- This topic has 3 replies, 3 voices, and was last updated May 13-7:33 am by Xecure.
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catfood
antiX live/unlive startup order/priorities question.
Intermittent odd startups. ( I don’t understand, but wanting to share what I do see.)
Across 3 antiX platforms, I notice odd wm? loading. antiX starts, eventually, WM starts to load a “desktop”. At random, certain things fail to load.
30% or less, the desktop background fails to load.
Can’t put a percentage, but often, WM seems to have failed to fully load. Fluxbox makes the best examples though. FB menu feels 85+% inop. Most menu options click to nothing. %50% of the time in click to no response mode, FB starts making ghost menus: Any left or right click just opens a new FB menu, and you can cover the screen with them.Regardless of unloaded things or WM glitches, (sorry, not on antiX right now:), “other desktops” or “new” or whatever label, works 90%+ of the time. Swapping to new desktop evokes Slim. Login, then any desktop (GRUB entry) aside from what I was on, will work flawlessly after credential login. (New desktop from FB/Rox to FB/Rox will result in any of similar startup glitches, swapping to FB/SpaceFM will resolve any startup glitch the same as picking any other WM.)
Found startup options under antiX control center. Chart with 5 collums of [X]’s to arrange priority/options I assume. Do not understand yet, not messing with those settings.
I am un-used-to Slim for a DM. No easy GUI to find slim settings, and not sure where to directory dig for it, nor know not what I can/can’t edit if I do find it. Swapping desktops always forces a new login to Slim, after that, any desktop change, not staying original load, solves problem.
I have no idea where the problem lies. These are just the workarounds I have attempted. Unsure if initial WM load lacks sudo privilege because it was loaded without a Slim login, hence the works after “swapping desktop” just because Slim is re-allowed to log you in as a different user?(sudo privlage or not, maybe different startup control?) I wanted to personally test this, but I don’t know Slim, and no gui, I don’t know how to force Slim “no auto-logins, mandatory pass)
I also wonder if simpler/deeper. I don’t fully get it, but I like to reverse engineer. The && sleep timer && I see in most linux startup codes, I feel I vaguely understand. I am curious if there is maybe a few minor adjustments to startup wait/delay to ensure service loading priority? I understand the basic concept, but the details above my head.
I’m not sure. If there is a way to capture startup log files, I’d be more than happy to do so from a few hardware, and multiple different installs. Please let me know where to find a log file that might catch these behaviors.
Entirely possible also that 2GB RAM on a netbook loading off 2.0 USB, is just losing things in RAM or crashing in RAM. Though, works a decent amount of the time without failures too.
Thanks for listening. I like puzzles. Let me know how I can help you solve this. I love testing and breaking Linux, I just have let to learn the society of bug-reports.
Howdy Jessie.
Anonymous
Chart with 5 collums of [X]’s to arrange
Yeah, don’t fuss with ’em, Those are all beyond the scope/realm of the described problem.
Slim for a DM. No easy GUI to find slim settings, and not sure where to directory dig for it,
configuration file is /etc/slim.conf (and, yes, its manpage is disappointingly terse)
but, again, fussing with the SLiM configuration details would probably not solve the described problem.. If there is a way to capture startup log files
Unsure why so many folks nowadays are oblivious to the presence of logfiles.
They are generated, by default, as common practice across *nix distros, since decades ago.
/var/log/
/var/log/live/
Also (but not necessarily useful for the probem at hand) the “dmesg” command and several other
inbuilt utilities are available. Again, these are standard fare across distros…edited to add:
_____________________
Also (and this is antiX-specific, so it’s unsurprising that folks may not know to check this)
~/.desktop-session/log
_____________________I just have let to learn the society of bug-reports.
Almost certainly, a “bug report” would be inappropriate.
Evvythang worked fine on Day1, right? And again on Day2…
Something changing on your system, causing breakage, does not qualify as a “bug”
(unless the breaking change was introduced by a recent update of a distro-supplied package)maybe a few minor adjustments to startup wait/delay to ensure service loading priority?
Nearly all of the “services” are all started ahead of time, prior to the system presenting the SLiM login screen. So let’s call ’em “autostarted items”. Yes, several processes are launched immediately prior to window manager; these are called from lines stated within your ~/.fluxbox/starup file (and/or from a few other similar startup scripts).
Upon choosing a “rox*” sessiontype, YES rox may still be trying to finish populating the pinboard (desktop) and may be competing/conflicting with concurrent startup operations of the window manager. This (need to configure an extra delay for rox, on some older machines) has been a recurring help request topic.
how I can help
You’re off to a good start, sleuthing to determine when the problem occurs and to ruleout the extraneous variables (you said the problem does not affect icewm sessions, right?)
Further troubleshooting steps:
Create an additional user account. Login, as other user, to the same (rox+fluxbox?) sessiontype that has been wonky for you. If no problem occurs during other user’s session, then we’ll know that everydayUser’s config files must suspect.
As a next step, to ruleout a corrupt/misconfigured fluxbox config:
During an iceWM session (icewm only, no ROX),
mv ~/.fluxbox ~/.fluxbox_BAK cp /etc/skel/.fluxbox ~/.fluxboxthen “Other Desktops” your way back to a fluxbox-only session
to verify whether the problem(s) is resolved by using fresh fb config files^—- via “Other Desktops” to avoid involving SLiM, and “fluxbox only” to ruleout ROX
If ^^^that seems okay, next trying logging out // logging in via SLiM to check whether doing so (re)introduces the described problem.
Toward ruling out file corruption of one/some of the rox and/or fluxbox binary files, you can
sudo apt install debsums debsums -e fluxbox | grep 'FAILED\|missing' | grep -v xsessions debsums -e rox-filer | grep 'FAILED\|missing'other details to check:
Have you lost ownership of any files within your home directory?find ~ -user root | grep -v '[.]cache\|socket' ### or find ~ ! -user $USER | grep -v '[.]cache\|socket'Have any of your files become “unreadable”, permissions-wise?
find ~ -user $USER ! -perm -u=r
Xecure
“other desktops” or “new” or whatever label, works 90%+ of the time. Swapping to new desktop evokes Slim.
sudo apt install --reinstall desktop-session-antixMost menu options click to nothing. %50% of the time in click to no response mode, FB starts making ghost menus:
Log in to a normal fluxbox session (no rox or spacefm or min- or minimal-). Conto Control Centre > Wallpaper and set the wallpaper.
Across 3 antiX platforms, I notice odd wm? loading. antiX starts, eventually, WM starts to load a “desktop”. At random, certain things fail to load.
30% or less, the desktop background fails to load.
Edit ~/.desktop-session/desktop-session.conf and change the startup delay value to 5 or 6
STARTUP_DELAY="5"antiX Live system enthusiast.
General Live Boot Parameters for antiX.
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