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Date:      Wed, 10 Jun 1998 22:27:14 -0400 (EDT)
From:      "David H. Brierley" <dave@galaxia.com>
To:        Jon Misc <jcoffman@taurus.oursc.k12.ar.us>
Cc:        freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG
Subject:   Re: X refuses to start
Message-ID:  <Pine.BSF.3.96.980610221506.297C-100000@trantor.galaxia.com>
In-Reply-To: <Pine.LNX.3.96.980518153405.18473A-100000@taurus.oursc.k12.ar.us>

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On Mon, 18 May 1998, Jon Misc wrote:

> 
> 	Hello.  I'm relatively new to FreeBSD and X and I've run into some
> trouble.  A few days ago, I installed X on my computer and configured it
> to start at boot time.  It worked fine for a couple of days, but
> yesterday, I booted FreeBSD and got as far as the text login screen.  When
> X tried to start, the screen blanked as usual, but I never got the X login

Someone else replied that FreeBSD does not change things on it's own, so if
it worked once it should still work.  While this is true with FreeBSD itself,
and with UNIX in general, it is not always true with X/11.  The X server
creates various files and directories in /tmp and does not always clean up
after itself very nicely, especially around a reboot.  Look in the /tmp
directory to see if there are any files or directories that begin with ".X"
(i.e. type "ls -ld .X*").  If there are, remove them and then try starting X
again.  If you are starting X by virtue of the fact that you have the xdm
program running, find the pid number of the xdm process and send it a "-1"
signal.  I recommend you add the following entry to "/etc/rc.local":

rm -rf /tmp/.X*

This will help prevent the problem in the future.

Of course, the problem could be something else entirely in which case these
words are just the manic ramblings of a middle aged UNIX hacker.  :)

-- 
David H. Brierley
    dave@galaxia.com


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