Id "x" respawning too fast: disabled for 5 minutes

Id "x" respawning too fast: disabled for 5 minutes

[Anna G. Zapata]

Hello all,

I just updated the fedora core with all it's new patches and now the machine seems to be hosed.  On reboot, I get the
following message:

"Id "x" respawning too fast: disabled for 5 minutes" - Any ideas?  I have had nothing but problems with Fedora.

I have no clue what is going on here.  I tried to get the machine in run level 3, but I still can't get it to work.
Here is a copy of the /etc/inittab file:

# Default runlevel. The runlevels used by RHS are:
#   0 - halt (Do NOT set initdefault to this)
#   1 - Single user mode
#   2 - Multiuser, without NFS (The same as 3, if you do not have networking)
#   3 - Full multiuser mode
#   4 - unused
#   5 - X11
#   6 - reboot (Do NOT set initdefault to this)
#
id:3:initdefault:

# System initialization.
si::sysinit:/etc/rc.d/rc.sysinit

l0:0:wait:/etc/rc.d/rc 0
l1:1:wait:/etc/rc.d/rc 1
l2:2:wait:/etc/rc.d/rc 2
l3:3:wait:/etc/rc.d/rc 3
l4:4:wait:/etc/rc.d/rc 4
l5:5:wait:/etc/rc.d/rc 5
l6:6:wait:/etc/rc.d/rc 6

# Trap CTRL-ALT-DELETE
ca::ctrlaltdel:/sbin/shutdown -t3 -r now

# When our UPS tells us power has failed, assume we have a few minutes
# of power left.  Schedule a shutdown for 2 minutes from now.
# This does, of course, assume you have powerd installed and your
# UPS connected and working correctly.
pf::powerfail:/sbin/shutdown -f -h +2 "Power Failure; System Shutting Down"

# If power was restored before the shutdown kicked in, cancel it.
pr:12345:powerokwait:/sbin/shutdown -c "Power Restored; Shutdown Cancelled"


# Run gettys in standard runlevels
1:2345:respawn:/sbin/mingetty tty1
2:2345:respawn:/sbin/mingetty tty2
3:2345:respawn:/sbin/mingetty tty3
4:2345:respawn:/sbin/mingetty tty4
5:2345:respawn:/sbin/mingetty tty5
6:2345:respawn:/sbin/mingetty tty6

# Run xdm in runlevel 5
x:3:respawn:/etc/X11/prefdm -nodaemon

Anna Zapata
UTS - Network Security
303.871.2009


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Re: Id "x" respawning too fast: disabled for 5 minutes

[Ray Olszewski]

At 04:17 PM 2/17/2004 -0700, Anna G. Zapata wrote:
>Hello all,
>
>I just updated the fedora core with all it's new patches and now the 
>machine seems to be hosed.  On reboot, I get the
>following message:
>
>"Id "x" respawning too fast: disabled for 5 minutes" - Any ideas?  I have 
>had nothing but problems with Fedora.

I can tell you what is happening, but not why it is happening. The above 
message refers to this line in /etc/inittab --

         x:3:respawn:/etc/X11/prefdm -nodaemon

The app "prefdm" starts, then exits almost immediately. So the respawn part 
of the entry tells init to start it again. It starts, exits ... and so on. 
To keep continued respawns from typing up the system, init notices, stops 
the cycle, and logs it.

That's the "what". The "why" is probably some sort of problem with prefdm, 
whatever that is (some sort of X login app, similar to xdm or gdm, maybe?). 
Make sure it is actually present on the system, and that you can run it 
successfully from the command line. If it fails, notice why and fix it 
(since you just did an update, I'd wonder about a shared-library 
incompatibility, for example).

I confess I don't know why this particular failure would leave the machine 
"hosed" ... but then, "hosed" is not a problem description, really. I'd 
expect 6 terminals to be available on vt1 through vt6, for example, ready 
for logins. If you write again, please describe the actual problem you are 
experiencing, not just the message that si logged about a specific errant 
process.


>I have no clue what is going on here.  I tried to get the machine in run 
>level 3, but I still can't get it to work.
>Here is a copy of the /etc/inittab file:
[deleted]



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Re: Id "x" respawning too fast: disabled for 5 minutes

[rob.rice]

Anna G. Zapata wrote:
> Hello all,
> 
> I just updated the fedora core with all it's new patches and now the machine seems to be hosed.  On reboot, I get the
> following message:
> 
> "Id "x" respawning too fast: disabled for 5 minutes" - Any ideas?  I have had nothing but problems with Fedora.
> 
> I have no clue what is going on here.  I tried to get the machine in run level 3, but I still can't get it to work.
> Here is a copy of the /etc/inittab file:
> 
> # Default runlevel. The runlevels used by RHS are:
> #   0 - halt (Do NOT set initdefault to this)
> #   1 - Single user mode
> #   2 - Multiuser, without NFS (The same as 3, if you do not have networking)
> #   3 - Full multiuser mode
> #   4 - unused
> #   5 - X11
> #   6 - reboot (Do NOT set initdefault to this)
> #
> id:3:initdefault:
> 
> # System initialization.
> si::sysinit:/etc/rc.d/rc.sysinit
> 
> l0:0:wait:/etc/rc.d/rc 0
> l1:1:wait:/etc/rc.d/rc 1
> l2:2:wait:/etc/rc.d/rc 2
> l3:3:wait:/etc/rc.d/rc 3
> l4:4:wait:/etc/rc.d/rc 4
> l5:5:wait:/etc/rc.d/rc 5
> l6:6:wait:/etc/rc.d/rc 6
> 
> # Trap CTRL-ALT-DELETE
> ca::ctrlaltdel:/sbin/shutdown -t3 -r now
> 
> # When our UPS tells us power has failed, assume we have a few minutes
> # of power left.  Schedule a shutdown for 2 minutes from now.
> # This does, of course, assume you have powerd installed and your
> # UPS connected and working correctly.
> pf::powerfail:/sbin/shutdown -f -h +2 "Power Failure; System Shutting Down"
> 
> # If power was restored before the shutdown kicked in, cancel it.
> pr:12345:powerokwait:/sbin/shutdown -c "Power Restored; Shutdown Cancelled"
> 
> 
> # Run gettys in standard runlevels
> 1:2345:respawn:/sbin/mingetty tty1
> 2:2345:respawn:/sbin/mingetty tty2
> 3:2345:respawn:/sbin/mingetty tty3
> 4:2345:respawn:/sbin/mingetty tty4
> 5:2345:respawn:/sbin/mingetty tty5
> 6:2345:respawn:/sbin/mingetty tty6
> 
> # Run xdm in runlevel 5
> x:3:respawn:/etc/X11/prefdm -nodaemon
> 
> Anna Zapata
> UTS - Network Security
> 303.871.2009
> 
> 
> -
> To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-newbie" in
> the body of a message to majordomo@vger.kernel.org
> More majordomo info at  http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html
> Please read the FAQ at http://www.linux-learn.org/faqs
> 
I had a problem like this and got it fixed by reinstalling the font server
the log files may tell you what X chocked on
so you could try reinstalling the X system

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