Autostart KDM at boot - problems

[Shatter]

It's been a while since I used Backtrack. Anyway, I've recently moved to BT5 KDE on my laptop to give it a go. After installing it with my standard full HDD encryption using luks/lvm and adding a new normal user I decided to customize the installation a bit. Now I've been trying to get KDM to autostart at boot. Basically I've followed this HOW-TO, but I just can't get it to work.

"apt-get install kdm" said that kdm is already installed/newest version, and the file "/etc/init/kdm.conf" already has the "exec kdm" line at the bottom.

All I get is the standard console login prompt. I must be missing something.

[shadowzero]

What does your /etc/init/kdm.conf look like?

[Shatter]

# kdm - KDE Display Manager
#
# The display manager service manages the X servers running on the
# system, providing login and auto-login services

description     "K Display Manager"
author          "Richard Johnson"  

start on (filesystem
          and started dbus
          and (drm-device-added card0 PRIMARY_DEVICE_FOR_DISPLAY=1
               or stopped udevtrigger))
stop on runlevel [016]

emits starting-dm

env XORGCONFIG=/etc/X11/xorg.conf

script
    if [ -n "$UPSTART_EVENTS" ]
    then
	[ ! -f /etc/X11/default-display-manager -o "$(cat /etc/X11/default-display-manager 2>/dev/null)" = "/usr/bin/kdm" ] || { stop; exit 0; }

	# Check kernel command-line for inhibitors
	for ARG in $(cat /proc/cmdline)
	do
	    case "${ARG}" in
		text|-s|s|S|single)
                    plymouth quit || :  # We have the ball here
		    exit 0
		    ;;
	    esac
	done
    fi

    if [ -r /etc/default/locale ]; then
	. /etc/default/locale
	export LANG LANGUAGE
    elif [ -r /etc/environment ]; then
	. /etc/environment
	export LANG LANGUAGE
    fi
    export XORGCONFIG

    exec kdm
end script

[shadowzero]

Comment out or delete this section:

    if [ -n "$UPSTART_EVENTS" ]
    then
	[ ! -f /etc/X11/default-display-manager -o "$(cat /etc/X11/default-display-manager 2>/dev/null)" = "/usr/bin/kdm" ] || { stop; exit 0; }

	# Check kernel command-line for inhibitors
	for ARG in $(cat /proc/cmdline)
	do
	    case "${ARG}" in
		text|-s|s|S|single)
                    plymouth quit || :  # We have the ball here
		    exit 0
		    ;;
	    esac
	done

[Shatter]

That solved it, thanks.

[kasperghost]

You should avoid messing with system scripts and also an easier approach would be to edit the /etc/default/grub file and at the line that says

GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="text splash nomodeset vga=791"

change to

GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="splash nomodeset vga=791"

that is remove the text argument.

Then you simply run at the command line as root.

# update-grub

*** If for some reason you want to keep the existing ( custom? ) /boot/grub/grub.cfg configuration then simply edit it directly
and for each menuentry that loads the linux kernel at the params section remove the text argument as mentioned before. ***
have fun