gdm, vnc and XDMCP stopped working

cbolin · Last edited by cbolin on Sat Nov 27, 2004 11:04 pm; edited 4 times in total

I've used VNC to access my local LAN machines from one PC. It has worked exactly like Gentoo Wiki HOWTO Xvnc terminal server forever, but an emerge ago or so it stopped working and I can't figure out why.

So what happens: on a machine (not the one with with the problem) I invoke vncviewer <URL_remote_machine_with_problem> I get the remote gdm login in the correct color depth and geometry for the machine with the problem, I can type in credentials in gdm or kdm but then afterwards only a blank window and the mouse cursor. KDE never loads as it used to...

I have gone back through and verified every step in every config file as in the howto, but it still doesn't work. I've checked permissions on all the files I know about...

Starting GDM/KDM and KDE on the machine with the problem works exactly like it always has locally...

Thanks.

cbolin · Posted: Sat Nov 27, 2004 11:06 pm Post subject:

anyone? Even ideas of something to try? I've spent more time on this problem than my initial install and configure of Gentoo itself. argh....

cbolin · Posted: Mon Nov 29, 2004 1:35 am Post subject:

I've now tried removing kdm and gdm and reinstalling. Removed TightVNC and replaced with RealVNC. Changed wm to twm. looked through all the logs... reinstalled Xorg...

for whatever reason after you login with g/k/xdm nothing will load. .Xsessions looks correct, permissions look correct.

WTF am I missing?

quill18 · n00b Joined: 20 Jan 2004 Posts: 50

I'm in the same boat. Used to work fine, mysteriously broke during some update. I still get the login screen, then nothing.

I don't know if it's relevant, but there's the following in my home directory:

quill18 · n00b Joined: 20 Jan 2004 Posts: 50

Oh, found the answer here.

edit /etc/security/pam_env.conf and comment out the following lines:

cbolin · Posted: Fri Dec 03, 2004 10:54 pm Post subject:

quill - thanks so much for this! Iwas about to reinstall all of Gentoo. I've done so much work on this one problem... I'm exausted.

Thanks again.

rsala · Posted: Sat Dec 11, 2004 8:00 pm Post subject:

This the second time in a week that I've had to comment out those lines on different machines. First for rexec (I know, I know) and now xdmcp.

Can anyone shed any light on why they are there and what they are supposed to do?

nepto · n00b Joined: 04 Sep 2003 Posts: 16 Location: Slovakia

I was unable to log into my Gentoo X session. After commenting such lines in /etc/security/pam_env.conf I was immediatelly able to log in. Thanks!

I would also like to know what these lines are supposed to do and why they are there. I'm looking forward for the clearification.
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quill18 · n00b Joined: 20 Jan 2004 Posts: 50