Re: [gdm-list] gdm can't start login screen

[Brian Cameron <Brian Cameron Sun COM>]

Steve

[ldd output]

> So far, it looks good to me.

Yes, looks good.  No complaints about missing libraries.

> > Can you start up the xserver by hand?  Try running the xserver command
> > in the gdm.conf file from a terminal like this
> >
> > cmd-to-run-xserver & sleep 10;DISPLAY=:0.0 xterm
> >
> > That should give you an Xserver.  If this fails, then the problem is
> > probably with your Xserver.  Or perhaps you have to tweak the command
> > to start the Xserver.
> >
> > If it works, try running gdmlogin in developer mode like this:
> >
> > export DOING_GDM_DEVELOPMENT=1
> > /usr/lib/gdmlogin
>
> I got the message:
> Could not access GDM configuration file.
>
> I'm not sure where it's looking.  I have /etc/opt/gnome/gdm/gdm.conf.  
> Is there a better place for it?
> Are there man pages for gnome/gdm?

Yes, looks like you tracked down the problem a bit.  This is a strange
error to get and is related to a recent change I made to GDM.  The
GDM daemon now supports a --config option where you can specify the
location of the configuration file.  Now the slave processes (like
gdmlogin/gdmgreeter/gdmchooser) use the gdmflexiserver --command
option to ask the daemon for the location of the configuration file it
is using.  That way the slave processes and the daemon are always
using the same configuration file.

A number of things could be causing this error:

1. The GDM daemon somehow has a NULL value for the config file.  This
   could happen if the daemon also can't find it.  Try running
   the gdmflexiser  with the GET_CONFIG_FILE command and see if
   it returns a valid value.  See #2 regarding how to run
   gdmflexiserver.  If this is the problem, you may need to add
   some gdm_debug statements to the daemon to see why it is
   failing to read in the value and recompile/reinstall to test.

   Perhaps the gdm.conf file is installed to the wrong location?
   Does gdm work if you run it with the --config option and
   pass it the location of the config file?

2. The GDM slave is having trouble setting up a socket connection
   with the daemon.  If running gdmflexiserver with the --command
   option always fails, then this might be the problem.  Note that
   if the --command you want to pass in needs an argument you have
   to call it like follows.  Also if calling GET_CONFIG you have to
   pass the keyvalue as defined in daemon/gdm.h like this.

      gdmflexiserver --command "GET_CONFIG greeter/ConfigAvailable"

   I doubt this is the problem.

3. The GDM slave just can't connect to the server.  This could happen
   if the version of the daemon and slave don't match.  If this is
   the problem, running the gdmflexiserver commands above would also
   show this problem.

4. The error message you are seeing is masking other problems.  I
   notice in the code that I do this check and exit immediately.
   There are some useful error messages later on.  I'm going to
   change the code in CVS head so it doesn't exit if it can't find
   the config file and just continues (it will use the compiled in
   defaults for most config options but is better than not showing
   up at all).  Also this will allow other error messages to show
   up if there is a failure for a different reason.

Let me know what you find.  Hopefully looking into these areas
will help track down the problem.

Brian