Quick Start Guide
tux@mercury:~> grep "id:" /etc/inittab
id:5:initdefault:
The returned line indicates that the machine's default runlevel (initdefault) is set
to 5 and that it should boot to the graphical desktop. If the runlevel is set to any
other number, use the YaST Runlevel Editor module to set it to 5.
IMPORTANT
Do not edit the runlevel conguration manually. Otherwise SuSEcong (run by
YaST) will overwrite these changes on its next run. If you need to make manual
changes here, disable future SuSEcong changes by setting
CHECK_INITTAB
in
/etc/sysconfig/suseconfig to no.
If the runlevel is set to 5, your desktop or X Windows software is probably miscong-
ured or corrupted. Examine the log les at /var/log/Xorg.*.log for detailed messages
from the X server as it attempted to start. If the desktop fails during start, it may log
error messages to /var/log/messages. If these error messages hint at a conguration
problem in the X server, try to x these issues. If the graphical system still does not
come up, consider reinstalling the graphical desktop.
TIP: Starting X Window System Manually
One quick test: the startx command should force the X Window System to start
with the congured defaults if the user is currently logged in on the console. If
that does not work, it should log errors to the console.
A.2.4 Login Problems
Login problems are those where your machine does, in fact, boot to the expected
welcome screen or login prompt, but refuses to accept the username and password,
or accepts them but then does not behave properly (fails to start the graphic desktop,
produces errors, drops to a command line, etc.).
A.2.4.1 Valid Username and Password Combinations Fail
This usually occurs when the system is congured to use network authentication or
directory services and, for some reason, is unable to retrieve results from its cong-
ured servers. The root user, as the only local user, is the only user that can still log
in to these machines. The following are some common reasons why a machine ap-
pears functional but is unable to process logins correctly:
• The network is not working. For further directions on this, turn to Section A.2.5,
“Network Problems” (page 257).
• DNS is not working at the moment (which prevents GNOME or KDE from working
and the system from making validated requests to secure servers). One indication
that this is the case is that the machine takes an extremely long time to respond
Help and Troubleshooting 251