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I've just discovered a problem on my U80 running Solaris 9. If I log
out (which I rarely do being a home machine), the X-server dies, and
comes back with a message about the X-server can't be started on
display :0. I'm then left with a command line login. This happens if I
lot in as a normal user or root.

If the machine is rebooted, the X-server comes up and I can log into
CDE or Gnome, but as soon as I log out, so the server dies and won't
restart. (I'm not sure of what command to manually restart it - can
anyone tell me ??).

There's nothing obvious in any log files. Anyone got any ideas ???

--

"The day Microsoft makes something that doesn't suck is probably
the day they start making vacuum cleaners." -Ernst Jan Plugge.

Dr. David Kirkby Ph.D
Author of 'atlc' http://atlc.sourceforge.net/

"Dr. David Kirkby" <drkirkby@ntlworld.com> wrote:
> There's nothing obvious in any log files. Anyone got any ideas ???

The Xserver exits when a user logs out
from CDE or Gnome; the Xserver dying is the last
step of the logout process. The problem you see is
that the new Xserver (started by the dtlogin
master process) does not come up. Even though it originally
comes up when the system is rebooted.

Error messages will be in /var/dt/Xerrors.
I also would check whether there is anything
unusual going on in /tmp, such as files not
being removed during logout, and I would turn on
coreadm with global and setuid coredumps enabled
to get a corefile of the crashing Xsun process.



Thomas

Dr. David Kirkby wrote:
> I've just discovered a problem on my U80 running Solaris 9. If I log
> out (which I rarely do being a home machine), the X-server dies, and
> comes back with a message about the X-server can't be started on
> display :0. I'm then left with a command line login. This happens if I
> lot in as a normal user or root.
>
> If the machine is rebooted, the X-server comes up and I can log into
> CDE or Gnome, but as soon as I log out, so the server dies and won't
> restart. (I'm not sure of what command to manually restart it - can
> anyone tell me ??).
>
> There's nothing obvious in any log files. Anyone got any ideas ???

Perhaps something in your exited session continues to have /dev/console
open even after logout (liberal nohup'ing etc). When dtlogin tries
to open it again it fails. This used to happen if at boot you logged
in very quickly when you see the login: cmdline login , and before
dtlogin had a chance to start (I think startup order has changed
a bit to avoid that).

When it fails try logging in at the cmdline (or telnet in from elsewhere)
and 'ps -ft console' and see if anything (other than the new login session)
is running.

Gavin

In comp.sys.sun.admin Thomas Dehn <thomas-usenet@arcor.de> wrote:

> The Xserver exits when a user logs out
> from CDE or Gnome; the Xserver dying is the last
> step of the logout process.

Not necessarily, see Xserver(1):

-terminate
causes the server to terminate at server reset,
instead of continuing to run. This overrides a pre-
vious -noreset command line option.

which ist not the default option in CDE, IIRC.

Tino

Tino Reinhardt <t@freeshell.org> writes in comp.sys.sun.admin:
|In comp.sys.sun.admin Thomas Dehn <thomas-usenet@arcor.de> wrote:
|
|> The Xserver exits when a user logs out
|> from CDE or Gnome; the Xserver dying is the last
|> step of the logout process.
|
|Not necessarily, see Xserver(1):
|
| -terminate
| causes the server to terminate at server reset,
| instead of continuing to run. This overrides a pre-
| vious -noreset command line option.
|
|which ist not the default option in CDE, IIRC.

But CDE normally sends a signal to terminate the server at the end of
the session, and dtlogin then starts a new Xsun to display the login
screen again.

--
__________________________________________________ ______________________
Alan Coopersmith alanc@alum.calberkeley.org
http://www.CSUA.Berkeley.EDU/~alanc/ aka: Alan.Coopersmith@Sun.COM
Working for, but definitely not speaking for, Sun Microsystems, Inc.

Thomas Dehn <thomas-usenet@arcor.de> wrote in message
news:3fa9de1d_2@news.arcor-ip.de...
>
> "Dr. David Kirkby" <drkirkby@ntlworld.com> wrote:
> > There's nothing obvious in any log files. Anyone got any ideas ???
>
> The Xserver exits when a user logs out
> from CDE or Gnome; the Xserver dying is the last
> step of the logout process. The problem you see is
> that the new Xserver (started by the dtlogin
> master process) does not come up. Even though it originally
> comes up when the system is rebooted.
>
> Error messages will be in /var/dt/Xerrors.
> I also would check whether there is anything
> unusual going on in /tmp, such as files not
> being removed during logout, and I would turn on
> coreadm with global and setuid coredumps enabled
> to get a corefile of the crashing Xsun process.

I've now got somewhere on this - it seems to be it is having problems with
the framebuffer. I can't cut and past the errors, as I'm currently sending
this on a PC while I sort out how to get my Sun working on a new ADSL
connection - previously I was using dialup modem. Hence don't expect every
line 100% accuare, but basically the errors go like this in /var/dt/Xerrors

sunffbDriveIinit:: cannot map frame buffer memory.
sunfffbInit: cannot open device for /dev/fb
Fatal server error:
InitOutput:: Add screen failed for /dev/fb

I recently restored files in /dev /and /devices for a tape that was not too
current. It was possible that this had drivers for a PG32 framebuffer rather
than the Creator3D I now have, although I doubt X would have run okay when
booted if that was the problem. Anyway I booted into single user mode,
removed the packages for the Creator3D frambuffer (SUNWffb, SUNWffbcf,
SUNWffbw and SUNWffbx) then restored them from CD. Then I did a boot -r, but
this did not cure the problem.

Amy suggestions ???

Dr. David Kirkby

"Dr. David Kirkby" <davek@medphys.ucl.ac.uk> wrote:
> I've now got somewhere on this - it seems to be it is having problems with
> the framebuffer. I can't cut and past the errors, as I'm currently sending
> this on a PC while I sort out how to get my Sun working on a new ADSL
> connection - previously I was using dialup modem. Hence don't expect every
> line 100% accuare, but basically the errors go like this in /var/dt/Xerrors
>
> sunffbDriveIinit:: cannot map frame buffer memory.
> sunfffbInit: cannot open device for /dev/fb
> Fatal server error:
> InitOutput:: Add screen failed for /dev/fb

Yes, these obviously are related to the problem you observe.
Did you remove the framebuffer device files before
the reboot -r?


Thomas

Thomas Dehn wrote:
>
> "Dr. David Kirkby" <davek@medphys.ucl.ac.uk> wrote:
> > I've now got somewhere on this - it seems to be it is having problems with
> > the framebuffer. I can't cut and past the errors, as I'm currently sending
> > this on a PC while I sort out how to get my Sun working on a new ADSL
> > connection - previously I was using dialup modem. Hence don't expect every
> > line 100% accuare, but basically the errors go like this in /var/dt/Xerrors
> >
> > sunffbDriveIinit:: cannot map frame buffer memory.
> > sunfffbInit: cannot open device for /dev/fb
> > Fatal server error:
> > InitOutput:: Add screen failed for /dev/fb
>
> Yes, these obviously are related to the problem you observe.
> Did you remove the framebuffer device files before
> the reboot -r?
>
> Thomas

I tried removing the framebuffer files, but that did not help. I then
booted to single user mode, removed all the packages related to
Creator 3D and re-installed them. Again that did not help.

I had to make some quite major chances to the Sun for another reason -
I have changed from a dialup modem where the Sun did NAT, to an ASDL
router, which does the NAT. What with the problems I'd been having and
the fact it needed some major changes (none of which I really knew how
to do properly), I decided it was easier to re-install Solaris. So I
downloaded the latest release (I previously had the first, but with
the maintenance update 4), and this time installed a new release.

So the problem is now solved.

--

"The day Microsoft makes something that doesn't suck is probably
the day they start making vacuum cleaners." -Ernst Jan Plugge.

Dr. David Kirkby Ph.D
Author of 'atlc' http://atlc.sourceforge.net/