[PLUG] Slackware login pain

[Dick Steffens]

On 1/5/19 5:12 PM, Daniel Johnson wrote:
> If your goal is learning then it's worth it. If your goal was just having
> it work I'm not sure you would have picked Slackware as your distro so I'm
> going with learning.

A little of both. I've been using the easy to install and run stuff for 
something over 10 years, but lately there have been unresolved issues, 
mostly minor annoyances. So, hearing that Slackware still used the old 
school approach instead of Systemd, I thought I'd try learning more. It 
always made sense to me that everything should be in a file somewhere, 
and those should be editable and fixable.

> Being able to login via ssh means the password isn't corrupted. Being able
> to type a username probably means the keyboard input is fine. What's left?
>
> PAM (Pluggable Authentication Modules), or the display manager are the only
> ones that come to mind.
>
> Can you switch VT (virtual terminal) and login from the console?

Yes.

> Something
> like Ctrl-Alt-F2 ... If you can that indicates another part that isn't
> broken. If you get that far can you startX?
No.

rsteff at ENU-2:~$startx
xauth:  /home/rsteff/.serverauth.1274 does not exist
X.Org X Server 1.18.3
Release Date: 2016-04-04
X Protocol Version 11, Revision 0
Build Operating System: Slackware 14.2 Slackware Linux Project
Current Operating System: Linux ENU-2 4.4.157 #2 SMP Fri Sep 21 0:36:59 
CDT 2018 x86_64
Kernel command line: BOOT_IMAGE=dev000:\EFI\SLACKWARE\vmlinuz 
root=/dev/sda2 vga=normal ro ro
Build Date: 18 October 2017 12:21:16PM

Current version of pixman: 0.34.0
         Before reporting problems, check htp://wiki.x.org
         to make sure that you have the latest version.
Markers: (--) probed, (**) from config file, (==) default setting,
         (++) from command line, (!!) notice, informational,
         (WW) warning, (EE) error, (NI) not implemented, (??) Unknown.
(==) Log file: "/var/log/Xorg.1.log", Time: Sat Jan  5 17:41:53 2019
(==) Using system config directory "/usr/share/X11/xorg.conf.d"
resize called 3200 1000
/usr/bin/startxfce4: X server already running on display :1
xfce4-session: error while loading shared libraries: libEGL.so.1 cannot 
open shared object file: No such file or directory
xinit: connection to X serve lost

waiting for X server to shut down (II) Server terminated successfully 
(0). Closing log file

rsteff:@ENU-2:~$


> Could be a display manager problem. KDE likes to install KDM(KDE Display
> Manager) GNOME has GDM. There are a few others xfce has one it usually
> comes with. They can usually start the other desktops though. Try replacing
> whatever display manager you have setup with a different one and see if
> that works.

I have tried KDE Plasma Workspace, KDE Plasma Workspace (failsafe 
session), XFCE Session, and Failsafe. The only one of those that worked 
at all was Failsafe, and that for only a short while.

 From the
xauth:  /home/rsteff/.serverauth.1274 does not exist
line it looks like I'm missing an important file. Is there a way to 
properly create that file from the terminal, either the one I got with 
Ctrl-Alt-F2 or from an ssh login?

I just searched on "Slackware .serverauth.1274 does not exist" and found:

https://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/slackware-14/xauth-file-home-user-serverauth-1436-does-not-exist-4175576123/

It talks about trouble with an nVidia driver. As I think about it, 
that's about the time I started having this problem. I tried to use a 
newer driver when I should have been using an older one. Would the 
solution there of deleting all .serverauthXXX and .Xauthority files as 
root be something I should do here?

Thanks for showing me another way to look for the problem.

-- 
Regards,

Dick Steffens