There is a file in /var/log... xdm-error.log. I have used it to troubleshoot many a failed login attempt.  Also, I have found that just because you can run startx and get into X ok, doesn't mean xdm will work. Sometimes xdm won't recognize your .xinitrc or other startup file, alot of time it wants .Xsession and .Xsession only. and sometimes it has to be executable. and sometimes if you declare variables in your .Xsession they don't take. (Although I suspect some of these problems were due to a buggy beta KDE release.) I know the question had already been answered, I just wanted to vent :) God I love Unix. =P

Matt

-----Original Message-----
From:   Steve Dunham [SMTP:dunham@cse.msu.edu]
Sent:   Saturday, March 13, 1999 1:02 AM
To:     David Andrew - Sun MDE
Cc:     ultralinux@vger.rutgers.edu
Subject:        Re: Run Level 5 problems

David Andrew - Sun MDE <David.Andrew@East.Sun.COM> writes:

> I have been successful in loading UltraPenguin-1.1.9 in many Ultra
> platforms, but have not been able to log in at Run level 5.  Is
> there something I am missing?  I have done it as root, as well as
> with another username.  As soon as the name and password are
> entered, it tries to do something, then comes back up with the same
> login screen, with no reasonable exit.  I am running the newest UP
> RPMS, including the 2.2.2-3 kernel files, but this happened on
> earlier versions as well.

> I can get the X up with startx, but not by going to run level5.
> This happens even if I have already logged in at level 3.

> Is this a known bug?

This generally happens when the startup scripts that xdm spawns
(Xsession) tries to run something like a window manager and fails
(when the script that runs the window manager exits, X will exit and
xdm will restart).  There _should_ be a file with a name similar to
".xsession.log" or ".xsession-errors" in the user's home directory
which may provide more insight into what exactly is going wrong (I'd
suspect a missing program or a bad path.)

Steve
dunham@cse.msu.edu