[arch-general] Display Manager rc.d scripts

[Magnus Therning]

On Sun, May 08, 2011 at 08:15:27PM +0200, Heiko Baums wrote:
> Am Sun, 8 May 2011 19:53:49 +0200
> schrieb Tom Gundersen <teg at jklm.no>:
> 
> > While I don't have a firm opinion about this, I tend to disagree with
> > you. I have always been using the rc.d scripts and find they work
> > fine.
> > 
> > We don't really implement runlevels in Arch, so the half-way approach
> > of using the runlevels to control only one daemon seems strange to me.
> > Why is kdm/gdm/slim different from all the othe daemons we have. How
> > would you make sure e.g. kdm was started before (or after) another
> > daemon if you use the runlevel approach?
> 
> kdm etc. should only be started as the last rc script as far as I know,
> at least it doesn't make much sense to start it before other scripts.
> The same is done with the inittab method.
> 
> The reason why I prefer and need the inittab method is if there are
> issues with xorg which prevents from switching to a text console which
> already happened in the past.
> 
> With the rc scripts it's only possible to having started xorg at boot
> time if the script is in the DAEMONS array. So if xorg fails for a
> reason and doesn't allow you to switch to console you need a LiveCD to
> first remove it from the DAEMONS to be able to use the system again.

Another, arguably easier solution is to pass 'init=/bin/bash' in order
to get a terminal to modify DAEMONS.  But that's not pertinent to this
discussion.

> With the inittab method you can easily add two entries to the
> bootloader's config. One which boots into runlevel 3 and one which
> boots into runlevel 5. So if xorg makes problems you still can easily
> boot into the text console and fix the problem.

This has actually never happened to me, but I can imagine the
irritation.  Is there really no way to make the /etc/rd.c-script fail
and return the user to a terminal if xorg (or the display manager)
fails?

> And it doesn't make any difference if you start or stop xorg at
> runtime by running `/etc/rc.d/kdm stop` resp. `/etc/rc.d/kdm start` or
> `telinit 3` resp. `telinit 5`.
> 
> So the inittab method must be kept while I don't have an opinion
> whether the rc scripts shall be kept or not.

I think the argument of OP was that the inittab method should be the
*only* method.  If both methods are available, which one should be the
default?

/M

-- 
Magnus Therning                      OpenPGP: 0xAB4DFBA4 
email: magnus at therning.org   jabber: magnus at therning.org
twitter: magthe               http://therning.org/magnus

Most software today is very much like an Egyptian pyramid with
millions of bricks piled on top of each other, with no structural
integrity, but just done by brute force and thousands of slaves.
     -- Alan Kay
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