Arch Linux

slamhound

Member

Registered: 2011-07-26

Posts: 44

[SOLVED] Intermittent problem starting X

A few days ago, I started having a problem when I use startx to load i3 (I've been using this system for a long time with no problems). I get the following error (written down from screen, so may not be exactly correct):

Xf86 enable Io ports:
failed to set IoPL for I/O (operation not permitted)
(EE) Fatal server error:
(EE) AddScreen/Screen Init failed for driver 0

The weird thing is that sometimes everything works fine and I can get into i3 and sometimes I get this error. I can't tell what is different when it works and when it doesn't. I haven't changed anything recently in .xinitrc or the i3 config. I saved the Xorg logs for times when I successfully get into X and times when I did not. Everything in the log is the same up until this point, which is from the log when it fails:

[   363.228] (==) modeset(0): DPI set to (96, 96)
[   363.228] (II) Loading sub module "fb"
[   363.228] (II) LoadModule: "fb"
[   363.228] (II) Loading /usr/lib/xorg/modules/libfb.so
[   363.228] (II) Module fb: vendor="X.Org Foundation"
[   363.228] 	compiled for 1.20.5, module version = 1.0.0
[   363.228] 	ABI class: X.Org ANSI C Emulation, version 0.4
[   363.228] (II) UnloadModule: "vesa"
[   363.228] (II) Unloading vesa
[   363.228] (EE) modeset(0): drmSetMaster failed: Permission denied
[   363.229] (EE) 
Fatal server error:
[   363.229] (EE) AddScreen/ScreenInit failed for driver 0
[   363.229] (EE) 
[   363.229] (EE) 
Please consult the The X.Org Foundation support 
	 at http://wiki.x.org
 for help. 
[   363.229] (EE) Please also check the log file at "/home/rich/.local/share/xorg/Xorg.0.log" for additional information.
[   363.229] (EE) 
[   363.264] (EE) Server terminated with error (1). Closing log file.

Any pointers on where to begin troubleshooting?

Last edited by slamhound (2019-09-27 17:56:17)

V1del

Forum Moderator

Registered: 2012-10-16

Posts: 25,372

Re: [SOLVED] Intermittent problem starting X

https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=249311 - if you search the boards for the modesetting error you will find many threads on it.

FWIW while that might suffice, I've only seen the first error on improper session setups, if your .xinitrc only contains exec i3 it misses a few essential includes (note the blue boxes) to properly set up a session that you will likely want to implement as well.

slamhound

Member

Registered: 2011-07-26

Posts: 44

Re: [SOLVED] Intermittent problem starting X

Great, thanks! I had searched and found lots of older posts related to permissions and things that didn't seem to apply. But I tried the early KMS and will see if that fixes things (it did for this last boot, at least). Will mark as solved for now at least.