Re: need wdm help

[Ray Olszewski <ray@comarre.com>]

James Miller wrote:
> Snooping around in the init directories (under /etc) I see that both xdm 
> and wdm appear there.  Both binaries are in /etc/init.d and symlinks to 
> both those appear in rc1.d - rc5.d.  I think those rc#.d directories 
> have to do with runlevels, right?  This is still a bit of a mystery to 
> me. Does adding this additional information provide further insight into 
> why xdm seems to still be acting as the display manager or, even better, 
> provide any indication of how I might displace it with wdm?

OK. I didn't reply before because I've never used wdm. But this is a 
more general question about how Debian (and similar distros) do init 
script setup, and I can help here.

If you haven't fiddled with your init setup, your default runlevel, for 
any stock Debian distro, should be 2 (check /etc/inittab for a line 
something like "id:2:initdefault:" ... make sure it says "2" and not 
some other number ... to be sure yours is stock Debian).

WWithout going through all the picky details, this means that, once your 
init sequence switches to multi-user mode, it will run the scripts in 
/etc/rc2.d/ in the order they appear in a directory listing. More 
exactly, it will run all the ones that begin with "S". These are 
normally (I've never seen an exception) symlinks to scripts in /etc/init.d .

Assuming both xdm and wdm are trying to run ... that's my best reading 
of what you've posted here ... you probably just want to disable xdm 
completely. One way to do it is to rm the symlink to it in /etc/rc2.d . 
Or you could mv the symlink to a name that doesn't start with "S" ... 
this is how I usually disable an init-script symlink here (e.g., "mv 
S99xdm NO99xdm"). Then reboot (or maybe "/etc/init.d/xdm stop" will 
suffice; try it).

That should at least get xdm out of the picture. If you're then having 
problems specific to wdm, you'll need help from someone else, someone 
who uses that app.

> 
> Thanks, James
> 
> On Fri, 3 Mar 2006, James Miller wrote:
> 
>> Update.  I was actually not being taken to the wdm login window for 
>> some reason.  The login window I was seeing was apparently some 2d 
>> form of xdm, which is a little confusing.  Especially so since I 
>> removed xdm from the system via apt.  I discovered this by repeatedly 
>> killing the login window using ctrl-alt-backspace, which eventually 
>> got me to a console login prompt. From there I logged in as user and 
>> tried running wdm which, of course didn't work until I sudo'ed.  But 
>> once I did that, I got to a real wdm login window with a menu and was 
>> able to fire up my window manager of choice.  So, what I really need 
>> now is not a menu.  What I need is to find out why xdm is still on the 
>> system and why it is acting as the display manager.  I do still see 
>> xdm files under /etc/X11: why?  Do I need to completely remove them 
>> via apt? Could I expect that to solve the problem of the system 
>> wanting to show me that display manager login window rather than wdm?  
>> Seems like buggy behavior in any case, doesn't it?
>>
>> James
>>
>> On Fri, 3 Mar 2006, James Miller wrote:
>>
>>> Debian unstable system.  I've been using Gnome on it and the 2.6.10 
>>> kernel. The system is getting sluggish, so I want to trim back on 
>>> resource usage. I'll probably remove Gnome soon and go with some 
>>> lightweight window manager like fluxbox.  For a display manager I've 
>>> been using xdm because it is lightweight.  It's also no very 
>>> featureful and, so far as I can see, does not allow selection between 
>>> window managers (e.g., via a menu).  I'm trying to move to wdm 
>>> therefore, during the interim while moving away from Gnome. Seems 
>>> like it could give me the option of booting into either Gnome or 
>>> Fluxbox via a menu.  I've actually used a system before that had such 
>>> a wdm menu.  So, I've apt-get(ted) wdm.  But at the login window, I 
>>> get no menu. Furthermore, when I go to login, it simply boots me back 
>>> to the login window. I've looked at man pages and done some web 
>>> searching, but whatever the solution is eludes me.  I believe I tried 
>>> wdm earlier and had the same problem, so I abandoned it. Something is 
>>> apparently misconfigured, but I am unable to determine what and how 
>>> to fix it.  Could someone please offer some assistance on getting wdm 
>>> to: 1) give me a menu of choices for window managers to boot to; and 
>>> 2) get the window managers to come up rather than having it take me 
>>> back to the wdm login window?  Input will be appreciated.
>>>
>>> Thanks, James
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