[SOLVED] 'Display: unspecified' with 'inxi' command

pit_p_an-arch_y · 2024-07-08 12:51:35

Hi everyone!

I tried to install Artix on my secondary laptop but couldn't load the nouveau module, so after several attempts I also tried Obarun but failed again. So I decided to reinstall Arch, I used archinstall to do it quickly, and now both the modesetting module and the nouveau module are loaded but the inxi command reports 'Display: unspecified' instead of 'X11'. I would just like to understand why this happens and possibly fix it. I would be very grateful if anyone can help me.

Graphics:
  Device-1: Intel 3rd Gen Core processor Graphics driver: i915 v: kernel
  Device-2: NVIDIA GF117M [GeForce 610M/710M/810M/820M / GT
    620M/625M/630M/720M] driver: nouveau v: kernel
  Device-3: Vimicro Lenovo EasyCamera driver: uvcvideo type: USB
  Display: unspecified server: X.org v: 1.21.1.13 driver: X:
    loaded: modesetting,nouveau dri: crocus,nouveau gpu: i915
    resolution: 1366x768~60Hz
  API: EGL v: 1.5 drivers: crocus,nouveau,swrast
    platforms: gbm,x11,surfaceless,device
  API: OpenGL v: 4.5 compat-v: 4.2 vendor: intel mesa v: 24.1.3-arch1.1
    renderer: Mesa Intel HD Graphics 4000 (IVB GT2)

Last edited by pit_p_an-arch_y (2024-07-13 14:48:33)

Trilby · 2024-07-08 13:09:42

Apparently inxi just checks XDG_SESSION_TYPE for that. Some / most display managers may set that variable, but otherwise if you want it set, you need to set it yourself.

pit_p_an-arch_y · 2024-07-08 14:47:11

Trilby wrote:

Apparently inxi just checks XDG_SESSION_TYPE for that. Some / most display managers may set that variable, but otherwise if you want it set, you need to set it yourself.

Thanks! So it's not something that indicates there's something wrong with the X11 configuration, right? Is it just that I don't use desktop environment or login manager (I just use dwm and access Xorg through startx) and I didn't manually set the value?

Trilby · 2024-07-08 15:08:54

Correct. It's not set on any of my systems either. Some programs may require that variable to be set to "x11" or "wayland" in order to work properly - but I couldn't name any off the top of my head. In fact the only ones I know of are programs that would formerly check that value to determine whether they should try to connect to a wayland display or run on x11/xwayland but still defaulted to x11 if the variable was not set. I think this was the case for firefox and some gtk3 programs, so to get them to run natively under wayland one would have to export XDG_SESSION_TYPE=wayland - but that's not relevant if you're running X11, nor am I sure if this is even required under wayland anymore.

pit_p_an-arch_y · 2024-07-13 14:48:05

So sorry but In this days I didn't have time to try nothing on that machine. Anyway, I put

export XDG_SESSION_TYPE=x11

inside my .xinitrc and now is ok (you have to put it before the command that launch your DE or WM). So I mark this post as Solved.

Thank you so much!

h2-1 · 2025-07-15 17:07:28

If XDG_SESSION_TYPE was unset, inxi would show: N/A. Any other string comes from the source. In this case, the source has the value of 'unspecified' In some cases inxi will further clean the data to avoid such non value values, but it doesn't for these environmental variables. Technically that's useful because it shows that in fact the variable is set, but with the value 'unspecified'.

Getting reliable display session type data is remarkably difficult.

Arch Linux

#1 2024-07-08 12:51:35

[SOLVED] 'Display: unspecified' with 'inxi' command

#2 2024-07-08 13:09:42

Re: [SOLVED] 'Display: unspecified' with 'inxi' command

#3 2024-07-08 14:47:11

Re: [SOLVED] 'Display: unspecified' with 'inxi' command

#4 2024-07-08 15:08:54

Re: [SOLVED] 'Display: unspecified' with 'inxi' command

#5 2024-07-13 14:48:05

Re: [SOLVED] 'Display: unspecified' with 'inxi' command

#6 2025-07-15 17:07:28

Re: [SOLVED] 'Display: unspecified' with 'inxi' command

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