kdeinit: Aborting. $DISPLAY is not set.

Hi All,
I upgraded over the weekend from 10.3 with a clean install of 11 with KDE4.

I found KDE4 to be very problematic and install KDE3 via yast. After rebooting, when I tried to log via the graphical login, the background with the progress bar would appear and freeze. I tried loging in with both KDE4 and KDE3. I then did a fresh install with KDE3 only but the same problem.

I use NIS with user /home directories mounted via NFS from my main server. Therefore, all users home directories were untouched by the fresh install (the home directories were created a few years ago with 10.2).

I can now login as root but not as NIS user except one. I have one NIS account “guest” that has not been used for a long time, if ever, and that login works fine. I also created a new NIS user and this login works also.

When loged in at the console as a NIS user, if I try startx, I get the same as when I login normally. If I try startkde it fails with “kdeinit: Aborting. $DISPLAY is not set.”

I think there must be an old config file in the users home directories the needs updating or deleting. I have looked but can’t find anything?

Hopefully, someone here can help.

I get the feeling this has been a long term problem with openSUSE upgrades. I’m having a similar issue. I upgraded from 10 > 11 (rather a big jump, I know, but mostly it was OK, though I would have been better off with a fresh install, though if I had, it wouldn’t have been openSUSE, since I’m more of an apt-get kind of guy). I forget what all the intervening twists and turns were, but at this point when I boot up I get a console login prompt (init 3). If I try to start kdm nothing happens. However, if I do a ‘killall kdm’ and then try ‘kdm’ again it boots me right in to my KDE3 desktop, not KDM login, nada. Same thing when I tried “gdm”, but when I killed gdm it seemed to freeze my desktop, necessitating a hard reboot since I can seem to remember the Alt-SysRq sequence. I removed gdm to see it that would help. Very weird.

I believe I can start the last login session type with startx but startkde3, startkde4, etc. give me something like:

kdeinit: Aborting. $DISPLAY is not set.
Warning: connect() failed: : No such file or directory
ksmserver: cannot connect to X server
ERROR: Can’t contact kdeinit!
startkde: Running shutdown scripts

I seem to be able to hit a regular KDM login if I log out of the KDM started desktop. Then I can choose other desktops. Didn’t much care for KDE4, Gnome & XFCE don’t seem to have window decorations, something isn’t installed, I guess, or maybe they are trying a compositing window manager that isn’t working. I’m using the NV open source driver with onboard Nvidia Geforce2 graphics and a PCI TNT card. I have the legacy nvidia driver installed, but if I try to boot to it I end up with the module not loading. I would have removed all references to the nvidia driver but whenever I try to do so YAST tries to install a newer version, instead. I tried using sax2 to try to set up a new xorg.conf, but it has problems and wants me to restart SAX2 with some switch that only probes a single card, and I would rather login and start X manually than only have a single monitor. Oh, and I doubt it is relevant, but I have a reiser file system, 2.5 years old, long before Hans went on his murder rampage. Nothing seems wildly amiss in my dmesg or Xorg.0.log.

I’ve tried a “export DISPLAY=‘localhost:0.0’” after a suggestion in some other thread. I’m not sure if that is wahat enabled me to hit the KDM login window when I logged out. I tried it both as a normal user (probably wouldn’t do squat) and root, just to be on the OCS side.

In the KDE Control Center (kcontrol) I have the Login Manager set to not Auto-Login or allow Password-Less Logins, though I seem to recall that openSUSE 10 did autologin to my normal user. If I go to the KDE Control Center KDM Theme Manager I get a dialog box that says:

I can’t find the configuration file for the Login Manager, kdm. Check you have set up the Login Manager from the Control Center, and that you have permission to read and write the Login Manager’s configuration file.

You must set-up the Login Manager before you can use its themes.

If I hit ‘OK’ I see that Enable KDM Themes is grayed out. If I tap the Administrator Mode button, though, I can Enable KDM Themes. It gives the default as being the openSUSE 11.0 theme from Jakub Steiner (the theme I see when I do get to the KDM login manager), but then when I hit OK and revisit the KDM Theme Manager it doesn’t seem to have taken, I get the dialog box again.

Other than that, things are mostly pretty peachy, I plan to run 11 for a couple of years, unless it deteriorates. But I’m not wise in the ways of suse and was hoping someone could help me clear this issue up. Here are a couple of possibly pertinent files.

/etc/sysconfig/displaymanager (with the comments excised to permit me to post within the forum word limits).

DISPLAYMANAGER=“kdm”

DISPLAYMANAGER_REMOTE_ACCESS=“yes”

DISPLAYMANAGER_ROOT_LOGIN_REMOTE=“yes”

DISPLAYMANAGER_STARTS_XSERVER=“yes”

KDM_USERS=""

KDM_GREETSTRING=""

DISPLAYMANAGER_AUTOLOGIN=“me”

DISPLAYMANAGER_PASSWORD_LESS_LOGIN=“no”

DISPLAYMANAGER_KDM_THEME=“SUSE”

DISPLAYMANAGER_AD_INTEGRATION=“no”

DISPLAYMANAGER_SHUTDOWN=“auto”

DISPLAYMANAGER_RANDR_MODE_VGA=“auto”

1344 768 769 772 795 -HSync +Vsync"
DISPLAYMANAGER_RANDR_MODE_* on laptops only,

DISPLAYMANAGER_RANDR_MODE_auto=“1024x768_60 64.11 1024 1080 1184 1344 768 769 772 795 -HSync +Vsync”

DISPLAYMANAGER_XSERVER=Xorg

DISPLAYMANAGER_XGL_OPTS="-accel glx:pbuffer -accel xv:pbuffer"

DISPLAYMANAGER_KDM_LOCALARGS=""

xorg.conf

/…/

SaX generated X11 config file

Created on: 2005-12-13T22:58:19-0800.

Version: 7.1

Contact: Marcus Schaefer <sax@suse.de>, 2002

Automatically generated by [ISaX] (7.1)

Section “Files”
SNIPPED for concision
EndSection

Section “ServerFlags”
Option “AllowMouseOpenFail”
EndSection

Section “Module”
Load “freetype”
Load “vnc”
Load “type1”
Load “glx”
Load “extmod”
Load “v4l”
Load “dbe”
EndSection

Section “InputDevice”
Driver “kbd”
Identifier “Keyboard[0]”
Option “Protocol” “Standard”
Option “XkbLayout” “us”
Option “XkbModel” “pc104”
Option “XkbRules” “xfree86”
EndSection

Section “InputDevice”
Identifier “Mouse[1]”
Driver “mouse”
Option “Protocol” “ExplorerPS/2”

Following line changed from 5 to 6 - scroll problems

Option “Device” “/dev/input/mice”
Option “Buttons” “7”

Option “Name” “ImPS/2 Logitech Wheel Mouse”

Option “Vendor” “Sysp”

Option “ZAxisMapping” “6 7”
EndSection

Section “InputDevice”
Driver “rfbkeyb”
Identifier “Keyboard[2]”
Option “InputFashion” “VNC”
EndSection

Section “InputDevice”
Driver “rfbmouse”
Identifier “Mouse[3]”
Option “InputFashion” “VNC”
EndSection

Section “Monitor”
DisplaySize 310 230
HorizSync 28-64
Identifier “Monitor[0]”
ModelName “1280X1024@60HZ”
Option “DPMS”
VendorName “–> VESA”
VertRefresh 50-60
UseModes “Modes[0]”
EndSection

Section “Monitor”
DisplaySize 300 230
HorizSync 28-82
Identifier “Monitor[1]”
ModelName “1280X1024@60HZ”
Option “DPMS”
VendorName “–> LCD”
VertRefresh 50-60
UseModes “Modes[1]”
EndSection

Section “Modes”
Identifier “Modes[0]”
SNIPPED
EndSection

Section “Modes”
Identifier “Modes[1]”
SNIPPED
EndSection

Section “Screen”
DefaultDepth 16
SNIP
SubSection “Display”
Depth 24
Modes “1280x1024” “1280x960” “1280x800” “1152x864” “1280x768” “1024x768” “800x600” “768x576” “640x480”
EndSubSection
SubSection “Display”
Depth 32
Modes “1280x1024” “1280x960” “1280x800” “1152x864” “1280x768” “1024x768” “800x600” “768x576” “640x480”
EndSubSection
SubSection “Display”
Depth 8
Modes “1280x1024” “1280x960” “1280x800” “1152x864” “1280x768” “1024x768” “800x600” “768x576” “640x480”
EndSubSection
Device “Device[0]”
Identifier “Screen[0]”
Monitor “Monitor[0]”
EndSection

Section “Screen”
DefaultDepth 16
SNIPPED
SubSection “Display”
Depth 16
Modes “1280x1024” “1280x960” “1280x800” “1152x864” “1280x768” “1024x768” “800x600” “768x576” “640x480”
EndSubSection
SNIP
Device “Device[1]”
Identifier “Screen[1]”
Monitor “Monitor[1]”
EndSection

Section “Device”
BoardName “GeForce2 Integrated GPU”
BusID “2:0:0”
Driver “nv”
Identifier “Device[0]”
Option “alwaysshared”
Option “rfbauth” “/root/.vnc/passwd”
Option “usevnc” “yes”
Screen 0
VendorName “NVidia”
EndSection

Section “Device”
BoardName “RIVA TNT2 Model 64/Model 64 Pro”
BusID “1:6:0”
Driver “nv”
Identifier “Device[1]”
Screen 0
VendorName “NVidia”
EndSection

Section “ServerLayout”
Identifier “Layout[all]”
InputDevice “Keyboard[0]” “CoreKeyboard”
InputDevice “Mouse[1]” “CorePointer”
Option “Clone” “off”
Option “Xinerama” “on”
Screen “Screen[0]”
Screen “Screen[1]” RightOf “Screen[0]”
EndSection

Section “DRI”
Group “video”
Mode 0660
EndSection

Section “Extensions”
EndSection

Confirmed, I can start X as a regular user only with ‘startx’. And I can get to the KDE Login Window & change my session by logging out after starting KDM (twice, as I mentioned, I have to kill the first instance) and auto-logging in.

export DISPLAY='localhost:0.0

Doesn’t seem to do anything and has been discontinued.