Weird GNOME problem: INIT: Id respawning too fast: disabled for 5 minutes

last updated in Categories News, RedHat/Fedora Linux, Troubleshooting, X server

Yesterday I messed up badly with GNOME configuration. My R & D result into an error on the first console that read as follows:

INIT: Id respawning too fast: disabled for 5 minutes

LOL 😀

GNOME was broken badly. Screen was just flicked several times. To fix this problem:

a) Reboot Fedora Core Linux box

b) Boot into single user mode (or text mode i.e. mode init 3 will also do the job,IMPO)

c) Type the following command to fix Display card related stuff:

# redhat-config-xfree86 –reconfig

Above command allows you to fix all problems or allows reconfiguring X windows system.

Posted by: Vivek Gite

The author is the creator of nixCraft and a seasoned sysadmin, DevOps engineer, and a trainer for the Linux operating system/Unix shell scripting. Get the latest tutorials on SysAdmin, Linux/Unix and open source topics via RSS/XML feed or weekly email newsletter.

7 comment

  1. My mouse pointer in gnome is always hidden. I have to use the ctrl key to even have an idea of where the pointer is. Everything else seems to be working. The mouse is moving i just cant see it.

  2. David,

    a) Your mouse is not configure properly – use above command to fix mouse

    b) Your mouse is faulty – test on other computer

    Run setup command to reconfigure your mouse from text mode

  3. Need some help with some real login problem.
    I am unable to login to the system as a particular user.
    But i am able to login in text mode.
    I guess the problem could be with the X-server.
    But it is only a guess.
    any way to reconfigure the x-server for this particular user is what i am looking for.

    thanks in adv.
    vinod

  4. As for david Wallace just try disabling “rhgb” parameter in grub.conf file. It is the problem with that rhgb and your mouse will just work fine with mouse pointer visible

  5. rhgb has a problem with the mouse pointer. so please disable rhgb in grub.conf and try with a reboot. I had faced such a problem and it was solved. try this out and tell me

  6. How do I fix this problem in the case of Centos 4
    I cant find the file redhat-config-xfree86 ?

    Thnaks

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