XFree86 not starting

[Kipper]

I'm using v4.1.0 on Linux2.4.7-0.13.1smp.

My computer locked up whilst on XScreenSaver4.0 and I had no choice but to press the reset button.

Even though the /etc/inittab is set with runlevel5, XFree86 does not start, leaving me at the command line. I can then start it with startx with no problems.

Any ideas what could have happened, and how can I restore the settings?

 

[bgarlock]

could you post your /etc/inittab? There should also be a line that respawns xdm or whatever login manager you are running. Maybe that is somehow missing, or pointing to a wrong file.

Bruce Garlock
bruceg@tiac.net

http://bruceg.dyndns.org

 

[Kipper]

#
# inittab This file describes how the INIT process should set up
# the system in a certain run-level.
#
# Author: Miquel van Smoorenburg, <miquels@drinkel.nl.mugnet.org>
# Modified for RHS Linux by Marc Ewing and Donnie Barnes
#

# Default runlevel. The runlevels used by RHS are:
# 0 - halt (Do NOT set initdefault to this)
# 1 - Single user mode
# 2 - Multiuser, without NFS (The same as 3, if you do not have networking)
# 3 - Full multiuser mode
# 4 - unused
# 5 - X11
# 6 - reboot (Do NOT set initdefault to this)
#
id:5:initdefault:

# System initialization.
si::sysinit:/etc/rc.d/rc.sysinit

l0:0:wait:/etc/rc.d/rc 0
l1:1:wait:/etc/rc.d/rc 1
l2:2:wait:/etc/rc.d/rc 2
l3:3:wait:/etc/rc.d/rc 3
l4:4:wait:/etc/rc.d/rc 4
l5:5:wait:/etc/rc.d/rc 5
l6:6:wait:/etc/rc.d/rc 6

# Things to run in every runlevel.
ud:nce:/sbin/update

# Trap CTRL-ALT-DELETE
ca::ctrlaltdel:/sbin/shutdown -t3 -r now

# When our UPS tells us power has failed, assume we have a few minutes
# of power left. Schedule a shutdown for 2 minutes from now.
# This does, of course, assume you have powerd installed and your
# UPS connected and working correctly.
pf:owerfail:/sbin/shutdown -f -h +2 &quot;Power Failure; System Shutting Down&quot;

# If power was restored before the shutdown kicked in, cancel it.
pr:12345owerokwait:/sbin/shutdown -c &quot;Power Restored; Shutdown Cancelled&quot;


# Run gettys in standard runlevels
1:2345:respawn:/sbin/mingetty tty1
2:2345:respawn:/sbin/mingetty tty2
3:2345:respawn:/sbin/mingetty tty3
4:2345:respawn:/sbin/mingetty tty4
5:2345:respawn:/sbin/mingetty tty5
6:2345:respawn:/sbin/mingetty tty6

# Run xdm in runlevel 5
# xdm is now a separate service
x:5:respawn:/etc/X11/prefdm -nodaemon

 

[ifincham]

Hi,

Check that /etc/X11/prefdm resolves correctly to an actual display manager (e.g. gdm). The way redhat set it is that that 'prefdm' means preferred display manager and that should call gdm or kdm or xdm ...

ls -l /etc/X11/prefdm

Regards

 

[Kipper]

The file does not exist, which probably explains the problems. Any idea why it should go in the first place and what do I need to do to reconstruct it?

 

[ifincham]

Hi,

That is provided by the 'initscripts' rpm so you could always reinstall that rpm :

cd your_rpm_directory
rpm -Uvh --replacepkgs initscripts*.rpm

Alternatively you could change the 'prefdm' in /etc/inittab to 'gdm' (gnome display manager) or 'kdm' (kde display manager).

From memory, prefdm used to be a simple symlink but I think that was changed to a script that reads /etc/sysconfig/desktop to see what you are using as a desktop and then calls the relevant display manager (gdm/kdm/xdm).

Regards

 

[Kipper]

My mistake - prefdm does exist. I typed x11 instead of X11!! D'oh!
Howver, I've upgraded to the lastest initscripts rpm and changed the inittab to gdm with no success.