KDM corrupted ! Cannot login. Help Please !

[TomG]

Hi

I installed a KDM theme (from KDE-Look.org and installed with relevant application) and now (after logout/reboot) I get an error box that indicate the theme is corrupted !
I'm not able to get the login panel, I only have an endless hourglass on a black screen...

My questions :
1. How to get the console on boot instead of hanging hourglass/black screen ?
2. How to change the KDM theme to default from command line ?

Heeelllppp !

Tx
TomG

[niko_]

personaly i use gdm and it has its themes in /usr/share/gdm/themes,
well try looking at /usr/share/kdm/themes and if its right then just remove the theme.
you can also find the theme probably by: locate kdm | grep -i theme, or something

[TomG]

Thanks for your reply.
Do you also know how I could get command line on boot ?
Tom

[niko_]

just press ctrl+alt+f1 (could also f2,f3.. instead f1)
and it prompts you for your login and password, after that you will get into command line (console).

[TomG]

Tx a lot. Will try asap.
Tom

[Thorsten]

Originally Posted by TomG I installed a KDM theme (from KDE-Look.org and installed with relevant application) and now (after logout/reboot) I get an error box that indicate the theme is corrupted ! I'm not able to get the login panel, I only have an endless hourglass on a black screen...

Kdm theses are configured thru /etc/kde3/kdm/kdmrc
To get the original theme back, change the appropriate line back to

Theme=/usr/share/apps/kdm/themes/kubuntu

Alternatively, you can disable kdm themes altogether by changing

UseTheme=true

to

UseTheme=false

To change this file when you can't log in using kdm, change to a virtual console by pressing Ctrl-Alt-F1 (hold down both Ctrl and Alt and press F1), log in and do sth like

sudo nano /etc/kde3/kdm/kdmrc

I don't know if nano is installed on your syste. If not, you'll have to use another text editor. If you don't have any non-graphical editor, you can also start KDE from a virtual console. Log in and execute

startkde

, e.g.

If that doesn't work because the default graphical terminal is taken up by the (broken) kdm, use sth like

startkde -- :1

.

HTH,
Thorsten

[TomG]

Thanks for your help ! I solved the problem.

I installed KDE with Ubuntu (and not Kubuntu directly).
I don't know why but I had to edit /etc/gdm/gdm.conf and change the # to :
# GraphicalTheme=Krystal
GraphicalThemes=circles/:happygnome
Do you know why when we switch to KDE as default window manager gdm is still ran on boot ?

Thanks anyway !
Tom

[Thorsten]

Originally Posted by TomG Thanks for your help ! I solved the problem. I installed KDE with Ubuntu (and not Kubuntu directly). I don't know why but I had to edit /etc/gdm/gdm.conf and change the # to : # GraphicalTheme=Krystal GraphicalThemes=circles/:happygnome

I'm not quite sure I understand your problem. You had a problem with kdm, which was solved, but you are still running gdm?

Originally Posted by TomG Do you know why when we switch to KDE as default window manager gdm is still ran on boot ?

Sure. Installing kubuntu-desktop or KDE packages in general doesn't necesssarily mean that the display manager gets switched by the installation routine. As part of the boot process, [K]ubuntu runs the scripts to start kdm and gdm (if they are installed, see /etc/init.d/kdm and /etc/init.d/gdm.) Since it does not make sense to actually run both gdm and kdm, each script checks the contents of /etc/X11/default-display-manager and aborts if it isn't mentioned there. Therefore, you could set which display manager is run by changing /etc/X11/default-display-manager. There is a more convenient way though, simply run

sudo dpkg-reconfigure kdm

and select kdm in the menu that will appear.

If you can't login from kdm, you may want to check out this issue:
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=81431

HTH,
Thorsten

[TomG]

Excellent. Thanks for this tip !
Tom