[ale] GDM Murder Mystery

[hbbs at bellsouth.net (Jeff Hubbs)]

My RH6.0 system won't boot into X anymore after having changed the
window manager to WindowMaker.  This system is configured to go straight
to X when it boots.  The monitor flashes with out-of-sync junk several
times and I'm left with a text login screen on which I see the message:

     According to /var/run/gdm.pid, gdm was already running (469),
     but seems to have been murdered mysteriously

This repeats nine times, each time wth a different number between the
parentheses.  After that, there is the message

     INIT: ID "x" respawning too fast: disabled for 5 minutes


I can log in normally as root at that point.  However, if I tempt fate
by trying to run xdm, it does the same thing except without end, and I
can't ctl-alt-F1 or anything else to get out of it.  What am I looking
at for a fix here?