Slim freezes after entering login information

Question

I have a strange problem with Slim. I've used it for a while and everything has always worked fine (indeed, a different computer with similar setup is still fine), but two weeks ago I couldn't log in. The problem did not develop after an update of slim. I haven't found any similar symptoms described in the forums or wiki.
I start slim through the inittab method, and I usually boot into awesome, but sometimes into openbox, so I followed the instructions for setting up slim for multiple environments. Booting into either worked fine previously.
Now when booting, I can get to slim fine. If I immediately enter my user info and then hit "enter" to start the default WM (which is awesome), then slim just freezes. The user and password box disappear, but the background remains, and nothing else happens. I need to use ctl-alt-F1 to login again from tty and reboot. The strange thing is that if after booting, I enter my user info into slim and then hit "F1" then I can select awesome and boot normally. But just hitting enter after user and password (which should boot the default WM, which is awesome) without selecting awesome from F1 causes the freeze. Also, if I use F1 to select openbox, I get the same freeze.
I have tried modifying my .xinitrc just to open awesome rather than using the multiple-environment setup (see below), and with this .xinitrc, I still got the freezing problem, but obviously couldn't get around it by using F1.
Finally, if I get into awesome using the F1 method and then logout of awesome to go back to slim, then logging in to either awesome without hitting F1 or even logging in to openbox work fine. Very strange.
My slim.log has absolutely nothing useful in it. Here are the last lines from the last 7 boots (the ones where it says "Slim: unexpected signal 15" are the ones where I had to use tty to reboot, the others are where I've booted successfully).
slim: waiting for X server to begin accepting connections.
slim: unexpected signal 15
slim: waiting for X server to begin accepting connections.
slim: waiting for X server to begin accepting connections.
slim: unexpected signal 15
slim: waiting for X server to begin accepting connections.
slim: waiting for X server to begin accepting connections.
slim: waiting for X server to begin accepting connections.
slim: unexpected signal 15
slim: waiting for X server to begin accepting connections.
Here's my .xinitrc. When testing whether the multiple-environment setup was the problem, I commented everything except the last line (which I uncommented) and still had the same problem.
#xset +fp /usr/share/fonts/local
#xset fp rehash
#exec ck-launch-session dbus-launch openbox-session
DEFAULT_SESSION=awesome
case $1 in
awesome)
# exec dbus-launch awesome
exec awesome
openbox)
# exec dbus-launch openbox-session
exec openbox-session
exec $DEFAULT_SESSION
esac
#exec awesome
Here's my slim.conf. Everything should be the default settings except for the login command (where I added "dbus-launch") and the sessions line where I specify options for awesome and openbox.
# Path, X server and arguments (if needed)
# Note: -xauth $authfile is automatically appended
default_path /bin:/usr/bin:/usr/local/bin
default_xserver /usr/bin/X
xserver_arguments -nolisten tcp vt07
# Commands for halt, login, etc.
halt_cmd /sbin/shutdown -h now
reboot_cmd /sbin/shutdown -r now
console_cmd /usr/bin/xterm -C -fg white -bg black +sb -T "Console login" -e /bin/sh -c "/bin/cat /etc/issue; exec /bin/login"
#suspend_cmd /usr/sbin/suspend
# Full path to the xauth binary
xauth_path /usr/bin/xauth
# Xauth file for server
authfile /var/run/slim.auth
# Activate numlock when slim starts. Valid values: on|off
# numlock on
# Hide the mouse cursor (note: does not work with some WMs).
# Valid values: true|false
# hidecursor false
# This command is executed after a succesful login.
# you can place the %session and %theme variables
# to handle launching of specific commands in .xinitrc
# depending of chosen session and slim theme
# NOTE: if your system does not have bash you need
# to adjust the command according to your preferred shell,
# i.e. for freebsd use:
# login_cmd exec /bin/sh - ~/.xinitrc %session
# login_cmd exec /bin/bash -login ~/.xinitrc %session
login_cmd exec dbus-launch /bin/bash -login ~/.xinitrc %session
# Commands executed when starting and exiting a session.
# They can be used for registering a X11 session with
# sessreg. You can use the %user variable
# sessionstart_cmd some command
# sessionstop_cmd some command
# Start in daemon mode. Valid values: yes | no
# Note that this can be overriden by the command line
# options "-d" and "-nodaemon"
# daemon yes
# Available sessions (first one is the default).
# The current chosen session name is replaced in the login_cmd
# above, so your login command can handle different sessions.
# see the xinitrc.sample file shipped with slim sources
sessions awesome,openbox
# Executed when pressing F11 (requires imagemagick)
screenshot_cmd import -window root /slim.png
# welcome message. Available variables: %host, %domain
welcome_msg Welcome to %host
# Session message. Prepended to the session name when pressing F1
# session_msg Session:
# shutdown / reboot messages
shutdown_msg The system is halting...
reboot_msg The system is rebooting...
# default user, leave blank or remove this line
# for avoid pre-loading the username.
#default_user simone
# Focus the password field on start when default_user is set
# Set to "yes" to enable this feature
#focus_password no
# Automatically login the default user (without entering
# the password. Set to "yes" to enable this feature
#auto_login no
# current theme, use comma separated list to specify a set to
# randomly choose from
current_theme default
# Lock file
lockfile /var/lock/slim.lock
# Log file
logfile /var/log/slim.log
Anyway, I can get around this by using F1, but it is somewhat of a pain as sometimes I forget. Any ideas?

Answer 1

I'm having a very similar problem.   My post is in the newbie corner forum.  So far, I have not found a solution.
Rob
rasteenb wrote:
I solved my problem - slim was not the last daemon I started in rc.conf.  By moving it to the end, I get password auto-focus and everything works.
Now my rc.conf looks like
# DAEMONS
DAEMONS=(syslog-ng dbus acpid @network @wicd @openntpd @cupsd @crond slim)
I found this recommendation in the Display Manager wiki page while researching the problem:
Ensure you start the display manager last in the DAEMONS array, otherwise X will later allocate a tty device which was previously claimed by Getty (see /etc/inittab). Not placing the display manager at the end can cause X crashes, and is therefore unsupported.
I'd just been lucky before that there wasn't a conflict.
There is a "flicker" during login where I'm shown the XFCE splash, then the SLIM splash again, then the XFCE desktop.  Not sure what's going on there, but it's no big deal.
Cheers,
Rob
Last edited by rasteenb (2012-07-17 11:30:39)