Arch Linux

andyboeh

Member

Registered: 2017-06-30

Posts: 15

[SOLVED] Notification service: cannot open display

Hey,

I'm on a fresh installation of Arch and I'm using the Xfce desktop environment. I'm using lightdm to start the session and I have xfce4-notifyd installed as notification daemon. However, using dunst, the same problem appears:

The notification daemon is autostarted by systemd, but cannot open the display:

systemd[1453]: Starting XFCE notifications service...
unknown[1478]: cannot open display: 
systemd[1453]: xfce4-notifyd.service: Main process exited, code=exited, status=1/FAILURE
systemd[1453]: xfce4-notifyd.service: Failed with result 'exit-code'.
systemd[1453]: Failed to start XFCE notifications service.

After a few minutes, the notification daemon is automatically restarted and works.

Obviously, the DISPLAY environment variable is not set correctly. I checked that I have /etc/X11/xinit/xinitrc.d/50-systemd-user.sh installed and it is definitely being rung by the lightdm Xsession wrapper.

Since I don't have any more clues (and couldn't find any more hints) on what to do, I'm asking here - any ideas?

EDIT: As usual: Directly after posting, I replaced lightdm by lxdm and it's working. Seems to be an issue with lightdm then, although it works fine on an older Arch install on my other notebook. I don't consider it solved, but I'm one step closer to the solution.

Last edited by andyboeh (2020-02-20 12:15:39)

Lone_Wolf

Administrator

From: Netherlands, Europe

Registered: 2005-10-04

Posts: 15,394

Re: [SOLVED] Notification service: cannot open display

Obviously, the DISPLAY environment variable is not set correctly.

The DISPLAY var is only set AFTER the display becomes available, you could be facing  a timing issue.

Is your system configured for early KMS ?
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Ke … de_setting

Last edited by Lone_Wolf (2020-02-18 17:24:54)

---

Disliking systemd intensely, but not satisfied with alternatives so focusing on taming systemd.

clean chroot building not flexible enough ?
Try clean chroot manager by graysky

andyboeh

Member

Registered: 2017-06-30

Posts: 15

Re: [SOLVED] Notification service: cannot open display

Obviously, the DISPLAY environment variable is not set correctly.

The DISPLAY var is only set AFTER the display becomes available, you could be facing  a timing issue.

I had the same thought, but the display should be available when the Xsession wrapper is executed, right?

Is your system configured for early KMS ?

Yes, it is. It's an Intel UHD graphics, I tried both, intel and modesetting drivers.

andyboeh

Member

Registered: 2017-06-30

Posts: 15

Re: [SOLVED] Notification service: cannot open display

I hate race conditions: it's not reliable with lxdm either.
How can I find out what triggers the early activation of the notification service?

EDIT: I might have found it, I disabled the onedrive synchronization service and now it works using lightdm. I'll test it a bit before I mark the thread as solved.

Last edited by andyboeh (2020-02-19 12:24:08)