After update, X only shows black screen. Terminal TTY works

tamij · 2021-05-02 10:16:17

Hey everyone
I update my system every few weeks and during the last update a few days ago, my system "froze" and showed black screen. I couldn't do anything, including moving to another TTY. I waited a day and then restarted my computer. Then when the system started it only showed a black screen and not the GUI. I tried moving to the terminal using keyboard shortcuts and it worked. From there, I continued with `pacman -Syyuu` and it finished updating. However, I still can't start the GUI (either by `startx` or by rebooting).

The problem is that I wasn't able to find any useful error message and I have therefore no idea how I could fix this. I looked through many posts on this and other forums but nothing seemed to work. I would be really happy if someone could help me out with this issue.

Here are some relevant log files:
Xorg.0.log - http://paste.ubuntu.com/p/WyQJhHxzzB
Xorg.1.log - http://paste.ubuntu.com/p/BjTWztc2Cd/
Xorg.2.log - http://paste.ubuntu.com/p/Y9TYSYzGnD

~/.xinitrc - https://paste.ubuntu.com/p/rr8XS6fQxf/
current pacman -Syyuu results - https://paste.ubuntu.com/p/BxSSNrQbwX
sudo dmesg - https://paste.ubuntu.com/p/7DsQSkjczK
journalctl 7 days - (txt file) https://transfer.sh/Jniam/journalctlArch

Last edited by tamij (2021-05-02 10:28:20)

seth · 2021-05-02 11:35:41

There's no obvious xorg error/problem, but your xinitrc is broken (see link below)
However, you're defaulting to SDDM, so the first test would be to avoid that. Disable the sddm.service and "startx xterm" (ie. not KDE)
See whether that gets you a running X11 server and an xterm and then whether you can startkde from there.

tamij · 2021-05-02 11:47:30

Thanks for the quick response
I read the link about broken xinitrc but I couldn't find a reason why it is broken. Most likely I followed some tutorial on the wiki to set up this file (as i am not very familiar with it).

I disabled the SDDM service using "systemctl disable sddm.service" and tried to run "starts xterm", but it only showed a black screen for a moment and then returned back to the terminal. No luck still.

(p.s I saw some topics that mentioned a failure in NVIDIA's drivers recently. might be related? https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=265563)

seth · 2021-05-02 12:05:52

See the 2nd blue note.
The nvidia 465 kernel module crashes w/ a nullptr resolution, but that's not visible in your journal/dmesg.

For the "startx xterm" symptom description, do you actually have xterm installed?

tamij · 2021-05-02 13:22:18

I do have xterm installed, yeah

seth · 2021-05-02 13:23:12

xorg log from a failed "startx xterm" attempt?

tamij · 2021-05-02 13:37:06

Xorg.1.log after `startx xterm`
http://paste.ubuntu.com/p/3z9df8XMHY/

seth · 2021-05-02 13:48:38

That server started and terminated cleanly immediately, meaning xterm did either not start or crashed.
Anything in ~/.xsession-errors ?

You could just start "Xorg &" and then "export DISPLAY=:0; xterm" from the console to see what heppens, whether there're errors etc.
Also why is this on :1 - is there another runnning server on :0?

tamij · 2021-05-02 14:00:34

I want to say thank you for the kind and quick replies

There is no file under ~/.xsession-erros.
Regarding running "Xorg &", it looks like X is already running or something (maybe because I used Alt+F3 to change from the black screen to the terminal TTY): http://paste.ubuntu.com/p/hKp6mnD9tc

However, "pkill Xorg" brings me back to the black screen and ALT+F3 bring back the same Temrinal session.

Running "export DISPLAY=:0; xterm" returns with "Invalid MIT-MAGIC-COOKIE-1 keyxterm: Xt error: Can't open display: :0.

Regarding your final question, I am indeed a Noob so I have no idea what "server" means in this context. I am unfamiliar with the terminology.

Thanks again, especially for sending complete commands because that saves me a lot of mistakes.

hope that this info will help as well

seth · 2021-05-02 14:11:09

So why is there's a running X11 server?

px aux | grep Xorg
systemctl status sddm
systemctl stop sddm
px aux | grep Xorg
Xorg & xterm -display :0

tamij · 2021-05-02 14:22:31

"systemctl stop sddm" now takes me to a screen with "/dev/sda2: recovering journal. /dev/sda2: clean, [number]/[bigger number]....."
and then a blinking cursor.
And it stopped Xorg now, as intended. ALT+F3 takes me to the terminal. Probably this Xorg is the black screen that appears after boot

xorg.0.log : https://paste.ubuntu.com/p/fXgNJnHSsj/

Error from xterm is "xterm: Xt error: can't open display: :0"

Last edited by tamij (2021-05-02 14:28:03)

seth · 2021-05-02 14:39:03

https://paste.ubuntu.com/p/fXgNJnHSsj/ rand for ~23½ minutes and then terminated cleanly - I assume it's from SDDM.
Did you start a new Xorg server before attempting to "xterm -display :0"?
"Xorg & xterm -display :0" might fail because the server doesn't respond fast enough, you could try "Xorg & sleep 5; xterm -display :0" instead.

tamij · 2021-05-02 14:49:57

new xorg.0.log is here: https://paste.ubuntu.com/p/vmqbYWGX3Q/
After killing some Xorg process here is another log: https://paste.ubuntu.com/p/Jk3VrnYk29/

In both cases, on the screen I see "Server terminated with error (1).
[2] Exit 1
xterm: Xt error: Can't open display: :0

seth · 2021-05-02 14:52:48

They're both the same as https://paste.ubuntu.com/p/fXgNJnHSsj/
The log you see is in ~/.local/share/xorg/

Edit: if it's just a permission error, see https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Xinit#xserverrc for "startx xterm"

Last edited by seth (2021-05-02 14:53:52)

tamij · 2021-05-02 15:05:30

Sadly, it does not seem to work

seth · 2021-05-02 15:53:01

"Doesn't work" isn't useful information. What about the log of the failing server?

Arch Linux

#1 2021-05-02 10:16:17

After update, X only shows black screen. Terminal TTY works

#2 2021-05-02 11:35:41

Re: After update, X only shows black screen. Terminal TTY works

#3 2021-05-02 11:47:30

Re: After update, X only shows black screen. Terminal TTY works

#4 2021-05-02 12:05:52

Re: After update, X only shows black screen. Terminal TTY works

#5 2021-05-02 13:22:18

Re: After update, X only shows black screen. Terminal TTY works

#6 2021-05-02 13:23:12

Re: After update, X only shows black screen. Terminal TTY works

#7 2021-05-02 13:37:06

Re: After update, X only shows black screen. Terminal TTY works

#8 2021-05-02 13:48:38

Re: After update, X only shows black screen. Terminal TTY works

#9 2021-05-02 14:00:34

Re: After update, X only shows black screen. Terminal TTY works

#10 2021-05-02 14:11:09

Re: After update, X only shows black screen. Terminal TTY works

#11 2021-05-02 14:22:31

Re: After update, X only shows black screen. Terminal TTY works

#12 2021-05-02 14:39:03

Re: After update, X only shows black screen. Terminal TTY works

#13 2021-05-02 14:49:57

Re: After update, X only shows black screen. Terminal TTY works

#14 2021-05-02 14:52:48

Re: After update, X only shows black screen. Terminal TTY works

#15 2021-05-02 15:05:30

Re: After update, X only shows black screen. Terminal TTY works

#16 2021-05-02 15:53:01

Re: After update, X only shows black screen. Terminal TTY works

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