gnome won't start using /etc/rc.conf

[papelboyl1]

I am currently running gnome via $ echo "/usr/local/bin/gnome-session" > ~/.xinitrc
and then $ startx
And this is working fine.

But if I try the following in /etc/rc.conf:

gnome_enable=YES"

or

gdm_enable="YES"
hald_enable="YES"
dbus_enable="YES"
avahi_daemon_enable="YES"
avahi_dnsconfd_enable="YES"

All I get is a white square in the middle of my monitor. The mouse and keyboard is unresponsive.

I followed the gnome FAQ and as I said above, gnome works fine when using startx. just not using rc.conf.

Any ideas? Thank you
----------------------

osaka# uname -a
FreeBSD osaka.azumanga.daioh 9.0-STABLE FreeBSD 9.0-STABLE #1: Fri Mar 16 20:05:54 CST 2012     root@osaka.azumanga.daioh:/usr/obj/usr/src/sys/osaka  amd64
osaka#

defaultrouter=""
hostname="osaka.azumanga.daioh"

ifconfig_em0="up"
ifconfig_em1="up"
ifconfig_em2="up"
cloned_interfaces="lagg0"
ifconfig_lagg0="laggproto lacp laggport em0 laggport em1 laggport em2 192.168.2.
13/24"
wlans_ath0="wlan0"
ifconfig_wlan0="WPA DHCP"

dpsumpdev="NO"

#avahi_daemon_enable="YES"
avahi_dnsconfd_enable="YES"
dbus_enable="YES"
fusefs_enable="YES"
#gdm_enable="YES"
#gnome_enable="YES"
hald_enable="YES"
ntpd_enable="YES"
ntpdate_enable="YES"
sshd_enable="YES"

My rc.conf is currently setup so that gnome runs from startx. But when testing, I uncomment/comment the relevant lines (i.e. avahi_daemon_enable and etc)

 

[SirDice]

Is /proc/ correctly mounted?

 

[papelboyl1]

osaka# more /etc/fstab 
# Device        Mountpoint      FStype  Options Dump    Pass#
/dev/ada0p2     /               ufs     rw      1       1
/dev/ada0p3     none            swap    sw      0       0
/dev/ada0p4     /var            ufs     rw      2       2
/dev/ada0p5     /usr            ufs     rw      2       2

proc            /proc           procfs  rw      0       0

osaka# df -h
Filesystem        Size    Used   Avail Capacity  Mounted on
/dev/ada0p2         2G    602M    1.2G    32%    /
devfs             1.0k    1.0k      0B   100%    /dev
/dev/ada0p4         4G    233M    3.4G     6%    /var
/dev/ada0p5        19G    6.0G     12G    33%    /usr
procfs            4.0k    4.0k      0B   100%    /proc
storage           1.4T     46k    1.4T     0%    /storage
storage/backup    2.7T    1.3T    1.4T    47%    /storage/backup
storage/root      1.4T    1.2M    1.4T     0%    /storage/root

 

[SirDice]

That looks good, a missing /proc/ is the most common fault.

Try logging in as root and starting GDM by hand. Any error messages appearing?

# service gdm onestart

 

[papelboyl1]

Starting gdm via [cmd=]/usr/local/etc/rc.d/gdm start[/cmd] works fine. Once I reboot my machine with gdm_enable set to YES, I get the same white square problem. I had "avahi" lines set commented. Only gdm/dbus/hald were set to enable but from what I understand, avahi isn't really required.

 

[papelboyl1]

Not sure if this is relevant but I installed gnome2 via packages as the port won't install for me.

 

[fmw]

# service gdm onestart

# gdmshould work just the same. Did for me, anyway.

avahi_daemon_enable="YES"
avahi_dnsconfd_enable="YES"

These entries are not necessary. You may want to delete them.

not sure if this is relevant but I installed gnome2 via packages as the port won't install for me.

The problems I encountered with gnome2 installed from packages were one of the main reasons why I quit using packages. There were always some glitches that required workarounds, such as deleted files not appearing in the trashcan. At any rate, make sure all the gnome-related packages are up to date.

What happens when you try to install from ports?

 

[phoenix]

Read through /var/log/Xorg.0.log when you start GDM as root. And then read it again when you start GDM as a normal user. Compare the two to see how things look.