Arch Linux

Sebi

Member

Registered: 2015-06-24

Posts: 26

[SOLVED] Unable to launch windowed applications

After moving from KDE to gnome I'm dealing with an issue similar to the one described here:

https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=195071
https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=195071

After setting the hostname by running:

# hostnamectl set-hostname localhost

I've also updated /etc/NetworkManager/NetworkManager.conf which now looks like:

[main]
plugins=keyfile
dhcp=dhclient
dns=default

## Set static hostname
#[keyfile]
hostname=localhost

## HTTP-based connectivity check
#[connectivity]
#uri=http://nmcheck.gnome.org/check_network_status.txt
#interval=100

Upon reboot, I can launch firefox(or any windowed application) but only as root. What may be the cause?

There are only two users on the box (root and kiara). The outputs of:

env | grep -e DISPLAY -e AUTHORITY
loginctl show-session $XDG_SESSION_ID

are bellow:

DISPLAY=:0
XAUTHORITY=/root/.Xauthority

Id=c1
Name=root
Timestamp=Thu 2015-06-25 13:46:43 EEST
TimestampMonotonic=13404064
VTNr=1
TTY=tty1
Remote=no
Service=login
Scope=session-c1.scope
Leader=245
Audit=0
Type=tty
Class=user
Active=yes
State=active
IdleHint=no
IdleSinceHint=1435229203078960
IdleSinceHintMonotonic=12890421

Last edited by Sebi (2015-06-25 21:36:11)

Trilby

Inspector Parrot

Registered: 2011-11-29

Posts: 30,456

Website

Re: [SOLVED] Unable to launch windowed applications

You showed the output of those commands when running as root.  But you say this is when it works.  Show output from when it fails.  Also what output or error messages do you get when you try to run firefox as a regular user?

---

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

Sebi

Member

Registered: 2015-06-24

Posts: 26

Re: [SOLVED] Unable to launch windowed applications

You showed the output of those commands when running as root.  But you say this is when it works.  Show output from when it fails.  Also what output or error messages do you get when you try to run firefox as a regular user?

While logged in as kiara, running firefox, gedit or any other windowed application gives:

(process:876): GLib-CRITICAL **: g_slice_set_config: assertion 'sys_page_size == 0' failed
No protocol specified
No protocol specified
Error: cannot open display: :0

Trilby

Inspector Parrot

Registered: 2011-11-29

Posts: 30,456

Website

Re: [SOLVED] Unable to launch windowed applications

Did you start X as kiara?  How do you start X?  Where did you type the firefox command that gave that error?  If you put that in a TTY that would make sense - but if you typed it in a terminal within X, how did you start the terminal? (this last question is what makes me suspect you are running X as root - which you shouldn't do).

---

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

Sebi

Member

Registered: 2015-06-24

Posts: 26

Re: [SOLVED] Unable to launch windowed applications

Did you start X as kiara?  How do you start X?  Where did you type the firefox command that gave that error?  If you put that in a TTY that would make sense - but if you typed it in a terminal within X, how did you start the terminal? (this last question is what makes me suspect you are running X as root - which you shouldn't do).

You're right I've launched X as root. When I login as kiara and run startx the session looks like this:

http://tinypic.com/r/2i8wvua/8

Trilby

Inspector Parrot

Registered: 2011-11-29

Posts: 30,456

Website

Re: [SOLVED] Unable to launch windowed applications

So everything is working as expected.

But apparently you've done everything to set up KDE as root only.  Break the habit of running as root before you break your system.  To get the result you want, you need to set up KDE for your user (at very least, create an ~/.xinitrc).  You may also want to clean up all the crap that is now littering the /root/ directory.

---

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

Sebi

Member

Registered: 2015-06-24

Posts: 26

Re: [SOLVED] Unable to launch windowed applications

So everything is working as expected.

But apparently you've done everything to set up KDE as root only.  Break the habit of running as root before you break your system.  To get the result you want, you need to set up KDE for your user (at very least, create an ~/.xinitrc).  You may also want to clean up all the crap that is now littering the /root/ directory.

I added the .xinitrc into the kiara home directory and everything works now. I guess that's another million thanks to you.