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Failed to execute child process (no such file or directory), but the script DOES exist in $HOME/bin, openbox users, especially take a look, please.

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  Failed to execute child process (no such file or directory), but the  script DOES exist in $HOME/bin, openbox users, especially take a look,  please. Tony Baldwin <tonybaldwin@gmx.com> - 2016-09-21 15:50 +0200
    Re: Failed to execute child process (no such file or directory) ... "Thomas Schmitt" <scdbackup@gmx.net> - 2016-09-21 16:00 +0200
    Re: Failed to execute child process (no such file or directory), but the script DOES exist in $HOME/bin, openbox users, especially take a look, please. Greg Wooledge <wooledg@eeg.ccf.org> - 2016-09-21 16:10 +0200
      Re: Failed to execute child process (no such file or directory), but  the script DOES exist in $HOME/bin, openbox users, especially take a look,  please. Tony Baldwin <tonybaldwin@gmx.com> - 2016-09-21 16:50 +0200
        Re: Failed to execute child process (no such file or directory), but the script DOES exist in $HOME/bin, openbox users, especially take a look, please. Greg Wooledge <wooledg@eeg.ccf.org> - 2016-09-21 17:10 +0200
          Re: Failed to execute child process (no such file or directory), but  the script DOES exist in $HOME/bin, openbox users, especially take a look,  please. Anthony Baldwin <baldwinlinguas@gmx.com> - 2016-09-21 21:30 +0200
            Re: Failed to execute child process (no such file or directory), but  the script DOES exist in $HOME/bin, openbox users,  especially take a look, please. David Wright <deblis@lionunicorn.co.uk> - 2016-09-22 04:30 +0200
              Re: Failed to execute child process (no such file or directory), but the script DOES exist in $HOME/bin, openbox users, especially take a look, please. Greg Wooledge <wooledg@eeg.ccf.org> - 2016-09-22 15:20 +0200
                Re: Failed to execute child process (no such file or directory), but  the script DOES exist in $HOME/bin, openbox users, especially take a look,  please. <tomas@tuxteam.de> - 2016-09-22 15:30 +0200
                Re: Failed to execute child process (no such file or directory), but the script DOES exist in $HOME/bin, openbox users, especially take a look, please. Greg Wooledge <wooledg@eeg.ccf.org> - 2016-09-22 16:00 +0200
                  Re: Failed to execute child process (no such file or directory), but  the script DOES exist in $HOME/bin, openbox users, especially take a look,  please. Brian <ad44@cityscape.co.uk> - 2016-09-22 16:30 +0200
                  Re: Failed to execute child process (no such file or directory), but  the script DOES exist in $HOME/bin, openbox users, especially take a look,  please. Ric Moore <wayward4now@gmail.com> - 2016-09-22 18:30 +0200
                Re: Failed to execute child process (no such file or directory), but  the script DOES exist in $HOME/bin, openbox users, especially take a look,  please. Brian <ad44@cityscape.co.uk> - 2016-09-22 16:00 +0200
                Re: Failed to execute child process (no such file or directory),  but the script DOES exist in $HOME/bin, openbox users, especially take a  look, please. Tixy <tixy@yxit.co.uk> - 2016-09-22 16:20 +0200
                  Re: Failed to execute child process (no such file or directory), but the script DOES exist in $HOME/bin, openbox users, especially take a look, please. Greg Wooledge <wooledg@eeg.ccf.org> - 2016-09-22 17:00 +0200
                    Re: Failed to execute child process (no such file or directory), but  the script DOES exist in $HOME/bin, openbox users, especially take a look,  please. Darac Marjal <mailinglist@darac.org.uk> - 2016-09-22 17:20 +0200
                      Re: Failed to execute child process (no such file or directory), but  the script DOES exist in $HOME/bin, openbox users, especially take a look,  please. Brian <ad44@cityscape.co.uk> - 2016-09-22 18:40 +0200
                      Re: Failed to execute child process (no such file or directory), but the script DOES exist in $HOME/bin, openbox users, especially take a look, please. Greg Wooledge <wooledg@eeg.ccf.org> - 2016-09-22 22:20 +0200
                        Re: Failed to execute child process (no such file or directory),  but the script DOES exist in $HOME/bin, openbox users, especially take a  look, please. Dominic Knight <dominicknight@gmx.com> - 2016-09-23 01:30 +0200
                          Re: Failed to execute child process (no such file or directory),  but the script DOES exist in $HOME/bin, openbox users, especially take a  look, please. Curt <curty@free.fr> - 2016-09-23 11:00 +0200
                            Re: Failed to execute child process (no such file or directory), but  the script DOES exist in $HOME/bin, openbox users, especially take a look,  please. <tomas@tuxteam.de> - 2016-09-23 11:40 +0200
                              Re: Failed to execute child process (no such file or directory), but  the script DOES exist in $HOME/bin, openbox users, especially take a look,  please. tomas@tuxteam.de - 2016-09-23 11:50 +0200
                        Re: Failed to execute child process (no such file or directory), but  the script DOES exist in $HOME/bin, openbox users, especially take a look,  please. Brian <ad44@cityscape.co.uk> - 2016-09-23 18:40 +0200
                          Re: Failed to execute child process (no such file or directory), but  the script DOES exist in $HOME/bin, openbox users, especially take a look,  please. Brian <ad44@cityscape.co.uk> - 2016-09-24 21:40 +0200
                            Re: Failed to execute child process (no such file or directory), but  the script DOES exist in $HOME/bin, openbox users, especially take a look,  please. Brian <ad44@cityscape.co.uk> - 2016-09-25 20:00 +0200
                              Re: Failed to execute child process (no such file or directory), but  the script DOES exist in $HOME/bin, openbox users, especially take a look,  please. Brian <ad44@cityscape.co.uk> - 2016-09-26 23:20 +0200
                                Re: Failed to execute child process (no such file or directory), but the script DOES exist in $HOME/bin, openbox users, especially take a look, please. Greg Wooledge <wooledg@eeg.ccf.org> - 2016-09-26 23:50 +0200
                                  Re: Failed to execute child process (no such file or directory), but  the script DOES exist in $HOME/bin, openbox users, especially take a look,  please. Seeker <seeker5528@comcast.net> - 2016-09-27 07:50 +0200
                                    Re: Failed to execute child process (no such file or directory), but the script DOES exist in $HOME/bin, openbox users, especially take a look, please. Greg Wooledge <wooledg@eeg.ccf.org> - 2016-09-27 14:30 +0200
                                  Re: Failed to execute child process (no such file or directory), but  the script DOES exist in $HOME/bin, openbox users, especially take a look,  please. Brian <ad44@cityscape.co.uk> - 2016-09-27 16:20 +0200
                                    Re: Failed to execute child process (no such file or directory), but the script DOES exist in $HOME/bin, openbox users, especially take a look, please. Greg Wooledge <wooledg@eeg.ccf.org> - 2016-09-27 16:40 +0200
                                      Re: Failed to execute child process (no such file or directory), but  the script DOES exist in $HOME/bin, openbox users, especially take a look,  please. Brian <ad44@cityscape.co.uk> - 2016-09-27 18:00 +0200
                                        Re: Failed to execute child process (no such file or directory), but the script DOES exist in $HOME/bin, openbox users, especially take a look, please. Greg Wooledge <wooledg@eeg.ccf.org> - 2016-09-27 18:10 +0200
                                          Re: Failed to execute child process (no such file or directory), but  the script DOES exist in $HOME/bin, openbox users, especially take a look,  please. Brian <ad44@cityscape.co.uk> - 2016-09-27 21:00 +0200
                                Re: Failed to execute child process (no such file or directory),  but the script DOES exist in $HOME/bin, openbox users, especially take a  look, please. "Neal P. Murphy" <neal.p.murphy@alum.wpi.edu> - 2016-09-27 00:00 +0200
                                  Re: Failed to execute child process (no such file or directory), but the script DOES exist in $HOME/bin, openbox users, especially take a look, please. Greg Wooledge <wooledg@eeg.ccf.org> - 2016-09-27 14:30 +0200
                    Re: Failed to execute child process (no such file or directory), but  the script DOES exist in $HOME/bin, openbox users, especially take a look,  please. Brian <ad44@cityscape.co.uk> - 2016-09-22 18:00 +0200
                    Re: Failed to execute child process (no such file or directory),  but the script DOES exist in $HOME/bin, openbox users, especially take a  look, please. Tixy <tixy@yxit.co.uk> - 2016-09-22 21:00 +0200
                  Resolved: Failed to execute child process (no such file or  directory), but the script DOES exist in $HOME/bin, openbox users, especially  take a look, please. Tony Baldwin <tonybaldwin@gmx.com> - 2016-09-22 17:30 +0200
                    Re: Resolved: Failed to execute child process (no such file or  directory), but the script DOES exist in $HOME/bin, openbox users, especially  take a look, please. Seeker <seeker5528@comcast.net> - 2016-09-22 18:10 +0200
                      Re: Resolved: Failed to execute child process (no such file or directory), but the script DOES exist in $HOME/bin, openbox users, especially take a look, please. Greg Wooledge <wooledg@eeg.ccf.org> - 2016-09-22 18:20 +0200
                        Re: Resolved: Failed to execute child process (no such file or  directory), but the script DOES exist in $HOME/bin, openbox users,  especially take a look, please. Brian <ad44@cityscape.co.uk> - 2016-09-22 19:50 +0200
                          Re: Resolved: Failed to execute child process (no such file or  directory), but the script DOES exist in $HOME/bin, openbox users, especially  take a look, please. Seeker <seeker5528@comcast.net> - 2016-09-23 03:30 +0200
                            Re: Resolved: Failed to execute child process (no such file or  directory), but the script DOES exist in $HOME/bin, openbox users, especially  take a look, please. Seeker <seeker5528@comcast.net> - 2016-09-23 19:10 +0200
                              Re: Resolved: Failed to execute child process (no such file or  directory), but the script DOES exist in $HOME/bin, openbox users,  especially take a look, please. Brian <ad44@cityscape.co.uk> - 2016-09-23 19:30 +0200
                                Re: Resolved: Failed to execute child process (no such file or  directory), but the script DOES exist in $HOME/bin, openbox users, especially  take a look, please. Seeker <seeker5528@comcast.net> - 2016-09-24 08:40 +0200
                Re: Failed to execute child process (no such file or directory), but  the script DOES exist in $HOME/bin, openbox users, especially take a look,  please. Brian <ad44@cityscape.co.uk> - 2016-09-22 21:10 +0200
                Re: Failed to execute child process (no such file or directory), but  the script DOES exist in $HOME/bin, openbox users, especially take a look,  please. Brian <ad44@cityscape.co.uk> - 2016-09-22 21:50 +0200
            Re: Failed to execute child process (no such file or directory), but  the script DOES exist in $HOME/bin, openbox users, especially take a look,  please. Seeker <seeker5528@comcast.net> - 2016-09-22 18:20 +0200
    Re: Failed to execute child process (no such file or directory), but  the script DOES exist in $HOME/bin, openbox users, especially take a look,  please. Darac Marjal <mailinglist@darac.org.uk> - 2016-09-21 16:10 +0200

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#172580 — Failed to execute child process (no such file or directory), but the script DOES exist in $HOME/bin, openbox users, especially take a look, please.

Greetings, friends,

I have various scripts in $HOME/bin, many of which I have put in my 
.config/openbox/rc.xml so I can fire them off with a keybinding combo, like
<keybind key="W-b">
       <action name="Execute">
         <startupnotify>
           <enabled>true</enabled>
           <name>bid</name>
         </startupnotify>
         <command>bid</command>
       </action>
     </keybind>


(This particular one does cat ~/Documents/bid  | xclip -selection c)
bid.txt being a template letter for bidding on translation projects.
I use this to quickly copy the file and then paste it into an e-mail,
then do any relevant edits.
I'my lazy and like to automate things as much as possible where I can 
slap a few keys (Alt-m brings up icedove, Ctrl N to compose a new 
message, then W-b/Ctrl-v to copy and paste my bid template),
These things used to work perfectly in Wheezy, and even in a previous 
Jessie installation, but working in a new Jessie installation,
when I press W-b, and some others I get this:
Failed to execute child process (no such file or directory)
But the script IS in  ~/bin/
$ which bid
/home/tony/bin/bid
and that dir IS in my $PATH:
$ echo $PATH
/home/tony/bin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/bin:/bin:/usr/local/games:/usr/games
and it IS executable:
$ ls -la bin/ | grep bid
-rwxr-xr-x   1 tony tony     142 Oct  4  2012 bid
I can execute these scripts from a terminal without any problem but not 
via the shortcuts in my rc.xml, nor with grun (shortcut W-r brings that 
up fine), nor with dmenu (W-p also working fine)
, and other stuff
Shortuts for stuff in /bin/ or /usr/bin/ (such as for icedove and 
iceweasel) seem to work fine, I can lock my screen (W-x engages slock); 
it's just my own scripts and stuff in ~/bin that are giving me trouble..

Why?

tia,
tony



-- 
http://tonybaldwin.me
all tony, all the time

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#172582 — Re: Failed to execute child process (no such file or directory) ...

Hi,

Tony Baldwin wrote:
> .config/openbox/rc.xml
>         <command>bid</command>

Well, a short while ago with cron it helped to tell the clueless
software where the script is by an absolute path.
Probably:

        <command>/home/tony/bin/bid</command>

> Shortuts for stuff in /bin/ or /usr/bin/ [...] seem to work fine

What user started the software ? And when ?
Was PATH already set to the value you are seeing in the shell ?


Have a nice day :)

Thomas

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#172583 — Re: Failed to execute child process (no such file or directory), but the script DOES exist in $HOME/bin, openbox users, especially take a look, please.

On Wed, Sep 21, 2016 at 09:43:15AM -0400, Tony Baldwin wrote:
> I have various scripts in $HOME/bin, many of which I have put in my 
> .config/openbox/rc.xml so I can fire them off with a keybinding combo, like

How do you login?  With a display manager?  Which one?

> when I press W-b, and some others I get this:
> Failed to execute child process (no such file or directory)

And you believe it's because of a PATH mismatch.  OK.  I don't have
experience with whichever desktop or window manager this is.

> But the script IS in  ~/bin/
> $ which bid
> /home/tony/bin/bid
> and that dir IS in my $PATH:
> $ echo $PATH
> /home/tony/bin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/bin:/bin:/usr/local/games:/usr/games

Now here's the real issue: this is the PATH variable of some interactive
shell.  But your window manager (or whatever is reacting to your key
events) may have a *different* PATH.

For example, it is possible that your wm has some PATH determined by
the files that are read upon login, and then you launch a terminal
from your wm, and the terminal launches a shell, and the shell reads
~/.bashrc or whatever, and ~/.bashrc changes the PATH of the shell
so that your commands work.

But the poor wm is still stuck with the PATH that it got when you logged
in, which presumably does not read ~/.bashrc or any other shell dot files.

That's why you have to understand whichever login method you use, and
how to configure it.

I have a dream that one day, Debian developers will wake the hell up
and document these things.  (I've been too lazy so far to dedicate a
few hours/days to installing and removing display managers and desktop
environments in order to reverse engineer each combination and try to
figure out what dot files they use.  But the thought has crossed my
mind.  That's how blightedly BAD the situation is.)

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#172587 — Re: Failed to execute child process (no such file or directory), but the script DOES exist in $HOME/bin, openbox users, especially take a look, please.

On 09/21/2016 10:01 AM, Greg Wooledge wrote:
> On Wed, Sep 21, 2016 at 09:43:15AM -0400, Tony Baldwin wrote:
>> I have various scripts in $HOME/bin, many of which I have put in my
>> .config/openbox/rc.xml so I can fire them off with a keybinding combo, like
> How do you login?  With a display manager?  Which one?

it seems that I am using lightdm.
>
>> when I press W-b, and some others I get this:
>> Failed to execute child process (no such file or directory)
> And you believe it's because of a PATH mismatch.  OK.  I don't have
> experience with whichever desktop or window manager this is.

This is why my subject included a call-out to openbox users
(not that I don't appreciate others trying to help).
>
>> But the script IS in  ~/bin/
>> $ which bid
>> /home/tony/bin/bid
>> and that dir IS in my $PATH:
>> $ echo $PATH
>> /home/tony/bin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/bin:/bin:/usr/local/games:/usr/games
> Now here's the real issue: this is the PATH variable of some interactive
> shell.  But your window manager (or whatever is reacting to your key
> events) may have a *different* PATH.

That suddenly occurred to me, that my shell is using the path set in the 
.bashrc, but openbox may not; but these things used to work fine, so I 
can't figure out what changed to make it any different now.
>
> For example, it is possible that your wm has some PATH determined by
> the files that are read upon login, and then you launch a terminal
> from your wm, and the terminal launches a shell, and the shell reads
> ~/.bashrc or whatever, and ~/.bashrc changes the PATH of the shell
> so that your commands work.
>
> But the poor wm is still stuck with the PATH that it got when you logged
> in, which presumably does not read ~/.bashrc or any other shell dot files.
>
> That's why you have to understand whichever login method you use, and
> how to configure it.
>
> I have a dream that one day, Debian developers will wake the hell up
> and document these things.  (I've been too lazy so far to dedicate a
> few hours/days to installing and removing display managers and desktop
> environments in order to reverse engineer each combination and try to
> figure out what dot files they use.  But the thought has crossed my
> mind.  That's how blightedly BAD the situation is.)


-- 
http://tonybaldwin.me
all tony, all the time

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#172588 — Re: Failed to execute child process (no such file or directory), but the script DOES exist in $HOME/bin, openbox users, especially take a look, please.

On Wed, Sep 21, 2016 at 10:49:13AM -0400, Tony Baldwin wrote:
> it seems that I am using lightdm.

I know of absolutely no documentation for configuring lightdm as a
user.  I suspect that the software *has* no user configuration at all,
because every search I've ever done has come up with nothing.

(For example, https://wiki.debian.org/LightDM has zero instances of
"home" or "~" or "dot".)

So then we enter the murky waters of "what happens after lightdm".
Here I can only find hints and conjectures and anecdotes.

https://lists.debian.org/debian-user/2014/10/msg02242.html
https://lists.debian.org/debian-user/2013/12/msg00775.html
https://faq.i3wm.org/question/2483/howto-debian-wheezy-lightdm-i3.1.html
...

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#172599 — Re: Failed to execute child process (no such file or directory), but the script DOES exist in $HOME/bin, openbox users, especially take a look, please.

On 09/21/2016 11:05 AM, Greg Wooledge wrote:
> On Wed, Sep 21, 2016 at 10:49:13AM -0400, Tony Baldwin wrote:
>> it seems that I am using lightdm.
>
> I know of absolutely no documentation for configuring lightdm as a
> user.  I suspect that the software *has* no user configuration at all,
> because every search I've ever done has come up with nothing.
>
> (For example, https://wiki.debian.org/LightDM has zero instances of
> "home" or "~" or "dot".)

Oddly this page states, with it's bare face hanging out:
[lightdm] was built as a relatively light-weight and *highly 
customizable* alternative to GDM.

./tony
>
> So then we enter the murky waters of "what happens after lightdm".
> Here I can only find hints and conjectures and anecdotes.
>
> https://lists.debian.org/debian-user/2014/10/msg02242.html
> https://lists.debian.org/debian-user/2013/12/msg00775.html
> https://faq.i3wm.org/question/2483/howto-debian-wheezy-lightdm-i3.1.html
> ...
>


-- 
http://www.baldwinlinguas.com
translations, localization,
multilingual web development
EN, ES, FR, PT

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#172609 — Re: Failed to execute child process (no such file or directory), but the script DOES exist in $HOME/bin, openbox users, especially take a look, please.

On Wed 21 Sep 2016 at 15:07:09 (-0400), Anthony Baldwin wrote:
> On 09/21/2016 11:05 AM, Greg Wooledge wrote:
> >On Wed, Sep 21, 2016 at 10:49:13AM -0400, Tony Baldwin wrote:
> >>it seems that I am using lightdm.
> >
> >I know of absolutely no documentation for configuring lightdm as a
> >user.  I suspect that the software *has* no user configuration at all,
> >because every search I've ever done has come up with nothing.
> >
> >(For example, https://wiki.debian.org/LightDM has zero instances of
> >"home" or "~" or "dot".)

I'm not a DE or DM user, so I'm know very little about them. But I
don't understand the concept of "user configuration" for a DM.
Wouldn't that be like a user configuring /etc/issue, the login prompt
or /etc/motd ?

> Oddly this page states, with it's bare face hanging out:
> [lightdm] was built as a relatively light-weight and *highly
> customizable* alternative to GDM.

Is this what is being described at
https://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/Software/LightDM/CommonConfiguration/
?
Is that the sort of configuration you would expect, or would you
want something different? Are you perhaps talking about which file,
like .xsession, .xsessionrc, .Xsession, .xinitrc, etc gets executed
when you login through the DM?

Cheers,
David.

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#172637 — Re: Failed to execute child process (no such file or directory), but the script DOES exist in $HOME/bin, openbox users, especially take a look, please.

On Wed, Sep 21, 2016 at 09:19:11PM -0500, David Wright wrote:
> But I don't understand the concept of "user configuration" for a DM.
> Wouldn't that be like a user configuring /etc/issue, the login prompt
> or /etc/motd ?

By user configuration, I mean "which files can the user edit, without
superuser privileges, to alter the behavior of the program".

> Are you perhaps talking about which file,
> like .xsession, .xsessionrc, .Xsession, .xinitrc, etc gets executed
> when you login through the DM?

Yes, precisely this question.  What can an end user, who uses one of
the various display managers and desktop environments in Debian, do
to configure their own environment?  Hell, just start with the $PATH
variable.  That's what 90% of the people asking this question want to
modify -- well, that or some other environment variable with the word
PATH or HOME in it, like JAVA_HOME.

Why is it *so impossible* to find out how to set an environment variable?

Everything is so much simpler when you don't use a display manager.
You login on the console (getty + login), which sets some variables,
all of them well documented in man pages, and then executes your shell as
defined in passwd(5) with a leading '-' to mean "this is a login shell".
Then, the behavior of the shell when argv[0] begins with '-' is well
documented in the shell's man page.  Everyone knows how it works, and
everyone knows how to change its behavior.  I can describe *every single
process* in the chain, and I know what *every one* of them does and which
files it reads; or if I don't have every configuration file memorized,
then at least I know which document I can read to find the list of them.

With lightdm (for example), nobody knows how to change its behavior,
or even how to *understand* its behavior.  There's no starting point in
any piece of documentation that tells you what's happening, or how and
where you can intervene in the chain of events.

What's worse is none of the experts who are typically able to answer
questions about this kind of thing knows how to answer.  We don't *use*
these things!  And where we would normally be able to crack open a
man page to find the answer, there are no answers!  When we do Google
searches, there are *still* no answers!  This creates a gap between the
expert users and the novice users, and it's getting worse every year.

At this point, when a user running *dm and *DE asks some question about
their login environment, they might as well be running Microsoft Windows
for all the help I can give them.  All I can do is sit there and watch,
hoping that some day, *someone else* will come along with a magic starting
point from which answers can be determined.  It hasn't happened yet.

> I'm not a DE or DM user, so I'm know very little about them.

Yes, THIS is the problem!  You, and I, and everyone else on the guru side
are just completely stumped.

When the answer to "how do I run a thing at login" changes from "put
foobar& in your .xsession shell script before the exec wm" to "somewhere in
your home directory is a whole new kind of file with a .desktop extension
which isn't a shell script but a totally new thing that you have to
learn from scratch..." the immediate response is "to hell with that,
I'm going back to startx + fvwm".  So we stick with the old, simple
things that work and are understandable and don't take up 700 MB of
disk space, and nobody with a *brain* learns the new stuff.

When the answer to "how do I set an environment variable at login" changes
from "put export FOO=bar in your .bash_profile" to "uh... well... there's
nothing in man lightdm, so let's check google... oh, no, I... just don't
see how to do it" then something is completely *broken*.

Don't believe me?  I know none of us has lightdm installed, so here is
a man page, allegedly from Debian wheezy:

http://www.unix.com/man-page/debian/1/lightdm/

It takes several tries for me even to find *that*, probably because the
manual is so ashamed of itself that it runs and hides when the Google
crawler approaches.  Behold this glorious tome of wisdom:

NAME
       lightdm - a display manager

SYNOPSIS
       lightdm [ OPTION ]

DESCRIPTION
       lightdm is a display manager.

That's it!  That is the *entire documentation*, apart from a list of
options (none of which can be modified by an end user, of course),
and then a list of three configuration files:

FILES
       /etc/lightdm/lightdm.conf
              Configuration

       /etc/lightdm/users.conf
              User list configuration (if not using Accounts Service)

       /etc/lightdm/keys.conf
              XDMCP keys

This is what we're dealing with.  "lightdm is a display manager."
What does that MEAN?  What does it DO?  People type their passwords into
this thing, and *this* is its official user manual?  Is this a *joke*?
What happens AFTER you type your username and password?  What files does
it read AFTER the password, not before!  Who CARES what it does before!
What PROCESSES does it execute?  When does it switch effective UID from
root to user?

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#172638 — Re: Failed to execute child process (no such file or directory), but the script DOES exist in $HOME/bin, openbox users, especially take a look, please.

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: SHA1

On Thu, Sep 22, 2016 at 09:11:53AM -0400, Greg Wooledge wrote:

[...]

> Don't believe me?  I know none of us has lightdm installed, so here is
> a man page, allegedly from Debian wheezy:
> 
> http://www.unix.com/man-page/debian/1/lightdm/
> 
> It takes several tries for me even to find *that*, probably because the
> manual is so ashamed of itself that it runs and hides when the Google
> crawler approaches.  Behold this glorious tome of wisdom:
> 
> NAME
>        lightdm - a display manager
> 
> SYNOPSIS
>        lightdm [ OPTION ]
> 
> DESCRIPTION
>        lightdm is a display manager.
> 
> That's it!  That is the *entire documentation*, apart from a list of
> options (none of which can be modified by an end user, of course),
> and then a list of three configuration files:
> 
> FILES
>        /etc/lightdm/lightdm.conf
>               Configuration
> 
>        /etc/lightdm/users.conf
>               User list configuration (if not using Accounts Service)
> 
>        /etc/lightdm/keys.conf
>               XDMCP keys
> 
> This is what we're dealing with.  "lightdm is a display manager."
> What does that MEAN?  What does it DO?  People type their passwords into
> this thing, and *this* is its official user manual?  Is this a *joke*?
> What happens AFTER you type your username and password?  What files does
> it read AFTER the password, not before!  Who CARES what it does before!
> What PROCESSES does it execute?  When does it switch effective UID from
> root to user?

To be fair, the display manager just hands the ball to the X session
management (which makes sense, because then you can keep your session
setup when changing the DM and remember: in the good ol' times DM
and X proper didn't have to run on the same box). Here's one of those
typical Xsession files (I hacked it to give me, as a user, the power
to configure my environment):

  tomas@rasputin:~$ cat /etc/X11/Xsession.d/80x11xmodmap 
  # 2015-01-10 tomas: why did they steal my xmodmap?
  # Snarfed from <http://forums.debian.net/viewtopic.php?t=77008>
  
  # This file is sourced by Xsession(5), not executed.
  
  SYSMODMAP="/etc/X11/Xmodmap"
  USRMODMAP="$HOME/.Xmodmap"
  
  if [ -x /usr/bin/X11/xmodmap ]; then
      if [ -f "$SYSMODMAP" ]; then
          xmodmap "$SYSMODMAP"
      fi
  
      if [ -f "$USRMODMAP" ]; then
          xmodmap "$USRMODMAP"
      fi
  fi

That's the typical way such things are set up. Then I, as user can edit
my ~/.Xmodmap. Similar things can be done for the environment, for the
SSH agent, and so on.

I'm pretty sure that those things still work with more modern desktop
environments (though I'm happy I haven't to cope with them).

regards
- -- tomás
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R4EAn39XVsJVDMA3isWA8vZmVz219sRK
=W/Cx
-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----

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#172640 — Re: Failed to execute child process (no such file or directory), but the script DOES exist in $HOME/bin, openbox users, especially take a look, please.

On Thu, Sep 22, 2016 at 02:50:30PM +0100, Brian wrote:
> To read the manual
> 
>   apt-get download lightdm
> 
> works every time.

Hmm, well.

$ cd /tmp
$ apt-get download lightdm
$ ls, man dpkg, ...
$ dpkg -x lightdm_1.10.3-3_amd64.deb ldm
$ gzip -dc ldm/usr/share/man/man1/lightdm.1.gz | nroff -man | less

Turns out there is a whole new section in the man page since wheezy!

SEE ALSO
       dm-tool(1)

That is the only addition.

$ man dm-tool
No manual entry for dm-tool

Yes, I could do a bunch of crap to try to figure out which package
contains that manual page, extract it, etc.  But it doesn't seem like
a useful investment of time, as I would not expect it to describe how
a DM works, or what happens after it has accepted and verified a password.

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#172644 — Re: Failed to execute child process (no such file or directory), but the script DOES exist in $HOME/bin, openbox users, especially take a look, please.

On Thu 22 Sep 2016 at 09:59:07 -0400, Greg Wooledge wrote:

> On Thu, Sep 22, 2016 at 02:50:30PM +0100, Brian wrote:
> > To read the manual
> > 
> >   apt-get download lightdm
> > 
> > works every time.
> 
> Hmm, well.

Worked, didn't it? A two second operation.

> $ cd /tmp
> $ apt-get download lightdm
> $ ls, man dpkg, ...
> $ dpkg -x lightdm_1.10.3-3_amd64.deb ldm
> $ gzip -dc ldm/usr/share/man/man1/lightdm.1.gz | nroff -man | less

mc does pretty well in opening the .deb and getting to the man page.
Another two seconds.
 
> Turns out there is a whole new section in the man page since wheezy!
> 
> SEE ALSO
>        dm-tool(1)
> 
> That is the only addition.
> 
> $ man dm-tool
> No manual entry for dm-tool

Software improves; that is why we use Debian. Try testing/unstable.

  NAME
       dm-tool - a tool to control the display manager
  SYNOPSIS
       dm-tool [ OPTIONS ] COMMAND [ ARGS ]
  DESCRIPTION
       dm-tool is a tool to communicate with the LightDM display manager.

> Yes, I could do a bunch of crap to try to figure out which package
> contains that manual page, extract it, etc.  But it doesn't seem like
> a useful investment of time, as I would not expect it to describe how
> a DM works, or what happens after it has accepted and verified a password.

"Search the contents of packages" at

  https://www.debian.org/distrib/packages

A ten second investment of your time.

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#172667 — Re: Failed to execute child process (no such file or directory), but the script DOES exist in $HOME/bin, openbox users, especially take a look, please.

On 09/22/2016 09:59 AM, Greg Wooledge wrote:
> On Thu, Sep 22, 2016 at 02:50:30PM +0100, Brian wrote:
>> To read the manual
>>
>>   apt-get download lightdm
>>
>> works every time.
>
> Hmm, well.
>
> $ cd /tmp
> $ apt-get download lightdm
> $ ls, man dpkg, ...
> $ dpkg -x lightdm_1.10.3-3_amd64.deb ldm
> $ gzip -dc ldm/usr/share/man/man1/lightdm.1.gz | nroff -man | less
>
> Turns out there is a whole new section in the man page since wheezy!
>
> SEE ALSO
>        dm-tool(1)
>
> That is the only addition.
>
> $ man dm-tool
> No manual entry for dm-tool
>
> Yes, I could do a bunch of crap to try to figure out which package
> contains that manual page, extract it, etc.  But it doesn't seem like
> a useful investment of time, as I would not expect it to describe how
> a DM works, or what happens after it has accepted and verified a password.

Suppose all you get is a black screen and a mouse pointer?? <howls> Ric


-- 
My father, Victor Moore (Vic) used to say:
"There are two Great Sins in the world...
..the Sin of Ignorance, and the Sin of Stupidity.
Only the former may be overcome." R.I.P. Dad.
http://linuxcounter.net/user/44256.html

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#172641 — Re: Failed to execute child process (no such file or directory), but the script DOES exist in $HOME/bin, openbox users, especially take a look, please.

On Thu 22 Sep 2016 at 09:11:53 -0400, Greg Wooledge wrote:

> Don't believe me?  I know none of us has lightdm installed, so here is
> a man page, allegedly from Debian wheezy:
> 
> http://www.unix.com/man-page/debian/1/lightdm/
> 
> It takes several tries for me even to find *that*, probably because the
> manual is so ashamed of itself that it runs and hides when the Google
> crawler approaches.  Behold this glorious tome of wisdom:

To read the manual

  apt-get download lightdm

works every time.

Online there is the useful

  https://manpages.debian.org/

Except it isn't working at the moment.

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#172643 — Re: Failed to execute child process (no such file or directory), but the script DOES exist in $HOME/bin, openbox users, especially take a look, please.

On Thu, 2016-09-22 at 09:11 -0400, Greg Wooledge wrote:
> On Wed, Sep 21, 2016 at 09:19:11PM -0500, David Wright wrote:
> > But I don't understand the concept of "user configuration" for a DM.
> > Wouldn't that be like a user configuring /etc/issue, the login
> prompt
> > or /etc/motd ?
> 
> By user configuration, I mean "which files can the user edit, without
> superuser privileges, to alter the behavior of the program".
> 
> > Are you perhaps talking about which file,
> > like .xsession, .xsessionrc, .Xsession, .xinitrc, etc gets executed
> > when you login through the DM?
> 
> Yes, precisely this question.  What can an end user, who uses one of
> the various display managers and desktop environments in Debian, do
> to configure their own environment?

I edit ~/.xsessionrc to have a single line:

        . /home/tixy/.profile
        
Which makes X sessions include the same profile as standard login
shells.

And my .profile has (or I added?)

        # set PATH so it includes user's private bin if it exists
        if [ -d "$HOME/bin" ] ; then
            PATH="$HOME/bin:$PATH"
        fi

-- 
Tixy

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#172646 — Re: Failed to execute child process (no such file or directory), but the script DOES exist in $HOME/bin, openbox users, especially take a look, please.

On Thu, Sep 22, 2016 at 03:15:40PM +0100, Tixy wrote:
> I edit ~/.xsessionrc to have a single line:
> 
>         . /home/tixy/.profile

Which program reads ~/.xsessionrc and how did you learn about it?
Which man page describes it?  Does its existence merely "add on" to some
system-wide default script, or does it fully replace a system-wide script?

> Which makes X sessions include the same profile as standard login
> shells.

Bash's initialization is a bit more complex than that.  It will look
for three different files (.bash_profile or .bash_login or .profile),
in that order, and uses the first one it finds.  I'd imagine zsh does
something similar, though I don't use zsh.  For pure POSIX sh or ksh,
you would be correct.

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#172648 — Re: Failed to execute child process (no such file or directory), but the script DOES exist in $HOME/bin, openbox users, especially take a look, please.

[Multipart message — attachments visible in raw view] — view raw

On Thu, Sep 22, 2016 at 10:56:49AM -0400, Greg Wooledge wrote:
>On Thu, Sep 22, 2016 at 03:15:40PM +0100, Tixy wrote:
>> I edit ~/.xsessionrc to have a single line:
>>
>>         . /home/tixy/.profile
>
>Which program reads ~/.xsessionrc and how did you learn about it?
>Which man page describes it?  Does its existence merely "add on" to some
>system-wide default script, or does it fully replace a system-wide script?

Apparently, this is the "New Method" as detailed in the Debian Reference 
Manual: 
https://www.debian.org/doc/manuals/debian-reference/ch07.en.html#_customizing_the_x_session_new_method

>
>> Which makes X sessions include the same profile as standard login
>> shells.
>
>Bash's initialization is a bit more complex than that.  It will look
>for three different files (.bash_profile or .bash_login or .profile),
>in that order, and uses the first one it finds.  I'd imagine zsh does
>something similar, though I don't use zsh.  For pure POSIX sh or ksh,
>you would be correct.
>

-- 
For more information, please reread.

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#172669 — Re: Failed to execute child process (no such file or directory), but the script DOES exist in $HOME/bin, openbox users, especially take a look, please.

On Thu 22 Sep 2016 at 16:10:01 +0100, Darac Marjal wrote:

> On Thu, Sep 22, 2016 at 10:56:49AM -0400, Greg Wooledge wrote:
> >On Thu, Sep 22, 2016 at 03:15:40PM +0100, Tixy wrote:
> >>I edit ~/.xsessionrc to have a single line:
> >>
> >>        . /home/tixy/.profile
> >
> >Which program reads ~/.xsessionrc and how did you learn about it?
> >Which man page describes it?  Does its existence merely "add on" to some
> >system-wide default script, or does it fully replace a system-wide script?
> 
> Apparently, this is the "New Method" as detailed in the Debian Reference
> Manual: https://www.debian.org/doc/manuals/debian-reference/ch07.en.html#_customizing_the_x_session_new_method

"Customizing the X session (new method)" should be seen as describing
additional customisation features rather than a hint to do without
~/.xsession. The intention of ~/.xsessionrc is to source environment
variables but it can be (ab)used for other purposes.

For example, it could start a terminal:

  gnome-terminal &

The advantage over ~/.xsession is that the window manager or desktop
session would be started from the alternatives system whereas
~/.xsession also has to start a window manager or desktop session. You
would have to have

  gnome-terminal &
  exec gnome-session

-- 
Brian.

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#172690 — Re: Failed to execute child process (no such file or directory), but the script DOES exist in $HOME/bin, openbox users, especially take a look, please.

I've edited https://wiki.debian.org/LightDM and written
https://wiki.debian.org/Xsession from scratch.  I hope this helps other
people who were as lost and confused as I was.

If you're still wondering what kind of documentation I was looking for,
you may use https://wiki.debian.org/Xsession as the answer.  That's
what I wanted to see.  I will be able to point users to this page in
the future.

Thanks to all who provided information.

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#172693 — Re: Failed to execute child process (no such file or directory), but the script DOES exist in $HOME/bin, openbox users, especially take a look, please.

On Thu, 2016-09-22 at 16:19 -0400, Greg Wooledge wrote:
> I've edited https://wiki.debian.org/LightDM and written
> https://wiki.debian.org/Xsession from scratch.  I hope this helps
> other
> people who were as lost and confused as I was.
> 
> If you're still wondering what kind of documentation I was looking
> for,
> you may use https://wiki.debian.org/Xsession as the answer.  That's
> what I wanted to see.  I will be able to point users to this page in
> the future.
> 
> Thanks to all who provided information.

There also used to be .Xresources to store information on fonts,
colours, window sizes and positions along with dpi, this I believe
was/is read by .Xsession. Unsure whether it is still used and/or
relevant?

Dom

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#172699 — Re: Failed to execute child process (no such file or directory), but the script DOES exist in $HOME/bin, openbox users, especially take a look, please.

On 2016-09-22, Dominic Knight <dominicknight@gmx.com> wrote:
> On Thu, 2016-09-22 at 16:19 -0400, Greg Wooledge wrote:
>> I've edited https://wiki.debian.org/LightDM and written
>> https://wiki.debian.org/Xsession from scratch.  I hope this helps
>> other
>> people who were as lost and confused as I was.
>> 
>> If you're still wondering what kind of documentation I was looking
>> for,
>> you may use https://wiki.debian.org/Xsession as the answer.  That's
>> what I wanted to see.  I will be able to point users to this page in
>> the future.
>> 
>> Thanks to all who provided information.
>
> There also used to be .Xresources to store information on fonts,
> colours, window sizes and positions along with dpi, this I believe
> was/is read by .Xsession. Unsure whether it is still used and/or
> relevant?

Nicolas Georges gave some interesting information once when I said that
.Xdefaults was "deprecated" concerning what is read by what where and
why (went over my head, of course).

Here it is:

Well, I was gonna give the link but it's short enough to quote:

(responding to my claim that .Xdefaults is deprecated)

 It is a bit more complicated than that.

 ~/.Xresources is loaded into the resources database of the X11 server by
 /etc/X11/Xsession.d/30x11-common_xresources. The resource database is a
 property of the root window, you can observe it roughly with "xprop -root",
 see the RESOURCE_MANAGER entry; "xrdb -query" is the dedicated tool to
 observe it.

 ~/.Xdefaults and ~/.Xdefaults-$HOSTNAME are read by the X11 libraries
 directly.

 It makes a big difference for remote applications, since they will see the
 .Xresources from the server but the .Xdefaults from the client.

-- 
“It is enough that the arrows fit exactly in the wounds that they have made.”
Franz Kafka

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