[Solved] Can't start XFCE as root

doogie · 2015-09-23 02:36:04

I've been using XFCE for years without issues... which is why I use XFCE. I've recently come across an issue I can't fix, and would greatly appreciate some help.

On one of my 12 PCs running Arch/XFCE, running "startxfce4" from a root terminal after a reboot (X not yet started) results in a largely featureless screen with only a single top panel present. The top panel sometimes is blank, other times contains the clock or applications menu, but is largely missing all panel plugins. The screen cannot be interacted with. The mouse cursor is active, but I can't open the apps window, right click for options on the desktop or panel, use keyboard shortcuts to start a terminal or app, or interact in any way with the screen. I'm forced to ctrl-alt-F2 to a non-Xterm and kill -9 xfce4-session [ID].

My standard user account starts XFCE without any issues. None of my other PCs have the issue running XFCE from root.

I tried renaming ~/.config/xfce4-session/ and ~/.config/xfce4/ and restarting.
I tried removing a corrupt session: rm -r ~/.cache/sessions/ , which has worked at other times for the rare session problems.
I tried removing and reinstalling xfce4 and xfce4-goodies through pacman.
I tried tar on /root from another PC where I can start xfce as root, and copying over /root on the PC with problems.

Nothing has worked.

I'm stumped. If it was a permissions issue, I'd expect root to work, not the user account. I'd appreciate some suggestions. However, please know this is a personal PC with no other users, and I rarely run X/XFCE as root as it is, so please no admonishments about running X as root. I know the risks. I need a working root GUI in the event the user account is hosed.

Thanks for any suggestions, and thanks to all the continued support and development for this fantastic desktop environment.

Jeff Arnholt MD PhD

ToZ · 2015-09-23 06:02:59

Hello and welcome.

Are there any error messages in the journal?

Try starting Xfce like this:

startxfce4 > ~/.xsession-errors 2>&1

...and after you recover from the failed login, review the ~/.xsession-errors file for any error messages.

doogie · 2015-09-23 23:06:30

Toz (and others),

Thank you for replying. I am including the .xsession-errors log below. Having reviewed it, I suspect two culprits: first, I question if xscreensaver is causing problems, as I believe this application has some issues when run as root. If you agree, perhaps you can suggest a way to deactivate it from a .config file. The following error is generated:

(process:8067): GLib-CRITICAL **: g_slice_set_config: assertion 'sys_page_size == 0' failed
xscreensaver: 17:49:26: locking is disabled (running as nobody).
xscreensaver: 17:49:26: locking only works when xscreensaver is launched by a normal, non-privileged user (e.g., not "root".)

Second, the only other critical error is:

(xfce4-panel:8021): Gtk-CRITICAL **: IA__gtk_widget_show: assertion 'GTK_IS_WIDGET (widget)' failed
(II) AIGLX: Suspending AIGLX clients for VT switch

I have no idea how to troubleshoot this second issue. Can you please make a suggestion?

I will further investigate the xscreensaver angle, and if I am successful in troubleshooting, will post my answer. Thank you.

Jeff Arnholt

[Full Log follows]:

/usr/bin/startxfce4: Starting X server

X.Org X Server 1.17.2
Release Date: 2015-06-16
X Protocol Version 11, Revision 0
Build Operating System: Linux 4.0.4-2-ARCH x86_64
Current Operating System: Linux xxx 4.1.6-1-ARCH #1 SMP PREEMPT Mon Aug 17 08:52:28 CEST 2015 x86_64
Kernel command line: BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-linux root=UUID=0845a7ab-2ea9-49c9-b703-xxxx rw quiet
Build Date: 17 July 2015 05:38:19PM

Current version of pixman: 0.32.6
(==) Log file: "/var/log/Xorg.0.log", Time: Wed Sep 23 17:49:25 2015
(==) Using config file: "/etc/X11/xorg.conf"
(==) Using system config directory "/usr/share/X11/xorg.conf.d"
(II) [KMS] Kernel modesetting enabled.
gpg-agent[8016]: WARNING: "--write-env-file" is an obsolete option - it has no effect
gpg-agent: a gpg-agent is already running - not starting a new one

(xfce4-session:8011): xfce4-session-WARNING **: gpg-agent returned no PID in the variables
Connection failure: Connection refused
pa_context_connect() failed: Connection refused

(process:8067): GLib-CRITICAL **: g_slice_set_config: assertion 'sys_page_size == 0' failed
xscreensaver: 17:49:26: locking is disabled (running as nobody).
xscreensaver: 17:49:26: locking only works when xscreensaver is launched
by a normal, non-privileged user (e.g., not "root".)
See the manual for details.

(nemo:8065): Gtk-WARNING **: Failed to register client: GDBus.Error:org.freedesktop.DBus.Error.ServiceUnknown: The name org.gnome.SessionManager was not provided by any .service files

(nm-applet:8054): GLib-GObject-WARNING **: The property GtkButton:use-stock is deprecated and shouldn't be used anymore. It will be removed in a future version.

(nm-applet:8054): GLib-GObject-WARNING **: The property GtkSettings:gtk-button-images is deprecated and shouldn't be used anymore. It will be removed in a future version.

(nm-applet:8054): GLib-GObject-WARNING **: The property GtkMisc:yalign is deprecated and shouldn't be used anymore. It will be removed in a future version.

(nm-applet:8054): GLib-GObject-WARNING **: The property GtkImage:stock is deprecated and shouldn't be used anymore. It will be removed in a future version.

(nemo:8065): GLib-GObject-WARNING **: The property GtkSettings:gtk-menu-images is deprecated and shouldn't be used anymore. It will be removed in a future version.

(nm-applet:8054): GLib-GObject-WARNING **: The property GtkSettings:gtk-menu-images is deprecated and shouldn't be used anymore. It will be removed in a future version.

(nemo:8065): GLib-GObject-WARNING **: The property GtkSettings:gtk-button-images is deprecated and shouldn't be used anymore. It will be removed in a future version.
WARNING:root:Ignore the previous error: using Gtk.TrayIcon instead. Everything is fine!

(nemo:8065): GLib-GObject-WARNING **: The property GtkWidget:margin-left is deprecated and shouldn't be used anymore. It will be removed in a future version.

(nemo:8065): GLib-GObject-WARNING **: The property GtkWidget:margin-right is deprecated and shouldn't be used anymore. It will be removed in a future version.

(nemo:8065): GLib-GObject-WARNING **: The property GtkCellRendererPixbuf:follow-state is deprecated and shouldn't be used anymore. It will be removed in a future version.
Nemo-Share-Message: Called "net usershare info" but it failed: 'net usershare' returned error 255: net usershare: usershares are currently disabled

/usr/lib/btsync-gui/btsyncapp.py:45: Warning: The property GtkWidget:margin-left is deprecated and shouldn't be used anymore. It will be removed in a future version.
self.builder.add_from_file(os.path.dirname(__file__) + "/btsyncapp.glade")
/usr/lib/btsync-gui/btsyncapp.py:45: Warning: The property GtkWidget:margin-right is deprecated and shouldn't be used anymore. It will be removed in a future version.
self.builder.add_from_file(os.path.dirname(__file__) + "/btsyncapp.glade")
/usr/lib/btsync-gui/btsyncapp.py:45: Warning: The property GtkButton:use-stock is deprecated and shouldn't be used anymore. It will be removed in a future version.
self.builder.add_from_file(os.path.dirname(__file__) + "/btsyncapp.glade")
/usr/lib/btsync-gui/btsyncapp.py:45: Warning: The property GtkSettings:gtk-button-images is deprecated and shouldn't be used anymore. It will be removed in a future version.
self.builder.add_from_file(os.path.dirname(__file__) + "/btsyncapp.glade")
/usr/lib/btsync-gui/btsyncapp.py:45: Warning: The property GtkButton:xalign is deprecated and shouldn't be used anymore. It will be removed in a future version.
self.builder.add_from_file(os.path.dirname(__file__) + "/btsyncapp.glade")
/usr/lib/btsync-gui/btsyncapp.py:45: Warning: The property GtkMisc:ypad is deprecated and shouldn't be used anymore. It will be removed in a future version.
self.builder.add_from_file(os.path.dirname(__file__) + "/btsyncapp.glade")

(xfce4-panel:8021): Gtk-CRITICAL **: IA__gtk_widget_show: assertion 'GTK_IS_WIDGET (widget)' failed
(II) AIGLX: Suspending AIGLX clients for VT switch

(xfwm4:8018): libxfce4ui-WARNING **: ICE I/O Error

(xfce4-panel:8021): libxfce4ui-WARNING **: ICE I/O Error

(xfwm4:8018): libxfce4ui-WARNING **: Disconnected from session manager.

(xfce4-panel:8021): libxfce4ui-WARNING **: Disconnected from session manager.
/etc/xdg/xfce4/xinitrc: line 113: 8011 Terminated xfce4-session

(xfsettingsd:8023): libxfce4ui-WARNING **: ICE I/O Error

(xfsettingsd:8023): libxfce4ui-WARNING **: Disconnected from session manager.

(xfdesktop:8025): libxfce4ui-WARNING **: ICE I/O Error

(xfdesktop:8025): libxfce4ui-WARNING **: Disconnected from session manager.
xinit: connection to X server lost

waiting for X server to shut down xfwm4: Fatal IO error 11 (Resource temporarily unavailable) on X server :0.0.
xscreensaver: 17:51:57: SIGHUP received: restarting...
xfsettingsd: Fatal IO error 11 (Resource temporarily unavailable) on X server :0.0.
xscreensaver: 17:51:57: initial effective uid/gid was root/root (0/0)
xscreensaver: 17:51:57: running as nobody/nobody (99/99)

xfdesktop: Fatal IO error 11 (Resource temporarily unavailable) on X server :0.0.
xscreensaver: 17:51:58: Can't open display: :0.0
xscreensaver: 17:51:58: running as nobody/nobody (99/99)

xscreensaver: 17:51:58: Errors at startup are usually authorization problems.
But you're not logging in as root (good!) so something
else must be wrong. Did you read the manual and the FAQ?

http://www.jwz.org/xscreensaver/faq.html
http://www.jwz.org/xscreensaver/man.html

(II) Server terminated successfully (0). Closing log file.

ToZ · 2015-09-24 12:37:26

xfwm4:8018): libxfce4ui-WARNING **: ICE I/O Error
(xfce4-panel:8021): libxfce4ui-WARNING **: ICE I/O Error

This I think is the cause of your problems. Look for an /root/.ICEauthority file and try deleting it before you log in (it will be re-created).

As for disabling the screensaver, you can uncheck the entry in Settings Manager > Session and Startup > Application Autostart, or create a ~/.config/autostart/xscreensaver.desktop file with the following content:

[Desktop Entry]
Hidden=true

doogie · 2015-09-24 12:53:33

Deleting .ICEauthority did the trick! I can now log in and interact with the desktop. Deleting .ICEauthority wipes out all desktop settings/customizations, but that is something I can recover from.

Thanks SO much for your help. Please marked this SOLVED.

Jeff Arnholt

ToZ · 2015-09-24 12:57:42

doogie wrote:

Deleting .ICEauthority wipes out all desktop settings/customizations,

It won't. I believe you earlier deleted the ~/.config/xfce4 folder. This would have deleted all of your settings.
Anyways, glad your back up and running.

Xfce Forum

Sub domains

#1 2015-09-23 02:36:04

[Solved] Can't start XFCE as root

#2 2015-09-23 06:02:59

Re: [Solved] Can't start XFCE as root

#3 2015-09-23 23:06:30

Re: [Solved] Can't start XFCE as root

#4 2015-09-24 12:37:26

Re: [Solved] Can't start XFCE as root

#5 2015-09-24 12:53:33

Re: [Solved] Can't start XFCE as root

#6 2015-09-24 12:57:42

Re: [Solved] Can't start XFCE as root

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