Arch Linux

punk_physicist

Member

From: ~/

Registered: 2012-01-29

Posts: 39

xorg randomly fails to start in Virtualbox guest

Long time Arch user but I need to use a Windows PC at work (Windows 10 Enterprise on a Dell laptop) so I run Arch as a Virtualbox guest.

Lately X often fails to start. If I close and then restart Virtualbox (sometimes multiple times) eventually everything will work. I start X via startx command, and my xinitrc file is copied below:

#!/bin/sh

userresources=$HOME/.Xresources

if [ -f "$userresources" ]; then
    xrdb -merge "$userresources"
fi

xset -dpms
xset s off
exec openbox-session

The relevant portion of the Xorg log file (i.e. the portion of the log file that is different from a failed attempt vs a successful starting of X) is:

[    19.988] (EE) modeset(0): drmSetMaster failed: Permission denied
[    19.988] (EE) 
Fatal server error:
[    19.988] (EE) AddScreen/ScreenInit failed for driver 0
[    19.988] (EE) 
[    19.988] (EE) 
Please consult the The X.Org Foundation support 
	 at http://wiki.x.org
 for help. 
[    19.988] (EE) Please also check the log file at "/home/FooBar/.local/share/xorg/Xorg.0.log" for additional information.
[    19.988] (EE) 
[    20.005] (EE) Server terminated with error (1). Closing log file.

Current Virtualbox versions (this problem has persisted over the last few updates):
Virtualbox version (installed in Windows Host):
Version 6.0.14 r133895 (Qt5.6.2)

Installed in Arch Guest:
community/virtualbox-guest-modules-arch 6.0.14-2
community/virtualbox-guest-utils 6.0.14-1

loqs

Member

Registered: 2014-03-06

Posts: 19,098

Re: xorg randomly fails to start in Virtualbox guest

Can you try enablind early KMS?
If that is not possible for virtualbox I would suggest trying running X as root.
This issue was introduced with systemd 243 but no one affected has reported it upstream.