I am done adding and complieing in slack so i made a new user with the adduser command but when i log on as that use it has no gui what should i do to get him to use the gui?

ah if you add
/opt/kde/bin/kdm

to you /etc/rc.d/rc.local file you should get a graphical login, and he be directed directly to X windows when logged in (instead of the console)
For the lazy and brave you can try cut paste this to your shell:
echo -e "\n /opt/kde/bin/kdm" >> /etc/rc.d/rc.local
(that ones goes untested)
you probably also want :
chgrp users /dev/dsp (to enable sound for your users)
maybe also on /dev/mix? /dev/dsp1 ... ??
and add users in your /etc/fstab for the floppy, cdrom and extra hardisk partion you may want everybody to acccess .. .. man mount

If I understand the question correctly. May be highly questioned. Your machine is setup and configured to run X windows but the default login prompt is the console. You want it to be GUI based, like KDE or GNome?

If above is correct then it I would think your system is still running in runlevel (or initlevel) 3. Change it to 4 in the /etc/inittab file.

It is a line that reads "id:3:initdefault:" Simply change the 3 to a 4.

I usually test the mode first though before simply changing and rebooting. I do this by using the "telinit 4" command after logging in as root. If it works well and the session manager starts and allows a login OK, then change the inittab file. To return to console prompt mode press Ctrl-Alt-F6 to get to the sixth console getty to login.

If the above doesn't answer your question then maybe providing somemore information would help.

Cheers

I tried both the above on slack8.1, Valars and Excalibur. Both work, however, the GUI log on only recognizes root even the KDEs login manager doesn't recognize the users, only root. If I try to log on using the GUI as a user a pop saying that something is not in /etc/ shell.

How do I get the GUI to recognize the users or what do I actually place in /etc/shell.

I only know how to configure the kdm manager and that from the KDE Control Center panel.

Log in as root with the KDE desktop and run the Control Center. Under the Index tab, expand the System line item. Highlight the Login Manager under System. Click on the Users tab in the right pane.

The left column should display users that are available to add to the menu item. Highlight the user and click the top center button to move it to the right pane. Repaeat as required. Select "Selected only" in the selection box on the right side.

OR

On the right side is a selection box, just select "All but no-show"

When completed click the "Apply" button on the lower right and then close the Control Center. Log off and the setup should be visible in the menu.

Unfortunately, I have not seen the popup you stated and I do not know of any file name of /etc/shell. There is a shell command for a user inside the /etc/passwd file. That is usually set to /bin/bash.

Unfortunately it doesn't work, the kdm manager doesn't show any of the users, only root. There are actually six users and all were added using the kde's user manager thing.

Question is, is it a setup error, a bug with Slack8.1, a bug with KDE3 or both or none.

I normally do not use the Kuser manager but /usr/sbin/adduser script. But I added a user using the Kuser program and I was able to duplicate your problem. You will need to use Kuser and edit all of the new accounts. In the user properties screen the third option field is the Login shell. It does not default to anything and it leaves it blank. Click the drop list arrow and select the option for "/bin/bash" in the list. After it is saved and kuser closed, they will appear in the list for users in the Control Center - Login Manager.

Kuser really should default it to /bin/bash to start with then let root change it if required. But that should solve your problem.

Cheers,

The new user must have a shell defined in the /etc/passwd file before he will show up as one of the choices in the kdm login screen (or be allowed to telnet in, I think). As Excalibur noted, the adduser (not useradd) script will take care of all the details for adding the user besides just putting his name in the /etc/passwd file. To quickly solve your problem, you can edit the /etc/passwd file to include "/bin/bash" at the end of the line for your new user. The new user's line should look something like this:
bbeers:x:1000:100:Bob Beers,,,:/home/bbeers:/bin/bash
In the future, add new users with the adduser (not useradd) script and you'll avoid some headaches.

just my 2 cents.
-Bob

I tried it, new run level 4 and added /bin/bash to the /etc/passwd. That works fine, however, Ive lost all the virtual terminals from tty2 to 5.

Without a gui login tty0 = F1 and F7 becomes X. What happens now with the GUI login, tty0 = F1 but X is now F2 and not F7, F3 to F5 gives a blinking curser instead of their respective tty consoles and only F6, tty6, gives a login prompt.

In the init file I found this comment at the bottom of the page which seems to explain my curiosity above:

# Runlevel 4 used to be for an X window only system, until we discovered
# that it throws init into a loop that keeps your load avg at least 1 all
# the time. Thus, there is now one getty opened on tty6. Hopefully no one
# will notice. ;^)
# It might not be bad to have one text console anyway, in case something
# happens to X.
x1:4:wait:/etc/rc.d/rc.4


Could somebody explain it?

In runlevel 4 they do not run the all the getty programs. Except on console 6 they do leave one. I have found that to be extremely usefull if the kdm login is having some problem, I can switch to console 6 to correct the issue and then return to kdm or to switch to runlevel 3 with the "telinit 3" command. I haven't missed the other consoles, because under X I can have as many consoles and desktops as my system can handle and they are more flexible.

If you don't run X very often. Configure for runlevel 3 as a default and you will have all your consoles. Then when X is desired just run the command "startx".

Another option is to leave runlevel 3 as default, but add
kdm
to the end of your rc.local.
Then to get to your tty's from X, hit CTRL-ALT-F[123456].
To get back into X, hit ALT-F7.

-Bob

That's what bothers me (I'm too curious for my own good) runlevel 4 should work like that? Mandrake works like that as does RH from memory. You would think the guys at Slack would have figured it out? or are the other distros sending it out with the loop error as mentioned above.

MMMMMm, makes you wonder who's right who's wrong, what's the right way or wrong way.

I do not know there is a right way or a wrong way but with Linux there are always many ways.

Mandrake and RedHat use runlevel 5, instead of 4. Slack is the only distro I know of that uses 4 for the X system. I do not recall what Mandrake or RedHat did on the consoles. All my machines that I have access to are running Slack, so I can't go look to see what there inittab is like.

As far as the message in the inittab is concerned, I would not put much stock in it for today. I think the message has been there for many years. So the original problem might not even apply anymore. If you really want all the consoles in runlevel 4, modify the inittab file to give them.

Cheers

Yeah I think your right for runlevel 4 is meant to be spare. MMMM I might try see what happens if I use runlevel 5 instead.

Thanks for your help.

Runlevel 5 is identical to runlevel 3.