Hello everybody out there using Debian-

I failed to find a post related to my issue, so here we are. If I missed something feel free to redirect me .

I have a small issue that maybe some greater minds could help me work out a fix to. To give you a little information I have Jessie 8.4 running on my Mactel laptop, running Xfce4, which I have configured to boot into command line (I like to kick it old school ). Any-who I have an issue logging out of X back to command. I'd say 75% of the time my X session ends with out a hitch, and I'm back at the prompt. However, sometimes I hit log out and the screen goes black (though still backlight).

The first time it happened (shortly after fresh install) I hit ctrl-alt-del and it rebooted, but with no output to the screen until the system started booting back up. Learning from that first experience the next time it happened I attempted to try startx to see if it worked, which it did. So what I know from this is X is indeed closing and I am returning to CLI, but I just don't see it. I assume other commands work, but not being able to check them for syntax accuracy keeps me on the shy and safer end of not trying.

Would reinstalling Xorg do the trick? Perhaps reinstalling something else? This is the same USB image I used to install on my Intel iMac of similar year and hardware, and that install doesn't have this issue.

If you need anymore information please feel free to ask. I await your responses.

Sincerly,
Hvitserk

fwiw, i had the exact same issue on a very different machine:
archlinux on a desktop with a fairly new intel i3 processor (and graphics).
so it was a graphics issue, and it just went away after a few updates (bless archlinux).

this is so different from your own scenario that i doubt the sanity of even mentioning it here.

also i have no experience with mac hardware, but from what i read they need a little convincing to run linux.
if i were you, i'd see if forums.debian.net have some threads, or maybe even a whole subforum, dedicated to macs.

Thanks for the suggestion ondoho, I will put some other feelers out then. I'll keep this one up for a little while longer just to see if someone with a similar issue may stumble across it.

On the mac hardware, it wasn't too hard to get Ubuntu, then it's predecessor up and running on my machines. Having said that, however, I will not be purchasing another Apple product, ever. I got suckered into the hype after my Windows computer crashed about ten years back. And for what I paid for the laptop and the desktop I could have built a pretty sick desktop and gotten a better laptop. C'est la vie, live and learn.

Anyway, before I go deep down the Apple-bashing rabbit hole... Worst case, maybe Debian will have fixed this issue when Stretch comes out next year. As far as problems go, this one is certainly minor. Thanks again!

Hvitserk

if this is 10 year old hardware, probably not.
it is much more likely that a fix exists and you just have to find it.

I was pondering the differences between my iMac and my MacBook and it occured to me that when I installed Debian on my iMac I also reinstalled OS X and updated the firmware. I did not, however do the same for my laptop. There could be a firmware issue in the GPU causing the issue, which seems to be worsening. I am not pleased with this thought, because, frankly, I am done with bouncing between OS's and distros and now that I am (mostly) very pleased with my Debian set up I may need to destroy it just to rebuild it several hours or a day or two later.

Such is the life of a Linux man sometimes. I believe that will be my course of action. It may seem rash, but I am becoming quite the organized pro at zeroing-out a hard drive and reinstalling both OS's, haha.

Much thanks ondoho. See you on the other side.

Hvitserk

you really need to get in contact with those channels dedicated to running linux on mac hardware.
i think the hardware is worth the effort?



yep.
been staring down the rabbithole for too long again today.