X ate itself! Help please...

[DMR]

Last week I installled RH 6.2 on a virgin box (freshly formatted, no other OS). I got everything up, and then created a couple of user accounts. X was working fine for all users at that point.
A couple of days ago I went in to modify each user's .bashrc and .bash_profile files (adding aliases, modifying prompts, etc.). When I logged back in to one of the accounts after that and tried to start X (I prefer to do most of my work at the CLI, so I don't boot directly into the GUI), it got as far as the grey screen with the "X" cursor and hung. Ctrl+Alt+Backspace exited me back to the CLI gracefully, but after that I couldn't get X to work for any user, including root. Since it was a new install, I just deleted the user accounts (and all directories and files owned by them), recreated the accounts, and ran startx for each again. Everything worked.
The only problem is that I can't use that kind of "shotgun" approach for root, so now I'm stuck not being able to run X as root.

My specs:
P-II 400, 64M RAM
STB Velocity 128 vid card, 8M RAM
XFree86 3.3.6
Gnome/Enlightenment
I'm running the SVGA server because my chipset (NVIDIA RIVA 128) doesn't seem to be supported natively).

Any help/ideas would be *greatly* appreciated. TIA

[pbharris]

hello,
sounds like you .xinitrc or .Xclients or .Xclients-default file is bad (i.e. not starting a window manager). if you delete those files, or rename them or edit them then it should start up fine with system defaults.

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I don't use Linux because I hate Windows (which I do) I use Linux because I like it.
pbharris_359@yahoo.com

[DMR]

pbharris,

Thanks. I was thinking along those lines, and I'll try your suggestions, but I don't know exactly what sequence of events is fired off by executing startx. Do you know where I can find a definitive explanation? Perhaps it would help me pinpoint where in the X startup process is failing.

Sorry to sound like such a Newbie, but... I am http://www.linuxnewbie.org/ubb/biggrin.gif

[This message has been edited by DMR (edited 22 December 2000).]

[kid]

Originally posted by DMR:
...I don't know exactly what sequence of events is fired off by executing startx. Do you know where I can find a definitive explanation? Perhaps it would help me pinpoint where in the X startup process is failing.

try one of these:
http://www.linuxdoc.org/HOWTO/XWindow-User-HOWTO.html
http://www.linuxdoc.org/HOWTO/XFree86-HOWTO/

[This message has been edited by kid (edited 22 December 2000).]

[mrBen]

If you run X with the -probeonly option, then it will list everything that is happening when X starts, but without actually starting it. Then you can, if I remember rightly, look up and down this (enormous) list using Alt+PgUp and PgDown.
HTH

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mrBen

[teeitup]

It sounds like X is starting just fine.
You just aren't loading a window manager.

pbharris's ideas sound the best.

create a .xinitrc dir and enter your favorite window manager. (icewm, blackbox, etc...)

Peace,




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Don't take life to seriously, You'll never get out alive!
-Bugs Bunny-

[DMR]

Thanks all for your help!

kid- thanks for the links.

mrBen- thanks for the tip.

teeitup- I think you're right on target, my suspicion is that the X server *is* starting just fine, but something has corrupted the loading of my window manager.

Due to the season's family/holiday craziness, I've haven't had a chance to chase the problem any further, but when I can, I'll try the suggestions you guys have given me.

Till then- Happy Holidays!