cannot startx as my normal user [SOLVED]

Anon-E-moose · Posted: Fri Feb 05, 2021 5:09 pm Post subject:

Since startx is a script, you could run it with

Anon-E-moose · Posted: Fri Feb 05, 2021 5:39 pm Post subject:

Hu · Moderator Joined: 06 Mar 2007 Posts: 21631

figueroa · Posted: Fri Feb 05, 2021 6:16 pm Post subject:

figueroa · Posted: Fri Feb 05, 2021 6:21 pm Post subject:

Anon-E-moose · Posted: Fri Feb 05, 2021 6:41 pm Post subject:

What does the ps axf -o pid,tty,args output look like on the system where startx works?
You already have the one that doesn't work.
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PRIME x570-pro, 3700x, 6.1 zen kernel
gcc 13, profile 17.0 (custom bare multilib), openrc, wayland

figueroa · Posted: Fri Feb 05, 2021 7:44 pm Post subject:

Anon-E-moose · Posted: Fri Feb 05, 2021 8:33 pm Post subject:

I see no reason for startx not to work. But something is pointing to both tty1 and tty7 (judging by your description), now why is a real mystery.
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PRIME x570-pro, 3700x, 6.1 zen kernel
gcc 13, profile 17.0 (custom bare multilib), openrc, wayland

Leonardo.b · Apprentice Joined: 10 Oct 2020 Posts: 296

In your .xinitrc:

pjp · Administrator Joined: 16 Apr 2002 Posts: 20067

Split from [SOLVED] eselect news - 2021-01-30-display-manager-init

The posts for each issue seemed distinct. Please report any posts that are in the wrong thread.
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figueroa · Posted: Fri Feb 05, 2021 9:28 pm Post subject:

Tony0945 · Posted: Fri Feb 05, 2021 9:55 pm Post subject:

I just built a computer with old old mobo, new drives, new PS and new cheap case. I believe I mentioned on some thread that I also had a black screen. A few hours ago, I idly clicked on the black screen with the mouse and it light up with the pcmanfm desktop. ????

figueroa · Posted: Sat Feb 06, 2021 3:44 am Post subject:

Anon-E-moose · Posted: Sat Feb 06, 2021 11:47 am Post subject:

Tony0945 · Posted: Sat Feb 06, 2021 4:01 pm Post subject:

I looked at those lines in my openbox file and they are all in the applications menu.

1. Have you checked your filesystem integrity and your drive health?

2. Editting xml is hard IMP. I would:
a. save the file to another name
b. emerge obmenu-generator
b. run obmenu-generator to generate a new menu as well.

figueroa · Posted: Sun Feb 07, 2021 4:19 am Post subject:

I fixed the menu.xml errors.
_________________
Andy Figueroa
hp pavilion hpe h8-1260t/2AB5; spinning rust x3
i7-2600 @ 3.40GHz; 16 gb; Radeon HD 7570
amd64/23.0/split-usr/desktop (stable), OpenRC, -systemd -pulseaudio -uefi

figueroa · Posted: Sun Apr 04, 2021 3:45 am Post subject:

I'm HAPPY to report that upon testing this evening, startx works again. It pulls up my desktop (OpenBox) on tty1. tty7 and higher just give me a blank screen with a cursor flashing in the upper left-hand corner.

What did I do to get startx to work again? Nothing really. I'm fully up-to-date, amd64, with the new stable 5.4.109 kernel. Actually, I did update to the new display-manager-init which caused me to temporarily upgrade to ~ for the following:

figueroa · Posted: Sun Apr 04, 2021 2:03 pm Post subject:

Really good discussion here about the-cause-of-it-all from 2015 here:
https://groups.google.com/g/linux.debian.user/c/dHogA4Mxiv8

and snippy bug report here:
https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=801487

Short version, systemd broke startx. For us openrc users, elogind did the breaking. I believe I will mark this solved. That doesn't mean "fixed," but "understood." It's water under the bridge.[/code]
_________________
Andy Figueroa
hp pavilion hpe h8-1260t/2AB5; spinning rust x3
i7-2600 @ 3.40GHz; 16 gb; Radeon HD 7570
amd64/23.0/split-usr/desktop (stable), OpenRC, -systemd -pulseaudio -uefi

Tony0945 · Posted: Sun Apr 04, 2021 3:15 pm Post subject:

Is there an actual Xorg-legacy package from Debian?

Anon-E-moose · Posted: Sun Apr 04, 2021 3:49 pm Post subject:

Startx always tried vt7 first, then 8, etc (this was in the suid X days)
When systemd barreled into the room, then it was necessary to use --vt[1=6] as the suid was depreciated, and the fearmongering about running as root ratcheted up (concurrently with systemd gaining speed :wink:

).

There was an initiative to use a small binary drm manager (which is the only thing needing root permissions) to set/drop drm master.

Then the kernel people looked at the code for set/drop drm master and decided they didn't need to set root only on it (~linux 5.8 ).
And as far as I know they haven't changed the code back, for kernels earlier than 5.8 (or whenever the change was introduced) they can always patch the kernel, it's one line.

I run startx on vt7 (well, when I run X, I've been playing with wayland lately) to do this I have a few simple things set, I'm in input, tty and video group.
And I have a udev rule that changes tty7/8 from 600 to 660 (tty group can access). That's all there is too it.
_________________
PRIME x570-pro, 3700x, 6.1 zen kernel
gcc 13, profile 17.0 (custom bare multilib), openrc, wayland

Hu · Moderator Joined: 06 Mar 2007 Posts: 21631

I cannot speak to what Debian ships, but I suspect from context that the Debian legacy package is what Gentoo users get when building Xorg with USE=suid.

Anon-E-moose · Posted: Sun Apr 04, 2021 6:44 pm Post subject:

GDH-gentoo · Posted: Sun Apr 04, 2021 7:05 pm Post subject: