Qingy

Template:I18n links start Template:I18n entry Template:I18n entry Template:I18n links end Qingy is a replacement for getty and login-managers like slim, kdm gdm and so on, using DirectFB to provide a fast, nice GUI without the overhead of the X Window System. It allows users to log in and start the session of their choice (text console, gnome, kde, wmaker, etc.). Running several X sessions is also possible.

How to get qingy?

First you need a working DirectFB. I'm recommending Uvesafb but if you have some graphical issues with it use vesafb. Qingy does not work with KMS.

A package is available in the [community] repo. To install:

# pacman -S qingy 

Several extra themes are also available. In [community] repo, there is an Arch specific theme:

# pacman -S qingy-theme-arch

A package of several various themes is available in AUR:

• qingy-themes

Replace *getty with qingy

To use qingy, you'll need to edit /etc/inittab.

Replace:

c1:2345:respawn:/sbin/agetty -8 38400 vc/1 linux
c2:2345:respawn:/sbin/agetty -8 38400 vc/2 linux
c3:2345:respawn:/sbin/agetty -8 38400 vc/3 linux
c4:2345:respawn:/sbin/agetty -8 38400 vc/4 linux
c5:2345:respawn:/sbin/agetty -8 38400 vc/5 linux
c6:2345:respawn:/sbin/agetty -8 38400 vc/6 linux

with:

c1:2345:respawn:/sbin/qingy tty1
c2:2345:respawn:/sbin/qingy tty2
c3:2345:respawn:/sbin/qingy tty3
c4:2345:respawn:/sbin/qingy tty4
c5:2345:respawn:/sbin/qingy tty5
c6:2345:respawn:/sbin/agetty -8 38400 vc/6 linux

Qingy's author suggest to keep agetty on a console (here on console 6) as a safety measure as qingy is still beta software.

Because qingy uses tty0-9 insead of vc/1-6 so you need add tty to /etc/securetty (NOTE : this should no longer be necessary since vc/1-6 have been replaced by tty0-9 with the new version of agetty):

#
# /etc/securetty
#
console
vc/1
vc/2
vc/3
vc/4
vc/5
vc/6
tty0
tty1
tty2
tty3
tty4
tty5
tty6
tty7

Configuring qingy

You can configure qingy by editing /etc/qingy/settings.

The default settings for X are fine so only edit them if you really know what you are doing.

# Full path to the X server
#x_server = "/usr/bin/Xorg"
# Full path to the 'xinit' executable
xinit = "/usr/bin/xinit"
# Parameter we should pass to the X server
x_args = "-nolisten tcp -br"

I recommend to set

log_facilities = console, file

so you can look for errors in /var/log/qingy.log, too.

All other options are well explained.

Starting X

Please do note that .xinitrc is different from .xsession. The default login script, .xinitrc, works with startx, but graphical login managers generally do not look for .xinitrc. Instead, they look for a file named .xsession in your home directory.

If you want to start X with qingy you need to edit your .xsession.

Here a default .xsession for qingy.

#!/bin/sh
exec <login-shell command> <window manager starter>

An example:

#!/bin/sh
exec bash --login -c 'openbox-session'

The start of the window manager using a login shell is needed because qingy starts the X-session directly without the help of a shell. This causes issues like no umlauts in xterm and malfunction of control keys like "Home", "End", "Del" and so on in the terminal.

For more details, visit the Ubuntu CustomXSession wiki at [1]

Adding a session entry

If you've changed the variable x_sessions or text_session in the config file of qingy replace the following paths with the path you've set.

Text mode session

Create a file /etc/qingy/sessions/<sessionname>.

The file name is shown as entry in the session list.

The file should be a shell script. For an example have a look into /etc/qingy/sessios/emacs.

X mode session

Create the folder /etc/X11/Sessions/ and save a new script file into it. (see Text mode session)

The name of the file is shown in the session list.

Troubleshooting

Synaptic touchpad and keyboard issue

Qingy (and quite possibly other DirectFB applicationss) has some issues using Synaptics touchpad. Also the keyboard can behave strangely (like if each keys were pressed twice).

This can be solved by adding:

disable-module=linux_input

to /etc/directfbrc. If the file does not exist, create it. This will enable you to use your touchpad, however some extra functionality like tapping or tap-dragging might not work.