Perpetual hour glass logging in as root
 

Mandrake Linux 9.1.

When I start KDE as root, the red background screen appears, but the mouse pointer remains as an hour class and no icons appear on the desktop. The "Start Applications" button is there, and works.

Thanks,

Kevin

:newbie:

a couple questions:
does it do this when you log in as a normal user?
does it hang when you log in as root on a non-graphical terminal?

if you can log in as root on a non-graphical terminal, then try running the system without Xwin running automatical (init=4 if I remember correctly) and then start Xwin by typing startx. On the terminal that you run startx from, you can see what status Xwin is at.

It works OK as a normal user, failing only as root.

I did the init 4 and startx. As before the KDE Task Bar appears and works, but no icons, hourglass stays and you can't get a right-click menu.

The console display doesn't seem to have anything interesting except there is one line that says:

hostname: Unknown host

and the last line showing is:

Using vt 7

in Mandrake it should be init 3 but this is probably not relevant. Maybe there is something in .xsession-errors in the home directory of root. BTW, there is really no reason why you should start KDE as root. There is a reason why you see red when you start kde as root. You can always become root when necessary using the su command.

Here's what's in my .xsession-errors file:

startkde: Starting up...
kbuildsycoca running...
mcop warning: user defined signal handler found for SIG_PIPE, overriding
Can't get own host name. Your system is severely misconfigured

WARNING: KDE detected X Error: BadMatch (invalid parameter attributes) \x08
Major opcode: *
QFont::setPixelSize: Pixel size <= 0 (-1)
startkde: Shutting down...
KLauncher: Exiting on signal 1
startkde: Running shutdown scripts...
startkde: Done.

I got the same thing under Gnome but not KDE (both root and personal account). I installed Gnome after the Mandrake Installation, its possible I installed it the wrong way or that something is missing...

I'm a linux moderate noob (moderated since I've read almost any how-to do found out how to configure dns/dhcp/vpn/firewall/etc.)

hm, I just noticed that my installation behaves the same way - i never started kde as root before. I don't have
"Can't get own host name. Your system is severely misconfigured"
but since I have the same problem as you, it's probably not related to this.
I wouldn't worry too much about it though. As I said, there's really no reason to start kde as root.

I ave the same error as well. Everything else works except for the desktop.

The root desktop is meant to look that way to discourage daily/normal use, hopefully preventing damage to your system.

The red background is to warn you and the absence of icons and other features make it difficult to use in the usual way.

So mdg are you saying there is no way I can change this. It seems to be a bit useless to me if you can use the terminal as root but not KDE as root.

why do you need to run KDE as root? I've never done it until I checked yesterday and I've never felt the need to. All the graphical configuration tools can be started as a normal user - you'll just be asked to provide the root password. And if there is no graphical tool, it makes no difference anyway.

As far as I know, there is no way to change the root desktop. As pointed out before, you are liable to break your installation working as root, not to mention security risks from hackers.

Anything can be done from a console with su, or by supplying your password in the case of graphic apps

Yesterday I had to reinstall everything and since then botch KDE and Gnome won't load (seem to be in a loop) on either Root of my personal username... It's a fresh install of 9.1 Discouraged, I've started a fresh install of mdk9.0 (my last working os) so I'll know tonight after work if I still have the problem. But it look like it does it only when I select particular rpm in the installation processus. Can't tell wich one.

I'm puzzled about the problem because I can't even take a look at the logs in /var/log/message. I simply don't know how to log without gui ... no ain't a joke.. i'm a noob lol

wow... ok... well, here's how you can pull up a non-graphical terminal.
press <Ctrl>+<Alt>+<F#> where # = 1-6
You get 7 virtual terminals, that are assigned to the function keys. F1-F6 should all be command prompt only. F7 is usually set aside for Xwin.

hope that helps.

cool for the CTRL-ALT-Fx fonctions...

But even if just just finished rebuild my linux os & servers, I still can't use gnome.. only kde with both root and my account. gnome seem to be stuck in a loop with the hourglass when loading for hours... weird since this time I installed it at the installation of mdk and not by the rpms.