Can't start Xserver at boot

[satimis]

Hi folks,

RH8.0
Kernel 2.4.18-27.8 on an i686
Athlon 1.4G
RAM 512MB

During booting the PC, it hangs on;

INIT: Id "x" respawning too fast disabled for 5 minutes

But Xserver still can't start after 5 minutes, only repeating the above warning.

Kindly advise how to correct the problem

TIA

B.R.
satimis

[nabis]

You will get a lot of hits in google on this one.
Just one of them:
http://www.unixguide.net/linux/faq/09.24.shtml
You probably should boot in single-user mode, and examine your /etc/initab, the path to kdm / gdm / xdm .e.t.c
You may want to check XF86Config too.

[Uranus]

If only 1 thing is respawning too fast, just Alt+Right Arrow, this should bring you to the 2nd (working) tty.
Sam

[satimis]

Hi folks,

Tks for your advice.

The PC was working properly previously. I am prepared to install Globus Toolkit 3.2 on this PC. I have installed following supporting software

Ant 1.6.1
JUnit 3.8.1
Java 2 SDK 1.4.2.04
postgresql 7.4.2.

They are now running on this PC but I havn't installed Globus Toolkit yet.

What I can recall is with following command lines adding following users

# adduser postgresamdin
# adduser globus
# adduser griduser

Afterwards I came across incidents that as USER I accidentally clicked /postgresadmin/globus/griduser (either one of them) on Konqueror window (home diretory). Additional empty Konqueror windows continued popup. I could not stop them compelling me to start 'init 5' (TEXT MODE) to reboot the PC. I suppose that maybe is the cause of error.


I have performed following tests

editted /etc/inittab as

id:3:initdefault:

rebooted PC starting TEXT mode (init 3)

as root
# startx
KDE started

as user
$ startx
started GNOME (not KDE)

$ startkde
xsetroot:unable to open display'
xrdb:Can't open display"
xset:unable to open display"
ksphash:Cannot connect to Xserver
kdeinit:Connect ( ) failed:No such file or directory
ksmserver:Cannot connect to Xserver
Error:Can't open display;
Warning:Connect ( ) failed, no such file or directory
Error:Can't connect kdeinit!

$ cat /etc/inittab
......
# Run xdm in runlevel 5
# xdm is now a separate service
x:5:respawn:/etc/X11/prefdm -nodaemon
...


$ /etc/X11/prefdm -nodaemon
$ /etc/X11/prefdm
(both no response)

# /etc/X11/prefdm -nodaemon
# /etc/X11/prefdm
(both no response)

What change shall I make to
/etc/X11/???

Any advice. TIA

B.R.
satimis