Installing arch under virtualbox - cannot open default display & stuff

MrQuest · 2013-10-19 10:23:00

hi!

this is not my first time I try to install arch under virtualbox, and the results I get are the same.

Installation was pretty obvious: installed arch, added user to lp,wheel,games,video,audio,optical,storage,scanner,power,users groups, installed xorg (all group), installed virtualbox-guest-utils, added vboxvideo vboxsf and vboxguest to /etc/modules-load.d/virtualbox.conf. Also installed mesa and xf86-video-vesa.

Then I edited .xinitrc and added there /usr/bin/VboxClient-all line.

In result, when I try to launch X by typing startx, desktop changes resolution to a bigger one, then blank screen and the resolution changes back to previous, displaying the following:

If I try to launch any de (like bspwm or xfce4) I het a message saying "Can't open the default display".

The weirdest part is that if i change user to root, I can startx and the ugly twm will start, but if I try to launch de, I get the same error message.

Now, what have I missed during the installation which in result gives me what I get?

Thank you.

henk · 2013-10-19 14:52:35

Hi,
If you use startx, and twm appears , X is launched by /etc/X11/xinit/xinitrc. This the test-screen to see if your video-driver is working.
The good news is, the video-driver seems to work. The bad is that your .xinitrc is being ignored.
After copying .xinitrc from /etc/skel/ to your /home/<user>/ directory did you change the permissions?

EDIT: fixed stupid typo.

Last edited by henk (2013-10-19 15:04:47)

MrQuest · 2013-10-19 17:19:33

henk wrote:

Hi,
If you use startx, and twm appears , X is launched by /etc/X11/xinit/xinitrc. This the test-screen to see if your video-driver is working.
The good news is, the video-driver seems to work. The bad is that your .xinitrc is being ignored.
After copying .xinitrc from /etc/skel/ to your /home/<user>/ directory did you change the permissions?
EDIT: fixed stupid typo.

well, the permissions on the files can be seen below:

and they seems to be ok, right?
And btw, I didn't copy .xinitrc to my ~, it was there already.

Last edited by MrQuest (2013-10-19 17:24:21)

PsyGeek · 2013-10-19 17:30:39

I'm a complete noob so I probably don't know what I'm saying but the last line in .xinitrc should be "exec *command to start your DE or whatever*" I think. Maybe you forgot the exec and that causes the problem?

Trilby · 2013-10-19 17:57:06

Please post your actual .xinitrc. The output in your screenshots indicates that X exited normally, without error. In other words, nothing went wrong, it did what it was told to do, you just likely have not told it to do what you want.

MrQuest · 2013-10-19 18:08:49

Trilby wrote:

Please post your actual .xinitrc. The output in your screenshots indicates that X exited normally, without error. In other words, nothing went wrong, it did what it was told to do, you just likely have not told it to do what you want.

good thing is that i actually installed xfce4 and uncommented the corresponding line in the .xinitrc and the xfce4 launced successfully. Maybe I was frustrated because under root I got something, and under user - failures.

The bad thing is that when I want now to launch bspwm with the following .xinitrc

I get a completely black screen with no response

Trilby · 2013-10-19 18:29:01

Remove the exec from the VBox line. Then read `man exec`.

Arch Linux

#1 2013-10-19 10:23:00

Installing arch under virtualbox - cannot open default display & stuff

#2 2013-10-19 14:52:35

Re: Installing arch under virtualbox - cannot open default display & stuff

#3 2013-10-19 17:19:33

Re: Installing arch under virtualbox - cannot open default display & stuff

#4 2013-10-19 17:30:39

Re: Installing arch under virtualbox - cannot open default display & stuff

#5 2013-10-19 17:57:06

Re: Installing arch under virtualbox - cannot open default display & stuff

#6 2013-10-19 18:08:49

Re: Installing arch under virtualbox - cannot open default display & stuff

#7 2013-10-19 18:29:01

Re: Installing arch under virtualbox - cannot open default display & stuff

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