xdm / kdm doesn't work on boot

Message

kevinlux · Post by **kevinlux** » Wed Mar 19, 2008 1:36 pm

Hi all,
a very strange problem.
I have kde 3.5.9 and kdm used by xdm.
I added xdm to default runlevel (try to add also to boot runlevel) but kdm doesn't start on
boot process. Messages from console tell me that

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Starting KDM...

BUT
I have to login in console as root and then with

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/etc/init.d/xdm restart

i can log into kdm.
thanks in advance

sawatts · Post by **sawatts** » Wed Mar 19, 2008 3:25 pm

ditto, except Gnome/gdm as the display manager.

Things were working fine, and have for several years on my Gentoo box. Then last weekend I updated the system, first time this year (an unusual delay as I normally update weekly) -- the usual; sync, emerge, etc-update, revdep, rinse&repeat.

I had to reinstate Gnome/gdm as my session of choice (some update doesn't preserve the selection).

But now on boot 'xdm' (in the default run level) starts long enough to show a flash of the Gnome login screen, then dies (either back to console, or if I'm unlucky, a blank screen -- I think the latter is a separate Nvidia issue).

If I remove 'xdm' from the default run level, I can log in and start the service by hand.

(* actually I'll check this later, last night I ran the 'start-stop-daemon' command directly).

I suspect (and has been suggested elsewhere here) that some service dependency isn't being reflected in the 'xdm' script. So 'xdm' starting as part of the default runlevel starts before some other service it depends upon, while starting by hand later is okay. But *what* other process is now required? It must be one started as a result of the other default entries...

(There is another thread on the same/similar problem which I have posted to as well)

vai777 · Post by **vai777** » Sun Mar 30, 2008 11:54 am

same here, KDM does not start on boot properly. I have to log in, and 'killall kdm && kdm &'

j79zlr · Post by **j79zlr** » Mon Mar 31, 2008 1:19 am

sawatts wrote:ditto, except Gnome/gdm as the display manager.

Things were working fine, and have for several years on my Gentoo box. Then last weekend I updated the system, first time this year (an unusual delay as I normally update weekly) -- the usual; sync, emerge, etc-update, revdep, rinse&repeat.

I had to reinstate Gnome/gdm as my session of choice (some update doesn't preserve the selection).

But now on boot 'xdm' (in the default run level) starts long enough to show a flash of the Gnome login screen, then dies (either back to console, or if I'm unlucky, a blank screen -- I think the latter is a separate Nvidia issue).

If I remove 'xdm' from the default run level, I can log in and start the service by hand.

(* actually I'll check this later, last night I ran the 'start-stop-daemon' command directly).

I suspect (and has been suggested elsewhere here) that some service dependency isn't being reflected in the 'xdm' script. So 'xdm' starting as part of the default runlevel starts before some other service it depends upon, while starting by hand later is okay. But *what* other process is now required? It must be one started as a result of the other default entries...

(There is another thread on the same/similar problem which I have posted to as well)

Try reemerging gnome-session, there was a collision with gdm / gnome-session and installing the session file.

sawatts · Post by **sawatts** » Tue Apr 01, 2008 5:15 pm

Re-emerging gnome-session did not work.

Rüpel · Post by **Rüpel** » Tue Apr 01, 2008 9:03 pm

I've got nvidia-drivers and kdm running here (stable x86). When the system boots, kdm actually starts fine, but for some strange reason the system switches back to console 1. When I press ctrl-alt-F7 my desktop just sits there ready to go.

All init-scripts execute successfully, no warnings or errors in Xorg.log, nothing suspicious in dmesg. It look as if something triggers ctrl-alt-F1 while starting Xorg. Strange.

Does anyone have a similar behavior?

PS: I recently stumbled upon a warning in my Xorg Logfile where the nvidia driver complained about not being able to connect to acpid. After adding acpid to the default runlevel that warning disappeared. Maybe that helps someone? Unfortunately the nvidia driver doesn't use the usual (WW)-(EE)-scheme in the logfile, so grep isn't very helpful extracting that message. Well, but most probably it's unrelated to this boot-issue, because that Xorg-hidden-boot-problem remains. At least for me...

tld · Post by **tld** » Thu Apr 03, 2008 5:52 pm

Similar issues here. KDM (via the xdm init script) starts ok. If I log out of my session in fluxbox however it appears to attempt to go to virtual terminal one, but I get a black screen. At that point it doesn't appear to respond to any keyboard commands (Ctrl-Alt-F7 etc) except Ctrl-Alt-Delete which goes to run level 6.

If I use kde out of kdm I have a similar issue in that it appear to jump to a scrambled version of virtual terminal one. I can hit enter there and get a prompt etc, but cannot get back to the x terminal with Ctrl-Alt-F7.

I'm also using nvidia drivers here, though my card requires me to use x11-drivers/nvidia-drivers-96.43.05.

I've actually been waiting for a good excuse to bag kdm altogether in favor of plain old startx...guess this is it

Tom

mdl313 · Post by **mdl313** » Mon Apr 21, 2008 6:19 am

Has anyone resolved this issue? I have the same problem.

tgnb · Post by **tgnb** » Fri Oct 03, 2008 4:12 pm

This just started happening for me too. X starts, but then the system switches back to the console before kdm starts. X is not waiting for me on vc7. Manually restarting xdm works fine.

notHerbert · Post by **notHerbert** » Fri Oct 03, 2008 4:38 pm

I noticed problems when I restarted X through /etc/init.d/xdm. It looked like kdm was not using xorg.conf - at least on restarts - weird.

So I added -config /etc/X11/xorg.conf to the X start command in kdmrc ([X-:*-Core]) which fixed the problem.

Code: Select all

ServerCmd=/usr/bin/X -br -config /etc/X11/xorg.conf

And for gdm

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[servers]
[server-Standard]
name=Standard server
command=/usr/bin/X -br -audit 0 -config /etc/X11/xorg.conf

optiluca · Post by **optiluca** » Tue Oct 07, 2008 4:14 pm

Suffering the same problem. X starts, the Nvidia screen appears, then disappears and I'm in a blank console with some messages leftover from boot. I have to switch to console 1 and restart xdm to log in. Any solutions yet?

Thanks in advance

_puck_ · Post by **_puck_** » Tue Oct 07, 2008 10:01 pm

Hello there,

I am having the same problem and removed xdm from runlevel default. Then logged in an

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/etc/init.d/xdm start

and it crashed. Then again

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/etc/init.d/xdm restart

and it worked like a charm.

hth

keenblade · Post by **keenblade** » Sat Oct 18, 2008 12:51 pm

Hi. I solved the same problem with increasing the ServerTimeout to 30 from 15.
The problem was the default value "15" sec is not enough for x-server to start up.
So, find your kdmrc file and add this line if it is not there. Be sure to use 30 as a value.

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ServerTimeout=30

For kde4.x you can find the kdmrc file at

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/usr/share/config/kdm/kdmrc

for kde 3.x

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/usr/kde/3.5/share/config/kdm/kdmrc

or somewhere similar. Hope that works for you,too.

tgnb · Post by **tgnb** » Fri Nov 14, 2008 5:58 pm

keenblade wrote:Hi. I solved the same problem with increasing the ServerTimeout to 30 from 15.
The problem was the default value "15" sec is not enough for x-server to start up.
So, find your kdmrc file and add this line if it is not there. Be sure to use 30 as a value.
Code: Select all
ServerTimeout=30
For kde4.x you can find the kdmrc file at
Code: Select all
/usr/share/config/kdm/kdmrc
for kde 3.x
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/usr/kde/3.5/share/config/kdm/kdmrc
or somewhere smilar. Hope that works for you,too.

For me this made no difference, anyone else?

NSaibot · Post by **NSaibot** » Fri Nov 14, 2008 9:39 pm

i've had this issue as well. raising the ServerTimeout to 60 resolved the problem for me.

tgnb · Post by **tgnb** » Tue Nov 18, 2008 4:17 pm

NSaibot wrote:i've had this issue as well. raising the ServerTimeout to 60 resolved the problem for me.

Setting it to 60 (and 120 even) still didn't resolve this issue for me.
I'm running KDE 4.1 on ~amd64, what about you?

lramos85 · Post by **lramos85** » Fri Nov 21, 2008 2:29 pm

tgnb: This didn't work for you?

notHerbert wrote:I noticed problems when I restarted X through /etc/init.d/xdm. It looked like kdm was not using xorg.conf - at least on restarts - weird.

So I added -config /etc/X11/xorg.conf to the X start command in kdmrc ([X-:*-Core]) which fixed the problem.
Code: Select all
ServerCmd=/usr/bin/X -br -config /etc/X11/xorg.conf
And for gdm
Code: Select all
[servers]
[server-Standard]
name=Standard server
command=/usr/bin/X -br -audit 0 -config /etc/X11/xorg.conf

lramos85 · Post by **lramos85** » Fri Nov 21, 2008 3:11 pm

Same here, I tried both solutions, SERVERCMD and SERVERTIMEOUT and a combination of both and no go.

I'm running kdm-4.1.3 on a ~x86. Its no big deal I guess but it would be nice to have. Thanks.

BTW, it seems to try to start, I even see a watch icon, but then it goes back to the terminal login.

keenblade · Post by **keenblade** » Fri Nov 21, 2008 10:13 pm

Did you check if acpid and hald are on the default run level? If not, try adding. Also check your hosts file.