymouth-shutdown
and
/etc/event.d/quit-plymouth
you will notice also the events that triggers starting or stopping, prefdem and plymouth.

prefdem and plymouth are driven by init, conditionally the trigger described in the /etc/event.d/* corresponding file.

Obviously prefdem is started by init at completion of rc5 execution, not by plymouth . And plymouth will be stopped by init when prefdem is started, and restarted when prefdem is stopped!

Yes, I now understand how upstart takes care of the init services. I checked the /etc/event.d directory and it seems to start up the runlevel services by executing 'exec /etc/rc.d/rc <N>' for each particular runlevel.

it is the init from upstart which is responsible for the starting GDM through prefdm.

Thank you yveslec.