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Re: [ecs] *brutally* stumped by /etc/profile behavior in Knoppix (SOLVED) Ingo Pakleppa Sun, 29 Feb 2004 23:25:59 -0800

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It may just be a change in the way the knoppix user is logged in. The
DISPLAY environment variable is set only by the X Windows startup
scripts. It wouldn't be set, for instance, if you start into runlevel 3
(my server runs in runlevel 3 only; for security as well as disk space
reasons, I don't want unnecessary software running on that box). It
would - maybe - be set if the login takes place after the X has started.
But only if the user is automatically logged in as the foreground user
of X windows. If the user is automatically logged on to some other
console (I don't know about Knoppix, but RedHat and Suse both allow you
to switch between six text consoles and X mode with Alt-Ctrl-F1,
Alt-Ctrl-F2, etc. up to Alt-Ctrl-F7) then the DISPLAY variable would not
be set. And it is also conceivable that the DISPLAY variable might be
set to a different value - this happens for instance if I log in
remotely to my machine using SSH.

On Wed, 2004-02-25 at 07:25, Mark Gilmore wrote:
> For some reason, the "DISPLAY" env var was not defined.
> So this fixed it:
>          export DISPLAY=:0.0
> What I can't figure out is why this was not required on my
> previous customized Knoppix CD (which was 3.3 inst of 3.3.2).
> 
> 
> At 06:15 AM 2/25/2004 -0800, you wrote:
> >When the "knoppix" user is logged at in boot up, /etc/profile is executed.
> >I am trying to make it execute ecs in a terminal window (xterm, konsole, etc).
> >
> >My /etc/profile command is:
> >         /home/knoppix/startup.sh &
> >
> >startup.sh:
> >         cd /home/knoppix
> >         sleep 120 (wait to *assure* that X-windows has started)
> >         xterm -e ecs.bin & > trace.lis 2>&1
> >         ps -aux > trace.lis
> >
> >I *know* that startup.sh *is* executing, as I have traced the execution of 
> >every line.
> >But the xterm command does *nothing*.
> >It reports *no* errors.
> >The process list shows *no* xterm.
> >ecs.bin is *not* executed (no logs exist).
> >If I manually execute startup.sh, it works fine.
> >??????
> >Thanks,
> >
> >Mark Gilmore
> >http://OmnipotenceSoftware.com
> >
> >
> >---
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> 
> Mark Gilmore
> http://OmnipotenceSoftware.com
> 
> ______________________________________________________________________
> ---
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