Can't start Xorg after upgrade to Debian Buster
 

Hi, folks,

I never was good at configuring Xorg :) I've upgraded my PC from Debian Stretch to Buster two days ago. The process was pretty straightforward, but I can't run my favorite window manager anymore. I know they have switched from Xorg to Wayland in this release, but the situation is not that simple.

My setup is: a PC with Intel chipset and i915 video. Two monitors, identified as VGA-1 and HDMI-2, both with equal resolutions 1920x1080.

I can run all kinds of Gnome from gdm3, including Gnome under Xorg.

I can run Plasma from gdm3, but I can see the desktop only on VGA-1.

Other desktop managers, like sddm and slim, fail to show login form.

I can run startx from command line when gdm is down, but I don't see anything on displays. So, if I leave .xinitrc empty, I can only see my own command line and then I get 'Server terminated successfully' in Xorg log file. So far, so good. But if I add something to .xinitrc, like 'xterm', and run startx again, I see the starting messages of Xorg and then nothing else. It seems that Xterm is running, but is not visible. If I try to switch to another virtual terminal, Xorg crashes with messages:

When I try to run Xorg using xinit instead of startx, it fails right now with the following message:

parse_vt_settings: Cannot open /dev/tty0 (Permission denied).

But Gnome and, partially, KDE manage to run under Xorg! There must be a way to run it. Any ideas?

Hi,

modern X11 like what is on Buster should work without any custom configuration. Do you have something strange in /etc/X11/xorg.conf of in /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/*? If so, please try removing it.

It would also be useful to know more about your graphics setup. Install inxi (if you don't already have it), then run and post the output of the following:
Evo2.

No, there are no config files. I did try to create a config file with 'Xorg --configure' and play with settings, but it didn't help and I deleted the file.

Hi,

so that looks fine. I'm trying to understand what the problem is.

Is the issue that only one of your displays works when using gdm3 and a secondary problem is that X crashes when you try to run it with startx?

Evo2.

P.S. Please use [code] tags when displaying text from a terminal not [quote] tags

Well, not really. When Xorg is started from gdm with window managers other than Gnome and KDE, the screen remains black.

When Xorg is started from command line, it kinda works without errors, but the image on the screen remains unchanged, just text console with Xorg startup messages. If at this moment I try to switch to another virtual console, Xorg exits with error message.

However, when Xorg is started from gdm with Gnome, it works correctly. When it is started from gdm with KDE Plasma, only one monitor of the two works.

Did some more research. If I run 'startx xterm', what I see on the screen is just plain text console with some typical messages of running Xorg. However, if I log in via SSH and make a screenshot, I see a desktop with xterm.
https://imgur.com/74QFRLe

Hi,

I'm really at a loss as to what is going on. So gnome-shell and KDE sessions both work fine when starting with gdm, but starting just a window manager does not. I run just a window manager started from my .xsession with gdm and have no issues on two machines that I recently upgraded to Buster. Did your upgrade really complete correctly?

Evo2.

I thought so, till I started to run my window manager.

Hi,

ok so have you tried checking your package manager? Eg
etc.

Evo2.

No, no, as far as packages are concerned, everything is fine. There's a number of packages of non-Debian origin, but neither of them has 'xorg' in its name.

Hi,

well, I don't think I can provide any help since I have no experience running X without a display manager and the output from "xini --graphics" indicates that both displays are working correctly. For all I know what you are seeing is the expected behaviour in buster.

Evo2.

Thanks for help, evo2! I think I did it, using https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Intel_graphics. First, I created xorg.conf and enabled "intel" driver:

And here it is! It gave me two identical pictures on two monitors. Then I added a bit more to make them one single desktop:

And here is my favorite StumpWM :)

Hi,

I'm quite surprise you had to do that. Had you tried using xrandr? That's how I configure multiple displays if I'm not using a fancy desktop.

What is the output of "inxi --graphics" now?

Evo2.

Yes, I use xrandr to rotate one of my monitors to portrait mode.

The output of "inxi --graphics" has not changed:

Hmm, but it wouldn't turn your second display on etc? You could only get that to work with the xorg.conf.

The output of "inxi --graphics" has not changed:
[/QUOTE]
Hmm, that really makes me think you shouldn't need that xorg.conf. Just turning displays on and off, and positioning them with xrandr should be enough.

Evo2.

Of course. The rotation was done in .xinitrc, which I completely removed when I understood that Xorg doesn't start. The problems I described above were happening when there were no configuration files, neither xorg.conf, nor .xinitrc or anything else.

Unfortunately, I don't know of any way to turn displays on other than to put that 'Device' section in xorg.conf. Any ideas?

Hi,

you can use xrandr or a gui frontend to it like arandr.

Evo2.

You might try making one or the other display explicitly primary with xrandr.

Any chance your VGA cable could be replaced with a DVI-DVI or DVI-HDMI cable? My Haswell has HDMI, DVI and VGA. Going all digital can sometimes work better, or at all.

My xrandr script is in /etc/X11/Xsession.d/. No .xinitrc, .xsession, Gnome or GDM here. I have no trouble getting my Kaby Lake to use all connected displays without any need for xorg.conf* whether I use startx or TDM:Note HDMI-2 here is actually a DVI connection.

I would expect my Haswell to do no differently other than connector names in xrandr, but I don't have Buster on it.