VERY annoying thing with XServer "Can't open display" after a while

y27 · 2009-05-27 22:40:28

This issue is *very* annoying I would love if someone could help.

I had this issue for a long time, thinking I'll fix it. I googled, but everybody seems to have the same problem, but no fix (only temporary ones).

So here's the problem : I installed archlinux on my (very old) laptop, everything works great, now I even installed the XServer, which however is causing this problem:
everything works good for a while, but after a while, I can't launch any new programs, but existing ones work good... If I try to start any X-App in an already running terminal, it gives me:

No protocol specified
xterm Xt error: Can't open display: :0.0

However, all already running apps run fine, they even can create new windows!

The only fix I found for this is to kill & restart the xserver with ctrl+alt+backspace.

Here's my xorg.conf:

Section "ServerLayout"
    Identifier     "X.org Configured"
    Screen      0  "Screen0" 0 0
    InputDevice    "Mouse0" "CorePointer"
    InputDevice    "Keyboard0" "CoreKeyboard"
EndSection

Section "ServerFlags"
    Option    "AutoAddDevices" "False"
EndSection

Section "Files"
    ModulePath   "/usr/lib/xorg/modules"
    FontPath     "/usr/share/fonts/misc"
    FontPath     "/usr/share/fonts/100dpi:unscaled"
    FontPath     "/usr/share/fonts/75dpi:unscaled"
    FontPath     "/usr/share/fonts/TTF"
    FontPath     "/usr/share/fonts/Type1"
EndSection

Section "Module"
    Load  "extmod"
    Load  "xtrap"
    Load  "glx"
    Load  "dbe"
    Load  "dri"
    Load  "freetype"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
    Identifier  "Keyboard0"
    Driver      "kbd"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
    Identifier  "Mouse0"
    Driver      "mouse"
    Option        "Protocol" "auto"
    Option        "Device" "/dev/input/mice"
    Option        "ZAxisMapping" "4 5 6 7"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
    Identifier   "Monitor0"
    VendorName   "Monitor Vendor"
    ModelName    "Monitor Model"
EndSection

Section "Device"
        ### Available Driver options are:-
        ### Values: <i>: integer, <f>: float, <bool>: "True"/"False",
        ### <string>: "String", <freq>: "<f> Hz/kHz/MHz"
        ### [arg]: arg optional
        #Option     "probe_sparse"           # [<bool>]
        #Option     "accel"                  # [<bool>]
        #Option     "crt_display"            # [<bool>]
        #Option     "composite_sync"         # [<bool>]
        #Option     "hw_cursor"              # [<bool>]
        #Option     "force_pci_mode"         # [<bool>]
        #Option     "dma_mode"               # <str>
        #Option     "agp_mode"               # <i>
        #Option     "agp_size"               # <i>
        #Option     "local_textures"         # [<bool>]
        #Option     "buffer_size"            # <i>
        #Option     "tv_out"                 # [<bool>]
        #Option     "tv_standard"            # <str>
        #Option     "mmio_cache"             # [<bool>]
        #Option     "test_mmio_cache"        # [<bool>]
        #Option     "panel_display"          # [<bool>]
        #Option     "reference_clock"        # <freq>
        #Option     "shadow_fb"              # [<bool>]
        #Option     "sw_cursor"              # [<bool>]
        #Option     "AccelMethod"            # <str>
        #Option     "RenderAccel"            # [<bool>]
    Identifier  "Card0"
    Driver      "mach64"
    VendorName  "ATI Technologies Inc"
    BoardName   "3D Rage LT Pro"
    BusID       "PCI:0:5:0"
EndSection

Section "Screen"
    Identifier "Screen0"
    Device     "Card0"
    Monitor    "Monitor0"
    SubSection "Display"
        Viewport   0 0
        Depth     1
    EndSubSection
    SubSection "Display"
        Viewport   0 0
        Depth     4
    EndSubSection
    SubSection "Display"
        Viewport   0 0
        Depth     8
    EndSubSection
    SubSection "Display"
        Viewport   0 0
        Depth     15
    EndSubSection
    SubSection "Display"
        Viewport   0 0
        Depth     16
    EndSubSection
    SubSection "Display"
        Viewport   0 0
        Depth     24
    EndSubSection
EndSection

Here's lspci of my VGA controller (this is probably irrelevant, because people will all sorts of hw have this problem, but here it is anyway):

[x@y ~]$ lspci | grep VGA
00:05.0 VGA compatible controller: ATI Technologies Inc 3D Rage LT Pro (rev dc)

XServ version:

X.Org X Server 1.5.3
Release Date: 5 November 2008
X Protocol Version 11, Revision 0
Build Operating System: Linux 2.6.27-ARCH i686 
Current Operating System: Linux  2.6.28-ARCH #1 SMP PREEMPT Sun Feb 8 10:13:45 UTC 2009 i686
Build Date: 17 December 2008  08:20:05PM
 
    Before reporting problems, check http://wiki.x.org
    to make sure that you have the latest version.

I would be grateful if somebody could help me.

y27 · 2009-05-27 22:50:13

Just to let you know, I updated X to the latest version right now.

Here's the new output of X -version:

X.Org X Server 1.6.1
Release Date: 2009-4-14
X Protocol Version 11, Revision 0
Build Operating System: Linux 2.6.29-ARCH i686 
Current Operating System: Linux  2.6.28-ARCH #1 SMP PREEMPT Sun Feb 8 10:13:45 UTC 2009 i686
Build Date: 15 April 2009  11:09:10AM
 
    Before reporting problems, check http://wiki.x.org
    to make sure that you have the latest version.

Arch Linux

#1 2009-05-27 22:40:28

VERY annoying thing with XServer "Can't open display" after a while

#2 2009-05-27 22:50:13

Re: VERY annoying thing with XServer "Can't open display" after a while

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