[SOLVED] xinit freezes while startx works ok

Squall · 2015-09-04 12:39:43

Hello,

I've got my arch system configured with X/i3 and all works well and has done for a while.

However, when I want to start another xsession without i3 running, just xterm the server freezes, and nothing works, no console switching or anything is possible.

I am not sure why this might be.

So if I do this in a new console:

xinit `which xterm` -- :1

I get the xterm up, but then it freezes, or rather the keyboard and moust don't work. Console switching does not work either. The system can do an acpi shutdown by pressing power off so it's still running but all input seems disabled.

Does anyone have a suggestion. I have been able to do the same on other distributions without problems. Could it be I need to specify some configuration to work correctly? I didn't need to do this for my normal i3 desktop sessions.

Last edited by Squall (2015-09-04 18:06:02)

Raynman · 2015-09-04 12:56:54

If you (for some reason) don't want to use startx, you have to pass the right arguments to xinit yourself. This sounds like the problem you get when X doesn't start on the same virtual terminal.

See https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Xinitrc

Trilby · 2015-09-04 12:59:01

wiki wrote:

To now run Xorg as a regular user, issue:
$ startx
or
$ xinit -- :1 -nolisten tcp vt$XDG_VTNR

mod note: moved to NC

Squall · 2015-09-04 18:05:30

Oh I see, thanks. It doesn't explain the vodoo, but I can look that up.

The reason I want to use xinit is to start without the window manager and just xterm instead, but I may now put a switch statment in .xinitrc to do that now instead.

Last edited by Squall (2015-09-04 18:08:05)

Raynman · 2015-09-04 18:15:42

Squall wrote:

The reason I want to use xinit is to start without the window manager and just xterm instead, but I may now put a switch statment in .xinitrc to do that now instead.

Why not specify the client on the commandline exactly like you were doing with xinit?

WorMzy · 2015-09-04 18:57:53

From Squall:

squall wrote:

Yes, that's a good point. I don't know the answer to that. I suppose I had some notion I couldn't for some reason.
Well, that will teach me. Thank you.
I was going to ask if there is a way of escaping the xinit trap, but I'll not go near those dragons again.

Squall, you accidentally clicked report, rather than quote. It happens.

Squall · 2015-09-04 20:04:00

WorMzy wrote:

From Squall:
squall wrote:
Yes, that's a good point. I don't know the answer to that. I suppose I had some notion I couldn't for some reason.
Well, that will teach me. Thank you.
I was going to ask if there is a way of escaping the xinit trap, but I'll not go near those dragons again.
Squall, you accidentally clicked report, rather than quote. It happens.

Oh dear, sorry. I am not doing well today. I should go and read all the xorg man pages before bed too.

The preferred way:
startx `which xterm` -- :2

Trilby · 2015-09-04 20:58:01

There's no need for those backticks and which. The following two commands have the same result:

startx `which xterm`
startx xterm

Just the first one is ugly, and spawns extra processes.

Raynman · 2015-09-04 21:33:37

Trilby wrote:

There's no need for those backticks and which. The following two commands have the same result:
startx `which xterm`
startx xterm
Just the first one is ugly, and spawns extra processes.

The first one runs the xterm program as the client, the second (because xterm doesn't start with "/" or "./" [1]) runs ~/.xinitrc as the client with "xterm" as the first argument. But unless this has to work with xterms in different places on different systems, why not specify the full path directly? Or with zsh: `startx =xterm`.

[1] The xinit man page says it needs to start with "/" or ".", but startx checks for a slash after the dot.

Arch Linux

#1 2015-09-04 12:39:43

[SOLVED] xinit freezes while startx works ok

#2 2015-09-04 12:56:54

Re: [SOLVED] xinit freezes while startx works ok

#3 2015-09-04 12:59:01

Re: [SOLVED] xinit freezes while startx works ok

#4 2015-09-04 18:05:30

Re: [SOLVED] xinit freezes while startx works ok

#5 2015-09-04 18:15:42

Re: [SOLVED] xinit freezes while startx works ok

#6 2015-09-04 18:57:53

Re: [SOLVED] xinit freezes while startx works ok

#7 2015-09-04 20:04:00

Re: [SOLVED] xinit freezes while startx works ok

#8 2015-09-04 20:58:01

Re: [SOLVED] xinit freezes while startx works ok

#9 2015-09-04 21:33:37

Re: [SOLVED] xinit freezes while startx works ok

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