Arch Linux

PieterGen

Member

From: Groningen, NL, EU

Registered: 2012-01-18

Posts: 59

Solved - Problem with X-server under spectrwm (was: scrotwm)

spectrwm runs fine, except:

Minor problem: for some reason it only wants to start xterm as a terminal, I could start my lxterm --> workaround: I installed xterm

Bigger problem: one process is taking ridiculous amounts of cpu. htop showed that it is process
/usr/bin/X -nolisten tcp vt07 -auth /var/run/

Being foreign to the wonderful world of X , I have to ask ..... could any of you please give me an indication, where should I look to find the problem and correct it?

Thanks a bunch in advance !!

Last edited by PieterGen (2014-04-09 18:03:42)

karol

Archivist

Registered: 2009-05-06

Posts: 25,440

Re: Solved - Problem with X-server under spectrwm (was: scrotwm)

What graphics hardware and drivers are you using? Any relevant info in teh logs or systemd's journal?
What were you doing during the high cpu utilization? How much %cpu is X usually using? How much %cpu is X using right after starting X? What's the output of 'uptime'?

2ManyDogs

Forum Fellow

Registered: 2012-01-15

Posts: 4,648

Re: Solved - Problem with X-server under spectrwm (was: scrotwm)

For the xterm problem, what did you do to try to change the terminal? Did you copy the spectrwm.conf file into your home directory and modify it? How did you modify it?

PieterGen

Member

From: Groningen, NL, EU

Registered: 2012-01-18

Posts: 59

Re: Solved - Problem with X-server under spectrwm (was: scrotwm)

Additional info:
-  system worked and still works fine under Openbox.
- I installed spectrwm (its in the Arch repos) and modified my .xinitrc    I commented start openbox and I added exec spectrwm

To answer your questions (and thanks, karol and 2manydogs, in advance !!)

@karol
- Graphics & Hardware: integrated Intel HD3000
- Driver: lspci -v tells me: 
VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation 2nd Generation Core Processor Family Integrated Graphics Controller (rev 09) (prog-if 00 [VGA controller])
    Subsystem: Lenovo Device 21da
    Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 44
    Memory at d0000000 (64-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=4M]
    Memory at c0000000 (64-bit, prefetchable) [size=256M]
    I/O ports at 4000 [size=64]
    Expansion ROM at <unassigned> [disabled]
    Capabilities: <access denied>
    Kernel driver in use: i915
    Kernel modules: i915

- logs, systemd journal, uptime and percentages I will check later. Conky said it was around 43% CPU use; htop was around 90-100% on one core, if I recall right . I know htop cannot be interpreted as real percentages. it stays that way

- what I did: to stop it: I logged into a different terminal, edited .xinitrc (I uncommented openbox and commented spectrwm) and closed

Regarding the xterm and lxterm:
- spectrwm starts with an error message 'can not find xterm'
- dmenu shows lxterm (as it should, it's on my system) but refuses to start it under spectrwm
- I installed xterm and after that (duh) spectrwm *could* open xterm

@2manyDogs
- I could log into a different terminal (ctrl-alt-F2 etc.) which works of course fine
- I installed xterm so that i could have a virtual terminal at least
- I did nothing with spectrwm.conf .... yes I'm dumb    I will look into it

I do like a lot of the functionality of spectrwm. Although most tiles feel more or less the same (I tried i3wm, musca, awesome and now spectrwm)

Last edited by PieterGen (2014-04-09 09:23:55)

PieterGen

Member

From: Groningen, NL, EU

Registered: 2012-01-18

Posts: 59

Re: Solved - Problem with X-server under spectrwm (was: scrotwm)

Solved

The problem seems to be caused by a line in my xinitrc that points to xdg, which is there to generate menus for my openbox. spectrwm doesnt work with it, I assume this was the cause. When I commented that line, spectrwm behaved normal - the cpu now uses like 1 - 2 % according to htop
Now htop is show percentages like 1,2%

And for some reason lxterminal now starts right as well (???). Must have been some PEBKAC error... oops 

Anyway, thanks a lot guys!

Last edited by PieterGen (2014-04-09 18:05:56)