Bug 16894 - startx does not start default desktop configured in /etc/sysconfig/desktop, defaults to IceWm
Summary: startx does not start default desktop configured in /etc/sysconfig/desktop, d...
Status: RESOLVED WONTFIX
Alias: None
Product: Mageia
Classification: Unclassified
Component: RPM Packages (show other bugs)
Version: Cauldron
Hardware: x86_64 Linux
Priority: Normal normal
Target Milestone: ---
Assignee: Mageia Bug Squad
QA Contact:
URL:
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Keywords:
Depends on:
Blocks:
 
Reported: 2015-10-04 12:16 CEST by Bit Twister
Modified: 2020-04-17 16:12 CEST (History)
3 users (show)

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Source RPM:
CVE:
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Description Bit Twister 2015-10-04 12:16:39 CEST
Description of problem:

Unable to startx with kde/gnome with kdm or gdm, defaults to IceWm after mga5->mga6 upgrade

Problem occurs in mga5 host VirtualBox guest and on mga6 host.

Version-Release number of selected component (if applicable):


How reproducible: always


Steps to Reproduce:
1. Clean install of Mageia-5-x86_64-DVD.iso. Default runlevel: 3
2. Pick Custom package install
3. in Package Group Selection screen, set all package groups selected except
4. Other Graphical Desktops. In that one select Gnome and KDE.
5. Enable non-free and tainted media.
6. urpmi --downloader wget --auto --auto-update --test
7. urpmi --downloader wget --auto --auto-update
8. urpme --auto-orphans and reboot. 
9. click up a terminal and run systemsettings  and set:
Desktop: KDE   Theme: Oxygen    Window Decorations: plastik
Desktop effects are disabled. 
 
10. click up a terminal, I use xterm
11. su - root
12. urpmi.removemedia -a
13. mcc->Software Management->Configure media sources for install and update 
14. pick your cauldron mirror of choice, apply changes and exit
15. urpmi.removemedia -y Debug Backport Testing updates
16. drakrpm-edit-media --expert
17. Enable/checkmark all selections
18. run step 6 again
19. mcc->Software Management->Update your system
    apply all and click reboot ok/yes
20. reboot
21. su - root
22. urpmi --downloader wget --auto --auto-update
23. wait for colord package somewhere around  394/1891: colord to show up.
    at that point, sysemd hangs and you need to Ctrl+c or kill your urpmi
    process.
24. reboot
25. run step 22 over and over until no updates are installed
26. reboot
27. log in as user
28. startx
Note: you wind up in an IceWm desktop manager.




Reproducible: 

Steps to Reproduce:
Florian Hubold 2015-10-10 20:17:09 CEST

CC: (none) => doktor5000

Comment 1 Marja Van Waes 2015-10-12 10:34:18 CEST
BUg 16898 might be a duplicate of this one, but I'm not setting it as duplicate because I don't understand what's going on

CC: (none) => marja11

Comment 2 Florian Hubold 2015-10-18 17:31:54 CEST
(In reply to Bit Twister from comment #0)
> 1. Clean install of Mageia-5-x86_64-DVD.iso. Default runlevel: 3
[removed many unnecessary steps, mga5>mga6 upgrade]
> 26. reboot
> 27. log in as user
> 28. startx
> Note: you wind up in an IceWm desktop manager.

Not sure what your point is or what bug you are reporting. You start an X session, and it starts IceWM. If you want to run a display manager, then select and enable a display manager. If you want to run KDE use startkde, for GNOME use startgnome.

See Also: (none) => https://bugs.mageia.org/show_bug.cgi?id=16898
Severity: major => normal

Comment 3 Bit Twister 2015-10-18 19:58:24 CEST
(In reply to Florian Hubold from comment #2)
(In reply to Bit Twister from comment #0)
> 1. Clean install of Mageia-5-x86_64-DVD.iso. Default runlevel: 3
[removed many unnecessary steps, mga5>mga6 upgrade]

Maybe, but there is a reason for my madness and those steps make the problem repeatable, provides information to the person troubleshooting the problem, replicates what I actually did, and helps eliminate the problem with cauldron being updated while you are still trying to get the 2,000+ packages installed.

I suggest steps 14 through 17 are mandatory 
Failing to do step 19 would cause/trigger bug 16647 and would take several hours of reboots, ctrl+c on each hang, and leave you with an unusable install.

> 26. reboot
> 27. log in as user
> 28. startx
> Note: you wind up in an IceWm desktop manager.

> Not sure what your point is or what bug you are reporting.

My point is condensed in the subject. Regardless of Display Manger gdm/kdm the DESKTOP environment KDE or Gnome will not run after issuing a startx.
Boot, login, startx up pops kde gui, has worked since I started using RedHat, Mandrake, Mandriva, Mageia, ....

> You start an X session, and it starts IceWM.

Yup, but up until some time during the update, kde always came up as desired default.

> If you want to run a display manager, then select and enable a display manager.

Yes, here, look at the defaults, see for yourself.
$ cat /etc/sysconfig/desktop
DISPLAYMANAGER=kdm
DESKTOP=KDE4


> If you want to run KDE use startkde, for GNOME use startgnome.

Hmmm, let's see how well that works.

[junk@vb]$ export DISPLAY=:0
[junk@vb]$ startkde
$DISPLAY is not set or cannot connect to the X server.

Well, DISPLAY was set. IceWm seemed to connect to the server.....

Same for startgnome

Trust me. create a VirtualBox guest follow my steps and see how well that goes.

I have a mga6_clone standing by with steps 1 through 17 already done.
Every time I want to test, I boot the clone, run step 6, clone mga6_clone to mga6, launch mga6 and start at step 19.

Monitoring bugzilla I see people getting a lot farther along than I, which tells me they are not loading the same items I have nor are they doing the same activities as I.

I welcome whatever procedure you use for steps 1 through 5 and can get a runlevel 3 default startx to launch KDE.

I have a desktop_app_ck script which finds all *.desktop files and launches the application which I would like run to see how many apps if any, will not run.
I would prefer to do that before Alpha1 is generated.
Comment 4 Florian Hubold 2015-10-18 21:59:16 CEST
(In reply to Bit Twister from comment #3)
> (In reply to Florian Hubold from comment #2)
> (In reply to Bit Twister from comment #0)
> > 1. Clean install of Mageia-5-x86_64-DVD.iso. Default runlevel: 3
> [removed many unnecessary steps, mga5>mga6 upgrade]
> 
> Maybe, but there is a reason for my madness and those steps make the problem
> repeatable, provides information to the person troubleshooting the problem,
> replicates what I actually did, and helps eliminate the problem with
> cauldron being updated while you are still trying to get the 2,000+ packages
> installed.
> 
> I suggest steps 14 through 17 are mandatory 
> Failing to do step 19 would cause/trigger bug 16647 and would take several
> hours of reboots, ctrl+c on each hang, and leave you with an unusable
> install.

I will try to repeat it again in a different way - you report a bug that seems to occur after an mga5=>mga5 upgrade. The issues you might have had with the upgrade itself do not belong here, but in a separate bug. They are also offtopic here.

FWIW, I recently did upgrade a mga5 VM to mga6, and it was only a matter of running "urpmi --auto-update --auto" few times until the mirror was consistent. Reboot and it runs on cauldron, no further issues encountered.

If you want to discuss this further, please do it via mailing lists or forums.

> > 26. reboot
> > 27. log in as user
> > 28. startx
> > Note: you wind up in an IceWm desktop manager.
> 
> > Not sure what your point is or what bug you are reporting.
> 
> My point is condensed in the subject. Regardless of Display Manger gdm/kdm
> the DESKTOP environment KDE or Gnome will not run after issuing a startx.
> Boot, login, startx up pops kde gui, has worked since I started using
> RedHat, Mandrake, Mandriva, Mageia, ....

> 
> > You start an X session, and it starts IceWM.
> 
> Yup, but up until some time during the update, kde always came up as desired
> default.

So you expect KDE to come up, and it does not. That is not necessarily a bug, just your expectation. Read through https://ml.mageia.org/wwsympa-wrapper.fcgi/arc/dev/2015-09/msg00308.html and the rest of that thread to see breakage is currently expected until that is fixed.

> > If you want to run KDE use startkde, for GNOME use startgnome.
> 
> Hmmm, let's see how well that works.
> 
> [junk@vb]$ export DISPLAY=:0
> [junk@vb]$ startkde
> $DISPLAY is not set or cannot connect to the X server.
> 
> Well, DISPLAY was set. IceWm seemed to connect to the server.....
> 
> Same for startgnome
> 


startkde or similar desktop start scripts are usually run during startup of the X server, hence usually started in ~/.xinitrc as this always has been for other distros that did not have this preferred desktop/display manager handling. Check /etc/X11/xinit/xinitrc and /etc/X11/Xsession for more details on that.


And check the man page of startx to see what it actually does and how it should be used.

startx startkde

in runlevel 3 works fine here to start a plasma session.

> I welcome whatever procedure you use for steps 1 through 5 and can get a
> runlevel 3 default startx to launch KDE.

See above.

Summary: Unable to startx with kde/gnome with kdm or gdm, defaults to IceWm after mga5->mga6 upgrade => startx does not start default desktop configured in /etc/sysconfig/desktop, defaults to IceWm after mga5->mga6 upgrade

Comment 5 Rémi Verschelde 2016-01-19 11:10:10 CET
What's the status on this bug? Should it be closed as OLD, while maybe reopening new bugs for more specific cases (KDE4 mga5 -> Plasma5 mga6 or GNOME3 mga5 -> GNOME3 mga6)? Or does it still happen systematically?

From my recent experience of an upgrade to mga6, no desktop started at all, I just landed on SDDM and could choose my DE.
Comment 6 Bit Twister 2016-01-19 14:25:07 CET
(In reply to Rémi Verschelde from comment #5)
> What's the status on this bug? Should it be closed as OLD, while maybe
> reopening new bugs for more specific cases (KDE4 mga5 -> Plasma5 mga6 or
> GNOME3 mga5 -> GNOME3 mga6)? 

I think this is still a valid run level 3 startx bug using /etc/sysconfig/desktop at this point and is not a mga5-> mga6 problem. 

> Or does it still happen systematically?
> 
> From my recent experience of an upgrade to mga6, no desktop started at all,

Hmmm, guessing default is gui login, as this problem was about runlevel 3 and startx would at least run IceWm instead of kde

> I just landed on SDDM and could choose my DE.

At the time, I also modified 
/etc/sysconfig/desktop
DISPLAYMANAGER=ssdm
DESKTOP=KDE4

and it failed.
Bit Twister 2016-01-19 14:25:25 CET

Summary: startx does not start default desktop configured in /etc/sysconfig/desktop, defaults to IceWm after mga5->mga6 upgrade => startx does not start default desktop configured in /etc/sysconfig/desktop, defaults to IceWm

Comment 7 Florian Hubold 2016-01-21 18:10:30 CET
(In reply to Bit Twister from comment #6)
> At the time, I also modified 
> /etc/sysconfig/desktop
> DISPLAYMANAGER=ssdm

It's called sddm. Apart from that, why not use drakdm for that ?

> DESKTOP=KDE4
> 
> and it failed.

How did it fail, and how did you run it? In case you also tried via startx, that doesn't run a display manager but an X session directly. In any case, that would be a different bugreport.
Comment 8 Bit Twister 2016-01-21 19:03:01 CET
(In reply to Florian Hubold from comment #7)
> (In reply to Bit Twister from comment #6)
> > At the time, I also modified 
> > /etc/sysconfig/desktop
> > DISPLAYMANAGER=ssdm
> 
> It's called sddm. 

Sorry, that was a typing mistake.

Apart from that, why not use drakdm for that ?

> In case you also tried via startx,
> that doesn't run a display manager but an X session directly. In any case,
> that would be a different bugreport.

No, that is exactly the reason for this bug report. Take my current problem for instance. Cauldron update of my Mageia-5-LiveDVD-KDE4-x86_64-DVD install, full update of current Cauldron will not boot GUI. It falls over to runlevel 3 which is how I have been booting since Mandrake/Mandriva/Mageia. In all cases a "startx" would use /etc/sysconfig/desktop settings. Even then I could use "startx kde".

What is required now is "startx startkde" to boot Plasma.
Comment 9 Bit Twister 2016-08-06 20:29:03 CEST
I'll mark this as won't fix since DESKTOP=KDE4 has been removed by the latest Plymouth/sddm changes.

Workaround:  use 
  startx startxkde

Resolution: (none) => WONTFIX
Status: NEW => RESOLVED

Comment 10 Dave Hodgins 2020-04-17 16:12:45 CEST
The desktop setting in /etc/sysconfig/desktop or ~/.desktop has to be changed
from KDE4 to Plasma.

$ cat .desktop
DESKTOP=Plasma

That starts kde plasma with the command "startx" from a run level 3 login.

CC: (none) => davidwhodgins


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