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

[Steve Kelem <skelem elementcxi com>]

Brian Cameron said the following on 10/28/2005 10:50 AM:

> > I'm not sure where it's [gdm] 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?

No.  I get the same result: "Could not access GDM configuration 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.

1. gdmflexiserver doesn't have a --config option.
2. Outside of X windows, I get
 gdmflexiserver: 18562 Gtk-WARNING.** cannot open display
3. Inside X windows, I get
 Could not access GDM configuration file.

> 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 how to download the source. I hope it's a straightforward 
"configure" and compile.
What other package sources will I need?

I tried gdmsetup --config: /etc/opt/gnome/gdm/gdm.conf
gdmsetup: Symbol lookup error: /opt/gnome/lib/libgdk-x11-2.0.so.0: 
undefined symbol: pango_cairo_context_set_font_options

Steve

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