Ctrl-Alt-Backspace issue with Fluxbox and SLiM

JHeaton · 2009-05-16 15:06:57

Hi folks :)

I'm pretty new to Arch, had a few attempts at installing it in the past but wasn't quite ready and so decided to expand my Linux knowledge a little more, first. Well, I've done that and now I'm having another go, and things are going quite well. However, I have one minor problem. In ~/.xinitrc, I have the line 'exec startfluxbox' to start Fluxbox and do everything that is contained within the ever-so-handy 'startfluxbox' file. That works perfectly. However, if I restart X by pressing the Ctrl-Alt-Backspace combination, I'm sent to the command line rather than SLiM. However, if I replace 'exec startfluxbox' with 'exec fluxbox' it works fine and brings me straight back to the SLiM login window. Of course, I then can't make use of the 'startfluxbox' file.

Could anybody shed some light on why this might be happening? I know it's more than likely going to be something simple that I've missed, but any help would be appreciated. :)

Thanks,

Joel.

lucke · 2009-05-16 15:47:36

Do you start slim via rc.conf or inittab? The inittab approach should respawn slim.

JHeaton · 2009-05-16 15:58:27

Ah. I didn't realise that. Well, SLiM is currently started in the Daemons section of rc.conf. But I would like to have SLiM respawn after Ctrl-Alt-Delete. Would it just be a case of removing the entry from rc.conf, and changing the default run-level in inittab? Or would I have to add something else in?

lucke · 2009-05-16 16:09:17

Remove the daemon from rc.conf and in /etc/inittab change 3 to 5 in "id:3:initdefault:" and add "x:5:respawn:/usr/bin/slim >& /dev/null" near the end.

Last edited by lucke (2009-05-16 16:10:07)

JHeaton · 2009-05-16 16:29:27

Okay, thanks. I tried that, but using Ctrl-Alt-Backspace still sends me back to a command line and doesn't spawn SLiM again. Is there something I need to change in the configuration of SLiM to get this to work, maybe?

lastchancetosee · 2009-05-16 20:43:18

And using fluxbox instead of startfluxbox still works? Strange.

I had the same problem as well with slim and Xfce (sometimes SLiM would respawn after some minutes if I logged out normally), and ended up just giving up on SLiM.
I'll give it a try with my openbox-setup (should be similar enough to the fluxbox way).

What happens if you log out of your session instead of killing the xserver?

You could always give some other login manager a try, kdm/gdm or qingy if you want things lite.

[edit: I tried it, SLiM works fine with openbox-session. It needs rather a lot of time to start up after booting but that might have something to do with me having backgrounded daemons rather indiscriminately.
Probably a stupid idea, but have you tried waiting a bit? As I've mentioned, sometimes SLiM took a few minutes to respawn due to some bug or other.

Last edited by lastchancetosee (2009-05-16 20:51:31)

JHeaton · 2009-05-16 21:11:45

If I exit the session normally instead of killing it, SLiM re-spawns straight away. I killed it about five minutes ago and I'm still staring at a log-in prompt, so I don't think that's the issue. I will try another log-in manager and see what happens.

Edit: Just installed GDM and it works without issue, so I'm a little puzzled as to what the problem is. I noticed that the entries for GDM, KDM and XDM in /etc/inittab all ended with '-nodaemon' whereas the one for SLiM did not. Could that be an issue?

Last edited by JHeaton (2009-05-16 21:24:05)

lastchancetosee · 2009-05-17 06:50:46

SLiM does not daemonize by default, you can make it run as a daemon via '-d'. According to the config file the -nodaemon option exists, according to the man pages it doesn't. Give it a try, although it really should not make a difference it also can't hurt.

It seems to be a bug.

JHeaton · 2009-05-18 07:17:51

Well, I gave that a shot, though I didn't expect much and nor did I get it. I guess I'll just have to keep an eye on the issue to see if it gets resolved. Meanwhile I suppose I shall give Qingy a shot

Thanks for your help

Arch Linux

#1 2009-05-16 15:06:57

Ctrl-Alt-Backspace issue with Fluxbox and SLiM

#2 2009-05-16 15:47:36

Re: Ctrl-Alt-Backspace issue with Fluxbox and SLiM

#3 2009-05-16 15:58:27

Re: Ctrl-Alt-Backspace issue with Fluxbox and SLiM

#4 2009-05-16 16:09:17

Re: Ctrl-Alt-Backspace issue with Fluxbox and SLiM

#5 2009-05-16 16:29:27

Re: Ctrl-Alt-Backspace issue with Fluxbox and SLiM

#6 2009-05-16 20:43:18

Re: Ctrl-Alt-Backspace issue with Fluxbox and SLiM

#7 2009-05-16 21:11:45

Re: Ctrl-Alt-Backspace issue with Fluxbox and SLiM

#8 2009-05-17 06:50:46

Re: Ctrl-Alt-Backspace issue with Fluxbox and SLiM

#9 2009-05-18 07:17:51

Re: Ctrl-Alt-Backspace issue with Fluxbox and SLiM

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