It took that message a few days to show up on the list, and I've fixed the problem in the meantime. Although I don't fully understand why what I did worked. If anyone feels like explaining this to me, I'm more than happy to listen. All I did was delete the file /etc/X11/Xsession.d/10xfree86-common_numlockx because my ~/.xsession-errors said something about numlockx, and that was the only file on the system in which grep turned up anything about numlockx. After deleting that file, window managers load without any error. But I don't know what the files in Xsession.d do, or if I might experience any side-effects from deleting that file, or why a problem with numlock prevented all window managers from loading, but didn't interfere with X itself... Anyway, the upshot is: problem solved. Ian On Fri, 20 Jun 2003 11:27:23 -0500 Ian Stoner <istoner at unm.edu> wrote: > I can no longer load any window manager. They all give some variation > on the error: > > unable to open display "" > (that's twm's error, gnome's is): > > Gtk-WARNING **: cannot open display: > SESSION_MANAGER=local/goodmanbrown.dnsalias.org:/tmp/.ICE-unix/3482 > Gtk-WARNING **: cannot open display: > > So, I can't load any window manager, BUT, X will load if I invoke it > directly. I can just enter "X" and I will get the gray screen with the > x-shaped pointer. No errors are recorded in the X-windows log, and no > warnings are there that haven't been there all along. (Everything was > working fine until last night.) > > More puzzling still, if I use xinit to load X with a terminal window, > I can then invoke gnome-session and gnome loads without any errors > that are apparently relevant to displays. (there are two file errors > and one Gtk WARNING: gtk_signal_disconnect_by_data(): could not find > handler containing data). Using the same method, twm loads without > errors. > > I found a web page that seemed to suggest that I try setting my > DISPLAY environment variable to "127.0.0.1:0.0" but that had no > effect, except the errors printed that they couldn't open that > particular display, rather than not printing any display name. I also > tried reinstalling my video drivers (proprietary nvidia), but that > changed nothing. > > The only error message I can find to offer is the "can't open display" > one. Has anyone had a similar problem, or know what might have caused > this? Any suggestion at all would be much appreciated, as I'm at a > loss to know where to start troubleshooting this. > > Thanks, > Ian > > -- > Reclaim the Public Domain! Sign the petition at: > http://www.PetitionOnline.com/eldred/petition.html > > _______________________________________________ > TCLUG Mailing List - Minneapolis/St. Paul, Minnesota > http://www.mn-linux.org tclug-list at mn-linux.org > https://mailman.real-time.com/mailman/listinfo/tclug-list _______________________________________________ TCLUG Mailing List - Minneapolis/St. Paul, Minnesota http://www.mn-linux.org tclug-list at mn-linux.org https://mailman.real-time.com/mailman/listinfo/tclug-list