Startxfce4 unable to load failsafe session as non-root user

hello.world · 05-06-2020, 04:18 PM

There is .xinitrc, which I posted earlier. I have since commented out the entire contents of it:

Code:

# dbus-launch --exit-with-session startxfce4

Other than that, there is only one more file, located at "~/.xfce4/xinitrc_1". Here are the contents of that file:

Code:

#!/bin/sh

# fix broken $UID on some system...
if test "x$UID" = "x"; then
  if test -x /usr/xpg4/bin/id; then
    UID=`/usr/xpg4/bin/id -u`;
  else
    UID=`id -u`;
  fi
fi

# set $XDG_MENU_PREFIX to "xfce-" so that "xfce-applications.menu" is picked
# over "applications.menu" in all Xfce applications.
if test "x$XDG_MENU_PREFIX" = "x"; then
  XDG_MENU_PREFIX="xfce-"
  export XDG_MENU_PREFIX
fi

# set DESKTOP_SESSION so that one can detect easily if an Xfce session is running
if test "x$DESKTOP_SESSION" = "x"; then
  DESKTOP_SESSION="xfce"
  export DESKTOP_SESSION
fi

# set XDG_CURRENT_DESKTOP so that Qt 5 applications can identify user set Xfce theme
if test "x$XDG_CURRENT_DESKTOP" = "x"; then
  XDG_CURRENT_DESKTOP="XFCE"
  export XDG_CURRENT_DESKTOP
fi

# $XDG_CONFIG_HOME defines the base directory relative to which user specific
# configuration files should be stored. If $XDG_CONFIG_HOME is either not set
# or empty, a default equal to $HOME/.config should be used.
if test "x$XDG_CONFIG_HOME" = "x" ; then
  XDG_CONFIG_HOME=$HOME/.config
fi
[ -d "$XDG_CONFIG_HOME" ] || mkdir "$XDG_CONFIG_HOME"

# $XDG_CACHE_HOME defines the base directory relative to which user specific
# non-essential data files should be stored. If $XDG_CACHE_HOME is either not
# set or empty, a default equal to $HOME/.cache should be used.
if test "x$XDG_CACHE_HOME" = "x" ; then
  XDG_CACHE_HOME=$HOME/.cache
fi
[ -d "$XDG_CACHE_HOME" ] || mkdir "$XDG_CACHE_HOME"

# set up XDG user directores.  see
# http://freedesktop.org/wiki/Software/xdg-user-dirs
if command -v xdg-user-dirs-update >/dev/null 2>&1; then
    xdg-user-dirs-update
fi

# For now, start with an empty list
XRESOURCES=""

# Has to go prior to merging Xft.xrdb, as its the "Defaults" file
test -r "/etc/xdg/xfce4/Xft.xrdb" && XRESOURCES="$XRESOURCES /etc/xdg/xfce4/Xft.xrdb"
test -r $HOME/.Xdefaults && XRESOURCES="$XRESOURCES $HOME/.Xdefaults"

BASEDIR=$XDG_CONFIG_HOME/xfce4
if test -r "$BASEDIR/Xft.xrdb"; then
  XRESOURCES="$XRESOURCES $BASEDIR/Xft.xrdb"
elif test -r "$XFCE4HOME/Xft.xrdb"; then
  mkdir -p "$BASEDIR"
  cp "$XFCE4HOME/Xft.xrdb" "$BASEDIR"/
  XRESOURCES="$XRESOURCES $BASEDIR/Xft.xrdb"
fi

# merge in X cursor settings
test -r "$BASEDIR/Xcursor.xrdb" && XRESOURCES="$XRESOURCES $BASEDIR/Xcursor.xrdb"

# ~/.Xresources contains overrides to the above
test -r "$HOME/.Xresources" && XRESOURCES="$XRESOURCES $HOME/.Xresources"

# load all X resources (adds /dev/null to avoid an empty list that would hang the process)
cat /dev/null $XRESOURCES | xrdb -merge -

# load local modmap
test -r $HOME/.Xmodmap && xmodmap $HOME/.Xmodmap

# if XAUTHLOCALHOSTNAME is not set in systemd user session, starting of xfce4-notifyd, DISPLAY etc. will fail
if command -v systemctl >/dev/null 2>&1 && systemctl --user list-jobs >/dev/null 2>&1; then # user session is running
  dbus-update-activation-environment --systemd XAUTHLOCALHOSTNAME=$XAUTHLOCALHOSTNAME
fi


# check if we start xfce4-session with ck-launch-session. this is only
# required for starting from a console, not a login manager
if test "x$XFCE4_SESSION_WITH_CK" = "x1"; then
  if command -v ck-launch-session >/dev/null 2>&1; then
    exec ck-launch-session xfce4-session
  else
    echo
    echo "You have tried to start Xfce with consolekit support, but"
    echo "ck-launch-session is not installed."
    echo "Aborted startup..."
    echo
    exit 1
  fi
else
  # start xfce4-session normally
  exec xfce4-session
fi

# if we got here, then exec failed
exit 1

As per @business_kid 's request, here are the last ~40 lines of /var/log/Xorg.0.log . There doesn't seem to be anything out of the ordinary here:

Code:

[   405.031] (**) PS/2 Logitech Wheel Mouse: always reports core events
[   405.031] (**) Option "Device" "/dev/input/event5"
[   405.031] (**) Option "_source" "server/udev"
[   405.032] (II) event5  - PS/2 Logitech Wheel Mouse: is tagged by udev as: Mouse
[   405.032] (II) event5  - PS/2 Logitech Wheel Mouse: device is a pointer
[   405.032] (II) event5  - PS/2 Logitech Wheel Mouse: device removed
[   405.049] (**) Option "config_info" "udev:/sys/devices/platform/i8042/serio2/input/input10/event5"
[   405.049] (II) XINPUT: Adding extended input device "PS/2 Logitech Wheel Mouse" (type: MOUSE, id 13)
[   405.049] (**) Option "AccelerationScheme" "none"
[   405.049] (**) PS/2 Logitech Wheel Mouse: (accel) selected scheme none/0
[   405.049] (**) PS/2 Logitech Wheel Mouse: (accel) acceleration factor: 2.000
[   405.049] (**) PS/2 Logitech Wheel Mouse: (accel) acceleration threshold: 4
[   405.050] (II) event5  - PS/2 Logitech Wheel Mouse: is tagged by udev as: Mouse
[   405.050] (II) event5  - PS/2 Logitech Wheel Mouse: device is a pointer
[   405.053] (**) Logitech USB Receiver Consumer Control: Applying InputClass "evdev keyboard catchall"
[   405.053] (**) Logitech USB Receiver Consumer Control: Applying InputClass "libinput keyboard catchall"
[   405.053] (II) Using input driver 'libinput' for 'Logitech USB Receiver Consumer Control'
[   405.053] (**) Logitech USB Receiver Consumer Control: always reports core events
[   405.053] (**) Option "Device" "/dev/input/event7"
[   405.053] (**) Option "_source" "_driver/libinput"
[   405.053] (II) libinput: Logitech USB Receiver Consumer Control: is a virtual subdevice
[   405.053] (**) Option "config_info" "udev:/sys/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:12.0/usb1/1-1/1-1.1/1-1.1:1.1/0003:046D:C52F.0002/input/input14/event7"
[   405.053] (II) XINPUT: Adding extended input device "Logitech USB Receiver Consumer Control" (type: KEYBOARD, id 14)
[   407.651] (II) event2  - Power Button: device removed
[   407.657] (II) event3  - Video Bus: device removed
[   407.668] (II) event0  - Power Button: device removed
[   407.677] (II) event8  - USB Optical Mouse: device removed
[   407.697] (II) event6  - Logitech USB Receiver: device removed
[   407.713] (II) event4  - AT Translated Set 2 keyboard: device removed
[   407.721] (II) event5  - PS/2 Logitech Wheel Mouse: device removed
[   407.737] (II) event7  - Logitech USB Receiver Consumer Control: device removed
[   407.746] (II) UnloadModule: "libinput"
[   407.746] (II) UnloadModule: "libinput"
[   407.746] (II) UnloadModule: "libinput"
[   407.746] (II) UnloadModule: "libinput"
[   407.746] (II) UnloadModule: "libinput"
[   407.746] (II) UnloadModule: "libinput"
[   407.746] (II) UnloadModule: "libinput"
[   407.746] (II) UnloadModule: "libinput"
[   407.746] (II) UnloadModule: "libinput"
[   407.789] (II) Server terminated successfully (0). Closing log file.

business_kid · 05-07-2020, 03:49 AM

Quote:

[ 407.789] (II) Server terminated successfully (0). Closing log file.

If you terminated X, that's OK. (0) means a successful exit. If you didn't thn something is closing your X session - "Time to go to bed now" sort of thing.

hello.world · 05-08-2020, 10:05 AM

Yes, I terminated X myself by hitting "enter" on the button on the popup. Is it possible that the file I have included (~/.xfce/xinitrc_1) is causing problems?

business_kid · 05-09-2020, 03:13 AM

Why? Were you root or luser? Inform us of everything relevant unless you no longer want to fix this.

hello.world · 05-09-2020, 11:40 AM

Ever since ondoho told me to do so, I have been doing everything as a normal user (non-root).

Should I try creating a new user in case I had previously messed something up as root?

ondoho · 05-11-2020, 01:34 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by hello.world

Ok, I tried running the command

Code:

 dbus-launch --exit-with-session startxfce4 >~/.x-session-errors 2>&1

, and nothing really changed.

Here are the contents of .x-session-errors:

Code:

(...)
/usr/bin/iceauth:  creating new authority file /run/user/1000/ICEauthority
xfce4-session: No GPG agent found
xfce4-session: No SSH authentication agent found

(xfce4-session:595): xfce4-session-WARNING **: 10:25:17.264: xfsm_manager_load_session: Something wrong with /home/vr/.cache/sessions/xfce4-session-VR-LFS:0, Does it exist? Permissions issue?
xinit: connection to X server lost

waiting for X server to shut down (II) Server terminated successfully (0). Closing log file.

There's no clear error here and to me it's unclear why it won't start.
It does, however, point out possible permission issues, which could well come from you starting Xorg as root.

First, have a look at ownership and permissions of the file mentioned, and others! Basically your whole HOME directory! There's, IIRC, one or two files right there at the root of your $HOME that must be not only user-owned but also user-accessible, maybe .Xauthority, maybe more.
After that, try starting 'startxfce' as such, without dbus.

Failing that, create a new user and try from scratch.

business_kid · 05-12-2020, 03:09 AM

36 posts, and no nearer a solution. May I suggest 2.

1. Reinstall.
2. Modify the OP or at least change his habits to try all suggestions offered, return all information asked for when being helped by people of experience.

hello.world · 05-21-2020, 04:46 PM

Sorry for the delay, I just finished my exams.

I looked at the permissions in my home directory (ls -la), and everything was owned by the user vr and the group vr. There was one exception (.xinitrc): it was owned by the user vr and the group root. I changed its ownership to vr:vr. Even everything in the subdirectories were owned by vr:vr. After changing the ownership of .xinitrc (all of the contents of which are commented out), I tried running startxfce4, but nothing seemed to change.

I also found 2 files in the home directory named .Xauthority and .ICEauthority. Both of them were blank, I'm not sure if this is supposed to be the case. I'll paste the output of ls -la in my next post.

Thanks