[SOLVED] Window manager switched; nonusable after login

[Member stevesr0]

Hi all,

Because of a problem with my built in wifi and bluetooth card, I have been trying different versions of antix and other distros seeking to find one that the hardware would work with. (It is the subject of another thread.)

Today, I tried to use what I thought was a LIVE Debian 10.9 iso booting from a usb. It didn’t work well – taking an enormous amount of time and ultimately getting to a blinking command hyphen without a prompt.

So, I then tried it on my newest computer.

After it ran a long time, a screen came up and I explored it for a while before trying to shut it down. After choosing logout to shut down, the screen went blank except for two rectangles. After a few minutes, I shut off the power.

Since this, when I boot into the linux distro on this machine, after log in it just displays a window saying my window manager is not usable. After a few seconds I note that either the fan or the disk is running loudly, so I shut the computer down to avoid possible heat damage.

The windows install on a separate hard drive on the same machine is working fine.

I rechecked that iso and found out that it was an installer version NOT a live iso. So I believe that it started installing while it was booting the machine.

When I boot with a live antix 17 distro, I can see that the files still exist on the drive.

I am not sure what was mangled on the ssd with the linux distro and I would appreciate any advice about how I can diagnose this and fix.

I realize this isn’t providing a bunch of useful technical details; be happy to provide them if people suggest what…

Thanks in advance.

stevesr0

P.S. When I boot a live antix 19.4 distro, it comes up to a command line on this machine and I am not able to launch X. This usb does boot to a gui on another machine. A 17 antix usb does boot to a gui.

• This topic was modified 1 year, 10 months ago by stevesr0.
• This topic was modified 1 year, 10 months ago by stevesr0.

[Moderator BobC]

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I would say that if something is that slow, you won’t run it very long anyway. Even if you could fix the compatibility problems, you still couldn’t use it.

I would suggest trying distros from USB until you find one that boots easily, and that you like, that runs fast enough to be usable and put that on the partition currently occupied by Debian 10.9, since it sounds like Debian is way too slow, anyway. BTW, if Debian is that slow, you aren’t going to find many full fledged systems that are faster, so you will need to limit your search to the fastest distros because the rest will just sit there and spin, too.

If you have compatibility problems with all of them, find someone else with the same hardware and problems, and find out what fixed it. That might take some searching, and then a bunch of experimenting, but is the best option if nothing else works.

[Moderator BobC]

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Oh, so it has an old graphics board that is no longer supports by the major Distros?

Xecure has a thread on fixing old graphics problems. See if it applies to your machine. I can’t tell you if it will fix it or not.

• This reply was modified 1 year, 10 months ago by BobC.

[Anonymous]

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Can you post the output of

inxi -Fxz

so others know what hardware and video chipset you have. If antiX 17
works maybe have to stick with it on that machine.

[Member Xecure]

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stevesr0 wrote:

Since this, when I boot into the linux distro on this machine, after log in it just displays a window saying my window manager is not usable. After a few seconds I note that either the fan or the disk is running loudly, so I shut the computer down to avoid possible heat damage.

Could you tell us what distro this was and what window manager or desktop environment was running? When you say “log in”, does this mean you can choose a different WM or DE from the login screen and they also fail to launch?
It is possible that chrooting to the distro with “CHRoot Restue Scan” from an antiX Live system and then reinstalling the Window Manager will solve the problem. The main issue is figuring out if the / (linux root) partition has been replaced by the Debian Live, but I don’t think that has happened (you would realize that the installer was asking for using X or Y partition scheme and exited, it will never install without your input). It is possible that something did get corrupted, and reinstalling it should fix it.
If you can give us more details on the Linux system (GPU, linux edition, Login software, if you can see the linux root partition and see if things have changed, if you are using a separate /home partition, etc.).

With the info provided it is not enough to figure out how to start proceeding, as we are not sure what changes happened with the Debian Live ISO.

antiX Live system enthusiast.
General Live Boot Parameters for antiX.

[Member marcelocripe]

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hello stevesr0,

You did not write which Windows you were successful in installing. If it’s Windows XP, find the “Computer” icon, right-click, in the menu, left-click “Properties”, “Hardware”, “Device Manager”, “Display Adapters”, write down as much detail as possible of what make and model of your video card is, this information may be useful for getting help. We need more information about your computer so we can help you.

I don’t know how to write in English and I send you my texts translated by the internet translator, I hope you can understand everything.

marcelocripe

———-

Olá stevesr0,

Você não escreveu com qual Windows você teve sucesso na instalação. Se for o Windows XP, encontre o ícone do “Computador”, clique com o botão direito do rato, no menu clique com o botão esquerdo em “Propriedades”, “Hardware”, “Gerenciador de Dispositivos”, “Adaptadores de Vídeo”, anote o máximo de detalhes possíveis de qual é a marca e o modelo da sua placa de vídeo, esta informação poderá ser útil para receber ajuda. Precisamos de mais informações sobre o seu computador para podermos te ajudar.

Eu não sei escrever em inglês e te envio os meus textos traduzidos pelo tradutor da internet, eu espero que você consiga compreender tudo.

marcelocripe
(Texto original em Português do Brasil)

[Member stevesr0]

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Hi all,

Thanks very much for responding.

I need to clarify (and correct) my problem statement.

1. The Debian iso WAS a live one (10.9.0 amd64 xfce), so I can’t blame it on a failed install, I guess. I also had updated my Windows 10 install on the same day – but that is on a different physical hard drive.

2. The problem machine is a relatively new gaming laptop (I don’t game, I wanted a nice screen and a backlit keyboard and it was relatively inexpensive), not one of my oldish ones.

***3. My problem is that when I log in (from the graphical login screen for Antix 19), I get a graphical screen with a small window in the upper left border that says basically it needs me to pick a usable window manager. The window displays a list of the usual ones. HOWEVER, neither my mouse nor tab key moves the focus to allow me to select a choice and “say” OK. (I have a second mouse attached by USB but it also doesn’t work.

When this screen appears, the fan immediately starts revving up, so I assume the cpu is working hard. So, I don’t want it to continue as I worry about it overheating and not shutting itself off. So I push the power button. This gets me out of the GUI to the command line, so possibly I could run commands to see what is wrong there. But I am not sure what to check.

4. My backup plan is to do a fresh install on a different partition and transfer whatever data files I have to that partition, if I can’t figure out a fix.

Thanks for any thoughts.

stevesr0

[Anonymous]

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Hi stevesr0,

You may need the 64-bit iso with a 5 series kernel if it is a fairly new machine.
also instead of hitting the power button try …. control-alt-F2 to get a console
to run commands.
You can see if there are any errors in dmesg from the console.

sudo dmesg | grep "error"

This is to see if there are any kernel errors for the usb for the mouse.

[Member Xecure]

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In the login screen, press the F1 key and change to a different window manager before loging in. For example, min-jwm or min-icewm (or something else). If it logs in properly without the same error message we know that the Window manager is the one responsible for the high resource use OR a startup command in ~/.desktop-session/startup.

So, the order of things to do to find out what the problem may be is:
0. Log in to a desktop session without desktop icons or autostart programs using a different window manager to your default (Any min-<window-manager> session, for example minimal-jwm or minimal-fluxbox).
Result A: Logged in OK -> The System is OK. Proceed to step 1.
Result B: Same result -> The issue may be Xorg relatd or something else. We will explore this if needed.

1. Switch to a session with program autostart different with same window manager as step 0 (example jwm or fluxbox) using Other Desktops menu or logging out and logging in.
Result A: Switched OK. The problem is NOT related to autostart programs. Proceed to step 2.
Result B: Terrible performance and error -> The issue may be related to a program that is trying to start from ~/desktop-session/startup. Go back to step o that worked and edit the startup file and comment all startup commands. Go back to test 1. If it works, then you can start exploring one command at a time from startup until you find the culprit.

2. Switch to a session with Desktop icons with same window manager as step 1 (example, rox-fluxbox, spacefm-jwm).
Result A: Switched OK. The problem is NOT related to the file manager that manages the desktop. Proceed to step 3.
Result B: Terrible performance and error -> The issue may be related to the file manager that manages the desktop icons. Take not of which it is and try Step 2 again with same window manager but different Desktop icon handler. If that also fails, then the problem is the desktop-session program. We will explore this if it comes up.

3. Switch to the original window manager you had as default, but without a desktop icon manager (example: if your default was rox-icewm, you switch to the simple icewm session instead).
Result A: Everything OK. You can now test the default session and see if it related to the desktop icon manager ONLY for your default window manager.
Result B: Shit gets loose. The window manager has a problem and may need to be reset and even reinstalled. Go back to a working desktop session and change the ~/.icewm (if this is the window manager that is giving problems) to ~/.icewm-backup with the command:

mv ~/.icewm ~/.icewm-backup
cp /etc/skel/.icewm ~/.icewm

This will restore the icewm configuration to the default. Try step 3 again and if it fails again, try reinstalling the window manager
sudo apt install --reinstall icewm

Let us know on what step you get stuck.

antiX Live system enthusiast.
General Live Boot Parameters for antiX.

[Anonymous]

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One note to a moderator, maybe this thread can be renamed for clarity also.

[Member stevesr0]

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Hi linuxdaddy,

That is a good idea and I found that I could edit the title (as mark it solved). If a moderator prefers a different title, they can change it with my blessing.

stevesr0

P.S. I still would like to hear responses about how it might have happened and why a minimalist choice doesn’t seem to support a mouse or allow normal GUI function.

[Anonymous]

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you never stated what solved it for others to know.
don’t use the min ones so a ? there.

[Member stevesr0]

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My previous post in response to Xecure’s suggestion about switching window managers from the login screen BEFORE logging in somehow isn’t posted.

So, a) Thanks Xecure – I had paid no attention to that message (in red “ink”!) about a “minimalist window manager. AND, I didn’t know that you could switch by using F1 before logging in. Switching to the one I had previously been using apparently has returned everything to normal (if something pops up seemingly related, I will repost).

b) Some questions that seem relevant:

1) How did this get switched?

2) Why is a minimalist window manager choice available that doesn’t support a mouse? Is the user supposed to know keyboard combinations that enable the same functions? After logging in, I couldn’t find a way to make a change in the window that said the window manager chosen wouldn’t work and to select another window manager. Has anybody figured out how to select in this window without a mouse (or am I the only one NOT to have mouse functionality with a minimalist window manager)?

3) Why was this associated with the immediate uptick in resource use (guessing, based on the sudden LOUD fan).

So kudos to Xecure for a wonderful post laying out a whole bunch of things to do in a very clear, detailed way.

And for enlightening me about the ability to switch window managers before logging in.

So, as I wrote in a post that has already been posted, I changed the title (thanks linuxdaddy for the suggestion) and marked it solved.

stevesr0

P.S. If this event suggests something is poorly configured that might be causing problems I am not aware or or might arise, happy to hear suggestions about what to double check.

[Member stevesr0]

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Hi Xecure,

Since switching to my “regular” window manager/file manager combo worked (jwm/space fm), I wonder what I might learn by trying out different minimal combos as you suggest.

Happy to try this as long as I can fix things by switching before login using F1. If funny behavior would be of interest to the community.

stevesr0

[Anonymous]

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Why was this associated with the immediate uptick in resource use (guessing, based on the sudden LOUD fan).

“Named must be your fear before banish it you can.”
When a question like this presents itself, you can “sudo htop” from commandline and check which process(es) is spiking the cpu load.
Guessing, after the fact, is probably a waste of time.
.

How did this get switched?

solar flares ?
PEBKAC ?
1D-10T error ?
.

Why is a minimalist window manager choice available that doesn’t support a mouse?

Ignoring herblustfwm, the other “min” sessions do provide mouse support.
You can inspect each of the following in text editor (and BTW you’re free to edit their content)
to see whatall additional processes are autostarted in the non “min” sessions:

~/.desktop-session/startup
~/.fluxbox/startup
~/.icewm/startup
~/.jwm/startup

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