Starting a VNC server at boot problem

[C Ross]

I'm having this weird problem when booting my 11i workstation: I have a vnc server installed (Xvnc based) and all the scripts in place. The system starts up fine, shows the service as started and when trying to log in via a remote VNC client all I get is the "grey desktop".
There are no errors in vnc's log file whatsoever. I am using the absolute paths in xstartup script.
What is weird is that after I log into the system and restart the service from console (using my script in /sbin/init.d) everything works!
It seems like twm is not executed from my xstartup script but I have no idea why. I looked at environment variables, paths. Everything looks fine.
Is there a more indepth way to debug/verbose display of what happens with other X sessions (my VNC display is :1)?
Any help would be greately appreciated. Thanks in advance!

[Steven E. Protter]

What about setting set -x in the start script in /sbin/init.d directory.

This will give more verbose output to /etc/rc.log

If this has been suggested perviously, please ignore.

Steven

[C Ross]

Thank you for your reply!
With the set -x and the extra information I have got did not help me unfortunately. All I see is that the start command is executed successfully. The VNC server starts but the problem is that no window manager is running and I am still getting the grey desktop.
I am using absolute paths in the xstartup file which is supposed to be ran after the vnc service starts. I don't have any errors in either log file vnc or rc.log... :(

[Jim Krol]

I have seen this in the past. You need to change the $HOME/.vnc/xstartup file to match your normal cde startup. The default xstartup from VNC starts twm with a grey backround, and one xterm.

Jim Krol
james.krol@boeing.com

[C Ross]

I believe that the xstartup is configured correctly since when started from the command prompt everything works perfectly. Only when started at boot in the init process, only then, this weird behaviour occurs: the twm is not starting for some reason leaving me with a grey desktop.

After logging in (either remote or local) and re-launching the vnc server manually, everything works like magic.

What could be different between starting the service at boot-up and starting it manually at console? I looked at paths, env vars. No other ideas so far :( Please help if you have any ideas.

[Victor BERRIDGE]

Hi,
At what level do you start it?
try in /sbin/rc4.d with Kxxx in rc3.d
but leave initdefault to 3 in /etc/inittab
and give it a try: init 4
then init 3 and again init 4, success?
I always doublecheck: Reboot and again init 4...
Still fine? Now try changing initdefault...
(I suspect a conflict with the respawn of the console...)

All the best
Victor