Arch Linux

Zephirias

Member

From: Pennsylvania, USA

Registered: 2004-04-26

Posts: 179

A few questions on setting up the system...

Well, I'm new to Arch coming from Slackware, and I'm enjoying it so far, except for some things. For one, I finally got X working, but I'm not sure how I should configure /etc/modprobe.conf to load the modules agpgart and intel-agp. Second, I know of Slackwares /etc/inittab, and how it loads the runlevels as set up in /etc/rc.d. Well, there would normally (in Slack) be a file there named rc.4 that sets up an automatic loading of a Login Manager (in my case, I'll use GDM). How should I configure this? I should be able to configure inittab on my own, but I need help.

P.S. I love Pacman. Very stable and intelligent, very updated!

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"Technically, you would only need one time traveler convention."

punkrockguy318

Member

From: New Jersey

Registered: 2004-02-15

Posts: 711

Website

Re: A few questions on setting up the system...

/etc/rc.conf is the answer.  Add all your modules to the modules section of rc.conf, and add gdm to the daemon section of rc.conf.  Rc.conf is nice, it keeps things simple!

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If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.   1 Corinthians 13:2

Win

Member

Registered: 2004-03-04

Posts: 155

Re: A few questions on setting up the system...

Hi Zephirias.

WRT setting up 'gdm'.

Alternately, you could just change the inittab (without adding a reference to 'gdm' in rc.conf) by setting up a graphical startup:

id:5:initdefault:

and then changing the 'respawn' line at the end of inittab by changing
'/usr/X11R6/bin/xdm -nodaemon'  to the corresponding location of 'gdm'. I don't use gdm, but here's the relevant line set up for KDE:

x:5:respawn:/opt/kde/bin/kdm -nodaemon

You could also use something like the following line if you want to avoid X trying to restart again and again if X doesn't restart properly (e.g., when you have a defective XF86Config file):

x:5:once:/opt/kde/bin/kdm

Regards,

Win

Zephirias

Member

From: Pennsylvania, USA

Registered: 2004-04-26

Posts: 179

Re: A few questions on setting up the system...

Thanks. One more thing. Where's the file to edit for GDM's Session (WM) Selection? I always forget...

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"Technically, you would only need one time traveler convention."

wdemoss

Member

From: WV - USA

Registered: 2004-01-18

Posts: 222

Re: A few questions on setting up the system...

I have used both methods described by win and punkrockguy318. There are advantages and disadvantages to both. Just adding gdm to rc.conf is convinient, but it doesn't switch the runlevel to 5.  This made in a little more difficult to boot into runlevel 3 from grub when I had problems with X so that I could fix them. Of course, if you know this, then you can always boot into runlevel 1, which is the workaround to putting gdm in rc.conf.

I hope that was lucid enough to be understandable
-wd

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Hobbes : Shouldn't we read the instructions?
Calvin : Do I look like a sissy?