Can't start X as non-root Debian 8 Jessie

Cohen_the_Barbarian · 03-04-2016, 08:38 PM

Hello, I've looked around for a problem similar to mine, but none of the fixes have worked so far. I can't seem to log in to an X Windows session as non-root.

I am on an Acer Aspire VN7-592G-77LB. Stats are as follows:

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960M 4 GB GDDR5
Intel Core i7 6700HQ (2.60 GHz)
16 GB Memory 1 TB HDD 256 GB SSD
15.6" IPS FHD 1920 x 1080
15.35" x 10.35" x 0.9" 5.07 lbs.

My problem looks like this:

1. Boot to graphical login (lightdm), I try to log in as non-root user, and the login window and bar at the top disappear. Background is visible, but the computer freezes, with no way to get to TTY.

2. Boot to TTY (or to graphical login, followed by Ctrl-Alt-F1), login as non-root, run

Code:

startx

which flashes the background on the screen momentarily, before the screen goes back. In this case, Ctrl-Alt-F1 takes me back to TTY.

3. From TTY,

Code:

service lightdm restart

works, but I have the same problem as in 1.

I've tried this with the nouveau driver, the long term and short term NVidia drivers, with and without Bumblebee, deleting the .Xauthority file, adding nomodeset to Grub. The entirety of the user's home directory belongs to it, not root, and I've tried the xorg.conf file generated by the NVidia utility and no xorg.conf at all. It's probably worth noting that

Code:

X -configure

doesn't work. As root, I have none of these problems, I can log in and get to the desktop (any WM) with no problem.

I suspect I'm missing something very obvious, but I'd appreciate any help. Please let me know if I should post anything like lspci or /var/log/Xorg.0.log.

Thanks in advance!

ondoho · 03-06-2016, 03:06 AM

maybe something inside your $HOME got messed up.
create a new user, try logging into that.

pan64 · 03-06-2016, 07:00 AM

have you checked the logfiles? /var/log/X* ~/.xsession-errors

Cohen_the_Barbarian · 03-06-2016, 12:27 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ondoho

maybe something inside your $HOME got messed up.
create a new user, try logging into that.

I created a new user, added it to the same groups as the last; it has the exact same problem.

Quote:

Originally Posted by pan64

have you checked the logfiles? /var/log/X* ~/.xsession-errors

Here's my .xsession-errors file:

Code:

Xsession: localuser:odin being added to access control list
openConnection: connect: No such file or directory
cannot connect to brltty at :0
** Message: main.vala:99: Session is LXDE
** Message: main.vala:100: DE is LXDE
** Message: main.vala:131: log directory: /home/odin/.cache/lxsession/LXDE
** Message: main.vala:132: log path: /home/odin/.cache/lxsession/LXDE/run.log

LXDE run.log: https://paste.debian.net/hidden/83b91441/
Xorg.0.log: https://paste.debian.net/hidden/31a39b57/

My xorg.conf is barebones, it just specifies the nvidia driver, that's it.

The log files don't mean much to me; it seems there's a problem with the driver? I don't understand why, as it works fine as root.

pan64 · 03-06-2016, 12:47 PM

(WW) warning, (EE) error, (NI) not implemented, (??) unknown.
[ 15.713] (EE) open /dev/dri/card0: No such file or directory
[ 15.713] (EE) open /dev/dri/card0: No such file or directory
[ 15.714] (EE) open /dev/fb0: No such file or directory
[ 15.714] (EE) open /dev/fb0: No such file or directory
[ 15.714] (EE) Screen 0 deleted because of no matching config section.
[ 15.714] (EE) Screen 0 deleted because of no matching config section.
[ 16.791] (EE) AIGLX: reverting to software rendering

That can be seen in Xorg.0.log
If it works for root it means there is a permission problem (for example /dev/rdi is not accessible for the users)

Cohen_the_Barbarian · 03-06-2016, 02:26 PM

There is no /dev/dri or /dev/fb0, does that mean I am missing packages? A post on another forum suggests missing DRI device suggests the driver isn't loaded. I ran

Code:

lsmod

and nvidia is nowhere to be found.

Code:

modprobe nvidia
service lightdm restart

Results in the same problem, the computer freezes immediately.

pan64 · 03-07-2016, 12:51 AM

just to make sure about that: how do you know the computer freezes? Have you tried to log in from another host (ssh) for example?
Yes it looks like your video driver was not loaded.

erik2282 · 05-03-2016, 10:49 AM

Cohen, did you get this fixed?