Re: XWin works on Win2K but not on some WinXP clients

[Harold L Hunt II <huntharo at msu dot edu>]

Kirk,

Woellert, Kirk D. wrote:

> I have a laptop with WinXP on it. I downloaded Cygwin, performed a default
> installation, brought it into the office and just like the other WinXP boxes
> all I get is the checkerboard screen. No login prompt.

Any chance that you could take it to another Linux box and test a login 
with that different machine?  It would be nice to try to determine which 
end is having a problem.

> In answer to earlier questions, Yes, I can SSH into the linux box using
> either Cygwin or PuTTY.

Okay, so you can at least connect.

I have been assuming that all of these machines are on a LAN... is that 
the case?  If there is a NAT (network address translation) box between 
your machine and the server, then you will be unable to connect to XDM, 
even if you can connect with ssh or other protocols.  Please describe 
your setup a little bit.

If you have any network segments (NAT boxes, routers, etc.) please take 
the above laptop to the same segment that the W2K machines work on and 
try logging in from there.

> Someone asked about log files for xdm. Did they mean on the linux box? If so
> where do I find them. I looked in etc/X11 and didnt see anything.

Yes, the log files are on the machine that is running xdm/kdm/gdm, which 
is your Linux box in this case.

The log file location depends on how Red Hat does things... I haven't 
run it in a little while.  I can tell you that the logs are most likely 
in /var/log.  If you are running kdm, then the logs will probably be in 
/var/log/kdm.log.  Also check for /var/log/xdm.errors.

You could also do a general check of /var/log/messages and 
/var/log/syslog for any error/security messages.


Finally, you need to run xdm/kdm/gdm (whichever one you are using, most 
likely kdm) in debug mode.  Please see the following post from Alexander 
Gottwald for instructions on how to do this:

http://sources.redhat.com/ml/cygwin-xfree/2003-06/msg00364.html


The idea is to run xdm/kdm/gdm in debug mode, then try to connect from a 
working machine and observe the output on the Linux machine's console. 
Then, try to connect from a non-working machine and observe and compare 
the output on the Linux machine's console.

If you get no output from the failed connection attempt, then it tells 
us that there is most likely a network segment that you don't know about 
(remember, I don't know if you work in a 5 man shop or a 50,000 employee 
conglomerate).  If you get an error message, then we will likely be able 
to translate it and tell you what the problem is.  If you get identical 
output both times and no problems are indicated, then we are up a creek. 
 :)  Actually, in that case it would probably be a multiple network 
card issue on the WinXP machines that you have, or perhaps some 
VPN/firewall software on those machines (I know you said that the XP 
firewall was disabled).

Hope that helps, please report your results quickly so that we can get 
this fixed,

Harold