[ale] Debian Install Woes

[Jason Day]

On Mon, Mar 31, 2003 at 07:15:51AM -0800, Herman, Izzie wrote:
> I just installed Debian 30r1 and seem to be having some probs w/ it.  It never makes it to xdm.
> 
> What is the default runlevel for Debian?  
> Is the "X" init level still 5 in Debian?

No, Debian boots up into runlevel 2, even if you use [gkx]dm.  Why is a
mystery to me.

> Any other advice you can offer?

What happens when you boot?  Does it try to run xdm, fail, and drop you
to a console?  Or does it just go directly to a console when you want to
run xdm?

The way Debian runs xdm seems... wrong to me.  Rather than booting to a
different runlevel, such as 5, Debian boots as normal.  When gdm, xdm,
or kdm are installed, they add an init script to /etc/init.d.  Each of
these scripts is called by the boot process, and each of these scripts
examines the file /etc/X11/default-display-manager.  This file should
contain a single line, pointing to the location of your desired display
manager executable (e.g. /usr/bin/gdm).  If this executable matches what
the script is expecting (/usr/bin/gdm for gdm), then it executes it.
Otherwise, it prints a message saying it's not starting the display
manager, because it is not the default.

Once you get to a console, you can start the display manager manually by
becoming root and typing "/etc/init.d xdm start".  Make sure that the
/etc/X11/default-display-manager file has a line which is the full path
to xdm.  If X still won't come up, then it's likely an X configuration
problem.

HTH,
Jason
-- 
Jason Day                                       jasonday at
http://jasonday.home.att.net                    worldnet dot att dot net
 
"Of course I'm paranoid, everyone is trying to kill me."
    -- Weyoun-6, Star Trek: Deep Space 9
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