Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!cornell!batcomputer!rogerj
From: rogerj@batcomputer.tn.cornell.edu (Roger Jagoda)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.next
Subject: Re: Can't start windowserver
Message-ID: <9179@batcomputer.tn.cornell.edu>
Date: 31 Oct 89 01:07:42 GMT
References: <356@opus.NMSU.EDU>
Reply-To: rogerj@tcgould.tn.cornell.edu (Roger Jagoda)
Followup-To: FQOJ@CORNELLA.CIT.CORNELL.EDU
Organization: Cornell Theory Center, Cornell University, Ithaca NY
Lines: 33

In article <356@opus.NMSU.EDU> mnichols@nmsu.edu (Mark Nichols) writes:
>
>I seem to have jammed my next up nicely. When I boot the machine all
>appears ok until the screen clears and the login window is supposed to 
>appear. Instead I get a blank screen with no login window. I am fairly
>certain that it is because the WindowManager is not able to start up
>for some reason. Does the WindowServer produce any kind of error messages ?
>Where would it put them? There are no erros in messages or syslog. Any
>ideas ? I would hate to rebuild the system just because of this.
>
 
Well, from the experiences we've had, you just might. Check in /usr/adm
/messages and grep for MEDIA FAILURE messages. If you see many of these   
with "failed after nine retries...MEDIA FAILURE" you will more than
likely have to rebuild or maybe even replace the drive (we did the later).
 
Of course, this assumes you've not changed the top few lines in /etc/ttys
to start the console window INSTEAD of the window manager....I assume
you haven't, but check, it's easy enough to have uncommented the wrong     
line...another vote for abandoning the ancient flat files in favor of
NetInfo (just couldn't resist!...:-)   ).
 
Roger Jagoda
FQOJ@CORNELLA.CIT.CORNELL.EDU
WorkStation Support, Cornell University


>
>
>Mark Nichols               
>mnichols@nmsu.edu        
>Systems Programmer                 
>Networking / Workstation Support