[solved] startx no longer working after world update

gtwrek · Last edited by gtwrek on Thu Aug 12, 2021 11:18 pm; edited 1 time in total

I run openrc, and startx.
X is setup for setuid, -elogind, -pam. (I'm an single user system - I've nothing against elogind, but I wanted to excise pam - I couldn't do so without -elogind)

I've been running fine this way for a year or two

I just did a world update - I was about 3 months out-of-date. Some hiccups, but managed to make things work. I did NOT update my kernel (which worked with X fine before).

On reboot, I can no longer startx.
Much googling around on gentoo.org, but I can't find the correct root cause of my problem.
On my previous update, I needed to take action for https://www.gentoo.org/support/news-items/2021-01-30-display-manager-init.html
That seemed painless and worked fine (I don't run display manager so probably not much relevant)

Nvidia GT 720.
Anyway, I can't startx now. Normal message about no /dev/dri/card0
Xorg.log: https://pastebin.com/Nq6czPcm
emerge --info: https://pastebin.com/zXt6srSf

Any advise?

Edit to add: make.conf has:
VIDEO_CARDS="nvidia"
INPUT_DEVICES="libinput"

Thanks,
Mark

alamahant · Advocate Joined: 23 Mar 2019 Posts: 3961

Can you startx as root?
Did you update the kernel?
If yes did you run

gtwrek · Posted: Thu Aug 12, 2021 5:24 pm Post subject:

gtwrek · Posted: Thu Aug 12, 2021 5:26 pm Post subject:

I did NOT update my kernel - I'm using the same kernel that I've been using for months - which has worked with startx fine.

5.4.80-gentoo-r1

I'm considering updating, but don't want to change another variable just yet.

jburns · Posted: Thu Aug 12, 2021 5:51 pm Post subject:

Was nvidia-drivers updated?
In "/etc/X11/xorg.conf.d" do you have a file that specifies the nvidia driver/

gtwrek · Posted: Thu Aug 12, 2021 6:01 pm Post subject:

gtwrek · Posted: Thu Aug 12, 2021 6:46 pm Post subject:

So since my VIDEO_CARDS is set to "nvidia", I guess I'm using the nvidia proprietary closed binary drivers, instead of nouveau. I've no recollection choosing such - I have no pressing needs for video performance - I'm not a gamer. I just got whatever option working by following the Xorg guide on gentoo's page.

Reading up here regarding switching between nouveau and nvidia drivers:
https://wiki.gentoo.org/wiki/Nouveau_%26_nvidia-drivers_switching

Lacking anything else, I guess I'll give this a go. I'll be upgrading the kernel too.

I've no idea if this will help or not. I'll likely make things worse in the short term, but lacking alternatives....

gtwrek · Posted: Thu Aug 12, 2021 8:25 pm Post subject:

So I decided to just switch over to "NOUVEAU" drivers.
Editted my make.conf:

gtwrek · Posted: Thu Aug 12, 2021 9:43 pm Post subject:

Ok, recompiled kernel (Checking configuration). Tried with/without linux-firmware. No differences.
I'm trying to focus on using "nouveau" right now.

I think this part of the Xorg log is the key:
[ 82.141] (EE) [drm] Failed to open DRM device for pci:0000:01:00.0: -19
[ 82.141] (EE) open /dev/dri/card0: No such file or directory

My /dev/dri directory is empty.

My googling around is leading to lots of hits, but no concrete answers.

gtwrek · Posted: Thu Aug 12, 2021 11:17 pm Post subject:

Ok, got things working by compile the DRM stuff directly into the kernel, instead of being loaded as a module. I've no idea why this is the case, but that solved my problem.
(This required changing a few CONFIG_ parent items to direct kernel instead of module too.)

I've no idea what caused this to break now when it's been working for years. Oh well. Marking as solved.