[SOLVED] Problem getting LXDE to work with Vector Linux Light v 6.0

[Silent Music]

Thank you GrannyGeek for that /etc/X11/xinit/xinit/xinitrc.lxde file. It was the same as the one that I created. I am sorry to say that it will not now be needed, because, I have to admit:
CORRECTION: my login manager is kdm, not gdm, and kdm does things in a different way. I was confused into thinking that gdm is my login manager, because both gdm and kdm are installed with VectorLinux Light 6.0, and gdm is obvious in /etc/X11 folder, whereas kdm is hidden and scattered throughout the /usr/share folder. I don't remember choosing kdm over gdm during the VLL6.0 installation, but I suppose I must have done.

Thank you Pita for that useful tip. I will investigate that after a good night's sleep.

The great news is that I have solved this problem. I will explain how tomorrow morning, or rather later today, because it is late, very late here in the UK, and I must get some much needed sleep.

[Pita]

Thank you Pita for that useful tip. I will investigate that after a good night's sleep.

The great news is that I have solved this problem. I will explain how tomorrow morning, or rather later today, because it is late, very late here in the UK, and I must get some much needed sleep.

Hope you had a good rest. Well, I just found that my suggestion does not work in failsafe, exiting xterm kills LXDE.
It does work when I try it in fluxbox.

[M0E-lnx]

If you use KDM as login manger, then you need to create a .desktop file in /usr/share/apps/kdm/sessions
name it lxde.desktop

You can just copy one of the existing files, and edit it to change the following properties

Code:

Exec=startlxde -p LXDE
Name=LXDE

You can change more if you want, but those are the vital parts for your lxde to show up in the kdm session manager.

[Silent Music]

Yes. That is what I discovered. Having finally realised that I was working with kdm and not gdm, (it's confusing having both installed), the problem was simply solved. The repository's LXDE packages installed by Gslapt give you a LXDE.desktop file in: /usr/share/xsessions
You have to move or copy this file to: /usr/share/apps/kdm/sessions/LXDE.desktop
If you don't find one you can create one modelled on /usr/share/apps/kdm/sessions/icewm.desktop, leaving out all the unnecessary locale comments. (I wonder how much hard drive space we'd save if we stripped all the un-needed locale customisation from Linux files? When I stripped the ICEWM.desktop file of un-needed code the size went down from 4.8kb to 149bytes) Logout and then login again, and you can start LXDE by selecting it from the Sessions menu, and not by using the console.

If you are working with gdm as your login manager, then you need to create an executable file /etc/X11/xinit/xinitrc.lxde  I found that this was not provided by the installation of the LXDE packages with gslapt. The xinitrc.lxde file can be modelled on an example file in the same directory - "xinitrc_example", or you can use GrannyGeek's file posted earlier in this thread. If you use the example file, save it in the same directory as:  xinitrc.lxde and remember to make it executable after saving it - code:
chmod +x /etc/X11/xinit/xinitrc.lxde
This file and the others like them in this folder (xinitrc.icewm, xinitrc.jwm, etc. ) can now be picked up by a sub-routine in the shell script: /etc/X11/gdm/Xsession and the desktop or window managers should display in the Session menu of your login screen.

I am pleased to have LXDE up and running on VectorLinux Light. It is worth having. I don't think it is any more resource hungry than IceWM and it is easier to customise. I will mark this thread as solved, but before I do, can anyone help with one niggling problem that remains with this installation of LXDE? The menu has a logout button. Clicking it just gives you the option to logout. You don't get a menu of options - Reboot, Shutdown, etc. as you do with IceWM. You have to logout to the login screen and reboot or shutdown from there. Surely this wasn't intended?
Can this be changed so that you can reboot or shutdown in one operation?

[Silent Music]

At the moment, I still cannot see how to solve the niggling problem I mentioned in my last post. There is some configuration somewhere in VLL6.0 which is preventing all the options showing when I click the logout button in the menu options. I cannot find what it is.

I have the same version of LXDE installed on Zenwalk Linux on the other hard drive of this machine. It does not have the same problem. All the options show when you click the logout button in the main menu. I replaced /usr/bin/lxde-logout and /usr/bin/lxsession-logout on the VLL6.0 hard drive with the same files from the same location on the Zenwalk Linux hard drive, but it did not make any difference. So the fault cannot have been with the original "lxde-logout" and lxsession-logout" files.

What can it be that is limiting their operation, principally the operation of /usr/bin/lxsession-logout?

As a temporary measure I copied ~/.icewm/shutdown-dialog.sh to ~/.config/shutdown-dialog.sh and revised this copied file to logout from LXDE rather than IceWM. I then created a shudown.desktop file in /usr/share/applications/ to point to ~/.config/shutdown-dialog . I then added this application.desktop file to the Application Launch Bar of lxpanel. This gives shutdown, reboot and logout options which work, but it is not a very neat solution and not one found within LXDE.

[M0E-lnx]

That is because you're not starting it correctly.
The LXDE environment includes lxde-session-lite which takes care of the logout dialog.

you should be doing something like startlxde -p LXDE

[Silent Music]

Thanks for the suggestion, but I don't see how it can be that.
At the kdm login screen I choose an LXDE session. The first file to be read after login is /usr/share/apps/kdm/sessions/LXDE.desktop.
Here are the contents of my LXDE.desktop file:

[Desktop Entry]
Encoding=UTF-8
Type=Application
Exec=startlxde -p LXDE
Name=LXDE

So the next file to be read is /usr/bin/startlxde
Here are the contents of my startlxde file:

#!/bin/sh

if [ -z "$XDG_CONFIG_HOME" ]; then
    export XDG_CONFIG_HOME="$HOME/.config"
fi

# Ensure the existance of pcmanfm config file
PCMANFM_CONF_DIR="$XDG_CONFIG_HOME/pcmanfm"
if [ ! -f "$PCMANFM_CONF_DIR/main.lxde" ]; then
    mkdir -p "$PCMANFM_CONF_DIR"
    cp /usr/share/lxde/pcmanfm/main.lxde "$PCMANFM_CONF_DIR/main.lxde"
fi

# Ensure the existance of openbox config file
OPENBOX_CONF_DIR="$XDG_CONFIG_HOME/openbox"
if [ ! -f "$OPENBOX_CONF_DIR/lxde-rc.xml" ]; then
    mkdir -p "$OPENBOX_CONF_DIR"
    cp /usr/share/lxde/openbox/rc.xml "$OPENBOX_CONF_DIR/lxde-rc.xml"
fi

# Enable GTK+2 integration for OpenOffice.org, if available.
export SAL_USE_VCLPLUGIN=gtk

# Start the LXDE session
exec /usr/bin/lxsession -s LXDE

There is nothing out of order there, is there?
lxsession is a binary, so I can't touch that, but it should as you say take care of the logout dialogue - only it doesn't. For some reason, which I still can't fathom, the logout dialogue is truncated to the logout option only, instead of the 6 or 7 options that there should be.
I've swapped a new "lxsession" file over from Zenwalk Linux, where it works normally, but it doesn't correct this faulty behaviour in VLL.

[newt]

I was having a similar problem last week in XFCE (logout was only option I could choose, others were grayed out). Turned out to be a group related issues - I had inadvertently removed my user from all groups but one. As soon as I put my user back into it's normal groups I was set.

Have a look at:
/etc/group
and make sure your user is in the groups it should be.

disk,lp,floppy,audio,video,cdrom,games,slocate,plugdev,scanner,users(,wheel)

[M0E-lnx]

Do you have lxsession installed?
Look at the very last line of the startlxde script.

[Silent Music]

Yes, Newt, I am a member of all those groups you mention, I have checked /etc/group. It is not that the shutdown, reboot, switch user, hibernate, suspend, lock screen options are greyed out in my LXDE when I click the logout button, they are simply not there. Only the logout option is there, and reboot and shutdown have to be done in two stages - logout to the login and screen and then reboot or shutdown from there.

Yes, MOE. I have lxsession installed. Working in IceWM, I copied the lxsession file in Zenwalk Linux over to /usr/bin in VLL and then quarantined the lxsession-lite file installed on VLL, but it made no difference. The rest of LXDE works fine, there is just this niggling little problem.

[M0E-lnx]

check out the docs for lxsession-lite
it needs HAL running
make sure HAL is running

[Silent Music]

#modprobe hald
returns:
Module hald not found
so: presumably hal is not running. Which file do I have to edit, and how, go get the hal module loaded when VLL starts?
VASM is not showing up in the menu in LXDE, and under IceWM I cannot get the HAL daemon choice to stick.

[Silent Music]

CORRECTION
I realise that hald is not a kernel module, that is why the command # modprobe hald returned:
FATAL: module hald not found.
The correct command to see if hald is running should be:
# ps -A | grep hald
which should return several lines of text concerning hald, if hald is running, or:
# ps aux | grep hald
which returns several lines besides the grep call to hald
Using either of these commands in the terminal as root user show that hald is running.

I am wondering if this problem is caused by the fact that I am using kdm and not gdm as my login manager. Does LXDE work better with gdm?

[M0E-lnx]

lxsession uses either GDM or HAL whichever is available.

[Silent Music]

YESSSSSSS!!! Cracked it!!
I was using KDM as my login manager, and for some reason LXDE doesn't like that??!!
I changed my login manager to GDM and then clicking the Login button in the menu gave me all the options except HIBERNATE, but I can live with that, as I've never told a computer to hibernate in my life!!

In order to change your login manager to GDM from KDM, you should edit as root /etc/rc.d/rc.X    ## (note that is a capital letter X)
Find the line which says:
DISPLAY_MANAGER=KDM
change KDM to GDM
Save the /etc/rc.d/rc.X file and then reboot.
GDM is now the login manager, and changing from KDM to GDM solved my problem.

I shall now mark this thread as solved. I should like to thank all the other contributors to this thread for their helpful suggestions.