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To: svlug@lists.svlug.org Date: Fri, Oct 13, 2000 11:33:45AM -0700, From: kmself@ix.netcom.com Subject: Re: [svlug] Configuring X in Debian On Fri, Oct 13, 2000 at 10:17:30AM -0700, Scott Reimert (SReimert@centerbeam.com) wrote: > I'm trying to see how Debian compares to Red Hat. I've been using Red Hat > since 5.1, and have been meaning to give Debian a try for sometime. > > When I start X under the new Debian release, X and xdm runs and everything > looks good. When I log in, X just restarts. Don't do that. Run startx from the command line, and log your output: $ startx -- 2>&1 | tee startx.log Post the actual output. I generally strongly discourage the use of an X display manager for a locally-accessed box. You're complicating the startup process, making diagnosis and debugging more complex, and guaranteeing yourself the overhead of running an X session (the ?DM process) when you explicitly aren't using X. XDM may have some convenience for remote access, but it's still not a good idea as you now have an unsecured X session on the wire. Note that some ?DM's (e.g.: GDM) don't support networked connections at all. Dumbth. > I checked .xsession-errors, and it says that I can't log in because > I'm not authorized. Keep in mind, this is a fresh install -- I haven't > monkeyed with it. Check /etc/X11/Xserver -- this may be an issue. > Checking the environment, DISPLAY is not set. If I set DISPLAY to :0 then > startx, it runs fine. Weird. > 1) Where is the correct place to set DISPLAY? Obviously a login file is to > late because X restarts before it even reads the file. Display should be configured automajickally when you run startx. > 2) Is it possible that the DISPLAY environment variable is not the problem? I would tend to think so. === From: kmself@ix.netcom.com Date: Fri, 13 Oct 2000 16:51:39 -0700 To: svlug <svlug@lists.svlug.org> Subject: Re: [svlug] Configuring X in Debian On Chris Waters (xtifr@dsp.net) wrote: > On kmself@ix.netcom.com wrote: > > On Scott Reimert (SReimert@centerbeam.com) wrote: > > > I'm trying to see how Debian compares to Red Hat. I've been using Red Hat > > > since 5.1, and have been meaning to give Debian a try for sometime. > > > When I start X under the new Debian release, X and xdm runs and everything > > > looks good. When I log in, X just restarts. > > Don't do that. > > Run startx from the command line, and log your output: > > $ startx -- 2>&1 | tee startx.log > This is not necessarily good advice (although it's good for > debugging). That was, in fact, a debugging stanza. > For one thing, xdm should work, and it would be nice to > know what the problem is. For another, this is slightly more > insecure. Anyone with access to the machine can switch to the VC > where X was started, suspend it, and then have full shell access to > your personal account on your machine. If they're careful, this can > be all-but-undetectable. (Yes, anyone with console access can break > in in other ways, but not quite so undetectably.) I typically run X with "startx -- :1 1>.startx.log 2>&1 & exit". I'm also in the habit of scanning virtual consoles (or running "w") to see if I've got any stray logins. > If you *always* use X, then the overhead of xdm should be pretty > minimal. And, as I say, it *should* work, so figuring out why it > doesn't could be an interesting learning experience. :-) I'd prefer avoiding the overhead in the first place. It's unnecessary. ===