How do I restart X from the console or from bash script?

Ashren · 2007-11-23 12:14:40

I have searched with google, but can't find any answers not involving gdm or xdm. I need this because I'm writing a simple script that compiles and installs dwm and then restarts x.

Thanks.

bluePoet · 2007-11-23 12:26:42

startx will do the trick

Ashren · 2007-11-23 12:41:46

Ok, let me rephrase..
I did try every possible (I could think of anyway) combination of pkill, killall X and startx, but to no avail.

How do I restart X from a virtual console? As far as I understand startx runs a new instance of X.

Typing startx prints:

xauth:  creating new authority file /home/edgar/.serverauth.15607

Fatal server error:
Server is already active for display 0
    If this server is no longer running, remove /tmp/.X0-lock
    and start again.


Couldnt get a file descriptor referring to the console

This is probably all very simple.

ks1 · 2007-11-23 15:07:36

You could write a script that gets the PID of X and then kills the process and startx.

manually just
ps aux|grep X then kill -9 PID_OF_X
then startx

buttons · 2007-11-23 15:21:39

ks1 wrote:

You could write a script that gets the PID of X and then kills the process and startx.
manually just
ps aux|grep X then kill -9 PID_OF_X
then startx

You mean...

sudo kill `pidof X`

Remember that X is run as root, so this command will also need to be run as root. You can give yourself NOPASSWD for the kill command with sudo if you like.

Last edited by buttons (2007-11-23 15:23:07)

Ashren · 2007-11-23 16:53:28

Thanks for your comments, but they don't solve my problem, though. If kill X in a bash script, the script gets killed with X because it is running in a virtual terminal, and hence is unable to run startx. Or am I totally wrong?

I think I'm learning the meaning of a virtual console.

buttons · 2007-11-23 17:13:17

Just out of curiosity, why don't you have X respawning? I also using tiling WMs and before I discovered Xmonad (which lets you reload configs with a keystroke) all I had to do was kill X and there was my desktop a second or two later.

You might try sudo kill `pidof X` && startx, but I have a feeling that won't work either.

lilsirecho · 2007-11-23 17:25:39

Does ...ctl alt F7... help?

Ashren · 2007-11-23 17:47:41

lilsirecho, no it does nothing.

buttons, sudo kill 'pidof X' && startx did work with xdm enabled (I still had to login again, though). The reason I don't use respawn is that I don't like display managers. Is there any way to circumvent them and still have the respawn feature? I want to restart dwm without typing in anything, besides the name of my script.

Thanks..

flx · 2007-11-23 17:49:29

Ashren wrote:

I have searched with google, but can't find any answers not involving gdm or xdm. I need this because I'm writing a simple script that compiles and installs dwm and then restarts x.
Thanks.

You can just run dwm in a loop in your .xinitrc :

until dwm; do    
    sleep 1
done

Now if you kill dwm it will automatically restart. X isn't affected, so all your app windows will still be there.
I usually do a:

make && killall dwm && cp dwm ~/bin

to switch out the dwm binary.

buttons · 2007-11-23 17:54:25

Ashren wrote:

lilsirecho, no it does nothing.
buttons, sudo kill 'pidof X' && startx did work with xdm enabled (I still had to login again, though). The reason I don't use respawn is that I don't like display managers. Is there any way to circumvent them and still have the respawn feature? I want to restart dwm without typing in anything, besides the name of my script.
Thanks..

Absolutely.

Relevant parts of /etc/inittab:

id:5:initdefault:
x:5:respawn:/bin/su buttons -l -c "/bin/bash --login -c startx >/dev/null 2>/home/buttons/.xsession-errors"

"buttons" is of course my login name, and I prefer to have my errors go to a logfile in my home directory, which many display managers do by default. Or at least GDM.

Ashren · 2007-11-23 18:07:37

Brilliant! That worked beautifully. Thanks flx.

And welcome onboard.

Buttons, very interesting and your example will no doubt work as well. I learned a lot here. In general I learn a lot by using Arch and from this board and its simply great.

egates · 2007-12-07 00:51:29

What I generally do after compiling and installing is quit dwm (there's a keybinding for it) and then restart it. This way all the applications you had open, remain open.

-Evan

Arch Linux

#1 2007-11-23 12:14:40

How do I restart X from the console or from bash script?

#2 2007-11-23 12:26:42

Re: How do I restart X from the console or from bash script?

#3 2007-11-23 12:41:46

Re: How do I restart X from the console or from bash script?

#4 2007-11-23 15:07:36

Re: How do I restart X from the console or from bash script?

#5 2007-11-23 15:21:39

Re: How do I restart X from the console or from bash script?

#6 2007-11-23 16:53:28

Re: How do I restart X from the console or from bash script?

#7 2007-11-23 17:13:17

Re: How do I restart X from the console or from bash script?

#8 2007-11-23 17:25:39

Re: How do I restart X from the console or from bash script?

#9 2007-11-23 17:47:41

Re: How do I restart X from the console or from bash script?

#10 2007-11-23 17:49:29

Re: How do I restart X from the console or from bash script?

#11 2007-11-23 17:54:25

Re: How do I restart X from the console or from bash script?

#12 2007-11-23 18:07:37

Re: How do I restart X from the console or from bash script?

#13 2007-12-07 00:51:29

Re: How do I restart X from the console or from bash script?

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