GDM login problems
 

I'm on Slackware 9.0 using the version of GDM that came with the distro. At some point, it began booting me into Gnome, as opposed to my usual Fluxbox. Something had changed, but I was not sure what. I used the session menu to select Fluxbox, and that worked, but it did not ask me the usual, "would you like to make this your new default window manager" question. And sure enough, when I tried to login again without specifying a window manager, I got Gnome.

So, I uninstalled GDM, downloaded the latest version from source, compiled and installed it. Same problem! Only now, the default seems to be a "failsafe Gnome." I have been reading GDM documentation till my eyes started to water. I have read through the cryptic config files, but I can't see what the problem is. Anybody else have this problem at some point? Any advice?

--Akshun J

Have you tried setting your default window manager with

xwmconfig

at command line

try a xwmconfig and chose fluxbox there if it doesnt work edit the gdm xsession file and just set last session and or default session to fluxbox

No dice on the xwmconfig. All that did was change my ./xinitrc file, which GDM doesn't read. And I can't find where in GDM's Xsession file where I can change the last or default session. Grrr. Very frustrating.

--Akshun J

"Last desperate plea for help," he announced dramatically...

--Akshun J

have a look at this part of your /etc/X11/gdm/Xsession file:
# run all system xinitrc shell scripts.
if [ -d /etc/X11/xinit/xinitrc.d ]; then
for i in /etc/X11/xinit/xinitrc.d/* ; do
if [ -x "$i" ]; then
. "$i"
fi
done
fi

if [ "x$command" = "xcustom" ] ; then
if [ -x "$HOME/.xsession" ]; then
command="$HOME/.xsession"
else
echo "$0: Cannot find ~/.xsession will try the default session"
command="default"
fi
fi

if [ "x$command" = "xdefault" ] ; then
if [ -x "$HOME/.Xclients" ]; then
command="$HOME/.Xclients"
elif [ -x /etc/X11/xinit/Xclients ]; then
command="/etc/X11/xinit/Xclients"
elif [ -x /etc/X11/Xclients ]; then
command="/etc/X11/Xclients"
else
echo "$0: Cannot find Xclients"
# FIXME: kind of an evil failsafe
command="xsm"
fi
fi

and check if there is an .xsession file in your home dir ...