Ehhh... little help?

[slvadcjelli42]

Quick question (I've got a million of 'em, but this will do for now) I think this is so simple and stupid nothing covers it; how do I shut down the X Window System in Linux (I have Redhat 8) but not the whole system (edit: whole OS, I mean)? I need to do this to install a newer version (another edit: newer version of X, not RH).

[ July 25, 2003: Message edited by: Dirk Gently ]

[Laukev7]

init 3

[slvadcjelli42]

ok, thanks  

[slvadcjelli42]

Uh oh, now I've got some trouble... X works fine. there's no problem there. But now the graphical login thingy is.. um... broken.  It tries to run, starts a grey screen with a box of scrolling text in the lower right quarter for a few seconds and then goes back to the text login thing. I got here by using the init 3 setting and then using startx. Is there any way i can repair / reinstall the graphical login tool?

(A little more information: I'm using RHL8 with xfree86 version 4.3.0.  kernel: 2.4.18-14 libc 6.2.93 (I don't know what that is, but can't hurt to mention it))

[sime]

Off the top of me head run

xdm &

at a prompt

later

[sime]

Oh I forgot,

init 3 works but it's a tad harsh, next time try Ctrl+Alt+Backspace from within the GUI to kill the X process.

Thought of the moment...

So NT calls thinks it a server OS. OK turn off that crap GUI then and gimme a command line and some extra CPU resources ... Yeh right!

Later

[slvadcjelli42]

hey thanks!! That itself doesn't seem to do much for me but the man page on it gives some useful info... i remember the X setup mentioned making symbolic links for various files used by the previous installation, and /usr/X11R6/lib (as in "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/xdm/Xservers") stands out. I'll bet something isn't... uh.. symbolically linked (?) to where it should be. Also: There's a file called Xsetup_0 AND Xsetup_0.old.in /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/xdm. Is the .old one a backup (i mean, could it be as simple as replacing Xsetp_0 with Xsetup_0.old)?

********The xdm-config file for anyone who cares********

! $Xorg: xdm-conf.cpp,v 1.3 2000/08/17 19:54:17 cpqbld Exp $
!
!
!
!
! $XFree86: xc/programs/xdm/config/xdm-conf.cpp,v 1.10 2002/11/30 19:11:32 herrb Exp $
!
DisplayManager.errorLogFile:    /var/log/xdm.log
DisplayManager.pidFile:         /var/run/xdm.pid
DisplayManager.keyFile:         /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/xdm/xdm-keys
DisplayManager.servers:         /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/xdm/Xservers
DisplayManager.accessFile:      /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/xdm/Xaccess
DisplayManager.willing:         su nobody -c /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/xdm/Xwilling
! All displays should use authorization, but we cannot be sure
! X terminals may not be configured that way, so they will require
! individual resource settings.
DisplayManager*authorize:       true
! The following three resources set up display :0 as the console.
DisplayManager._0.setup:        /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/xdm/Xsetup_0
DisplayManager._0.startup:      /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/xdm/GiveConsole
DisplayManager._0.reset:        /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/xdm/TakeConsole
!
DisplayManager*resources:       /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/xdm/Xresources
DisplayManager*session:         /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/xdm/Xsession
DisplayManager*authComplain:    true

! SECURITY: do not listen for XDMCP or Chooser requests
! Comment out this line if you want to manage X terminals with xdm
DisplayManager.requestPort:     0


********Here's Xsetup_0********

#!/bin/sh
# $Xorg: Xsetup_0,v 1.3 2000/08/17 19:54:17 cpqbld Exp $
xconsole -geometry 480x130-0-0 -daemon -notify -verbose -fn fixed -exitOnFail


********And finally, Xsetup_0.old********

#!/bin/sh
# Xsetup for Red Hat Linux
# Copyright (c) 1999, 2000, 2001 Red Hat, Inc.

sysresources=/etc/X11/Xresources

# merge in defaults
if [ -f "$sysresources" ]; then
    xrdb -merge "$sysresources"
fi

/usr/X11R6/bin/xsetroot -solid "#5477A0"

if [ -z "$RUNNING_UNDER_GDM" ] ; then
  /sbin/pidof -s kdm &> /dev/null && [ $? -eq 0 -a -x /usr/bin/kdmdesktop ] && /usr/bin/kdmdesktop && sleep 1s

  # only set the background if the xsri program is installed
  if [ -x /usr/bin/xsri -a -f /etc/X11/xsrirc ]; then
      /usr/bin/xsri --redhat-login --set
  fi
fi

[slvadcjelli42]

Oh! I just looked over all my information (I know I'm rambling but I like to think it's helping me     ) and it looks like the recent setup just replaced Redhat's startup thing with it's own generic one. Would it be dangerous to "flip" the filenames, so that the .old one becomes the "current" one and the current one the .old one, and see how that works out?

[Laukev7]

I guess you could try it... just make sure you keep a copy of the new config file.

Sime is right for the ctrl-alt-backspace, but it only kills the X session, and brings you back to gdm. There's no way to exit gdm, kdm or xdm that I know of (there is in wdm, though). I should have told you this, but you should only use init 3 in a failsafe session to avoid killing your desktop manager.

[slvadcjelli42]

thanks again... little late though, i tried something else already. I booted from the install CD's, chose "upgrade" and selected X. that fixed that problem. guess what though? I also chose to add "Window Maker," just for kicks I guess, not realizing that it would become my default! Now I barely have a clue how to do anything ... how do I change my default window manager?? Every time I fix one thing I break 5 more   :rolleyes:

[sime]

Oh my,

overload ...  

Just out of curiosity and as you are running Redus Hattus have you tried...

Opening a shell window and typing setup @ the prompt?

If not give it a try and go for that last option.

Another thing you may want to look at is /etc/inittab search the file for a line that is simalar to

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

it may be xdm or a gnome version of xdm as above called prefdm or gem they all do the same as xdm. Notice the 5 in the command line (hence going to run level 3 kills it) and the respawn command which is why like Arnie it always comes back.

Have fun

Later

[slvadcjelli42]

I found that line, although I don't quite know what it means... are you suggesting I set that to 3? I'm thinking I might just reinstall.. I mean, I haven't really even "settled in" yet. I've NEVER screwed up an OS that much that fast    :rolleyes:  
A lot of people are saying Redhat 9 is very good (apparently much better than 8) so I might get that... the information for my PC says the architecture is i686, though, and everything I see says i386. That's not a problem, is it?

(Edit: I tried the setup thing, nothing there applies to the situation     )

[ July 26, 2003: Message edited by: Dirk Gently ]

[slvadcjelli42]

P.S: and this one for Knoppix says i486! I sure hope that's not a problem...

[slvadcjelli42]

Reinstalled. Now everything is fix... well, everything works ok, and that's good enough for now. I still have some problems but I don't think I'll be so eager to try to fix them without knowing what I'm doing    Thanks for your help everybody, I definitely know a lot more now than I would have without it.