XDM login window loops trying to start i3 session in Slackware64 14.2
 

Hi,

I have installed slackware64 14.2 with i3wm. I am having trouble logging into i3 using xdm. XDM login window always loops back to login window. In .xsession-errors, this message is found. I can start i3 session using "startx". I worked around this problem using info from the following link - https://lists.freebsd.org/pipermail/...er/080775.html

I want to do the same without modifying XDM configuration. Is there a way?

Have you considered using ~/.xsession executable? Maybe read the files in /etc/X11/xdm and add your script into Xsession file.

~/.xsession is already executable. Here is whats in it.


Attachment 22427

Well I don't use it, but I've checked portage for the list of files and there seems to be a session file /etc/X11/Sessions/i3wm
Maybe locate this file and see how it's starting the session, or point xinitrc symlink to that file, other than that I have no idea.
I've used startfluxbox in ~/.xsession and that's working fine.

The scripts /etc/X11/xinit/xinitrc.i3, /etc/X11/xinit/xinitrc, ~/.xinitrc, ~/.xsession are all identical, yet it fails to start i3 session. So I replaced all the code in .xsession with "exec startx" and it started working. The man page of startx said it reads the .xinitrc file from the home directory for startup scripts, which is great that I am not missing anything of the default script generated by "xwmconfig", but .xsession should have worked. Other out of the box DM/WM's don't have this problem. I also faced it after installing mate desktop.

Some window managers seem not to like being started via dbus-launch and will result in the error you're seeing. I think it has something to do with whether or not they fork()+exec() themselves and whether they still have the same PID that dbus-launch used when they XOpenDisplay(). The XDM message you posted is typically what you see in this case. If you take a look at /etc/X11/xinit/xinitrc.blackbox and the /usr/bin/startblackbox that it invokes you'll see an approach to starting dbus and the window manager which I've found to be reliable and should work for you. I use something similar for starting 'dwm'.