[indiana-discuss] gdm/X does not start

[Brian Cameron]

Bill:

> Any idea how I would change the output screen of the X server on boot? 
> After doing some more quick research, I get the feeling that I need to
> tell X to use :0.1 .  I'm not real sure how to do that though...

GDM does have configuration files in /usr/share/gdm/defaults.conf and
/etc/X11/gdm/custom.conf.

Here is an example I notice on how you can configure GDM to start up
a display using :0.1.  This example uses Xephyr, but the principle
is the same, I'd think:

http://www.michaeltinsay.com/?q=Multiseat-Gutsy-Xephyr-gdm.conf-custom

> Maybe the following will at least let me get to the GUI login from the
> console:
> # export DISPLAY=:0.1
> # pfexec svcadm restart gdm
> 
> I'll try that tomorrow from the console and see what happens.  That will
> tell me something I hope.
> 
> I have tried restarting gdm before (earlier today), and the screen
> flashes a few times (3) over a few seconds.  While this is happening,
> the console is not responsive.  After the third flash, the console
> becomes active again, but no GUI.

You might try editing /usr/share/gdm/defaults.conf and set Enable=true
in the [debug] section and restart GDM.  This should cause debug
messages from GDM to get echoed to your syslog (/var/adm/messages).
These debug messages might help to debug the problem if it is an issue
with GDM.

Brian