[SOLVED] Nothing happens when starting up X11 (but wayland works fine)

yoanar · 2018-04-29 12:06:50

Wayland is working perfectly fine, but has performance problems so I want to use X11 again.

But whenever I attempt to start a new X11 session either from gdm or by running `startx`, X11
seems to start up normally but nothing is displayed on the screen.

Xorg log: https://pastebin.com/bhjPgEwC

Basically the tty where Xorg gets launched freezes up and nothing happens until I kill xorg.
This happens for Gnome, Openbox, AwesomeWM, and XFCE4.

I've looked at the Wiki but found nothing that matched my issue.

I'm running on an Nvidia+Intel laptop, with the latest Nvidia 390.48 proprietary driver.

The drivers appear to be working:

~ ❯❯❯ optirun glxinfo | grep -i opengl
OpenGL vendor string: NVIDIA Corporation
OpenGL renderer string: GeForce GTX 1050/PCIe/SSE2
OpenGL core profile version string: 4.6.0 NVIDIA 390.48
OpenGL core profile shading language version string: 4.60 NVIDIA
OpenGL core profile context flags: (none)
OpenGL core profile profile mask: core profile
OpenGL core profile extensions:
OpenGL version string: 4.6.0 NVIDIA 390.48
OpenGL shading language version string: 4.60 NVIDIA
OpenGL context flags: (none)
OpenGL profile mask: (none)
OpenGL extensions:

I also haven't seen any errors pertaining to the nvidia driver in the kernel logs.

I don't know exactly when the problem started occuring as it's been quite some
time since I was primarily using X11.

Last edited by yoanar (2018-04-30 15:03:08)

seth · 2018-04-29 12:11:48

Using config file: "/etc/X11/xorg.conf"

What does this look like and did you follow https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/NV … ing_nvidia (assuming this is an optimus system), notably the outputprovider management?

yoanar · 2018-04-29 12:14:48

Generated by `nvidia-xconfig` but I edited in the pci id later.

# nvidia-xconfig: X configuration file generated by nvidia-xconfig
# nvidia-xconfig:  version 390.48  (buildmeister@swio-display-x86-rhel47-07)  Thu Mar 22 01:07:32 PDT 2018


Section "ServerLayout"
    Identifier     "Layout0"
    Screen      0  "Screen0" 0 0
    InputDevice    "Keyboard0" "CoreKeyboard"
    InputDevice    "Mouse0" "CorePointer"
EndSection

Section "Files"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"

    # generated from default
    Identifier     "Mouse0"
    Driver         "mouse"
    Option         "Protocol" "auto"
    Option         "Device" "/dev/psaux"
    Option         "Emulate3Buttons" "no"
    Option         "ZAxisMapping" "4 5"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"

    # generated from default
    Identifier     "Keyboard0"
    Driver         "kbd"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
    Identifier     "Monitor0"
    VendorName     "Unknown"
    ModelName      "Unknown"
    HorizSync       28.0 - 33.0
    VertRefresh     43.0 - 72.0
    Option         "DPMS"
EndSection

Section "Device"
    Identifier     "Device0"
    Driver         "nvidia"
    VendorName     "NVIDIA Corporation"
    BusID "PCI:1:0:0"
EndSection

Section "Screen"
    Identifier     "Screen0"
    Device         "Device0"
    Monitor        "Monitor0"
    DefaultDepth    24
    SubSection     "Display"
        Depth       24
    EndSubSection
EndSection

yoanar · 2018-04-29 12:27:16

Update:

After doing everything that the Wiki says on optimus, I get a black screen instead of
the screen just freezing. Gnome on X11 eventually drops me back into gdm after blacking
out the screen for a bit.

Here is the new Xorg log output: https://pastebin.com/2c0DRcmE

nesk · 2018-04-29 12:28:14

yoanar wrote:

by running `startx`, X11 seems to start up normally but nothing is displayed on the screen.

Share your .xinitrc. Do you have anything at the end of it for X to run (like xterm)?

yoanar · 2018-04-29 12:30:18

.xinitrc

xrandr --setprovideroutputsource modesetting NVIDIA-0
xrandr --auto

exec gnome-session

seth · 2018-04-29 12:33:54

Check your journal for gnome-session issues, the server starts and terminates immediately, suggesting the session process fails.
(You could also try openbox instead of gnome to check the principal functionality)

nesk · 2018-04-29 12:35:11

yoanar wrote:

.xinitrc

xrandr --setprovideroutputsource modesetting NVIDIA-0
xrandr --auto

exec gnome-session

Check if xrandr stuff is still valid - you mentioned not using X11 for a long time, maybe source/output names changed on your system. What is xrandr --auto supposed to do? Try replacing gnome-session with something simpler, like xterm or urxvt.

yoanar · 2018-04-29 12:37:28

Openbox just displays a completely black screen, as in, the backlighting is off completely on both
of my displays (one laptop with an external monitor.)

It just keeps displaying that black screen on TTY2 (where I launched it) until I kill Xorg.

seth · 2018-04-29 12:38:55

If you just run "openbox" it won't show much - but you could try right-clicking the background (do you get a mouse cursor?)

yoanar · 2018-04-29 12:40:30

The xrandr stuff is just taken directly from here: https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/NV … ing_nvidia

yoanar · 2018-04-29 12:41:28

No, no mouse cursor.

I'm going to try stopping my current wayland session as well as gdm and running `startx` again.
I'll post the result of that.

yoanar · 2018-04-29 12:45:51

Stopping the other wayland sessions before running `startx` made no difference.

yoanar · 2018-04-29 12:46:40

I'll emphasize that there was no backlighting on either of my displays, which seems to suggest
that Xorg can't even find the displays.

yoanar · 2018-04-29 12:55:36

Output of `nvidia-xconfig --query-gpu-info`:

Number of GPUs: 1

GPU #0:
  Name      : GeForce GTX 1050
  UUID      : GPU-55ea8577-f233-cfde-7199-6b721cb9d965
  PCI BusID : PCI:1:0:0

  Number of Display Devices: 0

Note the number of display devices.

V1del · 2018-04-29 13:06:12

Yeah this is normal and expected, Optimus systems have the display wired to the intel chip, the nvidia card doesn't see a screen. Get GDM out of the picture, follow the advice on on the Optimus page. Post your current /etc/X11/xorg.conf and ~/.xinitrc

Last edited by V1del (2018-04-29 13:08:02)

yoanar · 2018-04-30 15:02:50

I've basically just given up at this point, Optimus has just never worked for me on Linux and I don't feel like wasting any more of my time on it.
Wayland works perfectly fine off the Intel GPU and optirun gives me *somewhat* OK performance under Wayland+GNOME.

Going to mark this issue as solved: I've just started to reboot into Windows when I need to use my GPU for anything more intensive,
I'd honestly recommend that others do the same for now (I'm not happy about it though.)

Maybe one day X11 will magically start working again after an update, just like it magically stopped working a while ago.

Last edited by yoanar (2018-04-30 15:08:00)

seth · 2018-04-30 18:25:37

optirun gives you no performance on wayland, because it does not work on wayland. You just get the intel chip performance.

I'd therefore honestly recommend that others do NOT do the same (if they want to use optimus, at least until wayland supports it) and especially not since you're frankly the only person I'm aware of to have major issues with this.

Lone_Wolf · 2018-05-01 12:23:27

Yoanar, It would probably help if you realised your problems have a very clear root cause and it's not X , gnome , linux or wayland .

Arch Linux

#1 2018-04-29 12:06:50

[SOLVED] Nothing happens when starting up X11 (but wayland works fine)

#2 2018-04-29 12:11:48

Re: [SOLVED] Nothing happens when starting up X11 (but wayland works fine)

#3 2018-04-29 12:14:48

Re: [SOLVED] Nothing happens when starting up X11 (but wayland works fine)

#4 2018-04-29 12:27:16

Re: [SOLVED] Nothing happens when starting up X11 (but wayland works fine)

#5 2018-04-29 12:28:14

Re: [SOLVED] Nothing happens when starting up X11 (but wayland works fine)

#6 2018-04-29 12:30:18

Re: [SOLVED] Nothing happens when starting up X11 (but wayland works fine)

#7 2018-04-29 12:33:54

Re: [SOLVED] Nothing happens when starting up X11 (but wayland works fine)

#8 2018-04-29 12:35:11

Re: [SOLVED] Nothing happens when starting up X11 (but wayland works fine)

#9 2018-04-29 12:37:28

Re: [SOLVED] Nothing happens when starting up X11 (but wayland works fine)

#10 2018-04-29 12:38:55

Re: [SOLVED] Nothing happens when starting up X11 (but wayland works fine)

#11 2018-04-29 12:40:30

Re: [SOLVED] Nothing happens when starting up X11 (but wayland works fine)

#12 2018-04-29 12:41:28

Re: [SOLVED] Nothing happens when starting up X11 (but wayland works fine)

#13 2018-04-29 12:45:51

Re: [SOLVED] Nothing happens when starting up X11 (but wayland works fine)

#14 2018-04-29 12:46:40

Re: [SOLVED] Nothing happens when starting up X11 (but wayland works fine)

#15 2018-04-29 12:55:36

Re: [SOLVED] Nothing happens when starting up X11 (but wayland works fine)

#16 2018-04-29 13:06:12

Re: [SOLVED] Nothing happens when starting up X11 (but wayland works fine)

#17 2018-04-30 15:02:50

Re: [SOLVED] Nothing happens when starting up X11 (but wayland works fine)

#18 2018-04-30 18:25:37

Re: [SOLVED] Nothing happens when starting up X11 (but wayland works fine)

#19 2018-05-01 12:23:27

Re: [SOLVED] Nothing happens when starting up X11 (but wayland works fine)

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