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Old 29th March 2013
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jggimi jggimi is offline
More noise than signal
 
Join Date: May 2008
Location: USA
Posts: 7,977
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  1. X is already running. Stop trying to start it a second time, such as with xinit or with startx.
  2. X is running via XDM, the X Display Manager. CTRL-ALT-Backspace will merely restart it.
  3. The $HOME/.xinitrc file is used by xinit or startx -- the .xinitrc file is NOT used with XDM.
  4. Instead, XDM uses $HOME/.xsession
How to fix this:
  1. Use CTRL-ALT-F1 and log into your userid from the console.
  2. Move, Link, Copy, or otherwise replicate your .xinitrc script as .xsession instead, as I recommended above.
  3. Use CTRL-ALT-F5 to return to the XDM login screen
  4. Login.
How to stop XDM (and X) on your system, so that you can test .xinitrc scripts and get them working with startx(1) or xinit(1):
  1. Use CTRL-ALT-F1 and log into your user from the console
  2. Issue this command as root: # pkill -9 xdm
  3. Login as your standard user, if you are not already, and muck about to your heart's content.
  4. To restart XDM, X must not currently be running. Issue this command as root: # xdm

Last edited by jggimi; 29th March 2013 at 02:58 PM. Reason: clarity
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