Igor: GDM does support debugging. If you edit /usr/share/gdm/defaults.conf and set Enable=true in the "[debug]" section of the file, then it will send extra debug output to your syslog (/var/adm/messages). Might be interesting to turn on debug and see if GDM reports any issues starting up. The log messages have datestamps, so this might help to identify where any hang might be happening, or whether the hang is happening before the GDM or CDE login is starting.
If you look in /var/svc/manifest/application/graphical-login, you will notice that both the cde-login.xml and gdm.xml files depend on various other services. If the login program is slow to start, then the problem could be that some other service which login depends upon may be having problems starting up quickly. If you can do so, it might be worthwhile to telnet into the machine as it is booting up and check the status of the SMF services to see why they might be coming up slowly. Note SMF stores log files in /var/svc/log, and there might be some clues in the gdm and cde-login related files. Brian > Starting with build 105 I've got trouble with cde-login. When computer boots, > it takes very long time to get from console to login prompt, usually it's > matter of minutes. Mostly time is spent in gray/white X startup phase. > Pressing ENTER after typing password blanks the screen again for ~1-2 min, > and everything works reasonably fine afterwards (beside some glitches in > gnome). > > Problem persists across several boxes and across two sxce builds, 105 and 107. > I've tried to change to gdm on Toshiba Tecra M9 running snv 107, but login > time is compatible with this from dt-login screen, although initial time from > grub till gui login prompt is considerably shorter (order of magnitude). > > Second and much more severe problem with X was related to initial startup, > when network misconfiguration leaves system in permanent service initiation > and configuration phase w/o anything happening. While it is rather easy to > fix in single-user mode by starting/stopping nwam/ network/physical:default > (or vise versa), dependence of X on networking state is quite hard to > understand. It may be justified by need of remote login from dt-login menu, > but complete lack of X when network access is lacking on machine with > networking enabled seems quite strange. > > I didn't notice first problem with prior builds on my stationary box. In > fact, time from grub menu till gui login screen was under a minute for me, > plus few seconds extra to initialize gnome session (I'd say ~15s). On my new > laptop I tried only newer sxce builds, namely 105 and 107, and solaris 10/8 > and osol 2008.11-rc2. Both sxce builds had both mentioned problems. Solaris > 10/8 boots quickly but I didn't test networking much with it due to lacking > support of intel wifi card. > > Boxes info: > 1st- Toshiba Tecra M9 with 1Gb ram and NVidia Quadro NVS 130M, Intel Centrino > vPro. > 2nd- Self-assembled box with Asus M2A-MX with integrated ATI Radeon gpu, 2Gb > ram. > > SXCE is installed on ufs on Tecra due to memory limitations. > > Enabling of gdm was done by issuing following commands: > # svcadm disable cde-login:default > # svcadm enable gdm > > Any help would be appreciated. > > Igor Ralets
