aliases set by /etc/profile not working in terminals in X

Locura · 06-25-2003, 10:13 PM

This kinda goes back to a problem I had in another thread, wanting to see the colored filenames/directories in the terminal. I set up global aliases, a custom shell prompt, and the colors and all that through a script called /etc/profile.d/alias.sh, and have it running along with the other *.sh scripts in /etc/profile.d due to the following code in /etc/profile.

Code:

for file in /etc/profile.d/*.sh ; do
  if [ -x $file ]; then
    . $file
  fi
done

Now, this works, UNTIL I run startx and enter my WM. Then no matter what terminal I try, none of them show the colors or the custom shell prompt, and none of the aliases work. Then if I exit my WM and am back at the console, they work again.

Locura · 06-25-2003, 10:39 PM

Oh, also, I noticed something wierd.

The prompt for my terminals in X is bash-2.05b$. That is NOT what it was when I first logged in (even prior to changing the entry in /etc/profile). So some other script must be overriding what /etc/profile is setting.

contrasutra · 06-25-2003, 11:06 PM

You have tried putting the alias in ~/.bashrc ? That always works for me.

Locura · 06-25-2003, 11:21 PM

Yeah, I have done that for aliases that I want for just my user, but these I want to be default for ALL users, hence they are in the global profile file, /etc/profile.

contrasutra · 06-25-2003, 11:35 PM

You could just symlink every other users ~/.bashrc to one .bashrc, and then you would only have to change one. That might work, if you know that using .bashrc works in a terminal.

LNXman · 06-26-2003, 12:18 PM

If you say that the /etc/profile works when you are not in X, but not when you are opening a terminal in X, then I assume that you may not have setup your terminal to be a login terminal.

For example, If you are using kconsole as your terminal, you will have to go to settings in KDE, and set kconsole to be a login terminal, so that the /etc/profile will be read.

I believe the same can be the case for other terminal apps. such as eterm, gnome-session, rxvt, xterm, etc.

Check it out. . .

GL

Locura · 06-26-2003, 01:19 PM

Yeah, I actually just figured out the problem about an hour ago. Since my terminal is not a login shell, the terminals were looking for /etc/bashrc and ~/.bashrc for initialization. So, I just created an /etc/bashrc, and wrote a small script to see if the shell was a login shell, and if not to execute the bash scripts in /etc/profile.d. And so far so good, and all is well as long as the ~/.bashrc checks for the existence of /etc/bashrc and executes it if it exists (I added a couple lines to every user's ~/.bashrc to do so, and also added this to the default .bashrc in /etc/skel.

newlin · 06-26-2003, 03:21 PM

i have konsole on my KDE taskbar but it does not appear in settings / control centre menu .could yo please say exactly where in KDE/settings to set konsole to a login shell so that it behaves identically to the login shell at boot time ..

There is nothing configured on the pc ,its out of the box default slackware 9

ie no bashrc or bash.profile or anything else,.. just /etc/profile.

thanks

LNXman · 06-26-2003, 04:27 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by newlin
i have konsole on my KDE taskbar but it does not appear in settings / control centre menu .could yo please say exactly where in KDE/settings to set konsole to a login shell so that it behaves identically to the login shell at boot time ..

There is nothing configured on the pc ,its out of the box default slackware 9

ie no bashrc or bash.profile or anything else,.. just /etc/profile.

thanks

If I recall, you can open up a kconsole window, and access its preferences from its own menu. The menu that pops up, is the same as the one you would find if you searched for it under the KDE system configuration app. Once you are in the preferences for kconsole, you should be able to find that setting to make kconsole a login shell.

Sorry if I am not too detailed, but I don't use KDE, I only remember from what I played with when KDE 3.0 came out.

I am sure a fellow KDE user can help you better.

GL