INIT :Id "x"respawning too fast :disabled for 5 minutes

Hello !
I am new to Linux.I installed RedHat Linux ( 2.4.20-8) in my system(
all the 3 cds)(Automatic mode &workstation).
After Installing 3 cds , it displays like this on the console:
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Red Hat Linux release 9 (Shrike)
Kernel 2.4.20-8 on an i686
INIT: Id "x" respawning too fast :disabled for 5 minutes.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------.
My system configuration is:
Mercury mother board, Inter P-4 Processor, 1.5 GHz.
128MB RAM, 80GB HardDisc.DELL color monitor(model m570).
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
While booting ,it shows ,Unknown monitor .After booting ,it shows
"respawning too fast" message on the
console( similar to above).By hitting the Enter Key,It displays login
prompt , by login in to /root, it is displaying
all man pages. But if I am going to compile <file name >.c , it shows
bash command not found .
Please help me .

I am giving my /etc/inittab file from my system:



[ etc]$ vi inittab
#
# inittab This file describes how the INIT process should set up
# the system in a certain run-level.
#
# Author: Miquel van Smoorenburg, <(E-Mail Removed)>
# Modified for RHS Linux by Marc Ewing and Donnie Barnes
#

# Default runlevel. The runlevels used by RHS are:
# 0 - halt
# 1 - Single user mode
# 2 - Multiuser, without NFS (The same as 3, if you do not have
networking)
# 3 - Full multiuser mode
# 4 - unused
# 5 - X11
# 6 - reboot (Do NOT set initdefault to this)
#
id:5:initdefault:

# System initialization.
si::sysinit:/etc/rc.d/rc.sysinit

l0:0:wait:/etc/rc.d/rc 0
l1:1:wait:/etc/rc.d/rc 1
l2:2:wait:/etc/rc.d/rc 2
l3:3:wait:/etc/rc.d/rc 3
l4:4:wait:/etc/rc.d/rc 4
l5:5:wait:/etc/rc.d/rc 5
l6:6:wait:/etc/rc.d/rc 6

# Trap CTRL-ALT-DELETE
ca::ctrlaltdel:/sbin/shutdown -t3 -r now

# When our UPS tells us power has failed, assume we have a few minutes
# of power left. Schedule a shutdown for 2 minutes from now.
# This does, of course, assume you have powerd installed and your
# UPS connected and working correctly.
pf:owerfail:/sbin/shutdown -f -h +2 "Power Failure; System Shutting
Down"

# If power was restored before the shutdown kicked in, cancel it.
pr:12345owerokwait:/sbin/shutdown -c "Power Restored; Shutdown
Cancelled"


# Run gettys in standard runlevels
1:2345:respawn:/sbin/mingetty tty1
2:2345:respawn:/sbin/mingetty tty2
3:2345:respawn:/sbin/mingetty tty3
4:2345:respawn:/sbin/mingetty tty4
5:2345:respawn:/sbin/mingetty tty5
6:2345:respawn:/sbin/mingetty tty6

# Run xdm in runlevel 5
x:5:respawn:/etc/X11/prefdm -nodaemon

Thank you.

> INIT: Id "x" respawning too fast :disabled for 5 minutes.
<snip>
> x:5:respawn:/etc/X11/prefdm -nodaemon

This is the line that's giving you trouble. I don't know what
/etc/X11/prefdm is, but either it doesn't exist on your host, or else it's
exiting quickly. Either way, init keeps trying to restart it ("respawn"),
and finally gives up when it sees that it's having to do it too fast.

The simple fix is to comment out that line from /etc/inittab. Then you may
have to figure out what /etc/X11/prefdm is, whether you want it to run, and
if so why it's exiting so quickly.

Good luck,
A.

--
To reply by email, change "deadspam.com" to "alumni.utexas.net"

Andrew Schulman <(E-Mail Removed)> writes:

> > INIT: Id "x" respawning too fast :disabled for 5 minutes.
> <snip>
> > x:5:respawn:/etc/X11/prefdm -nodaemon
>
> This is the line that's giving you trouble. I don't know what
> /etc/X11/prefdm is, but either it doesn't exist on your host, or else it's
> exiting quickly. Either way, init keeps trying to restart it ("respawn"),
> and finally gives up when it sees that it's having to do it too fast.
>
> The simple fix is to comment out that line from /etc/inittab. Then you may
> have to figure out what /etc/X11/prefdm is, whether you want it to run, and
> if so why it's exiting so quickly.

It turns out (after some googling) that prefdm goes through and starts
either gdm, xdm, or kdm as appropriate. My guess is that the problem
is in your X configuration.

On compilation: do you have gcc on your system?
--
Joseph J. Pfeiffer, Jr., Ph.D. Phone -- (505) 646-1605
Department of Computer Science FAX -- (505) 646-1002
New Mexico State University http://www.cs.nmsu.edu/~pfeiffer