can not launch any window manager after system crash

[Bob Miller]

B Thomas wrote:

> I am starting X using /usr/bin/startx. No matter what I put in
> .xinitrc all I get is a grey background with a working cursor.
> I have tried putting kde, gnome-session, fvwm with xterm etc
> in the ~/.xinitrc. I have reinstalled the enitre x-window-system
> (debian packages x-window-system* x11proto-*). None of this
> has helped. As mentioned the problem started immediately after
> a system crash, on rebooting.

You mentioned xinit might be crashing.

Try to get some idea how/why.  You might edit startx so that xinit is
run under strace.  That'll give some clues (and confirm/disprove that
xinit is dying).

    154c154
    < xinit $client $clientargs -- $server $display $serverargs
    ---
    > strace -efile -o /tmp/xinit.strace xinit $client $clientargs -- $server $display $serverargs

I'm guessing that the hard shutdown corrupted a file somewhere.

-- 
Bob Miller                              K<bob>
                                        kbob at jogger-egg.com