Won't start the desktop

[DennisOS2]

Successfully updated to HH through the updater. All worked fine, rebooted all still worked fine, but the desktop was unchanged and so was the login screen. Checked and was running KDE 3.9.5. Even though it asked which manager I wanted to use during the install (I chose 4).

Went back to updater and DL'ed KDE 4 components. Rebooted ...... still 3.9.5. Went to the updater and installed 'KDE' (it didn't say which version).

Now I have a new login screen but won't go past that. In the session type, no matter what is selected (Default, KDE3, KDE4, failsafe) once I put the password in an hit enter the screen goes black for about 2 seconds and then back to the login screen. Looks like I broke something.

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

[cantab]

Re: Won't start the desktop

That behaviour is sometimes due to a graphics driver issue. Some drivers don't support resolution switching - if tried, the X server will spontaneously restart. It may be the system's trying to do this on login (though that it's happening even with failsafe suggests otherwise). What's your /etc/xorg.conf?

Also, try switching to a console with Ctrl+Alt+F1, log in, do the following

ps aux | grep /usr/bin/X11

should output something like

root 8498 8.1 7.8 45644 40692 tty9 SLs+ 18:47 24:08 /usr/bin/X11/X -nolisten tcp

Note the bolded number (usually 4 digits, sometimes not)

then do

sudo kill -9 $NUMBER

This will kill the x server.

Then try to start an x session without using the login manager,

startx

NEVER RUN sudo startx! That can wreck your system!

If all goes well you will get some sort of desktop environment. If not, you'll hopefully get some error messages.

[DennisOS2]

Re: Won't start the desktop

I'm running the standard Linux video drivers for an old ATI card (Radeon X550). I ran fine after the initial HH install. Everything worked. Why would there be a resolution change after the KDE4 install? Does 4 default to a set resolution higher than 1280x1024?? Or lower??

[cantab]

Re: Won't start the desktop

I don't know any reason KDE4 would change the resolution, just that the problem you're describing can be caused by that issue. It's a bit of a long shot to be honest.