[SOLVED] startx works only as root

Mocco · 2012-07-23 08:51:18

Hi to all,
I just installed arch on a vaio SVS13A with EFI and dual graphics, both HD4000 and nvidia. I am having troubles running X, startx works and shows the minimal environment only if I'm running it as root, if I'm running it as a normal user only a black screen appears and nothing happens, but there are no errors in Xorg.log. What's happening?
A thing I noticed is that if I try to run

 Xorg -configure

it is not able to do it because it says there are two screens and only one device or something like that (I'm sorry I can't remember well but I'll check next time). Maybe Xorg is not able to find the correct screen (?) when I'm running it as normal user?

On the laptop there's a switch between "stamina" and "speed" to enable the discrete graphics card, I'm doing everything with the graphics disabled but the nvidia card seems to be recognized corretly anyway, maybe it's only a sw thing?

Thank you in advance!

p.s. I searched trough the forum and google but wasn't able to find a solution to my problem.

Last edited by Mocco (2012-07-24 13:24:23)

WorMzy · 2012-07-23 09:00:02

What are the ownership and permissions on your user's .xinitrc and .Xauthority files (if they exist)?

Have you been following the wiki article?

illusionist · 2012-07-23 09:00:21

post your xorg log and your xinitrc

Mocco · 2012-07-23 09:18:21

Yes I used that wiki article, XAuthority has permissions 600 and xinitrc has permissions 777. I created xinitrc on my own using the wiki article: https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Xinitrc but it wasn't there before, maybe I should cancel it?

I can't post the logs right now because I can't access X trough that machine, so it's a bit tricky to do it via command line. Maybe there's an easy way I don't know?

Edit: I deleted XAuthority and xinitrc from the user's home and now startx works (even if it starts after a looooong delay) but gdm doesn't work (it shows a black screen and the mouse cursor which is a clock). This makes me think there's still an error with Xorg.

Last edited by Mocco (2012-07-23 09:31:54)

illusionist · 2012-07-24 07:11:52

could be your xorg.conf which is giving you the problem which driver you are using for your graphics card ?

Mocco · 2012-07-24 07:23:18

I don't have an xorg.conf I was expecting udev to recognize my graphics card automatically, I installed xf86-video-intel and xf86-video-nouveau. Should I try to configure my graphic cards?

illusionist · 2012-07-24 07:32:31

see here

https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=139089
https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=131106
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Hybrid_graphics
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Nvidia
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Xorg.conf

edit: I just saw you have another thread going on in the laptop section with the same problem. Please don't cross post . Read here : Forum Etiquette

Last edited by illusionist (2012-07-24 07:52:40)

Mocco · 2012-07-24 07:50:54

Sorry I recognized the problem was probably with Xorg and not gdm so I opened another post in another section and specified better the problem.
The xorg wiki says that it should recognize automatically the graphics but I suppose it does not, I'll try to fix it and let you know.

Thanks

Mocco · 2012-07-24 09:18:57

I added the configuration file for the two graphic cards but startx for the normal user is still terribly slow to start and I'm not able to use gdm.

I don't want to use both graphic cards or use nvidia optimus or something like that for now, I just want to access gnome and use X. I'm using the intel integrated graphics since it seems the other is not working (if I configure xorg to use it it's not able to run). From xorg.log it seems intel i915 module is able to recognize the card but for some reason gdm is still not working and whowing me only black screen with the clock instead of mouse cursor. To me it seems HD4000 is recognized but for some reason gdm is not working.

The situation is: two graphic cards (intel HD4000 and nvidia) and one monitor (my laptop monitor). I'm using nouveau and intel. No Ati and no dual screen.

Where can I find some logs in order to find the problem? daemons.log says there's a problem with dbus: no such file or directory but it seems dbus is up and running.

Last edited by Mocco (2012-07-24 11:32:59)

Mocco · 2012-07-24 13:23:57

Update: I got gdm to work and was able to enter gnome creating a link to /run/ as explained here: https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=145161 I did:

 ln -s /run/dbus /var/run/dbus

Thanks to everyone but I'll need your help to have bith graphic card working! See you in another topic

Arch Linux

#1 2012-07-23 08:51:18

[SOLVED] startx works only as root

#2 2012-07-23 09:00:02

Re: [SOLVED] startx works only as root

#3 2012-07-23 09:00:21

Re: [SOLVED] startx works only as root

#4 2012-07-23 09:18:21

Re: [SOLVED] startx works only as root

#5 2012-07-24 07:11:52

Re: [SOLVED] startx works only as root

#6 2012-07-24 07:23:18

Re: [SOLVED] startx works only as root

#7 2012-07-24 07:32:31

Re: [SOLVED] startx works only as root

#8 2012-07-24 07:50:54

Re: [SOLVED] startx works only as root

#9 2012-07-24 09:18:57

Re: [SOLVED] startx works only as root

#10 2012-07-24 13:23:57

Re: [SOLVED] startx works only as root

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