KDE/GNOME keep crashing...

[Ratboy68]

this is driving me absolutely nuts... when I am using certain applications, notably Eclipse, while in the midst of editing some line of code or doing a large cut and paste my computer reboots itself. Its weird... everything goes blank, it drops me back into a command line for a split second and then brings up a KDE instance (NOT my default desktop, GNOME is) and prompts me for a username/password.... the same thing happens over and over again. It has killed my productivity as I'm a programmer and MUST finish some code for monday... but this has been happening consistently for awhile now... any ideas as to why it's happening?

[janet loves bill]

look thru /var/log and see what error messages you can find.........

[Ratboy68]

any specific file/directory in var/log? I've checked user.log, dmesg, syslog... should I be looking anyplace in particular?

[mdwatts]

Originally posted by Ratboy68
any specific file/directory in var/log? I've checked user.log, dmesg, syslog... should I be looking anyplace in particular?

/var/log/messages

/var/log/XFree86.0.log

/home/<user>/.xsession-errors

[Ratboy68]

from messages:
"Oct 5 18:02:27 c-67-165-180-3 dm: Stopping display manager:
Oct 5 18:02:27 c-67-165-180-3 dm: display manager shutdown failed"

Here's a slice of XSession-errors:
no element found at line 1, column 0, byte 0 at /usr/lib/perl5/vendor_perl/5.8.0/i386-linux-thread-multi/XML/Parser.pm line 185
Window manager warning: Property _NET_WM_NAME on window 0x3800017 contained invalid UTF-8

(gnome-panel:2117): Wnck-WARNING **: Property _NET_WM_NAME contained invalid UTF-8

FAMOpen failed, FAMErrno=0
FAMOpen failed, FAMErrno=0

(gnome-system-monitor:2315): Wnck-WARNING **: Property _NET_WM_NAME contained invalid UTF-8

FAMOpen failed, FAMErrno=0
FAMOpen failed, FAMErrno=0
FAMOpen failed, FAMErrno=0

----------------------

I have searched everywhere but could not find /XFree86.0.log

I see this frequently when rebooting, the DM fails to shutdown. Could this be part of my problem? It's very weird... when using Eclipse and doing a large cut and paste (seems to be the only time it happens) Gnome seems to 'reboot' itself and dumps me to a Gnome login screen and all my work is lost when I log back in.

I know I should just read the FAQs for this question but how do I kill Gnome altogether and just work from a command line? My machine brings up Gnome when I boot and when I attempt to just end the session it simply brings back up another Gnome login screen which starts another Gnome session. At this point I just want Gnome to go away and I'll work from the command line and see if that cures my ills. But when I attempt to kill X by doing the control-alt-backspace it kills that X session and brings up another one... urgh.

thanks

[mdwatts]

Originally posted by Ratboy68

I have searched everywhere but could not find /XFree86.0.log

I know I should just read the FAQs for this question but how do I kill Gnome altogether and just work from a command line?

Does

ls -al /var/log/XF*

show the file or others?

Change the default runlevel in /etc/inittab from 5 to 3 (as root).

id:5:initdefault: (change to 3)

[Ratboy68]

"Does

ls -al /var/log/XF*

show the file or others?

Change the default runlevel in /etc/inittab from 5 to 3 (as root).

id:5:initdefault: (change to 3)"

-----------


in the /var/log directory I run ls -al XF* or ls -al X* or even ls X* and I get 'No such file or directory.' I know it's a legit search as I do a ls -al W* and it shows all files/dir's that begin with a 'w' as you'd expect. Still, no file that begins with an 'X' anywhere in the directory.
Also I just realized that running eclipse w/out an X Server does me no good, apparently, as it cannot run a GUI based app from the command line. Doh!

now regarding the 'id:initdefault' stuff: this is a bit unclear to me. at the command (as SU) do i type:
id:5initdefault: OR id:3initdefault: ?? Please if you could just give me the exact command as I'm supposed to type it. Thanks. Could I trouble you for an explanation as to what this command does before I run it?
again, I greatly appreciate your help.