Added XDM - now stuck in a 'loop'

fitz

fitz

Hello forum,

I have been learning to install FreeBSD and, after some problems, finally got Xorg server to run successfully. Hooray! I have been following the 'Handbook', and so have just installed Xdm, and edited /etc/ttys to change off to on via ttyv8.

As I have had some trouble previously configuring Xorg, I have been routinely rebooting my installation, and, am now stuck with the Xdm manager loading, but with no instruction to follow after login. So, it goes back to the login prompt.

One of the problems that I have had with my Xorg server configuration is that ctrl-alt-F1 or F2 etc. simply freezes my screen and does not give me access to a terminal to be able to edit my mistake allowing me to continue my installation. I cannot 'break' out of the loop that I have engineered it seems!

I have tried ctrl-C ctrl-X ctrl-Z etc, etc. Ctrl-alt-backspace does nothing and Ctrl-alt-del simply reboots, putting me back in the 'loop'. Please could someone advise how I can get to a terminal?

I should also mention that I have chosen encryption for my HDDs.

Thank you everyone for any help.
 
Boot into Single User Mode.
mount -u /
echo "kern.vty=vt" >> /boot/loader.conf
shutdown -r now
That will enable the vt(4) console so it can be seen after X is started.

xdm uses ~/.xsession rather than .xinitrc. If the contents of .xinitrc do what is desired for startx, that file can just be copied to ~/.xsession.
 
Hi wblock@,

Thanks for that.

Code: 
# mount -u /
# echo "kern.vty=vt" >> /boot/loader.conf
/boot/loader.conf: No such file or directory.

Please could you talk through the above (apart from shutdown -r now). How can I just log in as root please? What I would also really like to know is how I can enable Ctrl-Alt-F1 to allow me into a console and not to 'lock' the machine?

Appreciate your assistance,

Fitz.
 
Ctrl-Alt-F1 works, it is just that the default console does not show anything after X has been started. This procedure switches the default console to vt(4), which does work after X has been started.

If /boot is not available, it's probably because some encrypted devices need to be mounted. I don't know how bsdconfig(8) sets that up now. Did you choose ZFS when installing?
 
wblock@ said:
Ctrl-Alt-F1 works, it is just that the default console does not show anything after X has been started. This procedure switches the default console to vt(4), which does work after X has been started.
Click to expand...

OK, thanks, I guess that trying this out will be the only way to understand!

wblock@ said:
If /boot is not available, it's probably because some encrypted devices need to be mounted. I don't know how bsdconfig(8) sets that up now. Did you choose ZFS when installing?
Click to expand...

ZFS, yes, stripe and encryption, I thought as much. Time to start afresh, yet again! Why do we do it when there are so many stable distros out there.

I know the answer to that!
 
It would probably be beneficial in the long term to figure out just what commands are needed to get /boot to be available on this type of setup.
 
Please could you be a little bit more specific? I.e: do you mean learn what exactly happens during the boot process? Do you have any recommended link to start from? Thanks for your help, it's very kind of you.
 
I mean that it's useful to know how something like this encrypted ZFS setup works, because a reinstall is often impractical.

Unfortunately, I don't know how bsdconfig(8) sets up an encrypted ZFS-on-root. But I can ask around.
 
fitz said:
Hello forum,

I have been learning to install FreeBSD and, after some problems, finally got Xorg server to run successfully. Hooray! I have been following the 'Handbook', and so have just installed Xdm, and edited /etc/ttys to change off to on via ttyv8.

As I have had some trouble previously configuring Xorg, I have been routinely rebooting my installation, and, am now stuck with the Xdm manager loading, but with no instruction to follow after login. So, it goes back to the login prompt.
Click to expand...

Solution: install x11/xsm

The default configuration for xdm is to launch (first) xsm, *then* twm.
--
Devin
 
fitz said:
/boot/loader.conf: No such file or directory.
Click to expand...

You shouldn't have this problem, but, the unencrypted pool where /boot lives in called bootpool, try zfs list to find it.
It was set up with /boot as a symlink to /bootpool/boot.
It turns out freebsd-update eats this.
 
wblock@ said:
So to enable vt(4), we can just write to loader.conf in /bootpool/boot?
echo "kern.vty=vt" >> /bootpool/boot/loader.conf
Click to expand...

Normally it should be the same /boot/loader.conf, but something odd must be going on this this particular install. I'd love to see the output of zpool list, zfs list, and ls -al /boot to try to debug it
 
Sorry for the delay.

I rebuilt in the meantime due to having no system.

I have rebuilt as before, and, as requested:

Code: 
root@:~ # zfs list
NAME  USED  AVAIL  REFER  MOUNTPOINT
bootpool  486M  1.45G  485M  /bootpool
zroot  2.10G  666G  96K  none
zroot/ROOT  1.51G  666G  96K  none
zroot/ROOT/default  1.51G  666G  1.51G  /
zroot/tmp  120K  666G  120K  /tmp
zroot/usr  607M  666G  96K  /usr
zroot/usr/home  96K  666G  96K  /usr/home
zroot/usr/ports  607M  666G  607M  /usr/ports
zroot/usr/src  96K  666G  96K  /usr/src
zroot/var  640K  666G  96K  /var
zroot/var/crash  96K  666G  96K  /var/crash
zroot/var/log  224K  666G  224K  /var/log
zroot/var/mail  120K  666G  120K  /var/mail
zroot/var/tmp  104K  666G  104K  /var/tmp
root@:~ # zpool list
NAME  SIZE  ALLOC  FREE  FRAG  EXPANDSZ  CAP  DEDUP  HEALTH  ALTROOT
bootpool  1.98G  486M  1.51G  17%  -  23%  1.00x  ONLINE  -
zroot  690G  2.10G  688G  0%  -  0%  1.00x  ONLINE  -
root@:~ # ls -al /boot
lrwxr-xr-x  1 root  wheel  13 Nov 11 21:06 /boot -> bootpool/boot
 
Click vt(4) to see the web page. vt(4) is a console that supports graphics mode for use with KMS video drivers. FreeBSD 10.1 has both vt(4) and the older sc(4). sc(4) is still the default, and shows only a black screen after X has been started.

kern.vty=vt just selects the new vt(4) as the one to use.
 
I am now getting a console thanks!

Also, it is reporting that:

Code: 
VT: Replacing driver "vga" with new "fb"

Please could you let me know about this 'error'?

I'm presuming that I can edit xorg.conf to deal with this - but just want to check first, as, when the tty console access went last time, I had to rebuild.

Many thanks.
 
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