"Unable to contact settings server". help me please.

varnie · Jun 29, 2009

good day!

tomorrow i've installed FreeBSD 7.0 RELEASE from scratch and updated all the installed software (which have been auto-installed during installation) using porupgrade. everything goes fine. when i've been updating X server and its stuff i've chose NOT* to use "HAL" as default blablabla (switching off an appropriate checkbox on its options).
now when i run startxfce4 explicitly by hands in console it runs OKay, but when i'm trying to use SLIM login manager with

startxfce4

being in my ~/.xinitrc
now when I try to log in, I am getting a popup with the following error:

"Unable to contact settings server
Failed to execute dbus-launch to autolaunch D-Bus session."

Then the desktop is loaded but not my normal desktop with my background, icons and so on, (speak shortly, it gets completely broken).

How to fix that? many thanks for your suggestions and help!~

ericbsd · Jun 29, 2009

do you enable hald and dbus in your rc.conf file.If you have not do that is probably the cause of that.

varnie · Jun 29, 2009

ericturgeon, thanks for response.
i've tried that but no luck. but i guess there's a chance i did smth wrong.

Beastie · Jun 29, 2009

Why not use FreeBSD 7.2 and upgrade to the lastest version of Xorg, HAL, Xfce, etc?

If you use ports, you should have HAL support enabled in Xorg.

To enable D-Bus and HAL:
- add dbus_enable="YES" and hald_enable="YES" to /etc/rc.conf
- run them: /usr/local/etc/rc.d/dbus start ; /usr/local/etc/rc.d/hal start

However, I doubt your problem is caused by HAL itself. When HAL's not running, Xfce still runs fine and everything is shown (desktop icons, panel, etc), but since it can't use any hardware, it should crash when you move your mouse or press a key.
What parts of Xfce have you installed? Maybe there's something missing.

ericbsd · Jun 29, 2009

varnie you have the same error i get when try to upgrade gnome2 on FreeBSD 7.0 hald i missing or out of date. you can upgrade to FreeBSD 7.2 or 7.2 stable.But try to check if you have last version of hald.

varnie · Jun 29, 2009

well.. i've upgraded to FreeBSD 7.2 Stable and i still get this nasty message:

Unable to contact D-Bus session bus.

Failed to connect to socket /var/tmp/dbus-UInRdfRrsE: Connection refused

but when i use just:

startxfce4

i face no problem. any ideas?

Beastie · Jun 29, 2009

Then maybe it's a SLIM problem.

What happens when you try % xinit?

What happens when you use XDM instead?

varnie · Jun 29, 2009

What happens when you try % xinit?

runs xfce4 pretty well.

What happens when you use XDM instead?

runs "bald" X windows manager with opened console, and menu buttons on the upper left screens corner.
ps: maybe i have to write smth in my ~/.xsession file or smth like that?

Beastie · Jun 29, 2009

varnie said:
runs "bald" X windows manager with opened console, and menu buttons on the upper left screens corner.

I didn't really understand this. Did it run TWM or what?

varnie said:
ps: maybe i have to write smth in my ~/.xsession file or smth like that?

Oh, yes. It's just like .xinitrc, but it also has to be executable (% chmod +x ~/.xsession).
Now, enable XDM in /etc/ttys by switching ttyv8 to on. Finally, tell init to re-read /etc/ttys with a # kill -HUP 1.

varnie · Jun 29, 2009

Beastie said:
I didn't really understand this. Did it run TWM or what?

yes, it was TWM.

after all the steps you gave me about xdm and xsession i finally managed xdm to execute xfce4. now FreeBSD boots to xdm where after being logged in i appear in xfce4 without that annoying message box with D-BUS error. good!! thanks for your help!

but as for SLIM login manager i have still no luck here. it still cries with that error message which i've posted above.

well.. does this means SLIM is buggy?

varnie · Jul 1, 2009

btw, HAL doesn't work for me ;(

when i have it enabled in /etc/rc.conf it produces a "keybuttons delays problem": i have to move my mouse after i've pressed any buttons to make an appropriate entered text printed.
tried to put

moused_nondefault_enable="NO"
moused_enable="NO"

in /etc/rc.conf. it seems to be working at first glance but Xorg gets freezes after a while and i have to "bloody" reboot my computer.

therefore, i've disabled HAL in /etc/rc.conf and it solved the problem...

any ideas? many thanks for your comments.