Arch Linux

exterm

Member

Registered: 2011-05-01

Posts: 17

XFCE not starting after update

I use gdm to start xfce.

But since the update to 3.8 xfce won't start anymore. That is, when I log in in gdm, I just get a blank blue screen and a mouse pointer that has the gnome look and then nothing happened.

I could find nothing unusual in the logs and I think I have read all of them.

When I use Ctrl-Alt-F2, login there and execute startxfce4, I only get a black blank screen without a mouse pointer.

How can I debug this? I don't know where to look and what to try.

David Batson

Member

Registered: 2011-10-13

Posts: 640

Re: XFCE not starting after update

I would guess that your X server is crashing.  Could be a problem with your video driver or KMS (kernel mode setting).  Might be able to add one or more kernel boot parameter's to grub to fix this.

For clues, look in /var/log/Xorg.0.log

Look also in dmesg.

$ dmesg | more

What GPU do you have, and what video driver are you using?  I have intel i5 here and XFCE starts fine from SLiM.  There is an update to XFCE session manager in the works, but I'm not sure that is your problem.  You can also try deleting the XFCE cache files (I believe they are in ~/.cache) to remove anything that was running in your last XFCE session, in case something there is crashing X.

exterm

Member

Registered: 2011-05-01

Posts: 17

Re: XFCE not starting after update

Thanks for the ideas.

It is definitely not a gdm issue, as I have replaced gdm by slim and still can't start xfce. Slim shows a black screen after login and then goes back to the slim login prompt.

Maybe this helps:

$ grep EE /var/log/Xorg.0.log
[   452.688] Current Operating System: Linux t41 3.8.10-1-ARCH #1 SMP PREEMPT Sat Apr 27 09:58:28 CEST 2013 i686
        (WW) warning, (EE) error, (NI) not implemented, (??) unknown.
[   452.707] Initializing built-in extension MIT-SCREEN-SAVER
[   452.727] (EE) Failed to load module "vesa" (module does not exist, 0)
[   452.728] (EE) Failed to load module "modesetting" (module does not exist, 0)
[   452.729] (EE) Failed to load module "fbdev" (module does not exist, 0)

$ dmesg | grep -i warn
[    0.000000] ACPI BIOS Bug: Warning: 32/64X length mismatch in FADT/Gpe1Block: 0/32 (20121018/tbfadt-567)
[    0.000000] ACPI BIOS Bug: Warning: Optional FADT field Gpe1Block has zero address or length: 0x000000000000102C/0x0 (20121018/tbfadt-598)

$ dmesg | grep -i fail
[    0.090305] pci_root PNP0A03:00: fail to add MMCONFIG information, can't access extended PCI configuration space under this bridge.
[    0.092386]  pci0000:00: ACPI _OSC support notification failed, disabling PCIe ASPM
[    4.581655] systemd[1]: Cannot add dependency job for unit laptop-mode-tools.service, ignoring: Unit laptop-mode-tools.service failed to load: No such file or directory. See system logs and 'systemctl status laptop-mode-tools.service' for details.
[    4.581680] systemd[1]: Cannot add dependency job for unit tor.service, ignoring: Unit tor.service failed to load: No such file or directory. See system logs and 'systemctl status tor.service' for details.
[    9.826250] systemd-journald[80]: Failed to open system journal: Argument list too long

Last edited by exterm (2013-05-01 07:48:22)

David Batson

Member

Registered: 2011-10-13

Posts: 640

Re: XFCE not starting after update

I think your video driver is not working.  KMS (modesetting) which loads the kernel's video driver is not working.  Try adding nomodeset to the kernel boot line.  You can do this from the GRUB boot menu when you first boot up.  You may have to install another video driver.  Which one depends upon your GPU.

It is possible the latest kernel you installed is not compatible with your hardware.  This might be a bug, or else it's a feature drop.  You might look at the arch bug reports at https://bugs.archlinux.org/

EDIT:  See the following.
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Ke … de_Setting

https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?pid=1184886

Last edited by David Batson (2013-05-01 08:33:18)

exterm

Member

Registered: 2011-05-01

Posts: 17

Re: XFCE not starting after update

Thanks. With nomodeset, I don't even see the slim graphical login prompt.

When I login in the console and execute startx manually, it crashes. The Xorg log says:

[   236.260] (II) [KMS] drm report modesetting isn't supported.
[   236.260] (II) [KMS] drm report modesetting isn't supported.
[   236.260] (II) [KMS] drm report modesetting isn't supported.
[   236.260] (EE) Screen 0 deleted because of no matching config section.
[   236.260] (II) UnloadModule: "radeon"
[   236.260] (EE) Screen 0 deleted because of no matching config section.
[   236.260] (II) UnloadModule: "radeon"
[   236.260] (EE) Device(s) detected, but none match those in the config file.
[   236.260] 
Fatal server error:
[   236.260] no screens found
[   236.260] (EE) 
Please consult the The X.Org Foundation support 
         at http://wiki.x.org
 for help. 
[   236.260] (EE) Please also check the log file at "/var/log/Xorg.0.log" for additional information
[   236.261] (EE) 
[   236.359] Server terminated with error (1). Closing log file.