Subject: Re: Problem with GDM on startup
From: Rich Dolinsky (r.e.dolinsky@verizon.net)
Date: Mon Jan 28 2002 - 19:41:10 MST
I am on an Old World machine. Bootx loads fine but goes all the way through
everything. Then the error happens and then it refreshes the screen to
black, gives me the error a few hundred times, goes black again, and
continues in a loop. I can type and it asks me for a password after I hit
enter...but during the middle the error starts all over agaiun
on 1/28/02 9:05 PM, nathan r. hruby at nhruby@arches.uga.edu wrote:
> On Mon, 28 Jan 2002, Rich Dolinsky wrote:
>
>> I can't log in at all.. I ge tto the crash on startup and am stuck. The
>> error happens opver and over again until I force reboot...something I hate
>> having to do.. Is there any way to bypass the startup and login using a
>> text interface without having it try to start gdm on startup. (ie boot
>> process)
>>
>
> Where exactly is the "crash"? Do you see a lot of text scroll by as it's
> booting, or does it go streaky as soon a yaboot does it's thing?
>
> If you see the entire boot process, this is an X error andyou should be
> able to boot linux into single user mode by passing the argument "single"
> to the kernel at boot time. (Eg: instead of hitting return at yaboot,
> enter "linux single") once booted single, you can edit the /etc/inittab
> to 3 and then debug your X errors from the command line.
>
> If you see things get all streaky or garbled after the intial yaboot
> start, that's a Frambuffer issue which I know little magic for (but it has
> been covered in the archives a lot in the past. Hit
> lists.yellowdoglinux.com and search for Boot and video)
>
> -n
>
>> on 1/28/02 8:36 PM, nathan r. hruby at nhruby@arches.uga.edu wrote:
>>
>>> On Mon, 28 Jan 2002, Rich Dolinsky wrote:
>>>
>>>> I just installed Yellow Dog and upon startup everything goes fine until gdm
>>>> tries to startup. It gives me an error that gdm was already running but it
>>>> was mysteriously murdered. This error happens over and over again. Is
>>>> there any way to bypass this without having to try and reinstall. If I do
>>>> reinstall I am going to try and use a text login mode rather than a gui
>>>> based one, so it would be greatly appreciated if someone knew the answer.
>>>> This is because this computer is being used by my roommates as well and I
>>>> do
>>>> not want to have to have them type their names in.. They are not the most
>>>> computer literate people and might get confused.
>>>>
>>>
>>> Two things
>>> - One this error pops up from time to time. It's ok as long as everything
>>> is working. I belive it's been fixed in newer gdm versions, so you may
>>> want to find a more recent .src/rpm and --rebuild it. (Seems like my
>>> mantra of late). This can also be caused by X having an issue and
>>> crashing and then init restarting it. Can you use GNOME / KDE / X11 at
>>> all?
>>>
>>> - Two, you don't need to re-install just to change the text/graphical
>>> login screen. As root you can simply edir /etc/inittab and change the
>>> default runlevel. The runlevels should be explained int he inittab file,
>>> but the ones you're concerned with ar 3 (multi-user / text only) and 5
>>> (multi-user / graphical X11 login). The line you need to change should be
>>> at the top of the file and should look like:
>>> id:5:initdefault:
>>> Changing the "5" in that line to a "3" will make the machine boot into
>>> text mode login. You can then issue a "startx" command once logged in to
>>> start GNOME or KDE.
>>>
>>> -n
>>
This archive was generated by hypermail 2a24 : Mon Jan 28 2002 - 19:56:56 MST