Arch Linux

cddr

Member

Registered: 2012-06-11

Posts: 1

xorg troubleshooting

Hi,

I'm going through the "post installation" process trying to get an Arch Linux Desktop environment.  As per the Xorg wiki page [1], I installed  xorg-twm, xorg-xclock and xterm, and also the relevant X11 drivers, and finally removed my ~/.xinitrc but when I try to "startx", the screen just goes black.  Unfortunately the Xorg.0.log is totally empty so I'm not even sure what I can present that might help someone diagnose the problem.  I successfully installed Arch on a similar machine a few months ago so I wonder if this due to a new version of Xorg because the installation instructions seem to have changed since then.

I don't need fancy graphics, or composite windows or anything.  I just need emacs, postgres, and chromium

[1]: https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Xo … nvironment

adamrehard

Member

From: NY, USA

Registered: 2011-11-03

Posts: 154

Re: xorg troubleshooting

You could (and should) add a .xinitrc with "exec twm" as the last line.
You can check your system-wide xinitrc and confirm it has a line about twm.
What's your graphics card? Do you have the proper driver installed?

Next time, search the forums and read the wiki before posting. It's all out there somewhere. If it's not, then you ask.
Since you're new here, you should read these. They'll save you some time, and a few curt responses.
http://catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Forum_Etiquette

Last edited by adamrehard (2012-06-11 02:10:07)

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"The box said requires Vista or better, so I installed Arch"
Windows != Linux

Trilby

Inspector Parrot

Registered: 2011-11-29

Posts: 30,456

Website

Re: xorg troubleshooting

~/.xinitrc is not necessary, and in fact it is better to not have it at the TWM testing stage.  This allows the system to use the default xinitrc which is already set up.  It takes one variable out of the system.  So until TWM works, I'd say don't create a ~/.xinitrc.

The most likely candidate for the problem is a video driver issue as adamrehard also mentioned.  The ouput of the following two commands would help clarify that part:

lspci | grep -i vga
pacman -Qs xf86-video

Also, when you get to the black screen, can you switch ttys via Ctl-Alt-F1 or Ctl-Alt-F2, etc?

If you can, is there any output on tty1 (Ctl-Alt-F1)?

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"UNIX is simple and coherent" - Dennis Ritchie; "GNU's Not Unix" - Richard Stallman