Arch Linux

cyberfrem

Member

Registered: 2005-11-15

Posts: 25

Having problem booting thru' xdm into xfce

Firstly, after my experiences from previous posts can I please ask politely that you don't post any condescending comments.  They don't help your case when your trying to encourage users to migrate to Linux.  However, if you can answer my question constructively then please post away.  (I have Googled and trawled the wiki and this forum already but haven't found my answer)

I've followed the instructions for altering my /etc/inittab file to take me to run level 5 and starting xfce4 however, when I login the screen flashes and I'm returned to the login dialogue!

When I examine my .xsession-errors file it says:

/opt/xfce4/bin/startxfce4: X server already running on display :0
/opt/xfce4/etc/xdg/xfce4/xinitrc: line 52: xscreensaver: command not found
which: no ssh-agent in (:/bin:/usr/bin:/usr/X11R6/bin:/usr/ucb)
which: no xfce4-session in (:/bin:/usr/bin:/usr/X11R6/bin:/usr/ucb)
/opt/xfce4/etc/xdg/xfce4/xinitrc: line 105: xfce-mcs-manager: command not found
/opt/xfce4/etc/xdg/xfce4/xinitrc: line 106: xfwm4: command not found
/opt/xfce4/etc/xdg/xfce4/xinitrc: line 118: xftaskbar4: command not found
/opt/xfce4/etc/xdg/xfce4/xinitrc: line 119: xfdesktop: command not found
/opt/xfce4/etc/xdg/xfce4/xinitrc: line 120: xfcalendar: command not found
which: no xfce4-panel in (:/bin:/usr/bin:/usr/X11R6/bin:/usr/ucb)

It would appear (correct me if I'm wrong) that my PATH variable is wrong as it doesn't include:
/opt/xfce4/bin:
ie. the location where xfce4 has been installed by pacman.  Which configuration file needs to be edited so that it includes this in the path?

cyberfrem

Member

Registered: 2005-11-15

Posts: 25

Re: Having problem booting thru' xdm into xfce

OK - I found it for myself.

Hey... I'm learning!

EDIT: Or maybe I'm not!

I added to the PATH in /etc/profile

But I'm still experiencing the same problem when I try it again!

Could anyone point me in the right direction please?

cyberfrem

Member

Registered: 2005-11-15

Posts: 25

Re: Having problem booting thru' xdm into xfce

AHA!!!

I think I've got it right this time?

I added the line:

export PATH="$PATH:/opt/xfce4/bin"

to my .xinitrc before the line starting xfce4

Can someone confirm that this is the correct way to do it, please?

Snowman

Developer/Forum Fellow

From: Montreal, Canada

Registered: 2004-08-20

Posts: 5,212

Re: Having problem booting thru' xdm into xfce

xdm uses ~/.xsession not ~/.xinitrc
In ~/.xsession (create it if it doesn't exist), put:

#!/bin/sh
[ -f /etc/profile ] && . /etc/profile
if [ -f $HOME/.bash_profile ]; then
  . $HOME/.bash_profile
elif [ -f $HOME/.bash_login ]; then
  . $HOME/.bash_login
elif [ -f $HOME/.profile ]; then
  . $HOME/.profile
fi

exec /opt/xfce4/bin/startxfce4

This will setup all your paths and environnment variables.

ozar

Member

From: USA

Registered: 2005-02-18

Posts: 1,686

Re: Having problem booting thru' xdm into xfce

I don't want to confuse any of the issues here, but I use XDM and XFCE4 (no Gnome or KDE stuff installed) and my files are relatively simple and work just fine:

.xinitrc looks like this:

#!/bin/sh

#
# ~/.xinitrc
#
exec startxfce4

.xsession looks like this:

#!/bin/sh

#
# ~/.xsession
#
/bin/bash --login -i ~/.xinitrc

---

oz

tomk

Forum Fellow

From: Ireland

Registered: 2004-07-21

Posts: 9,839

Re: Having problem booting thru' xdm into xfce

None of the tinkering above should be necessary, if you install everything correctly. The libxfce4util package installs /etc/profile.d/xfce4.sh which will do the necessary path modifications automatically - all you should have to do is log out and log in again.

cyberfrem

Member

Registered: 2005-11-15

Posts: 25

Re: Having problem booting thru' xdm into xfce

I do have the file that you mention - /etc/profile.d/xfce4.sh

I've examined it and, as you say, it should setup the right paths.

But it didn't!

I've just done a straightforward installation, no deviations, so why do I have this problem?

Snowman

Developer/Forum Fellow

From: Montreal, Canada

Registered: 2004-08-20

Posts: 5,212

Re: Having problem booting thru' xdm into xfce

Does  /etc/profile.d/xfce4.sh  have executable permission?

The important line in what I posted above is:

[ -f /etc/profile ] && . /etc/profile 

which sources /etc/profile which in turn sources the *.sh files in /etc/profile.d.  You need to do that at one point  to get your PATH and environnment variables setup.  I do that in my ~/.xsession file maybe tomk does that in another file.

cassyb

Member

Registered: 2007-04-02

Posts: 13

Re: Having problem booting thru' xdm into xfce

thanks ozar.
and we have to chmod 700 these 2 files.

Last edited by cassyb (2007-04-03 17:59:19)