Newbie with X & XFCE Problem

[wmichaelb]

I have a little experience with Free and PC-BSD, but wanted to work a bit with OpenBSD and xfce. I successfully installed OpenBSD 5.1, and got the 1980's style login page, so I assume that X is working. I installed the requisite set of packages for xfce (I think!). But when I go into xterm and type

startxfce4

in order to launch xfce, I'm given that desktop with xterm in the middle of it. If I close xterm, I also close xfce...@$@@%$@!$%!@%!!!

If I ctrl-alt-f1 to get tty and no xterm, and log in that way, typing startxfce4 gives me an error:

/usr/local/bin/startxfce4: starting X server

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

Invalid MIT-MAGIC-COOKIE Invalid MIT-MAGIC-COOKIE Invalid MIT-MAGIC-COOKIE Invalid MIT-MAGIC-COOKIE keyxinit: giving up
xinit: unable to connect to X server: Resource temporarily unavailable
xinit: xinit: server error

So as root, I rm /tmp/.X0-lock, and try startxfce4 again, and...absolutely....
nothing....happens. The system just hangs.

If I try X -configure as root from tty, I get exactly the same error. So I believe I have some sort of X setup mistake. Can someone make a suggestion? Ideally, I'd like to use a login screen to start up xfce4 automagically when I give it a username and password.

Thanks in advance!

[Beastie]

Hello and welcome to the forums.

It's not clear whether you're using FreeBSD or OpenBSD. It seems you're using OpenBSD (?) so you've posted in the wrong subforum.
Bear in mind they are two different systems with different implementations of Xorg.

Originally Posted by wmichaelb

I successfully installed OpenBSD 5.1, and got the 1980's style login page, so I assume that X is working. I installed the requisite set of packages for xfce (I think!). But when I go into xterm and type

startxfce4

I don't know if you mean a) X is already running with twm or b) you have a text-based login; you shouldn't run startxfce4 while X is already running.
With no X running, run echo "/usr/local/bin/startxfce4" > ~/.xinitrc and then run xinit.

Originally Posted by wmichaelb

I'm given that desktop with xterm in the middle of it. If I close xterm, I also close xfce...

Any application (including Xfce) will behave like that. In order to run applications separately from a virtual terminal you have to detach them first using the ampersand symbol, e.g.:
% vim testfile.txt &
And then you can close the terminal.

Originally Posted by wmichaelb

If I ctrl-alt-f1 to get tty and no xterm, and log in that way, typing startxfce4 gives me an error:

/usr/local/bin/startxfce4: starting X server

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

X is still running (e.g. on TTYV8 under FreeBSD by default). Either press Ctrl+Alt+Backspace to shutdown X (if your X setup allows it) or press Ctrl-Alt-F1 followed by Ctrl+C.
The X server will shutdown cleanly and you'll be able to run it again properly.

Originally Posted by wmichaelb

If I try X -configure as root from tty

You already said Xorg was running fine, so you're probably wasting your time with that command.

Originally Posted by wmichaelb

I'd like to use a login screen to start up xfce4 automagically when I give it a username and password.

Here's the FreeBSD documentation for the XDM.
http://www.freebsd.org/doc/en_US.ISO...ook/x-xdm.html

[jggimi]

For OpenBSD, xdm(1) can be started at boot time by adding the following line to /etc/rc.conf.local:

xdm_flags=""

For automatically starting XFCE at log in from the xdm login screen, an .xsession file containing the same startup line(s) as in the .xinitrc file is needed in the $HOME directory. For example, using ln(1) to have two file names for the same file:

$ cd $HOME
$ ln .xinitrc .xsession

... I successfully installed OpenBSD 5.1...

FYI: OpenBSD 5.1 will be end-of-life on or about 1 May 2013, when OpenBSD 5.3 is expected to be released.

[wmichaelb]

Thanks to both of you for your kind responses. This is my first post; hopefully I won't post in the wrong area again!

Beastie: From perusing the boot log, it appears to me that xdm is running, and that is what generates the login screen.

Ctrl+Alt+Backspace just recycles me back to the login screen again. Ctrl+Alt+F1 gives me TTY, but doesn't seem to shut X down. I log in as root, and type:

echo "/usr/local/bin/startxfce4" . ~/.xinitrc

and the system seems to "take it" without complaint. But if I then type

xinit

I get the same errors. If I log in via xdm as my standard user and type:

startxfce4 &

I get my xfce workspace, and by clicking on the top of the terminal window, it goes away. So that's what I'll do for the moment. Once I get this sorted out, I'll try a later version, and perhaps a different desktop. I chose this one from an article a couple of months ago in BSD Magazine that showed how to do this, and it was from 5.1. The necessary files are different for 5.2. The machine I'm using is specifically for this sort of experimentation, so there's no data at risk.

jggimi: If as root, I try to open leafpad to edit /etc/rc.conf.local, I get:

leafpad
No protocol specified
No protocol specified
No protocol specified
No protocol specified
leafpad: Cannot open display:

It appears to me that my X configuration is keeping me from fixing it? I'd appreciate any further direction that you can offer, and thanks again for your help!

[jggimi]

1. X is already running. Stop trying to start it a second time, such as with xinit or with startx.
2. X is running via XDM, the X Display Manager. CTRL-ALT-Backspace will merely restart it.
3. The $HOME/.xinitrc file is used by xinit or startx -- the .xinitrc file is NOT used with XDM.
4. Instead, XDM uses $HOME/.xsession

How to fix this:

1. Use CTRL-ALT-F1 and log into your userid from the console.
2. Move, Link, Copy, or otherwise replicate your .xinitrc script as .xsession instead, as I recommended above.
3. Use CTRL-ALT-F5 to return to the XDM login screen
4. Login.

How to stop XDM (and X) on your system, so that you can test .xinitrc scripts and get them working with startx(1) or xinit(1):

1. Use CTRL-ALT-F1 and log into your user from the console
2. Issue this command as root: # pkill -9 xdm
3. Login as your standard user, if you are not already, and muck about to your heart's content.
4. To restart XDM, X must not currently be running. Issue this command as root: # xdm