Solaris Starting and Stopping dtlogin (CDE)

Posted by Vivek Gite [Last updated: March 6, 2006]

It is always good idea not to use the X windows system on dedicated Solaris servers. GUI consumes more resources (such as CPU, Memory). However, Solaris by default installs CDE or Gnome desktop.

If your Linux system boot to a shell prompt, you can start X window (GUI system) by typing following command:

$ startx

dtlogin script
Solaris do not use startx command. It comes with dtlogin script located in /etc/init.d directory. It is a display manager for the X Window System

Stopping dtlogin

# /etc/init.d/dtlogin stop

Starting dtlogin
If your Solaris system boot to a shell prompt, you can start X/dtlogin with following command:

# /etc/init.d/dtlogin start

Restart dtlogin
If dtlogin is not responding then you can restart it using ssh:

# /etc/init.d/dtlogin restart

Permanently disable dtlogin
If you wish to disable dtlogin, use dtconfig command. It is a desktop configuration utility for Solaris. This command is located at /usr/dt/bin/dtconfig. Login as a root user before using dtconfig command.

To disabled dtlogin type command:

# /usr/dt/bin/dtconfig -d

To enable dtlogin type command:

# /usr/dt/bin/dtconfig -e

To kill dtlogin type command:

# /usr/dt/bin/dtconfig -kill

Read man page of dtlogin for more information.

(Check out all of our posts on Solaris)

E-mail this to a Friend Printable Version

Discussion on This Article:

Eric Says: March 6th, 2006 at 8:49 pm
I think with Solaris 10 though, dtlogin is integrated into SMF. The guy who posts to forums and blogs the most about this topic is Alan Coopersmith, e.g. see:

The Desktop Configuration rights profile in Solaris 10
LinuxTitli Says: March 7th, 2006 at 12:32 am
Sounds interesting…

Lemme try it some time later Thanks!