Help! "Id X is respawning too fast" in YDL 2.3 (?!)

Wed Jul 17 07:23:01 2002

	Take it easy my friend, don't despair and don't do anything =
rash.=20
What's happening to you is indeed something very common and fortunately=20=

very easy to fix, at least at the beginning. No reinstalls, no erasures=20=

and reformats, no nothing. Just a bit of Linux knowledge. The only thing=20=

that's happening to you is that you have a misconfigured graphical=20
environment and therefore it crashes when init (the startup process)=20
tries to switch to runlevel 5 (graphical). But init doesn't give up and=20=

when it sees that X (the graphical environment) crashed it tries again,=20=

and again, and again, and again until the kernel realizes it is=20
respawning to fast and disables it for five minutes. When they are over,=20=

the whole dance begins again.

	So what you have to do is wait for those gracious five minutes =
and=20
enter the console and modify some files. If you are left with a login=20
and password prompt at the interim enter "root" and your password. If no=20=

login prompt then press ctrl-opt-F1 to go to the first console. Login as=20=

root and then enter "cd /etc/" and hot return (just to make sure, every=20=

command issued is followed by enter unless said otherwise). Write "pico=20=

inittab" and go to the part that says:

"default:5:......" 		or something

	In any case, is the line exactly below the listing of the five=20=

runlevels. Change the five to a three and save the changes with ctrl-o=20=

(hit enter) and then exit with ctrl-x. After that write "init q" at the=20=

command prompt and the system should go to runlevel 3. If problems still=20=

persist wait the next gracious five minutes and enter "init 3" (more=20
explicit) at the command prompt. In fact, this last command could be the=20=

first thing issued when you first gain root access to your system, so to=20=

avoid running against the clock because the nap time is running out.

	Now, every single time you boot it will be to a text login, you=20=

wont have a nice graphical environment until you take further steps to=20=

configure XFree86 (handler of X). But more of that later, first try to=20=

gain control of your system.

	Hope that helps. If you have any problem with the solution =
provided=20
please post back with specifics. Regards,...

		Juan.

On Wednesday, July 17, 2002, at 06:57  AM, Cameron Paterson wrote:

> Hi
> I recently acquired YDL 2.3 and set about installing it onto a 10=20
> gigabyte
> partition on my nearly-new 600mhz iMac (after first erasing an earlier
> unsuccessful Mandrake Linux installation on the same partition).
> I chose the recommended partition scheme (10MB for yaboot, 128MB for=20=

> swap
> and max for root). Installation of YDL (with the "Home/ Office" =
package
> selected) went smoothly, although I did (perhaps unwisely) force the=20=

> machine
> to quit and then restarted the installation a couple of times after I
> misunderstood a few of the options (assuming previous data would be
> overwritten/ erased). Once the installation had completed=20
> "successfully" I
> sat back to enjoy my new OS =97 only to run straight into yet another =
of=20
> those
> headache-inducing cryptic errors in which Linux seems to specialise! =
The
> system starts and the boot process continues apparently smoothly until=20=

> the
> point (I assume) just before the graphical window manager is about to=20=

> load.
> I then get seemingly random flickerings on the monitor, followed by =
the
> error message "IT: ID "X" is respawning too fast: disabled for 5=20
> minutes",
> which then just repeats itself, apparently endlessly,=20
> every....err...five
> minutes in between weird flickering.
> Searching the net, I found a few vague and contradictory references to=20=

> this
> apparently known Linux error =97 some vital file has apparently =
corrupted
> (perhaps due to the forced restarts) and it may be something to do =
with
> Gnome - or so I understand. But all the suggested solutions I found=20
> assume
> in-depth knowledge of Linux which I just don't have (yet). I tried=20
> doing a
> quick reinstall of YDL with the same selections and configurations, =
but=20
> it
> didn't make any difference....:P
> I would happily do a  deep level erasure and formatting of the Linux
> partitions but I don=92t know how to do this without erasing my 30 gig=20=

> Mac OS
> 9 & X (single) partition (Apple's Disk Utility =97 X.1 version =97 =
does=20
> have and
> 'erase' function but it doesn't seem to be able to see existing=20
> non-HFS(+)
> partitions).
> Can anyone provide me with a newbie-friendly explanation of this=20
> problem and
> how to solve it? Here's hoping!
> Cheers!
> Cameron
>
> PS - I have just migrated to Yellow Dog after being driven to the =
point=20
> of
> gibbering despair by the many serious problems which riddle Mandrake=20=

> Linux
> for PPC 8.2, so I am very keen to make YDL work!
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> yellowdog-general mailing list
> yellowdog-general@lists.terrasoftsolutions.com
> http://lists.terrasoftsolutions.com/mailman/listinfo/yellowdog-general