# centOS blank desktop



## philheckler (Apr 14, 2005)

I'm wondering if you guys could help me with an issue I'm am having at work..

We have a dell server installed with linux cent0s - this box acts as a server for sun workstations - recently we've developed an issues where the centOS desktop is blank - we have the top and bottom tool bars but the area in between the toolbar is totally blank - I can open the applications / actions menu' s normally and open terminal windows / file browsers etc.. I used to be able to pull up menus by right clicking in the desktop but right clicking in the desktop area now does nothing - I've double checked in /root/desktop directory and all looks normal - all my shortcusts / links are still there - they are just not getting displayed for some reason - I don't know why - any ideas ????


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## philheckler (Apr 14, 2005)

Here's a screenshot of my desktop...


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## shuuhen (Sep 4, 2004)

I think that would be a problem with nautilus. Unfortunately I don't know what would fix it. You could check to see if nautilus is running (ps aux | grep nautilus) or try running nautilus from a terminal window to check for errors.


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## lensman3 (Oct 19, 2007)

Try dropping to run level 3. Edit the file "/etc/inittab". The line you want is "id:5:initdefault:". Change the 5 to a 3. Save the file and exit. (This assumes you have a way to edit the file. You might have to start your server in "single" user mode. Run level 1. Edit /etc/inittab. cntl-d to exit and reboot.)

Now run the command "/sbin/init 3". This should tell the system to go to run level 3.

Next inter "cntr-alt-backspace". That should kill the X11 windows system and dump you to the text command line interface. You might have to reboot to get to the text interface. Run level 3 and 5 should be the same except at level 5 the X11 system is running. When you enter the "cntr-alt-backspace" keys, X11 should quit and stay stopped. If not, it will try and restart and go back to run level 5. If it does that you will have to reboot.

When you are running at the text login, enter a user name and password to login. Typing "xinit" will start the X11 windows system. As X11 starts, there could be some error messages that flash by. Also in the file "/var/log/Xorg.0.log" has the boot messages from the X11 system as it started. There might be an error there.

Good luck.


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## lensman3 (Oct 19, 2007)

Since I last emailed I did the blank screen to myself. I installed Fedora Core 8 on the first day it was released. During the first boot it asks for a user account to enter and I entered my account. Except, fedora assignes the first user number starting at 500. (Digressing as to why this is a problem is that years ago I set my user number as 502, because Apples OS X starts with 500 and it was my wife's computer. I was easier for me to reassign my number as 502 instead of trying to figure out OS X.)

When you change your user number under a running X11 system and then try to do commands under the new number, X11 gives the black screen. All the files have little locks symbols. File permissions are screwed up and you can't start in you $HOME directory. 

To fix this you have to go to /tmp and change the owner and group on the X11 temporary files that created when X11 is started. It is also easy to just delete the files and directories in /tmp. You have to do this as "root" from a text command window, before X11 is running. Maybe you can if and only if you can start a text window (which will probably be black). Try entering "xterm" from the run pull down.

Good luck.


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