Xfce4 can't open display 0:0

Message

Avenger902 · Post by **Avenger902** » Fri Nov 19, 2004 6:18 pm

Well I woke up this morning, turned on my linuxbox, and tried to startup Xfce4 (which would always load up without any problems for the past couple months) But today it gives me this error message:

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/usr/bin/startxfce4: X server already running on display :0.0

and it would proceed to load the only applets that come with xfce4 but alas no display 0:0, errors.... However the strange part is that when I run startx (configured with fluxbox) It loads up no problem.... I checked the log file for any (EE) and there was none.... Any ideas?

Thanks in Advance

stahlsau · Post by **stahlsau** » Fri Nov 19, 2004 6:30 pm

well then..maybe just search the forums? It´s the third time now i answer one of these threads...

ok. edit startxfce4, search for the line

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echo "$0: X server already running on display $DISPLAY"

and edit the line below to

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prog=xinit

Just a dirty fix, but a fix.[/quote]

Avenger902 · Post by **Avenger902** » Fri Nov 19, 2004 7:13 pm

Well I searched before I did this thread and I searched after you did your reply but I didn't find any that had my problem.... If you can refer me to a thread that deals with that i'd appreciate but as for the dirty fix, it didn't work it says the error then kicks me back to prompt....

davecs · Post by **davecs** » Fri Nov 19, 2004 9:33 pm

I have no problems with XFCE4, however I have experienced similar problems on both Linux and Windows-based systems in the past (ie something won't run because the system thinks it already is).

Some programs put a ".lock" file on the disc when running to stop you starting another instance. This is deleted when the program exits. If you were forced to make a dirty exit it could still be there. It's a long shot, but you could try searching your disc for such a file.

Avenger902 · Post by **Avenger902** » Fri Nov 19, 2004 10:02 pm

Hmm I looked for the .lock file but didn't see it....

Well I am guessing because of all the random updates i've been doing lately, a wrench got stuck in the gears so now I am gonna redo my linux box... but thanks anyway

PT_LAmb · Post by **PT_LAmb** » Sat Nov 20, 2004 7:54 pm

The problem has to do with the new version of pam that sets the DISPLAY environment variable at login.

There are three ways to get around this, besides editing /usr/bin/startxfce4:

edit /etc/security/pam_env.conf and comment out the DISPLAY line.
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```
#DISPLAY                DEFAULT=${REMOTEHOST}:0.0 OVERRIDE=${DISPLAY}
```
or before you run startxfce4 unset the DISPLAY env var:
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```
unset DISPLAY && startxfce4
```
or stop using startxfce4 for startx, after overwriting your .xinirc file with xfce4 distributed settings:
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```
cp /etc/xfce4/xinitrc ~/.xinitrc
```

I don't know if this is a pam bug or a xfce4 one, so I can't tell which is the proper solution to use. I used the first one.

Good luck,
Ricardo Cordeiro

Avenger902 · Post by **Avenger902** » Mon Nov 22, 2004 9:30 pm

Yup Sure Enough I got the same problem when I reinstalled gentoo... This time running XFCE4 RC1... Thanks for the Suggestions PT_LAmb... I got it to work!

PT_LAmb · Post by **PT_LAmb** » Mon Nov 22, 2004 10:52 pm

Avenger902 wrote:Thanks for the Suggestions PT_LAmb... I got it to work!

Thx! You're Welcome!