Troubles with X on a fresh install

baodhah1977 · 2014-09-24 21:51:37

Good evening folks, I'm a newbie on Arch but I managed to conclude the installation. Everything is fine but now I'd like to get X working, in order to have a GUI for common home use. I'm working on a HP Pavilion dv5-1050el, CPU Intel Centrino 1.7 GHz, ram 4 GB, graphic card Nvidia GeForce 9600M GT.
I've followed the official guide with no problem but after rebooting, logging in tty1 and giving startx, the screen got blank for a couple of seconds, then the Nvidia logo popped up screen-wide and at last blank screen again for circa 20-30 seconds, when the tty1 returned me, among other non-error messages, the following lines:

[...]waiting for X server to shutdown .. (EE) Server terminated successfully (0). Closing log file.

xinit: server error
xauth: timeout in locking authority file /home/pinco/.Xauthority

I wanted a WM rather than a DE for keeping my system lightweight, and I was going for Openbox...

Any ideas about what I could do?

Thank you in advance :smile:

Last edited by baodhah1977 (2014-09-24 21:52:43)

markzz · 2014-09-25 02:26:40

Just for clarification, what video driver did you install?
What is in your .xinitrc file? Make sure it's starting openbox.
Who is the owner and what are the permissions of /home/pinco? Make sure your user has write permissions, that would explain the Xauthority problem.

baodhah1977 · 2014-09-25 13:57:21

Hi markzz, how you doing? I'll see if I am able to answer your questions, although I'm not a geek

Just for clarification, what video driver did you install?

Well, I'm ashamed to admit I wouldn't even know where to start checking it out: please, woyld you mind telling me? ^_^''

What is in your .xinitrc file? Make sure it's starting openbox.

#!/bin/sh
#
# ~/.xinitrc
#
# Executed by startx (run your window manager from here)

if [ -d /etc/X11/xinit/xinitrc.d ]; then
  for f in /etc/X11/xinit/xinitrc.d/*; do
    [ -x "$f" ] && . "$f"
  done
  unset f
fi

# exec gnome-session
# exec startkde
# exec startxfce4
# exec wmaker
# exec icewm
# exec blackbox
# exec fluxbox
# exec openbox-session
# exec mate-session
# exec xterm
# ...or the Window Manager of your choice
exec ck-lauch-session dbus-launch openbox-session

Who is the owner and what are the permissions of /home/pinco?

#ls -l /home
[...]
drwxr-xr-x  187   1001   1001  16384 Sep 24 23:23 pinco
[...]

#ls -al /home/pinco | grep .Xauthority
-rw-------   1 pinco pinco          0 Sep 20 17:46 .Xauthority

markzz · 2014-09-25 15:43:42

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/xo … stallation

Using the link above, check which driver is installed by running "pacman -Qe | grep <package_name>" to several different drivers. If you installed any of the Nvidia proprietary drivers, make sure that you have completely installed it as described by the wiki. https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Nvidia

Also, on the last line of .xinitrc, try separating the exec lines so that each of the three are on different lines.

jasonwryan · 2014-09-25 17:15:07

That line in your .xinitrc isn't from Arch documentation; it is completely outdated, remove it and replace it with a working one.

HiImTye · 2014-09-25 17:21:42

baodhah1977 wrote:

#ls -l /home
[...]
drwxr-xr-x  187   1001   1001  16384 Sep 24 23:23 pinco
[...]

am I correct in assuming that pinco's UID and GID aren't "1001"?

echo $UID; grep ^pinco /etc/group

baodhah1977 · 2014-09-26 10:56:09

Hi markzz!

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/xo … stallation
Using the link above, check which driver is installed by running "pacman -Qe | grep <package_name>" to several different drivers. If you installed any of the Nvidia proprietary drivers, make sure that you have completely installed it as described by the wiki. https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Nvidia

As long as I could see, the official Nvidia package for my graphic card was nvdia plus nvidia-utils, which I had both installed.

Also, on the last line of .xinitrc, try separating the exec lines so that each of the three are on different lines.

Sorry, but I don't get what you mean with "so that each of the three are on different lines." ^_^''

Hi jasonwryan!

That line in your .xinitrc isn't from Arch documentation; it is completely outdated, remove it and replace it with a working one.

I'm afraid I don't know how I could do that (replacing that line with a working one; I mean)...

Hi HiImTye!

am I correct in assuming that pinco's UID and GID aren't "1001"?
echo $UID; grep ^pinco /etc/group

echo $UID; grep ^pinco /etc/group
1000

markzz · 2014-09-26 11:25:18

With that GID being incorrect, that would explain the locking problem of your Xauthority.

In regards to your possibly problematic xinitrc file, where did you get that last line? jasonwryan is suggesting that you replace it with something that is in the Arch wiki or other Arch related documentation.

baodhah1977 · 2014-09-26 12:42:19

With that GID being incorrect, that would explain the locking problem of your Xauthority.
In regards to your possibly problematic xinitrc file, where did you get that last line? jasonwryan is suggesting that you replace it with something that is in the Arch wiki or other Arch related documentation.

I don't honestly remember where I did find that line, amongst all the sites I visited... I'll change both the owner and group of my .Xauthority (as simple user) and the final line of .xinitrc, just changing into

exec openbox-session

and afterwards I'll come back to you to give you a feedback

baodhah1977 · 2014-09-26 21:10:53

After changing the last .xinitrc line into

exec openbox-session

I gave

#chown -Rvf pinco /home/pinco/* && #chgrp -Rvf pinco /home/pinco/*

It took "only" 5 hours to be done, so I rebooted, logged in and gave startx, but, again,

[...]waiting for X server to shutdown .. (EE) Server terminated successfully (0). Closing log file.

xinit: server error
xauth: timeout in locking authority file /home/pinco/.Xauthority

markzz · 2014-09-28 12:59:58

I would have ran the command...

# chown -R pinco /home/pinco && chgrp -R pinco /home/pinco

This will change the permissions of the actual directory, not just the files and directories inside.

EDIT:

I have installed Arch into a virtual machine with openbox and it started no problem...

/home/markzz/.xinitrc

#!/bin/sh

if [ -d /etc/X11/xinit/xinitrc.d ]; then
  for f in /etc/X11/xinit/xinitrc.d/*; do
    [ -x "$f" ] && . "$f"
  done
  unset f
fi

exec openbox-session

Ownership info on /home.

$ ls -l
dwrx------ 3 markzz markzz 4096 Sep 28 10:16 markzz

Last edited by markzz (2014-09-28 14:20:15)

baodhah1977 · 2014-09-29 11:09:38

markzz wrote:

I would have ran the command...
# chown -R pinco /home/pinco && chgrp -R pinco /home/pinco
This will change the permissions of the actual directory, not just the files and directories inside.
EDIT:
I have installed Arch into a virtual machine with openbox and it started no problem...
/home/markzz/.xinitrc
#!/bin/sh

if [ -d /etc/X11/xinit/xinitrc.d ]; then
  for f in /etc/X11/xinit/xinitrc.d/*; do
    [ -x "$f" ] && . "$f"
  done
  unset f
fi

exec openbox-session
Ownership info on /home.
$ ls -l
dwrx------ 3 markzz markzz 4096 Sep 28 10:16 markzz

Well, I changed the .xinitrc file as you suggested and then I gave the commands to change owner and group to my user home (even if I still don't get in what they were different from the commands I had given the last time), but my laptop, after a few hours of ininterrupted work suddenly shutted down (I guess cos it got too hot).
Later on I'm going to try again and I'll tell you how it goes.
Cheers by now.

markzz · 2014-09-30 19:14:02

baodhah1977 wrote:

...even if I still don't get in what they were different from the commands I had given the last time...

The difference is the one you gave doesn't actually change the directory itself, only the files/directories inside the directory. My command changes the directory AND all of its contents, not just the contents.

Last edited by markzz (2014-09-30 19:15:12)

baodhah1977 · 2014-10-01 17:54:58

ehm... I'm ashamed to ask, but... what should the permissions be in my home? 755? ^_^''

markzz · 2014-10-01 23:38:16

On my computers /home/user is always 700 and the contents are as follows...

Directories: 755
Files: 644

baodhah1977 · 2014-10-02 07:20:29

I wrongly gave

#chmod -Rv 700 /home/pinco

How could I set the permissions 755 only to directories and, in a second stage, the permissions 644 only to files?

baodhah1977 · 2014-10-07 08:38:44

anybody there?

baodhah1977 · 2014-10-09 10:51:04

Hello?

berbae · 2014-10-09 15:45:16

Hello
Can I remind you that Arch Linux is not intended to be a hand holding distro?
Changing ownership/mode of directories/files should be a basic operation; if you don't know that already, I doubt that you should begin in Linux with Arch.

I suggest that you try to re-install entirely following only the 'Installation guide' and the 'Beginner's guide' from the Arch site (not internet sites).
If this is too hard for you, you should consider choosing another distro more beginner friendly.
No hurt intended. Good luck.

baodhah1977 · 2014-10-10 15:01:54

berbae wrote:

Hello
Can I remind you that Arch Linux is not intended to be a hand holding distro?
Changing ownership/mode of directories/files should be a basic operation; if you don't know that already, I doubt that you should begin in Linux with Arch.
I suggest that you try to re-install entirely following only the 'Installation guide' and the 'Beginner's guide' from the Arch site (not internet sites).
If this is too hard for you, you should consider choosing another distro more beginner friendly.
No hurt intended. Good luck.

Hi berbae, have you seen what I asdked, exactly? My question was NOT how to change the permissions in general, but how could change them for files ONLY and directories ONLY: of course I do know how to change them normally. If I decided to take on Arch it was exactly to learn more about Linux with a less user-friendly distro, so to understand, step by step, what was going on during the installation and not only.

Even what I asked was not strictly Arch-related, it was a consequence of something I did during the operations I had requested help here for, so if you feel annoyed because of my question you should consider choosing not even to read this topic.
No hurt intended. Good luck

berbae · 2014-10-10 15:45:46

OK I see I have hurted you, though I said that I didn't intend to; sorry.
I am not annoyed by your question, but the guys who helped you before seem to have gone away; why?
Maybe they are annoyed by your question.
In your post #3 you admit not knowing how to check what video driver you have installed.
Then from your post at '2014-10-02 09:20:29' to '2014-10-09 12:51:04', ie one week later, you just waited for an answer, without seemingly doing anything else on your own (a suggestion for you: 'find <dir> -type <f or d> -exec chmod ...' the 'find' command is pretty well known in my opinion).
You also said that you followed some things from sites you don't remember.
As it's unclear what you have done exactly, I suggested that you "re-install entirely following only the 'Installation guide' and the 'Beginner's guide' from the Arch site (not internet sites)".
So go ahead with Arch if you want to, if you feel it's good for your learning experience; but I repeat that you should not expect hand holding here for everything you try (this remark is frequently told here when someone doesn't show enough research by him/herself).

Last edited by berbae (2014-10-10 15:47:20)

baodhah1977 · 2014-10-10 16:02:48

I see your point, but despite the appereance, I am trying to do something myself, searching on the Internet (mainly on the Arch site) when I got any idea or asking someone part of the Italian Arch community, but I did want to finish with THIS issue on THIS forum, while I was operating on my own for the other problems.
The fact that I do not say a word about my personal attempts and my successes when I do manage to get through a difficulty does not mean I am just waiting from a divine intervention, if you know what I mean...
Thank you for being the one so kind to answer me after such a long time... I was afraid to have been left alone (and without you I probably would).
I know Arch is hard, for some things, but I managed to learn a lot and I want to continue like this.
Seen that nobody seems to be disposable to answer me for this topic I'll ask somewhere else, not before thanking you and markzz, jasonwryan and HiImTye who replied me.
Have a nice weekend you all.

Arch Linux

#1 2014-09-24 21:51:37

Troubles with X on a fresh install

#2 2014-09-25 02:26:40

Re: Troubles with X on a fresh install

#3 2014-09-25 13:57:21

Re: Troubles with X on a fresh install

#4 2014-09-25 15:43:42

Re: Troubles with X on a fresh install

#5 2014-09-25 17:15:07

Re: Troubles with X on a fresh install

#6 2014-09-25 17:21:42

Re: Troubles with X on a fresh install

#7 2014-09-26 10:56:09

Re: Troubles with X on a fresh install

#8 2014-09-26 11:25:18

Re: Troubles with X on a fresh install

#9 2014-09-26 12:42:19

Re: Troubles with X on a fresh install

#10 2014-09-26 21:10:53

Re: Troubles with X on a fresh install

#11 2014-09-28 12:59:58

Re: Troubles with X on a fresh install

#12 2014-09-29 11:09:38

Re: Troubles with X on a fresh install

#13 2014-09-30 19:14:02

Re: Troubles with X on a fresh install

#14 2014-10-01 17:54:58

Re: Troubles with X on a fresh install

#15 2014-10-01 23:38:16

Re: Troubles with X on a fresh install

#16 2014-10-02 07:20:29

Re: Troubles with X on a fresh install

#17 2014-10-07 08:38:44

Re: Troubles with X on a fresh install

#18 2014-10-09 10:51:04

Re: Troubles with X on a fresh install

#19 2014-10-09 15:45:16

Re: Troubles with X on a fresh install

#20 2014-10-10 15:01:54

Re: Troubles with X on a fresh install

#21 2014-10-10 15:45:46

Re: Troubles with X on a fresh install

#22 2014-10-10 16:02:48

Re: Troubles with X on a fresh install

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