How can I autostart GDM on Fedora 15?

Question

I am trying to load Compiz on my Fedora 15 desktop. When I finished installing the compiz packages, I restarted. However, it started in text terminal mode and the gui didn't load automatically.

I executed following commands externally to load my gui (in root mode):

cd /etc/dconf/db
exec gdm

Though that is working perfectly, I want to load the GUI automatically.

Answer 1

Fedora 15 uses systemd. First make sure you're running the 'graphical' target by making sure that /etc/systemd/system/default.target is a symlink to /lib/systemd/system/graphical.target, which is the equivalent of runlevel 5 (and not multi-user.target, which is the equivalent of runlevel 3).

Next, make sure that the 'prefdm' service is running. Check the output of systemctl status prefdm.service. it should show that it's loaded and active. If you weren't at the graphical target, it probably won't be.

Now, if you already had it in the graphical target, it's possible that X isn't starting due to some error. Check the log files in /var/log/gdm, look at the files with the timestamp of the last time you booted, to see if maybe something was broken.

Answer 2

You should check to make sure what run-level you are in after boot, and if gdm is being started for the run-level. You can do this manually by checking the symlinks in your /etc/rc*.d directories, where * is the number of the run-level.

First check to make sure you have a gdm init script, and run it to verify that it properly starts gdm:

$ ls -l /etc/init.d/ | grep gdm    
$ sudo /etc/init.d/gdm start

If that works, then you can check the symlinks in the runlevel that you are in you can get you current runlevel with the 'runlevel' command. Then check for the correct symlink

$ runlevel
3
$ ls -al /etc/rc3.d/ | grep gdm

If it's not there, create the symlink:

$ cd /etc/rc3.d/
$ sudo ln -s /etc/init.d/gdm 

After rebooting, this start start the gdm init script. Make sure you are using the correct init script filename. I am using 'gdm' because I assume thats what it's called, but I could be wrong.