[SOLVED] startx works, startxfce4 hangs system

JD220 · 2015-03-23 14:41:01

New Arch install on old test system. This system works fine with a bunch of different Linux installs.

Followed the Beginners guide and some others. Got the Arch system installed and booted OK but cannot get desktop xfce4 running. The basic startx works bringing up a barebones desktop. But trying startxfce4 causes system to hang, no error, just blinking cursor, keyboard and terminals unresponsive. Only thing that responds is power button to shut down system.

What's the common newbie step I'm missing?
Loaded all the xorg-server xorg-init stuff, xf86-video-intel, xfce4 and all that.

Last edited by JD220 (2015-03-23 15:15:51)

Trilby · 2015-03-23 14:57:22

Welcome to the forums. There have been some hints at this issue in other threads today - generally other users hijacking threads where the startxcfce4 issue has no place. Thanks for starting a new thread, perhaps we can pin down the problem here.

I just installed xfce4 and confirmed the problem. A solution or temporary workaround is to use the following:

startxcfe4 -- vt$XDG_VTNR

if you can confirm that works for you, perhaps we can see if this should be reported as a bug upstream as startxfce4 used to (and probably should) handle this itself. And if they don't consider it a bug, we should update our wiki.

EDIT: actually this thread seems to be the same issue. But it is littered with bad advice, and is marked 'solved' with something that is at best a workaround and not a real solution as the suggested change will be overwritten by future updates.

Last edited by Trilby (2015-03-23 15:04:50)

JD220 · 2015-03-23 15:06:27

Dang! You guys are fast and good. THAT WORKED!!!

Got the familiar xfce4 desktop with the mouse all the basics there and working.

What were those extensions -- vt$XDG_VTNR ?

Anyway, I'm off and running now, logged in from Firefox on new Arch Linux XFCE desktop. Thanks!

Last edited by JD220 (2015-03-23 15:18:46)

Trilby · 2015-03-23 15:19:40

JD220 wrote:

What were those extensions?

If you mean the "-- vt$XDG_VTNR" that has a couple of different parts. First the "--" just specifies that everything after it is passed on as an option to Xorg rather than being processed by startxfce4. The second part specifies a vt number, if you login to tty1 you could just use the following:

startxfce4 -- vt1

The version I posted is just more general as logind (part of systemd) defines an environment variable XDG_VTNR that is the number of the current tty, so vt$XDG_VTNR becomes "vt1" if you are on tty1 (or "vt2" if you are on tty2, and so on).

NuSkool · 2015-03-23 23:25:39

Thanks for articulating the reply Trilby. I have learned something today.

Last edited by NuSkool (2015-03-23 23:31:52)

Arch Linux

#1 2015-03-23 14:41:01

[SOLVED] startx works, startxfce4 hangs system

#2 2015-03-23 14:57:22

Re: [SOLVED] startx works, startxfce4 hangs system

#3 2015-03-23 15:06:27

Re: [SOLVED] startx works, startxfce4 hangs system

#4 2015-03-23 15:19:40

Re: [SOLVED] startx works, startxfce4 hangs system

#5 2015-03-23 23:25:39

Re: [SOLVED] startx works, startxfce4 hangs system

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