startx

[hitest]

Greetings,

I'm attempting to get X running on OpenBSD 6.9 and I'm getting mixed results with xenodm. Will OpenBSD 6.9 work with the startx command?
I was thinking about editing .xsession in the following way for XFCE. Are there any other modifications that I should do?

exec startxfce4 --with-ck-launch

Any and all replies are appreciated. Thank you.

[ibara]

What does "getting mixed results with xenodm" mean?

$ doas rcctl enable xenodm
$ echo "exec startxfce4 --with-ck-launch" > ~/.xsession

Should be all you need.

[hitest]

Originally Posted by ibara

What does "getting mixed results with xenodm" mean?

$ doas rcctl enable xenodm
$ echo "exec startxfce4 --with-ck-launch" > ~/.xsession

Should be all you need.

Thanks for the reply, ibara. Much appreciated.
The last install with xenodm enabled resulted in a log-in screen that didn't work. When I entered my log-in credentials it would just bounce me back to the xenodm log-in screen, that is, XFCE wouldn't launch. I'll try your suggestions today and see what happens.

[jggimi]

Failure to log on through xenodm(1) will usually be a provisioning error in the .xsession script.

[sacerdos_daemonis]

Originally Posted by hitest

Will OpenBSD 6.9 work with the startx command?
I was thinking about editing .xsession in the following way for XFCE.

To use startx add

exec name_of_GUI

to the

# start some nice programs

section of .xinitrc (not .xsession). At least that is how I understand and use it.

[victorvas]

Originally Posted by hitest

When I entered my log-in credentials it would just bounce me back to the xenodm log-in screen, that is, XFCE wouldn't launch.

I had this problem before, in my case it was caused because some files in my home directory were owned by root user. After I used chown to change ownership of all contents of /home/victor to victor:victor, the problem was resolved.

[hitest]

Thank you for all of your kind replies. As always I appreciate your help a lot. I've also had weird errors where the ISO failed to successfully install the base install. I did not have these errors with 6.8. I used a similar .xsession script.. I've probably made some mistakes which is obvious.
I've switched to FreeBSD 13.0 and MATE. All is well.

[shep]

In 6.9, I had the same issue w/ openbox. My ~/.xsession-errors indicated that consolekit2 was not installed for the --with-ck-launch command.

[hitest]

Originally Posted by shep

In 6.9, I had the same issue w/ openbox. My ~/.xsession-errors indicated that consolekit2 was not installed for the --with-ck-launch command.

Many thanks, shep! I forgot about consolekit2, and I feel like an idiot. Installed consolekit2 and now I can log-in with XFCE4.

puffy$ uname -a
OpenBSD puffy.darkstar.home 6.9 GENERIC#2 amd64

[ctac]

XFCE4 do not need consolekit2 at all.
If your user is in the operator group, he can shutdown and reboot the system.
If your user is not in the operator group, there is a polkit action define in /usr/share/polkit-1/actions name org.xfce.session.policy to reboot and shutdown the system.
You must create a rule file in /usr/share/polkit-1/rules.d/ to allow your user to use this action.

[CiotBSD]

@ctac's right.

Since OpenBSD 6.6, you need to add the user to the group operator to execute shutdown or reboot, and on the group wheel to hibernate or suspend.
And normally, all run correctly with xenodm and XFCE

[hitest]

Originally Posted by ctac

XFCE4 do not need consolekit2 at all.
If your user is in the operator group, he can shutdown and reboot the system.

Thanks for the reply. However, my regular user *was* a member of the operator group. It's all good anyway I just did a clean install of 6.9 and all is well with XFCE.

[hitest]

Interesting to note I did a clean install this morning of 6.9 using Fluxbox as my WM and xenodm. I didn't use consolekit2. No log-in problems noted. Fluxbox is light and fast. I chalk up this problem to PEBCAK. Many thanks as always for your kind assistance. This is my go to forum for all things BSD.

[shep]

I believe the issue was @hitest original invocation of ~/.xsession.

echo "exec startxfce4 --with-ck-launch" > ~/.xsession

"--with-ck-launch" is a consolekit2 command. In the absence of "--with-ck-launch", the ~/.xsession command will not execute and you will be sent back to the xenodm login screen.

You can start xfce4, openbox and fluxbox without "--with-ck-launch" but in xfce4 you will not have full functionality with features like notifications ...

[hitest]

Originally Posted by shep

I believe the issue was @hitest original invocation of ~/.xsession.

echo "exec startxfce4 --with-ck-launch" > ~/.xsession

"--with-ck-launch" is a consolekit2 command. In the absence of "--with-ck-launch", the ~/.xsession command will not execute and you will be sent back to the xenodm login screen.

You can start xfce4, openbox and fluxbox without "--with-ck-launch" but in xfce4 you will not have full functionality with features like notifications ...

Thanks for the explanation, shep! It is appreciated.

[TheTKS]

Originally Posted by shep

I believe the issue was @hitest original invocation of ~/.xsession.

echo "exec startxfce4 --with-ck-launch" > ~/.xsession

"--with-ck-launch" is a consolekit2 command. In the absence of "--with-ck-launch", the ~/.xsession command will not execute and you will be sent back to the xenodm login screen.

You can start xfce4, openbox and fluxbox without "--with-ck-launch" but in xfce4 you will not have full functionality with features like notifications ...

Thanks from me, too, Shep, for the explanation and detail.

I had a similar problem on my Raspberry Pi4 at first, on upgrading from 6.8 to 6.9. I will have to go look at my notes for what I did, if I kept notes, if I can add anything. (I'm working on my desktop in 6.8 as I write.)

TKS

[TheTKS]

As I wrote above, I ran into the same problem hitest did, after upgrading from 6.8 to 6.9 including the followup steps that applied: "When I entered my log-in credentials it would just bounce me back to the xenodm log-in screen"

So this is what I did on my Raspberry Pi4 to work around this problem:

- Verified that user's .xsession was unchanged from how it was in 6.8, which worked with my setup then

exec startxfce4 --with-ck-launch

- I was sure user was in operator group, but I reran

# usermod -G operator [user]

- Same problem

- Checked user's .xsession-error

/usr/local/bin/startxfce4: X server already running on display :0

You have tried to start Xfce with consolekit support, but
ck-launch-session is not installed.
Aborted startup...

... a bunch of reading later...

- Looked at the text in /etc/xdg/xfce4/xinitrc

# check if we start xfce4-session with ck-launch-session. this is only
# required for starting from a console, not a login manager
if test "x$XFCE4_SESSION_WITH_CK" = "x1"; then
  if command -v ck-launch-session >/dev/null 2>&1; then
    exec ck-launch-session xfce4-session
  else
    echo
    echo "You have tried to start Xfce with consolekit support, but"
    echo "ck-launch-session is not installed."
    echo "Aborted startup..."
    echo
    exit 1
  fi
else
  # start xfce4-session normally
  exec xfce4-session
fi

- Replaced the line calling Xfce to start in user's .xsession with that from /etc/xdg/xfce4/xinitrc

# exec startxfce4 --with-ck-launch
exec xfce4-session

- Added user to wheel group (I don't remember now if that was for this to work or for some other reason, but that's only ok if you want your user to be in group wheel)

 # usermod -G wheel [user]

Now I can log my user in through xenodm into Xfce

TKS

[CiotBSD]

Today, I test it on a new VM OpenBSD 6.9. (xfce 4.16)

In fact, without consolekit2, and my user into both groups operator and wheel:

⇒ I can stop and reboot
⇒ I cant suspend or hibernate

Consolekit2 seems not necessary ; good!
To hibernate or suspend, you need to activate and start ampd!

# rcctl enable apmd
# rcctl set apmd flags -A
# rcctl start apmd

Reboot, and start your Xfce session.

[TheTKS]

Originally Posted by CiotBSD

Today, I test it on a new VM OpenBSD 6.9. (xfce 4.16)

In fact, without consolekit2, and my user into both groups operator and wheel:

⇒ I can stop and reboot
⇒ I cant suspend or hibernate

Consolekit2 seems not necessary ; good!
To hibernate or suspend, you need to activate and start ampd!

# rcctl enable ampd
# rcctl set apmd flags -A
# rcctl start apmd

Reboot, and start your Xfce session.

@CiotBSD, I think you have a spelling error in your text and your first line of code: apmd vs ampd

Thanks, enabling and running apmd might come in handy someday.

I didn’t mention that hibernate and suspend don’t work on mine (icons displayed but in grey and do nothing.)

I don’t hibernate or suspend on my desktop computer or my Raspberry Pi - when I’m finished, I always shut them down.

TKS

[CiotBSD]

@TheTKS: Ty! fixed!