window managers won't start when logging in from kdm

English Install/Boot/Login
1

slash page comes up fine.
KDM greeting page and username selector come up.
I can choose a session.

If I choose anything other than ‘failsafe’ (KDE failsafe, KDE, TWM, IceWM, etc), it accepts my password and then just sits there :frowning:

If I login via failsafe, then type ‘startkde’, KDE starts up fine and I get all my windows, virtual desktops, etc.

opensuse 11.2
kdm-4.3.5-0.3.1.i586
kdebase4-4.3.5-0.1.1.i586
kdelibs4-4.3.5-0.1.1.i586
kdelibs4-core-4.3.5-0.1.1.i586

I also just noticed these installed as well:
kdelibs3-3.5.10-32.4.1.i586
kdelibs3-default-style-3.5.10-32.4.1.i586

2.6.31.12-0.2-desktop #1 SMP

Nothing in .xsession-errors

The only thing I could find in /var/log/messages that looked close was this:
Jul 12 10:05:46 abydos kernel: 2063.551369] mtrr: no MTRR for c0000000,10000000 found
Jul 12 10:05:46 abydos kdm[1916]: X server for display :0 terminated unexpectedly

Any cluses?

2

It sounds like your video driver is not set up properly at the moment. That is one of the most common reasons I know for it refusing to go into a windowmanager

If you can get to a console you can try running as root the command

sax2

that will let you try configuring the video to see if it works. Or read up a bit on the handy sax2 program.

or else if you prefer you can try on the command line as root

sax2 -r 0=vesa

that would get you up with a generic video vesa driver so you can sort it out. My assumption for failsafe is that it likely uses the generic vesa video driver.