On Friday 16 October 2009 11:10:04 Tim Clewlow wrote: > lol - that error makes quite a difference. It means pretty much what > it says, ie X is already running, or, the combination of config > files means the system ends up trying to start X twice.
Yes, I am very sorry. I know that it is essential to say everything that remotely might be relevant. I am very contrite. > I think the first thing to do is to comment out the 'startx' line in > the ~/.bash_profile file and then restart the computer. Hopefully > this will mean X does not start, ie it is not being started by a > command in some other config file. If this is the case, then log in > and manually start it by typing 'startx'. It should then read the > xsession/xinitrc files and start up with icewm and idesk. > > If after commenting out 'startx' from the .bash_profile file and > rebooting, X still startx, then we need to look at a whole bunch of > possible files to see where it is being started from. Try the first > option and we'll see if that works. As you predicted, startx at the command line prompt started IceWM. But iDesk was not running properly and there was no visible desktop background. Also the mouse did not work as it should. (E.g. right click on the desktop, which ought to have brought up a menu did nothing.) The panel was there and functioning, so I clicked on menu and started from there. I opened a terminal, and no ominous error message, but also no Idesk and no icons - they had disappeared. So I started idesk from the command line and it is now running, apparently correctly, and continued to run after I closed the terminal even tho' I had forgotten the & at the end. But there is still this grey greying out grid over everything instead of a desktop with icons that are not covered by a grid of any kind! And if I use .bash_profile to start X and then start idesk from a terminal I get a fully functional system with a proper desktop. It is the trying to start idesk automatically that seems to cause the problem. :-( Thanks again, Cheers Lisi -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org