Ok, linux gurus, figure this one out

[clockhar]

I'm typing away, being surprisingly productive working inside Linux (usually I spend more time fixing or figuring out linux) then all of a sudden I cannot access any box on my LAN (or the net). I could'nt remember the command to release/renew my IP, so I reboot. Upon rebooting X cannot start (or doesn't start). You know how X usually starts under the 'ctrl-alt-F7' terminal? Well, if I press that one, it doesn't come up. The rest of 'em come up (F1-whatever). So, I type 'startx'. X starts but to my surprise and horrorow TWM starts up instead of my beloved KDE. Why is that? So, in the TWM command prompt, I type in 'startkde'. KDE starts, but I notice that it complains that another windows manager is up already. But it still loads. But, to now it is like running TWM in the background and KDE in the foreground. It's horrible. So, tell me, why won't x start correctly by itself? Why wont' KDE start by itself? I did not change any useful configuration ( I started/stopped a service or two). So, why is this happening and how do I correct it without reinstalling KDE or linux (the easy way out)?

 

[Barnaby W. Füi]

you didnt mess with .xinitrc?

maybe you did something that made your /home not mount on boot anymore, and it cant get to .xinitrc?

and btw you sound fairly negative about your experiences w/ linux, if its such a pain for you then why use it?

 

[Heisenberg]

What exactly did you do? Which services did you start/stop? Also, has the network problem ever happened before and/or did you figure out what caused it?

 

[clockhar]

nope, I didn't mess w/ .xinitrc. I didn't mess with any files that corespond to X. I have the radeon 7500, so when I first configured X (which was working for about a week or two now), I had to run Xconfigurator and tell it to use the Rage 128 drivers (for some reason it worked). In addition, I had to create the file .xsession and add 'startkde' to the file so I can bypass TWM. But it was working just fine and dandy until a few mins ago. Go figure

You wonder why I mess with Linux? I wonder the same thing. I seriously don't have the time to mess (or waste) with Linux being a CPE major. But it somehow draws me to it every so often. In fact, I usually have a cycle where I mess with Linux (usually frustratingly) for 3-4 months, then I get so frustrated I quit. 5 months later, I start again. I go through the same cycle (starting and stopping), and I never have the same problems, but Linux indeed is frustrating to get working correctly. I guess I'm kinda addicted to it. I don't know why, but's its cool.

BTW, any help is greatly appreciated
(I hate it when people do not thank me for volunteering my efforts to help out).

Edit: To answer the prev. post:
I stopped and started sendmail 'cause it took too long to start up on 'startup' (maybe 'cause my network problems). I also disabled lpr, enabled (then disabled wuftpd). Either way, services are back to the default (or the default I think it is). Anyway, I think the network problems had something to do w/ my university connection (it always seems to crap out around campus). I can access the network now (ping, ftp, ssh, etc.), but no X ... it makes no sense to me

 

[Heisenberg]

I forgot to ask before, what distro?

 

[cleverhandle]

BBWF's suggestion sounds pretty likely to me - your box isn't mounting your home directory from the network, so X loses all of its configuration files for you. X still works fine, just not the way you had set it up. Can you access any of your personal files that were stored on the network? Try a "pwd" and see what directory you're in when you log on.

 

[clockhar]

MY distro is the easy to set up RH 7.2

but, I'm sorry, my home directory is not mounted on the network through NFS or anthing else. It is in my linux partition. I only couldn't access network for basic stuff like 'net, ssh, ftp, etc. (not mounted drives). I'll take a look at .Xintrc. What should be in there anyway? Anything obvious?

 

[Kadesh]

.xinitrc and .xsession usually have somethng like:
exec startkde
or
gkrllm &
exec gnome-session

 

[clockhar]

OK, I finally got it working again correctly. I don't understand it though. I created the file .xinitrc in the home directories and put startkde in each of 'em, and it works. Why? It was working fine before with the same thing in .xsession. It makes no sense to me, but in the end it works. Again, thanks all for your help.

 

[Sunner]

XDM(the graphical login, or more like one of them) uses .xsession, while if you run "startx" it will use .xinitrc.

So if you had the box set to start X automatically during boot, it would use .xsession, and if you start it manually, it will use .xinitrc.

Dont ask me why they different files, I havent got a clue there.

 

[bubba]

Did you edit your /etc/inittab?
Look for a line like this:

id:3:initdefault:

or

id:5:initdefault:

If you have the former, you will boot into a console (command line) and need to run startx to start X and you edit .xinitrc to change your X manager.

If you have the latter you will autoboot into X and you will edit .xsession to change your manager.