I'm on a Redhat 9 server at work that I built,

[root@dev-server root]# uname -a
Linux sitt-automation-dev 2.4.20-8smp #1 SMP Thu Mar 13 17:45:54 EST 2003 i686 i686 i386 GNU/Linux
[root@dev-server root]#


When I built the box, I specified a commandline login for access, but now I'd like to change that to run one of the window managers, kde, or gnome I guess. I try to run them manually but I get various errors. "startkde" complains about my display setting, even when I'm sitting on the console. My x-config knowledge is getting old, but trying to do a export DISPLAY=":0.0" but it doesn't work. Then for launching gdm, I get a prompt back but the display changes to a blue screen with the hour glass like it wants to start. But it just hangs.

Startx isn't much better:

[root@dev-server root]# startx

XFree86 Version 4.3.0 (Red Hat Linux release: 4.3.0-2)
Release Date: 27 February 2003
X Protocol Version 11, Revision 0, Release 6.6
Build Operating System: Linux 2.4.20-3bigmem i686 [ELF]
Build Date: 27 February 2003
Build Host: porky.devel.redhat.com

Module Loader present
OS Kernel: Linux version 2.4.20-8smp (bhcompile@porky.devel.redhat.com) (gcc version 3.2.2 20030222 (Red Hat Linux 3.2.2-5)) #1 SMP Thu Mar 13 17:45:54 EST 2003 PF
Markers: (--) probed, (**) from config file, (==) default setting,
(++) from command line, (!!) notice, (II) informational,
(WW) warning, (EE) error, (NI) not implemented, (??) unknown.
(==) Log file: "/var/log/XFree86.0.log", Time: Thu Jan 13 11:12:53 2005
(==) Using config file: "/etc/X11/XF86Config"

(WW) ATI(0): Failed to set up write-combining range (0xfd000000,0x800000)
(WW) ATI(0): Failed to set up write-combining range (0xfd000000,0x800000)
SESSION_MANAGER=local/dev-server:/tmp/.ICE-unix/1949
AUDIT: Thu Jan 13 11:12:57 2005: 1945 X: client 4 rejected from local host
/usr/bin/gnome-session: relocation error: /usr/lib/libfontconfig.so.1: undefined symbol: FT_Get_BDF_Property

waiting for X server to shut down

[root@dev-server root]#



So I'm not too sure what my next plan of attack is here. I guess that even if I reconfigured the bootup to start windows, I'd still be getting one of these errors.

Any help would be appreciated, thanks.

From my understanding you want the system to load up in GUI rather then CLI? To do that you can editing /etc/inittab. In the file it gives a description of the runlevels. Runlevel 5 is GUI so change the init default to 5.

id:5:initdefault:

that is the line in my file. (I boot up into GUI)

as of why you can't get your GUI to start i can't help you much there. sorry.

as predicted, it is just hanging with an hourglass on a blue screen (indicating that it is running
gdm since this is the same behavior I got when I ran gdm from the cmdline).

Where can I check for gdm errors? Here are the processes that are running right now.

[root@dev-server root]# ps -efa | grep gdm
root 890 1 0 11:48 ? 00:00:00 [gdm-binary]
root 933 890 0 11:48 ? 00:00:00 [gdm-binary]
root 934 933 11 11:48 ? 00:00:22 /usr/X11R6/bin/X :0 -auth /var/gdm/:0.Xauth vt7
gdm 4627 933 0 11:51 ? 00:00:00 /usr/bin/gdmgreeter
root 4629 4528 0 11:51 pts/0 00:00:00 grep gdm
[root@dev-server root]#

all logs are kept in /var/log/ check in there.

because it is a graphical issue i think the xorg log would be your best bet.