Zenwalk 8 problems with X starting, solved then can't login
 

Hi!

Hope Zenwalk isn't dead, still like it a lot.

Decided to install last edition of Zenwalk 8 on a VM on KVM (I run Fedora Worstation for work), and after updating I was greeted with the inability to start X. While booting, it tries to start X, it crashes and it keeps trying for a while, until it pauses for 5 mins.

I was able to login through console, add network connectivity and figured out that some packages where missing that were preventing X to start, lxdm.log showed the error messages.

The packages that I installed (from more than 1 mirror, if I remember correctly) were:

After this it starts X and shows the login screen, but when I try to login (user or root), it displays the login again.

Only activity in logs is in lxdm.log, this is added every time I try to login:

EDIT: messages also has this error that happens during boot:


Since I'm not an expert, I have to ask: any suggestions? Thanks!

What package manager does Zenwalk use? Is it based on Slack? You need to install xorg with all libraries matching. Do you have a package manager that will bring the machine up to date with a repo?

Those theme parsing errors are probably nothing. Most gtk themes do that.

And this is a systemd machine?

This:
Polkit failed. Do you have PolicyKit installed right? And dbus?

Look at:
man systemctl
man journalctl

journalctl -u dbus.service

http://www.google.com/search?q=helpe...1%27+failed%3A

See what you can find.

You say you installed wayland, but what desktop environment are you trying to start? Perhaps it is not ready for wayland, or it needs some other package.

Some questions answered...

- Zenwalk is based on Slackware.

- It does NOT use SystemD.

- Its current default DE is Xfce 4.12.

- Its package manager is "netpkg".

NOTE: v8.0 of Zen is quite old (2016). As of 2019, Zenwalk is a "rolling-release" distribution. The above still applies in most cases except newer version of Xfce and kernel.

I also don't believe that a version of Zenwalk from 2016 would be compatible with Wayland. Is it possible the OP updated using the new rolling-release repos? If so, that may be a problem.

Jean-Philippe Guillemin's blog

Softpedia article about ZW 8

ZW @ Distrowatch

Thanks for answering.

Yes, I know that Zenwalk is Slackware based, that doesn't use systemd or wayland. I've been using several versions along the years. I downloaded the 8.0 ISO from the blog (current Zenwalk site). I think that was the mistake I made, it's not current release and that's why it broke when updated? Need to explore more of the blog... Distrowatch hasn't mentioned much about Zenwalk and I seem to have missed that last post about the rolling release.

I just installed what the lxdm.log said was missing. I installed one package and then a different library gets logged as missing, the last of which a library that could only be satisfied by the wayland package.

Downloading now the release linked in the last DistroWatch entry and will install it. Will report back.

Edit: Yep, the 8.0 ISO is out of date, and the Distrowatch post version is also out of date. Found the blog post which announces a June 2019 ISO, which seems to be the current one. Downloading it now.

Hello @rpaugusto! I figured that using that older version and then updating who-knows-how-many jumps to their current rolling release version would give you some fits. Were I you, I'd wipe and reinstall fresh with their latest release --> zenwalk-current-15.0-200101.iso ( http://download.zenwalk.org/x86_64/current/ ).

Oh, and the "informational" posting above was actually meant for @teckk in reply to his questions regarding ZW.

Luck with it, my friend. If you can consider this resolved, please mark thread as SOLVED. Give a holler if you still need some assistance, though. We'll be here...

Regards,

~Eric

@vtel57, thanks!

I had already installed the June 2019 version, and it was finishing upgrading. It didn't work out too, it reboots to a black screen (though console is active, just no X screen).

Downloading now that 15.0 version, now I know where to look for ISOs. Thank you very much!

Marking this as solved.

You're very welcome, @rpaugusto! Hopefully, installing the newest version will work as it should. I ran ZW 14 years or so ago as a tester on my system. It was an impressive Slackware derivative. I hope you find it to be that as well.

Cheers!

~Eric