SLim and fluxbox hate me

cyclotomic · 2008-07-08 23:25:31

Hello, I have just recently installed Arch Linux on my computer (former Debian User) and for some reason no matter what I do fluxbox will not start after I login with SLim. It displays "Failed to execute login command" then brings me back to the SLim login screen again. I have no clue what to do, I have no experience with SLim and am only using it because I also can't for some reason get xdm to work (same problem as SLim).

Can someone offer some advice please?

Inxsible · 2008-07-08 23:33:44

cyclotomic wrote:

Hello, I have just recently installed Arch Linux on my computer (former Debian User) and for some reason no matter what I do fluxbox will not start after I login with SLim. It displays "Failed to execute login command" then brings me back to the SLim login screen again. I have no clue what to do, I have no experience with SLim and am only using it because I also can't for some reason get xdm to work (same problem as SLim).
Can someone offer some advice please?

Could you post your ~/.xinitrc file please. I think the command to start fluxbox is

startfluxbox

whereas some defaults use it as start_fluxbox, which may be the reason. We may have to correct that.

Last edited by Inxsible (2008-07-09 00:47:37)

kclive18 · 2008-07-08 23:33:46

In SLiM, press F1 a few times until it selects Fluxbox as the default GUI to load. I use XFCE, and by default, SLiM will load XFCE unless you change this setting.

Also, in your ~/.xsession, the only line that should be uncommented is

exec startfluxbox

cyclotomic · 2008-07-09 01:37:58

I have exec startfluxbox as the only uncommented item and F1 does nothing when I press it.

Allan · 2008-07-09 01:43:20

look in you /etc/slim.conf. By default the "session" variable is set to xfce. You will need to change that to fluxbox.

rscholer · 2008-07-09 01:52:20

Allan wrote:

look in you /etc/slim.conf. By default the "session" variable is set to xfce. You will need to change that to fluxbox.

That's only important, if he does something like this:

exec $1

Back to Topic:

You've got to make sure, that your .xinitrc is executable.

Allan · 2008-07-09 02:02:07

rscholer wrote:

Allan wrote:
look in you /etc/slim.conf. By default the "session" variable is set to xfce. You will need to change that to fluxbox.
That's only important, if he does something like this:
exec $1

Which given the line in slim.conf

login_cmd           exec /bin/bash -login ~/.xinitrc %session

he might just be doing that... but I could be entirely wrong

cyclotomic · 2008-07-09 02:07:46

It's executable and I have it changed to fluxbox.

Allan · 2008-07-09 02:14:10

can you start fluxbox while not in slim? - i.e. boot to prompt and run startfluxbox

cyclotomic · 2008-07-09 02:42:53

Tried it a few times and it just tells me it can't connect to X and then fails to start.

Allan · 2008-07-09 02:45:30

So this is not a slim problem at all. Give us the exact error message so we can help. Have you setup your xorg.conf?

Inxsible · 2008-07-09 02:49:26

This could be a silly question but ....Have you installed fluxbox?

And as Allan said, post the exact error...so we can help out.

Last edited by Inxsible (2008-07-09 17:40:43)

cyclotomic · 2008-07-09 03:40:43

Everything is installed (X, fluxbox, SLim, all drivers for all of my hardware, etc), my xorg is setup perfectly (at least I think its prefect, since I got it from the Arch Linux Wiki, I'm using the Asus eeePC 701), the error message appears in white text on the SLim login screen and says "Failed to execute login command". I tried using xdm and that had similar issues, in that it would never bring me past the login screen, it would say login successful and then it would just bring me right back to the same login screen.

Last edited by cyclotomic (2008-07-09 03:43:53)

Allan · 2008-07-09 03:57:58

If you run "startx" from the terminal, what error message do you get.

cyclotomic · 2008-07-09 04:00:20

None, it starts fine and shows up in ps -e.

kendu · 2008-07-09 10:12:01

G'day there cyclotomic,

cyclotomic wrote:

None, it starts fine and shows up in ps -e.

I hardly consider myself an expert, since I only started with Archlinux last week, but I've been using various distros on & off for a couple of years with greater or lesser success. I had the same problem you did, with my xdm install. I've now solved it, with "startxfce4" as the last line of /etc/X11/xinit/xinitrc with all entries after "# start some nice programs" remmed out - i.e. put a # as the first character in each line.

I just had a quick look and found that somewhere along the line I've also bunged in "exec startxfce4" in my ~/.xsession file which is executable. I don't recall doing that, although it wasn't there at the start so I must have done it at some stage. I don't know which is the command that's working. You could try either one and see which works. Or have them both there. It doesn't seem to hurt and one of them must be doing something since xfce starts up fine for me.

See ya
Ken

moljac024 · 2008-07-09 11:06:12

Allan wrote:

If you run "startx" from the terminal, what error message do you get.

If he has SliM running then X works, no ?

Allan · 2008-07-09 11:15:16

moljac024 wrote:

Allan wrote:
If you run "startx" from the terminal, what error message do you get.
If he has SliM running then X works, no ?

Good spotting! I am surprized no-one else pointed this out.

Anyway, I was thinking it might output an error that could explain this problem given trying to run fluxbox directly says it can't connect to X... I wasn't just being stupid

cyclotomic · 2008-07-09 15:32:03

kendu wrote:

G'day there cyclotomic,
cyclotomic wrote:
None, it starts fine and shows up in ps -e.
I hardly consider myself an expert, since I only started with Archlinux last week, but I've been using various distros on & off for a couple of years with greater or lesser success. I had the same problem you did, with my xdm install. I've now solved it, with "startxfce4" as the last line of /etc/X11/xinit/xinitrc with all entries after "# start some nice programs" remmed out - i.e. put a # as the first character in each line.
I just had a quick look and found that somewhere along the line I've also bunged in "exec startxfce4" in my ~/.xsession file which is executable. I don't recall doing that, although it wasn't there at the start so I must have done it at some stage. I don't know which is the command that's working. You could try either one and see which works. Or have them both there. It doesn't seem to hurt and one of them must be doing something since xfce starts up fine for me.
See ya
Ken

Thanks, I'll give this a try.

egzodas · 2008-07-10 17:32:43

I had the same problem, only used xfce,,, unfortunately the only thing that worked so far was uninstalling slim

jbromley · 2008-07-10 21:33:43

As pointed out, it is definitely not an X problem as slim uses X and it works. There is something wrong with either the login_cmd of your slim.conf or your .xinitrc/.xsession. How about you post slim.conf and .xinitrc/.xsession so we can see what you've actually got configured?

cyclotomic · 2008-07-13 02:39:18

jbromley wrote:

As pointed out, it is definitely not an X problem as slim uses X and it works. There is something wrong with either the login_cmd of your slim.conf or your .xinitrc/.xsession. How about you post slim.conf and .xinitrc/.xsession so we can see what you've actually got configured?

Well, I finally got it configured and working, the only problem is that now I can only login as root, logging in as a different user doesn't work.

jbromley · 2008-07-13 05:18:40

cyclotomic wrote:

Well, I finally got it configured and working, the only problem is that now I can only login as root, logging in as a different user doesn't work.

Well, without knowing what the error is when you try to log in as a normal user I can't be sure, but it seems like probably the .xinitrc/.xsession for root is good and that of your regular user is not.

cyclotomic · 2008-07-13 05:38:08

jbromley wrote:

cyclotomic wrote:
Well, I finally got it configured and working, the only problem is that now I can only login as root, logging in as a different user doesn't work.
Well, without knowing what the error is when you try to log in as a normal user I can't be sure, but it seems like probably the .xinitrc/.xsession for root is good and that of your regular user is not.

You're right, I spelled fluxbox as fluxboox in my .xinitrc file under the regular user. Thank you for the help, I can sleep well tonight.

Arch Linux

#1 2008-07-08 23:25:31

SLim and fluxbox hate me

#2 2008-07-08 23:33:44

Re: SLim and fluxbox hate me

#3 2008-07-08 23:33:46

Re: SLim and fluxbox hate me

#4 2008-07-09 01:37:58

Re: SLim and fluxbox hate me

#5 2008-07-09 01:43:20

Re: SLim and fluxbox hate me

#6 2008-07-09 01:52:20

Re: SLim and fluxbox hate me

#7 2008-07-09 02:02:07

Re: SLim and fluxbox hate me

#8 2008-07-09 02:07:46

Re: SLim and fluxbox hate me

#9 2008-07-09 02:14:10

Re: SLim and fluxbox hate me

#10 2008-07-09 02:42:53

Re: SLim and fluxbox hate me

#11 2008-07-09 02:45:30

Re: SLim and fluxbox hate me

#12 2008-07-09 02:49:26

Re: SLim and fluxbox hate me

#13 2008-07-09 03:40:43

Re: SLim and fluxbox hate me

#14 2008-07-09 03:57:58

Re: SLim and fluxbox hate me

#15 2008-07-09 04:00:20

Re: SLim and fluxbox hate me

#16 2008-07-09 10:12:01

Re: SLim and fluxbox hate me

#17 2008-07-09 11:06:12

Re: SLim and fluxbox hate me

#18 2008-07-09 11:15:16

Re: SLim and fluxbox hate me

#19 2008-07-09 15:32:03

Re: SLim and fluxbox hate me

#20 2008-07-10 17:32:43

Re: SLim and fluxbox hate me

#21 2008-07-10 21:33:43

Re: SLim and fluxbox hate me

#22 2008-07-13 02:39:18

Re: SLim and fluxbox hate me

#23 2008-07-13 05:18:40

Re: SLim and fluxbox hate me

#24 2008-07-13 05:38:08

Re: SLim and fluxbox hate me

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