[AuckLUG] GDM problems ,but wait ,theres more :-)

[Ronald Johns]

>> > Hi Ronald,
>> >
>> > Rescue-boots are usually rather primitive environments with the
>> > necessary tools for correcting various things to get systems started.
>> > That does not include X11!!
>> >
>> > So the claim is correct as the /etc/passwd file in a rescue boot
>> usually
>> > only has root and a few other users - and f.ex not gdm.
>> >
>> > If you want to start X after rescue-boot, you have to chroot to your
>> > real root and try it out - or if you want to boot normaly but without
>> X,


> Hi Ron,
>
> Can you tell us exactly what you're doing to get X up and going?
>
> Firstly, are you still using the boot disk? As said before, it's a
> primitive environment for getting your system up and running again and
> shouldn't really be relied on. Chroot could be used but chances are
> some system environment variables probably aren't going to exist so
> all sorts of strange things will happen.
>
> So take out the boot disk, and boot into Fedora. However, chances are
> the screen is going to go through some really annoying screen
> flickering. On other distributions it normally says something about a
> problem with gdm or your x configuration and would you like to shut
> down x windows for the time being. I'm not sure if this is the case
> with Fedora.
>
> Next, hit Alt-Ctrl-F1 and you should see a log on prompt - if you
> don't then you'd probably have to start up in single user mode. Ask
> around for this as I'm not sure if Fedora uses grub or lilo (most
> likely grub) and given that I normally don't have to boot any of my
> machines as they stay on for the most part, I can't remember what the
> keys are... I think it's (at boot up just after the computer beeps)
> esc to get to the boot menu and e to edit an option and then select
> the line you want to edit (probably the one that starts with the word
> boot) and hit e again - then add something along the lines of
> runlevel=1 (? someone - I can't remember) to the end.
>
> If you do see the log on prompt, log on, and type in less dmesg. This
> will give you all the system messages to have a look at - I think
> Fedora uses a boot screen so you won't see this when booting up (There
> are ways of disabling the boot screen but I'm not sure what it is in
> Fedora - probably something along the lines of taking out the word
> quiet from the boot line - line that starts with boot from above). The
> errors should hopefully be obvious.
>
> If you're running in runlevel 1, then switch to runlevel 5 by typing
> in "init 5". Type in startx. If xwindows starts without flickering,
> then your x configuration is not the problem. If this is the case then
> look for known problems with gdm.
>
> Otherwise, you'll need to play with your x settings. That I'm afraid
> is going to have to wait for some other night.
>
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>
Hi again Nev,
             I hope I have covered most of the points you raise in the
following...

On attempting to start in normal boot up mode , everything goes fine until
udev then I get many many fail reports which flash past.We finally arrive
a a large error box taking up 3/4 of the screen which says...

  The GDM user 'gdm' does not exist.Please correct GDM
  configuration and restart GDM.

(By the way I can find no gdm.conf file on any computer running Fedora 5
through 7) which is mentioned at...

http://www.ibiblio.org/oswg/oswg-nightly/oswg/en_US.ISO_8859-1/articles/gdm-reference/gdm-reference/x135.html

in the Gnome Display Manager Reference Manual.

If I then do Alt-Ctrl-F1 I do get a shell ,it comes with the error message

localhost login: Cannot open font file latarcyheb-sun16.
If I then hit return I get a normal login prompt but it refuses to accept
any root or user passwords.

The ONLY way I can get a shell , let alone a gui is to use the Rescue disk.
I then go to shell via the rescue disk,this at least has the advantage of
giving me a working shell. There are no remarkable errors listed in dmesg.

Xorglog.0. gives
X10: fatal IO error 104 (Connection reset by peer) on x server
":0.0" after 0 requests (0 known processed) with 0 events remaining

Nevens suggestion (# init 5) gets me init: /dev/initctl: Nosuch file or
directory.
I can sometimes get the normal Gnome gui with startx  after running
/etc/init.d/xfs start but when I do the first thing I get is error message

Power Manager
This program cannot start until you start the dbus system service.

(Cannot start even if I knew how , no command line.)

The Desktop which usually has "My Home" folder icon says "Somebodies Home"
(literally) ,I get a ramfs icon on desk top and terminals wont start because
"terminal cannot launch child processes." The terminal comes up but its
just blank.

I am missing /var/run/dbus/system_bus_socket .If found this when I was
trying to manually start dbus system service.

i seem to be real stuck. For 2 pins I'd re-install but I really need some
not yet backed up files.Any ideas on how i can get them out of this damn
thing ?.

Many thanks
Ron.