need wdm help

need wdm help

[James Miller]

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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Re: need wdm help

[James Miller]

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
> -
> To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-newbie" in
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Re: need wdm help

[James Miller]

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?

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
>> -
>> 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
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Re: need wdm help

[Ray Olszewski]

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
>>> -
>>> 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
>>
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Re: need wdm help

[joy merwin monteiro]

On 3/3/06, Ray Olszewski <ray@comarre.com> wrote:
<snip>
> 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).

if it IS getting started in runlevel 2, and you remove the symlink,
you might also
want to get rid of the link in runlevel 6 and 0 that stops it (K**xdm),
just to be thorough .....


--
The person who cannot reason is a fool, one who won't reason is a bigot,
one who dare not reason is a slave.
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Re: need wdm help

[James Miller]

On Sat, 4 Mar 2006, joy merwin monteiro wrote:

> On 3/3/06, Ray Olszewski <ray@comarre.com> wrote:
>> 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).
>
> if it IS getting started in runlevel 2, and you remove the symlink,
> you might also
> want to get rid of the link in runlevel 6 and 0 that stops it (K**xdm),
> just to be thorough .....

Thanks to all for getting me past the final hurdle of stopping xdm from 
loading.  It does seem both were loading and somehow xdm was taking 
priority.  Renaming the symlinks Ray and joy pointed out seems to have 
done the trick: I've rebooted to test this, and wdm comes up as expected 
now.

Sincerely, James
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