MEPIS Community Forum

I recently installed antiX and had been using it regularly, then after a while when I booted into it, I got a Login screen that would not echo my username (echoed spaces) nor would it accept the username so I could not login. How may I resolve this issue without having to reinstall antiX?

Can you login via the tty and startx? Boot into init 3 and at cli prompt type username/userpassword followed byt startx.

Any error messages?

When I boot into init-3, I can then login using the same user/pass without any errors. Subsequently, startx activates the UI without any errors. I then rebooted into the UI, and received the same login issue. So, it would seem that the issue I'm having is related only to the login screen. What could cause that? How can I fix it without a reinstall?

antiX uses slim as a login manager.

Post contents of

/etc/slim.conf

BTW Which version of antiX are you using?

inxi -F in a terminal gives lots of useful information.

I didn't see a follow up from the person who started this thread. I just installed the new version released about May 28, 2012 M12 Beta. I get to the Login screen and I can't log in. I do Ctrl_Alt_Backspace and end up at a prompt. I can get both the user and root signed in at the prompt. Startx gives me a very basic desktop. My (wild ignorant) guess looking at the file is that the part that is supposed to have a yes or no concerning the use of a password being required for logging in is missing and that is why the login screen is not functioning.

I have a Centrino1.5. I installed the AntiX on external USB HD partitions bootstrapping with Isolinux on a CD to get it loaded. (My BIOS doesn't support USB booting) I am using xubuntu 11.04 like that right now. I did the following from the Xubuntu into the Antix filesystem.

cat /media/4c81fbf4-4243-4414-9195-b9ec43bc6dfb/etc/slim.conf
# Path, X server and arguments (if needed)
# Note: -xauth $authfile is automatically appended
default_path ./:/bin:/usr/bin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/X11R6/bin
default_xserver /usr/bin/X
xserver_arguments -dpi 96 -nolisten tcp

# Commands for halt, login, etc.
halt_cmd /usr/local/bin/shutdown.sh
reboot_cmd /usr/local/bin/reboot.sh
console_cmd /usr/bin/urxvt -C -fg white -bg black +sb -T "Console login" -e /bin/sh -c "/bin/cat /etc/issue; exec /bin/login"
#suspend_cmd /usr/sbin/suspend

# Full path to the xauth binary
xauth_path /usr/bin/xauth

# Xauth file for server
authfile /var/run/slim.auth


# Activate numlock when slim starts. Valid values: on|off
numlock off

# Hide the mouse cursor (note: does not work with some WMs).
# Valid values: true|false
hidecursor true

# This command is executed after a succesful login.
# you can place the %session and %theme variables
# to handle launching of specific commands in .xinitrc
# depending of chosen session and slim theme
#
# NOTE: if your system does not have bash you need
# to adjust the command according to your preferred shell,
# i.e. for freebsd use:
# login_cmd exec /bin/bash -login /etc/X11/Xsession %session
login_cmd exec ck-launch-session dbus-launch /bin/bash -login ~/.xinitrc %session >~/.xsession-errors 2>&1
# login_cmd exec /bin/bash -login ~/.xinitrc %session >~/.xsession-errors 2>&1

# Commands executed when starting and exiting a session.
# They can be used for registering a X11 session with
# sessreg. You can use the %user variable
#
# sessionstart_cmd some command
# sessionstop_cmd some command

# Start in daemon mode. Valid values: yes | no
# Note that this can overridden by the command line
# option "-d"
# daemon yes

# Available sessions (first one is the default).
# The current chosen session name is replaced in the login_cmd
# above, so your login command can handle different sessions.
# see the xinitrc.sample file shipped with slim sources
sessions fluxbox,Rox-fluxbox,jwm,Rox-jwm,dwm,wmii

# Executed when pressing F11 (requires imagemagick)
screenshot_cmd scrot /tmp/slim.png

# welcome message. Available variables: %host, %domain
welcome_msg (Press F1 to toggle sessions)

# shutdown / reboot messages
shutdown_msg The system is shutting down...
reboot_msg The system is rebooting...

# Focus the password field on start when default_user is set
# Set to "yes" to enable this feature
#focus_password no

# Automatically login the default user (without entering
# the password. Set to "yes" to enable this feature

# current theme, use comma separated list to specify a set to
# randomly choose from
current_theme antiX

# Lock file
lockfile /var/run/slim.lock

# Log file
logfile /var/log/slim.log

#auto_login yes

# default user, leave blank or remove this line
# for avoid pre-loading the username.
#default_user demo

Did you keep your old /home directory or create a new one?

Check that you have an .xinitrc file in your home/username directory.

Kept a very old home directory without formatting (not the one I am using with Xubuntu now).

I cannot find .xinitrc. I was using Xubuntu when I looked including hidden files.

That is the cause. Copy the files from /etc/skel/ (including the hidden ones) into your user directory as user not as root.

I was now able to log in. I needed Korean Fonts. The repositories weren't in the default but others you had as options. I got warning messages how my system could go belly up. Well thankfully it didn't. I am looking for a replacement for my Xubuntu when it is no longer supported. I never installed a Beta before. I think the way my hardware was recognised, the included software (LibreOffice Xsane etc) and and your opening wallpaper with all the fruit on the Live CD attracted me to try. That is the best Wallpaper I have ever seen. Also Lubuntu 12.04 didn't recognise my sound right . Thank you so much for your help with my problem.

This problem also allowed me to find out how to fix a corrupted root password problem. Although corrupted password file wasn't the cause of the problem it was the first thing that I thought of to try to get going. Later I knew I was wrong when I could sign in at the prompt. I did manage to change the password with the help of Knoppix however.

Thanks so very much.

Your feedback is very useful to remind me that logging into antiX with non-latin characters could also fail.

I removed the Korean/Japanese/Chinese fonts that were in antiX-M11 from antiX-12 to save space.

What you can do, while running live (better either on a usb stick or fromiso/frugal on a hard drive because the live cd restricts the space to download to only a few MB) is install the fonts you need using the meta-installer and then install to hard drive.
Savings when live should transfer to installation.