SOLVED: X not starting from boot splash screen, but startx works from console

[bturrie]

When I enter my username and password from the boot splash screen, it flashes a white rectangle then falls back to the login screen which is an endless loop.

If I then select console login, enter my username an password then issue,

startx

X starts normally. So the problem is merely annoying.

I don't see much in the syslog except


2011-01-03 07:46:56 escher kdm :0[1497]: pam_sm_authenticate: Called
2011-01-03 07:46:56 escher kdm :0[1497]: pam_sm_authenticate: username = [bruce]
2011-01-03 07:46:56 escher kdm :0[1648]: Passphrase file wrapped
2011-01-03 07:46:58 escher kernel [ 211.314794] Intel AES-NI instructions are not detected.
2011-01-03 07:46:58 escher kernel [ 211.349751] padlock: VIA PadLock not detected.
2011-01-03 07:47:00 escher acpid client 1034[0:0] has disconnected
2011-01-03 07:47:00 escher acpid client connected from 1034[0:0]
2011-01-03 07:47:00 escher acpid 1 client rule loaded
2011-01-03 07:47:00 escher acpid client connected from 1034[0:0]
2011-01-03 07:47:00 escher acpid 1 client rule loaded
2011-01-03 07:47:01 escher kdm_greet[1796] Cannot load /usr/share/kde4/apps/kdm/faces/.default.face: No such file or directory
2011-01-03 07:47:38 escher acpid client 1034[0:0] has disconnected
2011-01-03 07:47:38 escher acpid client 1034[0:0] has disconnected
2011-01-03 07:47:38 escher acpid client connected from 1935[0:0]

I do see a kubuntu bug filed re: .default.face file, but not sure that's the problem. I have no Idea what the kernel bit is about.

[bturrie]

Re: SOLVED: X not starting from boot splash screen, but startx works from console

Turns out that the file ~/.dmrc contained

[Desktop]
Session=failsafe

I deleted it and it was correctly restored on my next reboot. Not at all sure how it got messed up in the first place though.