Login & password problems
 

I'm running Mandrake 10.1 community edition, and have 2 problems I am unable to resolve:
1. I want to have a boot process that takes me directly into a desk top with out having to login, I have amended kdmrc but this doesn't have any effect.

2. At the moment, I can only shutdown the system logged in as root, this is a pain.

In both cases, I used to be able to do this until the system crashed when trying to install a printer driver a few days ago.

below are the contents of my kdmrc file (or what I believe to be the relevant bits anyway).
If anyone can help.............

[Shutdown]
HaltCmd=/sbin/halt
LiloCmd=/sbin/lilo
LiloMap=/boot/map
RebootCmd=/sbin/reboot
UseLilo=true

[X-*-Core]
AllowNullPasswd=true
AllowRootLogin=false
AllowShutdown=all
AutoReLogin=false
Reset=/etc/X11/xdm/TakeConsole
Resources=/etc/X11/xdm/Xresources
Session=/etc/X11/xdm/Xsession
Setup=/etc/X11/xdm/Xsetup_0
Startup=/etc/X11/xdm/GiveConsole
SystemPath=/usr/bin:/sbin:/usr/sbin:/bin:/usr/bin:/usr/X11R6/bin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/X11R6/bin/
UserPath=/usr/bin:/bin:/usr/bin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/X11R6/bin/


........thanks in anticipation.

If you're using KDE, there should be a User admin GUI that will allow you to preset a user login. This will allow you to boot and auto-login. I'm at work and stuck on a Windows machine but I'll look it up when I get home and tell you the actual name.

Menu->System->Configuration->Configure Your Computer then System->Login Manager->Convenience

thanks for your help, but trying to do it this way doesn't work - this is why Im resorting to LQO.
I have signed in as root, gone to the login menu as you suggested, clicked the 'convenience' tab and made the necessary changes - next time I switch on I'm still faced with the login screen.
If you have any other suggestions keep them coming 'cos I'm clean out of ideas.
Thanks again,

Sitka

It seems like you have a really weird install of Mandriva as most people don't have any of these issues. Have you seen Mandriva LE 2005? I believe it's considered the "official" version of 10.2 Community Edition. It should be free to download as well. If you have put a lot of time into setting your system up, I realize it's a pain to have to start from scratch, but these seem to be strange bugs.

In my experience, you need root priviledges to use the shutdown command, but the halt command can be used by a normal user. Can you run the command:

whereis halt

You should get entries for BOTH /sbin/halt AND /usr/bin/halt

If you do, try changing:

HaltCmd=/sbin/halt

to read

HaltCmd=/usr/bin/halt

If there is no entry for /usr/bin/halt, mine is a symlink that points to /usr/bin/consolehelper.

If you don't have consolehelper in /usr/bin, you should be able to point it at /sbin/halt. I think the only difference will be that you don't get a splash screen when it halts.

I have never enabled this but from what might help the xcore part needs these items.
# Enable automatic login. USE WITH EXTREME CARE!
AutoLoginEnable=true
# The user to log in automatically. NEVER specify root!
AutoLoginUser=username

Now if there is a [X-:0-Core] section then I believe it needs to be here. It may need to be in both places in the event one section contradics the other.

edit: sorry I see you have it there ignore this part for now
For shutdown in the [X:Core] section add
AllowShutdown=All
edit

See if that helps
Brian1

There was never any '10.2 Community Edition'. After 10.1 Mandriva got rid of the whole community/official version thing. 10.2 went straight from the normal beta testing to the release version, which they decided to name '2005 Limited Edition'. The next release will be Mandriva 2006 then 2007..

Holy crap, misread the first post and thought it said 10.2 instead of 10.1. To the OP, Mandriva 10.1 Community Edition was BY FAR the worst distribution of Linux that I've ever tried. NOTHING worked. It was the buggiest piece of software... for me I think it crashed more often than the original Windows 98 (which has been dubbed by me as sir-crash-a-lot). XMMS would load a skin and then freeze EVERY TIME. None of the games that came with on the CD would even load after the first week of using it. I used Xkill more than any other program when I was using that version of Mandrake. If you aren't completely attached to that version already, I'd recommend getting away from that steaming pile ASAP.

Thanks everyone for your comments and help...
I'm going to keep going with this installation until I've made the darn thing do what it ought to be doing. I'm nearly there, and once I am there other distributions and releases can go whistle.
You're right though, I've had a lot of trouble with this version of Mandriva it's had more bugs than a tramps mattress.

Sitka

I avoided the Community distributions usually for this same reason - they were crap. They were literally beta quality and I think the whole community/offical thing was just a way to get more people in on the beta testing process by pretending that the 'community' version was suitable for everyday use. It wasn't.

Sitka, if you have 10.1 community you should very seriously consider either getting 10.1 Official or 10.2 (ie. 2005LE), both of which in my experience are relatively stable and bug free and are free downloads from their website.

Its a shame Mandrake released these 'community' editions as it gave so many people who tried them the mistaken impression that Linux was unstable, buggy and generally crappy.