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Think I've broken X *lesson learned*

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Derpbian
Posts: 27
Joined: 2018-02-11 02:46

Think I've broken X *lesson learned*

#1 Post by Derpbian »

Hi,

I was following a guide to "spice up" my desktop and I think I managed to break X. I have no idea why it wont start. The computer boots up to the login screen, But when I try to login it just throws be back to the login page again. And there is no error stating "invalid password".

Code: Select all

------
login as: 
xxxx@hal9000 password:
Linux hal9000 4.9.0-5-amd64 #1 SMP Debian 4.9.65-3+deb9u2 (2018-01-04) x86_64

The programs included with the Debian GNU/Linux system are free software;
the exact distribution terms for each program are described in the
individual files in /usr/share/doc/*/copyright.

Debian GNU/Linux comes with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY, to the extent
permitted by applicable law.
Last login: Fri Feb 16 14:10:09 2018 from 172.10.88.2

[b]@hal9000:~$ sudo startx[/b]
[sudo] password for :
X.Org X Server 1.19.2
Release Date: 2017-03-02
X Protocol Version 11, Revision 0
Build Operating System: Linux 4.9.0-4-amd64 x86_64 Debian
Current Operating System: Linux hal9000 4.9.0-5-amd64 #1 SMP Debian 4.9.65-3+deb                                                                                                                                                                                                                                       9u2 (2018-01-04) x86_64
Kernel command line: BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-4.9.0-5-amd64 root=UUID=890a6655-5                                                                                                                                                                                                                                       3ea-4809-9e7c-d4b12c8fc0e1 ro quiet
Build Date: 16 October 2017  08:19:45AM
xorg-server 2:1.19.2-1+deb9u2 (https://www.debian.org/support)
Current version of pixman: 0.34.0
        Before reporting problems, check http://wiki.x.org
        to make sure that you have the latest version.
Markers: (--) probed, (**) from config file, (==) default setting,
        (++) from command line, (!!) notice, (II) informational,
        (WW) warning, (EE) error, (NI) not implemented, (??) unknown.
(==) Log file: "/var/log/Xorg.0.log", Time: Fri Feb 16 14:12:47 2018
(==) Using config file: "/etc/X11/xorg.conf"
(==) Using system config directory "/usr/share/X11/xorg.conf.d"
(EE)
[b]Fatal server error:[/b]
(EE) no screens found(EE)
(EE)
Please consult the The X.Org Foundation support
         at http://wiki.x.org
 for help.
[b](EE) Please also check the log file at "/var/log/Xorg.0.log" for additional info     [/b]                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  rmation.
(EE)
(EE) Server terminated with error (1). Closing log file.
^Cxinit: giving up
xinit: unable to connect to X server: Connection refused
xinit: unexpected signal 2
[b]xxxx@hal9000:~$ cat /var/log/Xorg.0.log[/b]
[   212.860]
X.Org X Server 1.19.2
Release Date: 2017-03-02
[   212.860] X Protocol Version 11, Revision 0
[   212.860] Build Operating System: Linux 4.9.0-4-amd64 x86_64 Debian
[   212.860] Current Operating System: Linux hal9000 4.9.0-5-amd64 #1 SMP Debian 4.9.65-3+deb9u2 (2018-01-04) x86_64
[   212.860] Kernel command line: BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-4.9.0-5-amd64 root=UUID=890a6655-53ea-4809-9e7c-d4b12c8fc0e1 ro quiet
[   212.860] Build Date: 16 October 2017  08:19:45AM
[   212.860] xorg-server 2:1.19.2-1+deb9u2 (https://www.debian.org/support)
[   212.860] Current version of pixman: 0.34.0
[   212.860]    Before reporting problems, check http://wiki.x.org
        to make sure that you have the latest version.
[   212.860] Markers: (--) probed, (**) from config file, (==) default setting,
        (++) from command line, (!!) notice, (II) informational,
        (WW) warning, (EE) error, (NI) not implemented, (??) unknown.
[   212.860] (==) Log file: "/var/log/Xorg.0.log", Time: Fri Feb 16 14:12:47 2018
[   212.860] (==) Using config file: "/etc/X11/xorg.conf"
[   212.860] (==) Using system config directory "/usr/share/X11/xorg.conf.d"
[   212.860] (==) ServerLayout "Layout0"
[   212.861] (**) |-->Screen "Screen0" (0)
[   212.861] (**) |   |-->Monitor "Monitor0"
[   212.861] (**) |   |-->Device "Device0"
[   212.861] (**) |-->Input Device "Keyboard0"
[   212.861] (**) |-->Input Device "Mouse0"
[   212.861] (==) Automatically adding devices
[   212.861] (==) Automatically enabling devices
[   212.861] (==) Automatically adding GPU devices
[   212.861] (==) Max clients allowed: 256, resource mask: 0x1fffff
[   212.861] (WW) The directory "/usr/share/fonts/X11/cyrillic" does not exist.
[   212.861]    Entry deleted from font path.
[   212.861] (==) FontPath set to:
        /usr/share/fonts/X11/misc,
        /usr/share/fonts/X11/100dpi/:unscaled,
        /usr/share/fonts/X11/75dpi/:unscaled,
        /usr/share/fonts/X11/Type1,
        /usr/share/fonts/X11/100dpi,
        /usr/share/fonts/X11/75dpi,
        built-ins
[   212.861] (==) ModulePath set to "/usr/lib/xorg/modules"
[   212.861] (WW) Hotplugging is on, devices using drivers 'kbd', 'mouse' or 'vmmouse' will be disabled.
[   212.861] (WW) Disabling Keyboard0
[   212.861] (WW) Disabling Mouse0
[   212.861] (II) Loader magic: 0x561ea51bfe00
[   212.861] (II) Module ABI versions:
[   212.861]    X.Org ANSI C Emulation: 0.4
[   212.861]    X.Org Video Driver: 23.0
[   212.861]    X.Org XInput driver : 24.1
[   212.861]    X.Org Server Extension : 10.0
[   212.862] (--) using VT number 2

[   212.862] (II) systemd-logind: logind integration requires -keeptty and -keeptty was not provided, disabling logind integration
[   212.862] (II) xfree86: Adding drm device (/dev/dri/card0)
[   212.862] (EE) /dev/dri/card0: failed to set DRM interface version 1.4: Permission denied
[   213.158] (--) PCI:*(0:0:2:0) 8086:191b:17aa:222e rev 6, Mem @ 0xc2000000/16777216, 0x60000000/268435456, I/O @ 0x00005000/64, BIOS @ 0x????????/131072
[   213.158] (II) LoadModule: "glx"
[   213.159] (II) Loading /usr/lib/xorg/modules/extensions/libglx.so
[   213.161] (II) Module glx: vendor="X.Org Foundation"
[   213.161]    compiled for 1.19.2, module version = 1.0.0
[   213.161]    ABI class: X.Org Server Extension, version 10.0
[   213.161] (II) LoadModule: "nvidia"
[   213.161] (WW) Warning, couldn't open module nvidia
[   213.161] (II) UnloadModule: "nvidia"
[   213.162] (II) Unloading nvidia
[   213.162] (EE) Failed to load module "nvidia" (module does not exist, 0)
[   213.162] (EE) No drivers available.
[   213.162] (EE)
Fatal server error:
[   213.162] (EE) no screens found(EE)
[   213.162] (EE)
Please consult the The X.Org Foundation support
         at http://wiki.x.org
 for help.
[   213.162] (EE) Please also check the log file at "/var/log/Xorg.0.log" for additional information.
[   213.162] (EE)
[   213.162] (EE) Server terminated with error (1). Closing log file.
------
Guess I went way to deep into the rabbit hole, Any help would be much appreciated. :oops:
Last edited by Derpbian on 2018-02-16 20:39, edited 2 times in total.
su

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GarryRicketson
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Re: Think I've broken X

#2 Post by GarryRicketson »

Please learn how to use "code boxes"

Code: Select all

[code]code and details or output here
[/code]
by Derpbian »I was following a guide to "spice up" my desktop and I think I managed to break X. I have no idea why it wont start.
What guide ? What did you actually do ? Use a tiny bit of logic, we have no idea what you did, nor what this "guide" told you to do.
You should read this, : https://wiki.debian.org/DontBreakDebian
Don't blindly follow bad advice

Unfortunately there's a lot of bad advice on the Internet. Tutorials found on blogs, forums and other sites often include instructions that will break your system in subtle ways. Don't simply follow the first advice you find, or the tutorial that seems the easiest. Spend some time reading the documentation and compare the difference between tutorials.

It's better to take the time to figure out the correct way to do something first than spending even more time fixing a broken system later. You would not let some random stranger feed your baby; do not execute commands without first understanding what they do.

Blog and forum posts don't expire. Instructions that might have been safe a couple of years ago might not be safe to follow any more. When in doubt keep researching and read your version's documentation.
You should not be running the 'startx' command as sudo or root either, that is a bad idea.

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Thorny
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Re: Think I've broken X

#3 Post by Thorny »

Derpbian wrote: The computer boots up to the login screen, But when I try to login it just throws be back to the login page again. And there is no error stating "invalid password".
Sometimes that kind of thing happens when someone has been mucking around in their home folder as root and managed to change some critical file's permissions. Maybe check that.

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Re: Think I've broken X

#4 Post by Ardouos »

Derpbian wrote:@hal9000:~$ sudo startx
Do not start X with root permissions. It is asking for trouble.
Derpbian wrote:Guess I went way to deep into the rabbit hole, Any help would be much appreciated. :oops:
You will need to tell us what you have done, or have changed so people can help you. A link to the guide maybe?
Last edited by Ardouos on 2018-02-16 14:07, edited 1 time in total.
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Thorny
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Re: Think I've broken X

#5 Post by Thorny »

There seem to be an echo in here, eh Garry?

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Re: Think I've broken X

#6 Post by Ardouos »

Thorny wrote:There seem to be an echo in here, eh Garry?
I only read the original post.

After reading Garry's post it is very similar, even though I did not verbose as much information. Stay frosty...
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Derpbian
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Re: Think I've broken X

#7 Post by Derpbian »

Hi guys,

Thanks for the reply's, im sorry im new to debian and linux in general and I followed this youtube video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c60x3nd7cag

:oops:
su

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GarryRicketson
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Re: Think I've broken X

#8 Post by GarryRicketson »

Restore your system using the back up you made before doing this.
Or re-install the system, there is no telling what those scripts pulled in, again, read this: https://wiki.debian.org/DontBreakDebian
Don't blindly follow bad advice

Unfortunately there's a lot of bad advice on the Internet. Tutorials found on blogs, forums and other sites often include instructions that will break your system in subtle ways. Don't simply follow the first advice you find, or the tutorial that seems the easiest. Spend some time reading the documentation and compare the difference between tutorials.

It's better to take the time to figure out the correct way to do something first than spending even more time fixing a broken system later. You would not let some random stranger feed your baby; do not execute commands without first understanding what they do.

Blog and forum posts don't expire. Instructions that might have been safe a couple of years ago might not be safe to follow any more. When in doubt keep researching and read your version's documentation.
But read it all, not just the part I quoted. That youtube clown, just gave you bad advice. , Do you think they will help you fix your broken system ?, maybe ask them.

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Derpbian
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Re: Think I've broken X

#9 Post by Derpbian »

GarryRicketson wrote:Restore your system using the back up you made before doing this.
Or re-install the system, there is no telling what those scripts pulled in, again, read this: https://wiki.debian.org/DontBreakDebian
Don't blindly follow bad advice

Unfortunately there's a lot of bad advice on the Internet. Tutorials found on blogs, forums and other sites often include instructions that will break your system in subtle ways. Don't simply follow the first advice you find, or the tutorial that seems the easiest. Spend some time reading the documentation and compare the difference between tutorials.

It's better to take the time to figure out the correct way to do something first than spending even more time fixing a broken system later. You would not let some random stranger feed your baby; do not execute commands without first understanding what they do.

Blog and forum posts don't expire. Instructions that might have been safe a couple of years ago might not be safe to follow any more. When in doubt keep researching and read your version's documentation.
But read it all, not just the part I quoted. That youtube clown, just gave you bad advice. , Do you think they will help you fix your broken system ?, maybe ask them.
Thank you Garry, I will re-install my system, read the wiki article and proceed with caution in the future.
su

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Re: Think I've broken X

#10 Post by GarryRicketson »

your welcome,
It might be possible to fix it, but it could be complicated, you might want to wait and see if there are any other suggestions, if it was me I would re-install,(that is the easiest ) and
like you say, be more careful in the future.
Take notes on what you actually do, make a good back up before changing anything, this way, if the changes do not work as expected you have something
you can use to restore it to a working state.

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Re: Think I've broken X

#11 Post by Bulkley »

Derpbian wrote:I followed this youtube video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c60x3nd7cag
What bothers me about that video is that it is not accompanied by a printed set of instructions. One has to keep pausing and backing and forwarding all over the place in order to follow his instructions. That's a recipe for getting lost.

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Re: Think I've broken X

#12 Post by Ardouos »

Bulkley wrote:
Derpbian wrote:I followed this youtube video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c60x3nd7cag
What bothers me about that video is that it is not accompanied by a printed set of instructions. One has to keep pausing and backing and forwarding all over the place in order to follow his instructions. That's a recipe for getting lost.
The best part is the comments. :lol:
first step should be : don't use gnome 3 !
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Derpbian
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Re: Think I've broken X

#13 Post by Derpbian »

Sorry guys :C the thread can be closed...
su

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Re: Think I've broken X

#14 Post by stevepusser »

I hope you didn't laboriously manually type in all those commands from the video instead of just copying and pasting them from the github page he took them from: https://github.com/tliron/install-gnome-themes

"How to sexy up Debian"? Seriously? Did Borat do this video?

Well, you can call this a learning experience. There are themes in the repository that you can try, or even ones in deb packages out on the Web if you want to take more of a risk. None of this script mess.
MX Linux packager and developer

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Derpbian
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Re: Think I've broken X

#15 Post by Derpbian »

stevepusser wrote:Well, you can call this a learning experience.
agreed. I shall RTFM from now on before anything else.
su

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Re: Think I've broken X

#16 Post by GarryRicketson »

Sorry guys :C the thread can be closed.
No problem, sorry you had a bad experience, but now you learned something as well,... You can edit the subject line on the first post. add "solved" or "lesson learned",... we don't usually close threads unless they get real bad or are breaking forum guidelines.

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Re: Think I've broken X *lesson learned*

#17 Post by stevepusser »

This is a lot better video if you want to use some of the famous good old Compiz effects. The version in the Debian repo is a pale shadow of what compiz once was and what you can still get with compiz-reloaded. I'm not sure if you can use it with GNOME 3. Skip ahead to 9:00 if you want to see some of the effects.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5_OTHYCenHk&t=168s
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Derpbian
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Re: Think I've broken X *lesson learned*

#18 Post by Derpbian »

stevepusser wrote:This is a lot better video if you want to use some of the famous good old Compiz effects. The version in the Debian repo is a pale shadow of what compiz once was and what you can still get with compiz-reloaded. I'm not sure if you can use it with GNOME 3. Skip ahead to 9:00 if you want to see some of the effects.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5_OTHYCenHk&t=168s
Thanks, But im going to read more about X before I start fiddling in the filesystem again. This might be off-topic but I have managed to install the following after the re-install:

Encrypted my drives/partitions.
Disabled SSH root login.
Set my user in the sudoers file (standard).
Drivers for my WLAN using non-free repo.
Installed Nvidia graphics drivers (Bumblebee).

With that said, I will take the feedback from you guys with me and proceed deeper into the rabbit hole.

Many thanks!
su

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Re: Think I've broken X *lesson learned*

#19 Post by Argus »

Hey Derpbian,

I wanted to give you some encouragement and advice as one beginner to another.
I started using Linux only about 8-9 months ago, and I broke a few installs at first because I'm a natural tinkerer. However, Linux is surprisingly resilient and difficult to truly break; once you learn a little more about the system, you'll find that you can fix just about anything.

I just don't want you to be afraid of tinkering, because that's how you learn! I now fearlessly tinker with my system, because I'm confident that I know what I'm doing and can fix anything that I break, and it didn't even take me 6 months to get to that point. I haven't had to reinstall a system after my first few months, and I frequently tinker with and occasionally break / fix things. But a few simple guidelines make fixing things, should I break them, relatively easy and painless:

1) Have a stable machine, and a tinkering machine (either on a non-essential computer, or running in a VM). Try things out on your non-mission critical machine first.

2) As much as possible, don't use automated GUI tools or scripts. Edit files manually. That way, you know what you edited and how, and can make backups of the original configuration file before changing anything. The problem with scripts or high level GUI programs is that you have no idea what they're doing, and so you don't know how to fix things if they go wrong.

3) Check the repositories to see if things are available there first. Especially with themes and such, this is much easier than manually installing them. I still install or compile software myself in addition to what's in the repos (in violation of one of the "Don't break Debian" rules which I feel is too conservative), but I always go to the repo first as it's more reliable, and you can find most things there.

Of course, I'm not saying don't run scripts or use gui tweak tools. I consider many tools, such as the Gnome Tweak Tool safe, and plenty of scripts are safe too. But I use my better judgement: I shy away from any script that edits system config files and read / understand it first -- if I don't get the gist of what it does by reading over it or it messes with files that I'm not comfortable with, I figure I shouldn't run it unless I'm okay with potentially breaking things on the target system which may be time consuming to fix.

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