Date: Fri, 20 Dec 2002 17:39:29 +1030 From: malcolm kay <malcolm.kay@adelaide.on.net> To: freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.org Subject: Re: xdm fails at startup Message-ID: <3E02C229.2070001@adelaide.on.net> References: <Tq5L9.308$iQ3.139985@news20.bellglobal.com> <3E01CC9C.2030003@adelaide.on.net>
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malcolm kay wrote: > Finarfin wrote: > >> I have a 'virgin' install of 4.7. When I boot, all the text mode stuff >> I want runs fine. I would like to show some stuff to others using X, >> but it won't start. >> >> In my /etc/ttys file, I had the following line installed by the >> installation process: >> >> ttyv8 "/usr/X11R6/bin/xdm -nodaemon" xterm off secure >> >> I modified this by changing the off to on. >> >> After a kill -HUP 1, I get the following message (repeated every 30 >> seconds) >> >> init: getty repeating too quickly on port /dev/ttyv8, sleeping 30 secs. >> > > > I experienced a problem which may be the same on FreeBSD4.7. xdm > won't work when the depth is set to 8 - a common setting and the > default if left unspecified. Everything seems fine when set for greater > depths. I've experienced this problem on two quite different machines > with different video systems. It seems that the xdm login crashes with > depth 8. When used with startx it runs but with some considereable > problem with colors - it finds half a dozen or so but reports voluminous > errors about unable to allocate color such and such, even though only a > negligable portion of the possible 256 pallette is used. > > I eventually gave up and went back to FreeBSD 4.5 and XFree 4.1 though I > suspect I need only have changed the XFree version. > > I have applications which must have 8 bit pseudo-color so can't live > with 16 or 24 bit depth. > > Malcolm Kay > > I received e-mail in response to this with the suggestion that I inform the ng. That e-mail and my e-mail response follow: dean linford wrote: > Hi, > > you wrote: > > I experienced a problem which may be the same on FreeBSD4.7. xdm > won't work when the depth is set to 8 - a common setting and the > default if left unspecified. Everything seems fine when set for greater > depths. I've experienced this problem on two quite different machines > > The problem is likely Xresource. Here's _part_ of my diff: > > < #if PLANES >= 8 > < xlogin*logoFileName: /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/xdm/pixmaps/XFree86.xpm > < #else > --- > >>!#if PLANES >= 8 >>!xlogin*logoFileName: /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/xdm/pixmaps/XFree86.xpm >>!#else >> > > The "=" likely should be taken out, instead > but I just wanted the thing to be working. > > There are too many colours in the colour pixmap. I'd sent a > comment off to xfree86 site, but am not so confident it was > acted upon.... The pixmap doesn't have "too many", but there > are colors allocated by the server as well - oops! > > You may want to tell the group/list (comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc), > as I don't usally post to public groups. > I'm not sure whether or not the "=" should be removed, but FreeBSD4.5 with XFree4.1 has the same (i.e. with the "=") and that works. In any case the colours are screwed up using startx which does not access the xlogin widget (at least I can't believe that it does). I'll also post this to the ng as you suggest. I have new suspicions w.r.t. the basis of the problem but this is so subtle as to be almost unbelievable. I had forgotten a problem I experienced on another FreeBSD4.5 machine running XFree3.??. On that machine while X-windows was running I changed the default lang: entry in login.conf to en_AU.US_ASCII to get a sensible national date time string instead of the crazy American version. Xdm started before the change was already displaying a login screen but now all attempts to login via xdm failed. The login disappeared in the normal way on completion of the mname and password; but a moment later reappeared instead of the windows manager display (ctwm in this case). Removing the lang entry cleared the problem. Now FreeBSD4.7 sets this parameter in login.conf when the time zone is set at installation. So based on somewhat slim evidence I'm of the opinion that X can't manage general national time/date strings. Now I want to find a machine free on which I can re-install FreeBSD4.7 and XFree 4.2 and explore further. Could the time/date string also be an issue with sendmail which was also giving me grief with FreeBSD4.7? Malcolm Kay To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-questions" in the body of the message
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