11.0 fresh install: I never see CDE Login

I've just completed a fresh install of HP-UX 11.0 on my 712/80 and everything starts up fine until it gets to the point where X kicks off and I believe at this point is supposed to launch into the CDE login.

It just sits there on the blank X screen with the X cursor for a minute or so then BEEPS and then drops to the text terminal output where it says

=====================================
Starting Desktop login on Bishop Display:0

then cycles back to X and beeps again after a bit and adds

=====================================
Resuming Desktop login

then cycles back to X and beeps again after a bit and adds

=====================================
Suspending desktop login

Press [Enter] to login to console

Desktop login will resume later after logout

Over and over and over...

NOTE: the text above is not exact but close enough

Anyone else see and know how to get past this issue?

Thanks.

Connect a mouse. :slight_smile:

I wish it was that easy. I have one connected. I can move the X cursor with it and if I console sign in as root and startx the mouse does all it should.

Any other ideas?

Sure. :slight_smile:
Are you able to log in in safe mode or command line?

If yes, then paste the content of the /etc/nsswitch.conf into this thread.

Yes. I'm logged in as root (the only user at this point :slight_smile: )

Ok,
nsswitch.conf doesn't exist but if I ls we have:

nsswitch.compat
nsswitch.files
nsswitch.hp_defaults
nsswitch.nis
nsswitch.nisplus

I assume I need this config file?

Something else unrelated but maybe you can help me out with -- Is it normal for the shell prompt to be the british pount sign? I'm used to # -- oddly enough a shift-3 produces the brit pount sign instead of #. I also noticed that the backslash-pipe key has no effect making it impossible to enter a pipe character. I must have somehow mapped the wrong keyboard/display. Can I change this? -- sorry for the off topic.

I'm not sure if you really need that file, I might be that it is not available if you installed the machine without network.
CDE needs proper name resolution and the standard order after a fresh installation is DNS -> /etc/hosts -> NIS/NIS+
So if your system is not yet registered in the DNS, the hostname cannot be resolved and CDE does not start. So you have to switch this order to /etc/hosts -> DNS -> [...]. You can use sam for that in single user mode.
Go to "Networking and Communications" -> "Name Service Switch" and then see the order at "hosts". First source should be "/etc/hosts".

If you're on the console (ITE) or on an HP terminal this is because "ASCII 8 bit mode" is enabled. You can turn it off in the setup menu, which you can access through the function keys:

  • Press Numlock
    -> the yellow boxes on the bottom of screen change their description
  • F8 config keys
  • F5 terminal config
  • go with TAB to "ASCII 8 Bits"
  • set with F2 to "Yes"
  • save with F1

It seems from some stuff I've been finding via google and in the man pages that I probably should have mentioned before. I have already commented out the lone statement in /etc/auto_master "/net -hosts -nosuid,soft" in order to get the boot to complete. This seems to be related to nsswitch.conf in some way. Something tells me that I shouldn't have done that but if I don't the boot process gets stuck going between "wait" and "busy" on "Start NFS client subsystem". It ends up saying "NFS server (pid789@/net) not responding still trying.....[]". This goes on till I hit "break". It all seems related from what you've said.

As for the Brit pound vs. # I accidentally selected the UK keyboard on install. That's fixed now. Thanks.

Does it work now?

I also had problems with the auto_master, but it was no problem to comment the line and have the system booting without delay.

Actually I was waiting to hear back from you before I commented the line out again. I thought NOT having it may have gotten me through the boot up but may have been what it hanging CDE starting.

I read something somewhere yesterday that gave me pause: It said that if your hostname is not registered with the DNS server that CDE wouldn't start. Do you know anything about this? I've got the machine sitting behind a net sharing router in my office at work. It's a double DHCP setup. The router uses DHCP to get it's IP and other info AND the 712 is setup to use DHCP to get it's info from the router. There's no way that IT is going to add this machine to our corp DNS server. Am I boned?

Should not be a problem. Just use sam in console/s-user mode to determine if

  • hostname is set correctly
  • DHCP client is enabled
  • name resolution (nsswitch.conf) uses /etc/hosts first