On Dienstag, 17. Juli 2007, Stroller wrote: > Hi there, > > I'm fairly experienced with Linux and have been using Gentoo for over > 3 years, but mostly I only use it on headless servers, so I'm afraid > I don't know much about GUI stuff. > > I've just installed Gentoo on my PS3, which I want to use mostly for > playing DVDs at the moment (and as a MythTV frontend eventually). My > expectations when running X (let's say adding /etc/init.d/xdm to the > default runlevel) are that I'm presented with a login prompt, there > should be a mouse cursor & stuff and when I log in I should be > presented with a terminal window in which I can type my command to > run `mplayer` or whatever. > > I'd expect shortly to get mplayer or vlc or something running > automatically when the system completes booting-up - this is what > MythTV users typically do so that their system behaves more like a TV- > appliance than a Linux machine - but I'd like to skip that for the > moment whilst I log in as my own user, play with different media > players & work out which one suits me best. > > Gentoo for the PS3 is supplied as a LiveCD for chrooting and a stage4 > tarball - I've only ever used stage1 (3 or more years ago) and stage3 > (more recently) tarballs in the past. This stage4 is quick to set up > and the basics seem to work very well - I can log in at the > framebuffer & surf the internet using elinks :D. This stag4 also > includes fluxbox, which I haven't used before & am not really > interested in but which I haven't uninstalled yet. > > The Gentoo X Server Configuration HOWTO <http://www.gentoo.org/doc/en/ > xorg-config.xml> has much that doesn't seem relevant to me right now, > seeing as the stage comes with both Xorg itself and a suitable > xorg.conf for the PS3 preinstalled, but if I skip to just after code > listing 3.6 it tells me how the value of XSESSION is read from /etc/ > rc.conf > > Reading /etc/rc.conf I find: > # Xsession - will start a terminal and a few other nice apps > This seem perfect for me. I don't care that it's described elsewhere > as ugly - I think this is twm, Xorg's own default window-manager? - > but if it pops open a terminal window when I log in, and maybe xclock > then I'm good to go. > > What confuses me is that this doesn't work. It works perfectly if I set: > XSESSION="fluxbox" > - I get the fluxbox menubar at the bottom of the screen and I can > open terminal windows & stuff > but not when I set > XSESSION="Xsession" > > Diagnostics I can think of: > $ grep ^X /etc/rc.conf > XSESSION="Xsession" > $ ls -l /etc/X11/Sessions/ > total 8 > -rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 2187 Jun 10 19:31 Xsession > -rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 22 Jun 10 19:50 fluxbox > $ grep DISPLAYMANAGER /etc/conf.d/xdm > DISPLAYMANAGER="xdm" > > When I log in remotely & run `sudo /etc/init.d/xdm start` I get a > simple login window with an X11-type logo on the right-hand side. > Once I use the connected keyboard & mouse - which work perfectly - to > enter my user & password I see a window titled "Session Menu"; it > appears to have a kind of text box in which is displayed > "chooseSessionListWidget" - all I can choose is the "Failsafe / > Default" which gives me a grey X11 background with the (correct) > chunky black X cursor. No terminals or other windows open and I'm > unable to work out how the heck to start an app. When I `sudo /etc/ > init.d/xdm restart` via SSH I again get the login window and this > time the Session Menu says "fail safe" in the "text box" - I now have > extra load session & delete session buttons but they don't do > anything useful. > > I have followed the pointers in the "startx no longer gives gnome" > thread <http://thread.gmane.org/gmane.linux.gentoo.user/185659> but > no joy. If, instead of starting `/etc/init.d/xdm`, I log in at the > framebuffer prompt and type ` XSESSION="Xsession" startx` I again get > the "Session Menu" window and the X cursor, but this time a black > background behind that widow and a _black_ screen when I log in. > > There's no .xsession stuff in my home directory - I even deleted > ~/.*to be paranoid-sure of this. Whups, there goes my bash history!! > None of the log files show anything useful or relevant - I've even > run `watch -n 0.3 ls -lt /var/log/` and the only ones that change are > xdm.log, Xorg.0.log and the weird binary file wtmp. They all show X > starting swimingly but not the sesssion stuff. I don't know what else > to say. > > What's weird is that I _did_ see the expected terminal windows > opening yesterday, but I can't reproduce them now. The behaviour > seemed to be correct when I ran `startx` but not when I added xdm to > the default runlevel & started it that way. But now it doesn't work > at all. > > I've attached the actual /etc/X11/Sessions/Xsession file, but I'm > sure this is unchanged - I'm sure it's exactly as shipped by Gentoo > by default. I've thought about replacing that with a simple `echo > "hello world`", but I'm not sure how to do that within the X11 > environment. > > Many thanks indeed for the time you've taken reading this, and for > your patience and in advance for any help or suggestions you can offer, > > Stroller.
say, how many times have you sent this mail? I count seven so far. One mail would have been enough! -- [EMAIL PROTECTED] mailing list
