Arch Linux

phunni

Member

From: Bristol, UK

Registered: 2003-08-13

Posts: 770

Can't login anymore

I went to boot up my machine this afternoon.  I have XDM running for my login (which I'm begining to think might not be the best approach) and, previously, I'd see a text login for about half a second before the graphical login kicked in.

Today, however, all I can see is the text login for about half a second, blank screen and then the text login again - and so on forever.

I'm assuming that XDM is failing - the trouble is that I never get a consistent opportunity to log in to try and fix anything!

I did a pacman -Syu yesterday; so it could be a package upgrade that's screwed things, but I also (in an attempt to get a java login to my work VPN) installed gcc2 via a package I downloaded from a user on this forum.  I assumed from what I read that gcc2 and whatever is current (3? 4?) would sit happily together, but perhaps they don't and this is what is screwing my system up...

I'm assuming that I'll have to use a rescue CD to fix things - but I'm not sure what to start looking at once I'm in on the CD...

So, can anyone point me in the right direction?

FUBAR

Member

From: Belgium

Registered: 2004-12-08

Posts: 1,029

Website

Re: Can't login anymore

Boot from your rescue CD and mount your Arch partition. Then remove "xdm" from the daemons line in /mnt/etc/rc.conf. Also check /mnt/etc/inittab to make sure it doesn't say "id:5:initdefault:" but rather "id:3:initdefault:".

When you reboot your system, you'll get the non graphical login prompt.

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A bus station is where a bus stops.
A train station is where a train stops.
On my desk I have a workstation.

vacant

Member

From: downstairs

Registered: 2004-11-05

Posts: 816

Re: Can't login anymore

No need to boot from a rescue disk if you use grub. Just press "e" to edit the boot line. Add a space and the digit 1 to the end of the line containing the kernel. Then press b to boot.

Once booted you'll be in single user mode, give your root password. Now remove whatever starts xdm (in rc.conf or inittab?). Once done you can type init 3 to bring up your network and download any Arch packages you may need.

phunni

Member

From: Bristol, UK

Registered: 2003-08-13

Posts: 770

Re: Can't login anymore

I managed to get rid of XDM. So now, when I log in and run "startx" I get the following error:

/usr/lib/xorg/modules/drivers/fglrx_drv.so: symbol _ZdlPv, version GLIBPP_3.2 not defined in file libstdc++.so.5 with link time reference

So I'm pretty sure this is related to gcc...

I removed gcc2 and re-installed gcc. I also did a complete system upgrade. As I say, I'm pretty sure I understand what broke it, but I have no idea how to fix it...

Any thoughts?

hightower

Member

Registered: 2006-04-02

Posts: 182

Re: Can't login anymore

Try to reinstall your ati driver and libstdc++5.

hightower

phunni

Member

From: Bristol, UK

Registered: 2003-08-13

Posts: 770

Re: Can't login anymore

The ati driver was included in the upgrade I mentioned - so that's already been done.  Which package is libstdc++5 in?  I assumed it was in gcc; hence the gcc re-install...

tomk

Forum Fellow

From: Ireland

Registered: 2004-07-21

Posts: 9,839

Re: Can't login anymore

libstdc++5 is a separate package - just pacman it.