Arch Linux

patroclo7

Member

From: Bassano del Grappa, ITALY

Registered: 2006-01-11

Posts: 915

gdm/slim/kdm do not accept input from the keyboard the first time

Hi, I have  a very strange problems with the display managers (gdm, slim and kdm). The first time I execute them I can not use my keyboard, and so I am unable to login.
This problem is mentioned several times in the forums, but please note that I have already tried all the easy solutions mentioned: xorg-input-keyboard is installed, and moreover the keyboard works absolutely fine if I start x with startx.
And also, if I configure gdm to autologin and after that I log out, then the keyboard works fine in gdm the next time!

Please note also the Xorg.0.log does not report any error about the keyboard.
Did anyone else experience something like this?

Last edited by patroclo7 (2008-04-21 04:32:09)

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Mortuus in anima, curam gero cutis

grandmasterb

Member

From: Poland

Registered: 2008-03-12

Posts: 26

Re: gdm/slim/kdm do not accept input from the keyboard the first time

look at this topic:

http://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php? … 46#p357546

patroclo7

Member

From: Bassano del Grappa, ITALY

Registered: 2006-01-11

Posts: 915

Re: gdm/slim/kdm do not accept input from the keyboard the first time

Thanks for the suggestion, actually I had not seen it. However, that option does not make any difference at all for me. The option is accepted and is shown in the xorg log, but I am unable to do anything from slim or gdm with the keyboard (the mouse works, but, in particular from slim, the mouse does not anything useful, and in particular does not allow even to go back to console or to reboot).

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Mortuus in anima, curam gero cutis

grandmasterb

Member

From: Poland

Registered: 2008-03-12

Posts: 26

Re: gdm/slim/kdm do not accept input from the keyboard the first time

try to look in kdm,gdm,slim logs maybe there is an answer. or if you have ATI card and Catalyst drivers then try open source drivers..

patroclo7

Member

From: Bassano del Grappa, ITALY

Registered: 2006-01-11

Posts: 915

Re: gdm/slim/kdm do not accept input from the keyboard the first time

I have an intel integrated chipset. All the logs mentioned reports the following messages. But I can find them also in the xorg log I get when I launch startx (and in this case everything works fine, including the keyboard):

expected keysym, got XF86KbdLightOnOff: line 70 of pc
expected keysym, got XF86KbdBrightnessDown: line 71 of pc
expected keysym, got XF86KbdBrightnessUp: line 72 of pc
expected keysym, got XF86KbdLightOnOff: line 70 of pc
expected keysym, got XF86KbdBrightnessDown: line 71 of pc
expected keysym, got XF86KbdBrightnessUp: line 72 of pc
The XKEYBOARD keymap compiler (xkbcomp) reports:
> Warning:          Type "ONE_LEVEL" has 1 levels, but <RALT> has 2 symbols
>                   Ignoring extra symbols
Errors from xkbcomp are not fatal to the X server

The warning is analogous to the one found by the user in the thread linked above, but I get it also with the option he mentions.
Finally, only the gdm log reports that:

AUDIT: Mon Apr 21 13:10:34 2008: 5802 Xorg: client 22 rejected from local host (uid 1001)

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Mortuus in anima, curam gero cutis

patroclo7

Member

From: Bassano del Grappa, ITALY

Registered: 2006-01-11

Posts: 915

Re: gdm/slim/kdm do not accept input from the keyboard the first time

It turns out that it has something to do with the fact that, in /etc/rc.local I execute some commands needed in order to deal with some hotkeys of my keyboard:

/usr/bin/setkeycodes e073 115 &
/usr/bin/setkeycodes e074 116 &
/usr/bin/setkeycodes e033 117 &
/usr/bin/setkeycodes e034 118 &
/bin/loadkeys -q /usr/local/share/kbd/personal.map &> /dev/null &

It seems that if these commands are executed while the display manager is launched, the display manager gets confused. And actually arch initscripts launch the display manager before executing the stuff in /etc/rc.local.
So I need to remove gdm from rc.conf and start it explicitly in the last line of /etc/rc.local. It works fine in this way. The same fix does not work with slim (no keyboard all the same), but I can live with gdm.

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Mortuus in anima, curam gero cutis

baldr

Member

Registered: 2008-04-21

Posts: 6

Re: gdm/slim/kdm do not accept input from the keyboard the first time

I have just installed arch, and I had the same problem as you describes.

Did you start the display manager as a daemon?

I found that changing the way you start the display manager from adding the daemon in rc.conf, to using inittab fixed the problem.

How to change default run-level, and start the correct display manager is explained here:
Adding a login manager (KDM, GDM, or XDM) to automatically boot on startup

This way, you can also have one entry in grub which starts X11, and one which starts the cli

patroclo7

Member

From: Bassano del Grappa, ITALY

Registered: 2006-01-11

Posts: 915

Re: gdm/slim/kdm do not accept input from the keyboard the first time

Yes I confirm that it works also in this way. Can you confirm that it has something to do with actions taken in rc.local (that is: do you do something in rc.local?)? this should be consistent, because rc.local is executed after the daemons but before the stuff in inittab. Anyway slim does not work for me, but this is probably a different issue

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Mortuus in anima, curam gero cutis

patroclo7

Member

From: Bassano del Grappa, ITALY

Registered: 2006-01-11

Posts: 915

Re: gdm/slim/kdm do not accept input from the keyboard the first time

Ok now with a '&> /dev/null' in front of slim in inittab I have finally slim working. cool

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Mortuus in anima, curam gero cutis

baldr

Member

Registered: 2008-04-21

Posts: 6

Re: gdm/slim/kdm do not accept input from the keyboard the first time

I don't do anything in rc.local. Not sure why my keyboard didn't work.