Problem to start automatically Xfce4

[peterbsd]

Hello,

I installed NetBSD 10.0 with X-Windows. I setup automatic start of X-Windows (GUI login prompt appears). All was functional.
Later I installer xfce4 and I setup starting dbus automatically.
Problem is that only way which I found how to start XFCE4 is:
loggin into another virtual console like root, then kill process /usr/X11R7/bin/xdm,
then login to another virtual console like non-root user and issue: startxfce4.
Started Xfce4 runs without problems but I'd like to resolve automatic starting XFCE4 after successful login through X-Windows GUI login dialog.

I tried to exchange /etc/X11/xinit/xinitrc line:

exec /usr/X11R7/bin/ctwm -W

for

exec xfce4-session

or

exec ck-launch-session xfce4-session

and also the same line in /etc/X11/xdm/Xsession

also tried exchange whole /etc/X11/xinit/xinitrc for /usr/pkg/share/examples/xfce4/xinitrc
then
creating ~/.xinitrc and ~/.xsession containing:

startxfce4

and researched xdm process tree - to understand how is all this stuff functioning.
Mostly after my experiments when logged into X-Windows login this dialog appears again and again in loop.
no success to start XFCE4 automatically.

What should I try ?

[shep]

Xdm generates an error log in the home directory;
.xsession-errors

If the fix does not jump out at you, post/attach in a f/u post.

[peterbsd]

I tried again to create ~/.xinitrc and ~/.xsession and I put into both:

startxfce4

and nothing more.

It is home directory of user able to log into previous X-Windows and also able to start XFCE4 with steps described in previous post.

The result is: after entered credentials into GUI password prompt, GUI prompt appears again in a loop.

~/.xsession-errors contains:

/usr/pkg/bin/startxfce4: X server already running on display :0
XDM authorization key matches an existing client!
xfce4-session: Cannot open display: .
Type 'xfce4-session --help' for usage.

[shep]

https://slice2.com/2016/01/30/howto-...sd-7/#comments

2) You can use xdm but you need to copy
/usr/pkg/etc/xdg/xfce4/xinitrc over to ~/.xinitrc and make a
link “ln -s ~/.xinitrc ~/.xsession. You need to append
DisplayManager*authName: MIT-MAGIC-COOKIE-1 to the file
/etc/X11/xdm/xdm-config.

[peterbsd]

I tried it, I also checked above link and setup rpcbind and famd to start automatically.
There is also described package hal, but pkgin search outputs that it is not available in repository.

Result is the same - repeating GUI dialog with username/password prompt
but
~/.xsession-errors contains now only three lines:

XDM authorization key matches an existing client!
xfce4-session: Cannot open display: .
Type 'xfce4-session --help' for usage.

[shep]

You haven't mentioned dbus - it needs to be set up and running system wide. Note that rc.d scripts are only started on boot or with a manual start command.

https://www.netbsd.org/docs/guide/en...indow-managers

The other NetBSD quirk is that pkgsrc rc.d scripts need to be copied to /etc/rc.d before they will run. Verify that the scripts have executable permissions.
Your ~/.xsession may also need executable permissions (chmod +x ~/.xession).

https://www.netbsd.org/docs/guide/en...ripts-packages

hal has been removed from pkgsrc and the fact that xfce4 runs from "startx" means you don't need it.

Here is the most recent tutorial I could find with a websearch:
https://bitsymasbitsya.blogspot.com/...m-display.html

If you want someone to cross check your set up post:
1) The contents of /etc/rc.d
2) /etc/rc.conf (redact your networking info)
2) Your .xsession/.xinitrc
3) /etc/X11/xdm/xdm-config

[peterbsd]

Resolved. Thank you Shep for you effort.

In one of needed steps I made typo and that was the reason why it was not functional.

[peterbsd]

Hello,
unfortunately above problem still exist.

two days ago I reinstalled NetBSD on the same machine, I made clean installation 10.1.
After installing Xfce4 with help of discussed steps above I reach weird state.

Starting Xfce4 by killing xdm process and with startxfce4 is always successful.

Starting Xfce4 through GUI login dialog is sometimes successful and sometimes not.
When login fails then login dialog appears two times again. First time it appears shortly - maybe 3 seconds than it dismiss for a very short moment and appears again, then I can enter credentials again, if not successful then cycle repeats.
I remember that it happens sometimes on previous installation 10.0 and after above steps but maybe 95% it was able to login. Now after installed 10.1 maybe 30% it allows login and 70% not.
Can be process responsible for starting Xfce4 setup to debug mode to diagnose problem ?
Or how to diagnose it, help me please.

When login is not successful then .xsession-errors contains the same like I described in previous posts, but it is not always updated, I am seeing it by last write time among reboots.

I am not sure if it can help but when login from GUI dialog is successful then .xsession-errors contains this :
[CODE]

_IceTransmkdir: ERROR: euid != 0,directory /tmp/.ICE-unix will not be created.

(xfce4-session:1220): xfce4-session-WARNING **: 09:37:03.374: No GPG agent found
Xfce power manager is not running
env: firefox-default: No such file or directory

(polkit-mate-authentication-agent-1:1095): polkit-mate-1-WARNING **: 09:37:04.845: Unable to determine the session we are in: GDBus.Error:org.freedesktop.ConsoleKit.Manager.Error.General: Unable to lookup session information for process '1095'
PCRE2 library was built without JIT support

(xfce4-panel:1844): GVFS-RemoteVolumeMonitor-WARNING **: 09:37:04.937: cannot open directory /usr/pkg/share/gvfs/remote-volume-monitors: Error opening directory ?/usr/pkg/share/gvfs/remote-volume-monitors?: No such file or directory
Xfce Power Manager: Another power manager is already running
Another notification daemon is running, exiting

(xfce4-power-manager:1976): libnotify-WARNING **: 09:37:04.993: Failed to connect to proxy

(xfce4-power-manager:1976): xfce4-power-manager-WARNING **: 09:37:05.064: Unable to create polkit subject

(xfce4-power-manager:1976): GLib-CRITICAL **: 09:37:05.064: g_variant_new_string: assertion 'string != NULL' failed

(xfce4-power-manager:1976): xfce4-power-manager-WARNING **: 09:37:05.066: 'CheckAuthorization' failed with GDBus.Error:org.freedesktop.PolicyKit1.Error.Failed: Error getting subject: Unknown subject of kind `[Invalid UTF-8]'

(xfce4-power-manager:1976): xfce4-power-manager-WARNING **: 09:37:05.067: 'CheckAuthorization' failed with GDBus.Error:org.freedesktop.PolicyKit1.Error.Failed: Error getting subject: Unknown subject of kind `[Invalid UTF-8]'

** (xfpm-power-backlight-helper:1056): WARNING **: 09:37:05.079: failed to find any devices: Error opening directory ?/sys/class/backlight?: No such file or d:

[shep]

It is hard to assess without knowing the sequence that generated the error messages. Are the messages from an attempt to start xfce4 from xdm or the command line? Is the power manager getting started on the 1st attempt and left still running on the 2nd attempt? I'm also wondering if startx should be used from the command line instead of startxfce4. startx should give you the authorization token while startxfce may not. Some of the error messages suggest the lack of authorization for polkit. It also looks like polkit is giving error messages for the Mate Desktop.
A suggestion is to either blank the ~/.xsession-errors file

> ~/.xession-errors

, reboot and "$ startx". Then copy the .xsession-errors file to xfce4_startx.txt and again blank the .xsession-errors file. Set /etc/rc.conf to start xdm and reboot. Compare the .xsesion-errors files.

Lastly, you may want to post to the NetBSD mailing lists
pkgsrc-bugs
or correspond with the xfce4 maintainer for NetBSD.