XFCE blank screen

warcram · 2017-11-05 13:57:20

Hi there,

I am installing multiple desktop environments on my laptop as I like different desktop environments for different tasks.

I have GNOME installed and got it looking nice. I went to install XFCE and it installed no problem, entry for XFCE login session is there at login, however when I log into the session I just get a black screen with nothing else. No cursor or anything. I get out of this by opening a seperate terminal window (ctrl + alt + F5 etc) however I cannot get XFCE to work.

Is this an issue because I am trying to run multiple desktop environments at the same time?

System specs:
i7-4720HQ, 8GB RAM, GTX 970M.

Apologies if this is a newbie question - fairly new to Arch and installing different DE's.

Thanks in advance,

ewaller · 2017-11-05 16:49:21

I would disable the Display Manager you are using and try it using startx and a customized ~/.xixnitrc file and see if it works. If not, at least you will be able to see console messages as to what happened.

adesh · 2017-11-05 16:54:38

How are you starting XFCE - login manager (which?) or xinitrc.
Did you check Xorg log?

warcram · 2017-11-06 09:36:41

adesh wrote:

How are you starting XFCE - login manager (which?) or xinitrc.

Using either GDM or xinitrc I am getting a blank screen.

adesh wrote:

Did you check Xorg log?

Not 100% on what I'm checking for but there doesn't seem to be any blaring errors in there.

ewaller wrote:

I would disable the Display Manager you are using and try it using startx and a customized ~/.xixnitrc file and see if it works. If not, at least you will be able to see console messages as to what happened.

I have tried opening up a new terminal session without logging in on GDM and trying to launch with startx and startxfce4, both resulting in a blank screen.

Thanks for the help so far

Warcram

ewaller · 2017-11-06 16:07:10

Okay. If you start the session then kill it (One method would be to change consoles using Ctrl-Alt-F2, log in and kill the appropriate process, then change back to the original console) and check any messages that had been posted.

seth · 2017-11-06 19:06:06

Does the monitor suspend ("no signal", you likley won't get that on an lvds/eDP) in this case?
Check "xrandr -q -display :0" from the other virtual terminal.

cfr · 2017-11-07 01:10:07

Since there's no xfce package, which packages did you install? I'm assuming you installed the xfce4 group, but it would be good to be sure.

Last edited by cfr (2017-11-07 01:11:16)

warcram · 2017-11-07 11:40:22

cfr wrote:

Since there's no xfce package, which packages did you install? I'm assuming you installed the xfce4 group, but it would be good to be sure.

xfce4 was the package that I installed.

seth wrote:

Does the monitor suspend ("no signal", you likley won't get that on an lvds/eDP) in this case? Check "xrandr -q -display :0" from the other virtual terminal.

Don't get any messages like this as I am on a laptop, just get a black screen.

ewaller wrote:

Okay. If you start the session then kill it (One method would be to change consoles using Ctrl-Alt-F2, log in and kill the appropriate process, then change back to the original console) and check any messages that had been posted.

Tried going through to a seperate tty, killed the relevant processes, however when I kill the xfce4-session I get returned to the GDM Login manager, with no error message.

Still got no further - might be worth noting this also happens with i3 sessions, black screen etc.

adesh · 2017-11-07 12:28:15

warcram wrote:

xfce4 was the package that I installed.

There is no xfce4 package, but a group (of packages). So, that means you installed all the packages under xfce4 group.

seth · 2017-11-07 14:49:16

seth wrote:

Check "xrandr -q -display :0" from the other virtual terminal.

It's possible that the xfce session tries a randr restore and does shit, so you end up with no active output.

ewaller · 2017-11-07 16:30:00

warcram wrote:

ewaller wrote:
Okay. If you start the session then kill it (One method would be to change consoles using Ctrl-Alt-F2, log in and kill the appropriate process, then change back to the original console) and check any messages that had been posted.
Tried going through to a seperate tty, killed the relevant processes, however when I kill the xfce4-session I get returned to the GDM Login manager, with no error message.
Still got no further - might be worth noting this also happens with i3 sessions, black screen etc.

ewaller wrote:

I would disable the Display Manager you are using and try it using startx and a customized ~/.xixnitrc file and see if it works. If not, at least you will be able to see console messages as to what happened.

I really had not meant for that to be a suggestion in passing. Turn off the damn display manager.

Arch Linux

#1 2017-11-05 13:57:20

XFCE blank screen

#2 2017-11-05 16:49:21

Re: XFCE blank screen

#3 2017-11-05 16:54:38

Re: XFCE blank screen

#4 2017-11-06 09:36:41

Re: XFCE blank screen

#5 2017-11-06 16:07:10

Re: XFCE blank screen

#6 2017-11-06 19:06:06

Re: XFCE blank screen

#7 2017-11-07 01:10:07

Re: XFCE blank screen

#8 2017-11-07 11:40:22

Re: XFCE blank screen

#9 2017-11-07 12:28:15

Re: XFCE blank screen

#10 2017-11-07 14:49:16

Re: XFCE blank screen

#11 2017-11-07 16:30:00

Re: XFCE blank screen

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