xfce4 didn't start after login on slim

Ruffman · n00b Joined: 03 Mar 2012 Posts: 20

Hi there.
I followed this guide and installed xfce4 successfully, using slim mentioned there. so on startup, slim starts and asks me for username and password. After entering correctly, it shows me just a black screen. If I'm logged in on tty I can start xfce4 either by typing startx or startxfce4. I have no idea why this refuses to work. I will post any necessary config or log on request.

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Ruffman · n00b Joined: 03 Mar 2012 Posts: 20

so I solved this myself, using -consolekit USE-Flag...
can anyone tell me, what is "consolekit" and what are its benefits?

Hypnos · Posted: Mon Mar 19, 2012 4:05 am Post subject:

Consolekit is for managing user permissions when he or she logs into a physical console, as opposed to a remote login.

Do your logout/shutdown/restart/hibernate/sleep buttons work? If you don't have consolekit, you'll have to manage these permissions manually.

Anyway, slim+XFCE4 w/ consolekit works for me. My relevant package versions (I use amd64, not ~amd64):

sys-auth/consolekit-0.4.5-r1
x11-wm/slim-1.3.2-r7
xfce-base/xfce4-session-4.8.2
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The Doctor · Moderator Joined: 27 Jul 2010 Posts: 2678

First of, you might want to switch to xdm or lxdm as slim is no longer under development. I believe console kit is related to communication between the graphical environment and the OS, including shutdown and buttons. You may want to try one of the above login managers with consolekit and see if the problem goes away, just don't forget to add consolekit to a run level (default I think)
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Hypnos · Posted: Mon Mar 19, 2012 5:35 am Post subject:

cach0rr0 · Posted: Mon Mar 19, 2012 7:06 am Post subject:

Ruffman · n00b Joined: 03 Mar 2012 Posts: 20

Thanks for all the great answers and hints. For me - just coming from Windows but changed to Xubuntu after I realized thats the same bloated stuff - I like Gentoo for its ability to make anything behave like I want while learning a lot about Linux in general. I have Xfce only So I think a Login or Display Manager has to be as small and easy as possible. So I feel SLIM fits that objectives most. As long as it works I will spend no time about thinking what login-manager can suid my needs, too.
Its more interesting what Hypnos tells about the buttons! They are not working (after asking for root pwd they refuse to work)
So I don't know if i wanna have consolekit, if someone can give me a hint, how I can configure this permissions myself

gorkypl · Guru Joined: 04 Oct 2010 Posts: 444 Location: Kraków, PL

SLiM is quite mature and it does not need more features - this is the reason why it is rarely updated.
You may want to look at my last article about SLiM on gentoo wiki:
http://wiki.gentoo.org/wiki/SLiM
(it is based on x11-misc/slim-1.3.3, I suggest to install this version as it will probably be stable very soon).

As for the [console|policy]kit thing - I do not use it at all.
In a single user enironment I found two reasons to enable it:

to enable mounting/unmounting removable devices directly from file manager (pcmanfm in that case).
Note that you are still able to automatically mount devices without it - for example using sys-apps/uam, which is a great little tool.
to make those sleep/hibernate actions work automagically

If you will need that things, take a look at this excelent post by ssuominen:
https://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic-t-858965.html

Ruffman · n00b Joined: 03 Mar 2012 Posts: 20

Thx,
can it be the case, that the lack of consolekit is the reason, why my xfce-Power-manager refuses to work exactly like in this post. Im not shure, cause it's an arch Thread...
And yes I read your slim guide, found the log and found out that consolekit USE-flag breaks it because not started. In the meanwhile I'll read the guide you linked