Catching messages after X has terminated

balanga · 2025-11-04T18:01:45+0000

Are messages output after X has terminated saved in a log file somewhere?

I see a number of errors shown after I have logged out of X (LXDE in my case) and I'd like to be able to examine them but I don't know if they are written anywhere.

Espionage724 · 2025-11-04T18:11:51+0000

Do these have info?

Code:

/var/log/Xorg.0.log

Code:

/var/log/Xorg.0.log.old

blackbird9 · 2025-11-04T19:12:09+0000

If they are kernel messages... /var/log/messages, or dmesg?

cy@ · 2025-11-04T19:25:52+0000

There are a number of different message "classes" you are probably asking about. As some have noted, /var/log/messages and /var/log/Xorg.0.log are the places to look for system level and Xorg server messages. Your LXDE messages may be written somewhere else. For example, I use XDM. XDM writes its messages and all application messages to ~/.xsession-errors. It does this by redirecting stdout and stderr to .xsession-errors. LXDE's display manager(lxdm) might or might not use the same file. Or it might use a different file.

Or, are you using sddm as a display manager? It might write its messages somewhere else. The is no way to know without enough knowedge about the display manage you're using. To find out which file it might be, log into LXDE. Then, immediately log out. Now switch to a text console on your computer and log in. After logging in type in,

sh:

ls -alrt | tail

One of the most recently written files might contain the messages you're interested in. Look in the file to see if it is what you might be looking for. If it is, remember that filename. Now when you log in just open a terminal session or a text viewer and simply look at the file.

blackbird9 · 2025-11-04T19:36:48+0000

Another thing you can do is start the Xorg process manually using 'startx' from the login console instead of from sddm, and capture it's output into a file, that you can examine when the X server exits. For example you can say something like :-
startx 2>&1 | tee x.out
- to capture both stdout and stderr. You might have to experiment a bit to get it to work

cy@ · 2025-11-04T20:30:34+0000

startx and xinit are from a bygone era. I haven't used startx since my SunOS 4 days.

mer · 2025-11-04T20:35:31+0000

cy@ said:
startx and xinit are from a bygone era. I haven't used startx since my SunOS 4 days.

Interesting. I prefer booting to just a CLI interface, logging in and then running startx. Has saved me some pain from misconfigured things.

And bygone does not equate to useless.

Phishfry · 2025-11-04T20:51:46+0000

mer said:
logging in and then running startx.

Me too. Switched to openbox and using autostart is delightful. Simplistic. Playing with kiosk mode and using getty user AL is pretty sweet too.

find / -newerct '1 minute ago' -print

MrBSD · 2025-11-04T20:52:11+0000

mer said:
Interesting. I prefer booting to just a CLI interface, logging in and then running startx. Has saved me some pain from misconfigured things.

And bygone does not equate to useless.

Yup. Same here. Also prefer logging into cli, and then, if i need desktop, i just startx. Also, i have several entries in my .xinitrc file for when i test various desktops. I just uncoment the line i need, and viola.

nxjoseph · 2025-11-04T20:52:18+0000

cy@ said:
startx and xinit are from a bygone era. I haven't used startx since my SunOS 4 days.

What do you use then now? A display manager? Or autostart(?)?

Espionage724 · 2025-11-04T20:55:44+0000

I use startx too with Xfce; I figured LightDM would just display a nicer looking log-in screen

(display power management and locking still works fine without a DM)

Phishfry · 2025-11-04T20:58:16+0000

symbolinked for laziness
ln -s /usr/local/bin/startx /usr/local/bin/x

Phishfry · 2025-11-04T21:00:19+0000

One pkg-update and your login manager flounders because drm. Been there and not doing it again.

mer · 2025-11-04T21:06:11+0000

MrBSD said:
Also, i have several entries in my .xinitrc file for when i test various desktops. I just uncoment the line i need, and viola.

Ahh, so I'm not the only one.

blackbird9 · 2025-11-04T21:15:13+0000

Starting from the console using startx is very useful if you have any kind of X configuration problem that you are debugging. Then once you get it working, switch to a graphical login manager like sddm. I use the two interchangably.

mer · 2025-11-04T21:16:12+0000

blackbird9 said:
Starting from the console using startx is very useful if you have any kind of X configuration problem that you are debugging. Then once you get it working, switch to a graphical login manager. I use the two interchangably.

My habit started back in the days of CRT and modelines.

MrBSD · 2025-11-04T21:25:36+0000

mer said:
Ahh, so I'm not the only one.

Nope.

And here is the interesting situation i had recently. My buddy wanted to try Artix Linux because he didnt like FreeBSD for some wired reason. So i installed latest Plasma 6.5.1, and i was unable to start Plasma wayland session from sddm. I just get black screen. Stopping sddm service and issuing

Code:

/usr/lib/plasma-dbus-run-session-if-needed /usr/bin/startplasma-wayland

starts Plasma wayland session just fine. Go figure...

Espionage724 · 2025-11-04T21:34:37+0000

MrBSD said:
plasma-dbus-run-session-if-needed

That almost sounds like duct tape

balanga · 2025-11-04T22:10:58+0000

cy@ said:
startx and xinit are from a bygone era. I haven't used startx since my SunOS 4 days.

I'm also from a bygone era

balanga · 2025-11-04T22:18:35+0000

mer said:
Interesting. I prefer booting to just a CLI interface, logging in and then running startx. Has saved me some pain from misconfigured things.

And bygone does not equate to useless.

Actually this is what I do normally, but I'm trying to insert a timer so that startx will start will start up automatically after a given time unless some key is pressed but haven't figured out how to do that yet.

cy@ · 2025-11-04T22:29:36+0000

nxjoseph said:
What do you use then now? A display manager? Or autostart(?)?

XDM. My .xsession file contains this prompt to allow me to start a number of other windowing environments when I'm away from home/office in order to show people that FreeBSD has many faces. It doesn't have to look like CDE.

Code:

XDMWM=`/usr/bin/cut -c -88 - < /etc/motd | /usr/local/bin/xmessage -buttons cde,mwm,xsm,emwm,xmsm,fvwm2,twm,ctwm,mate,openbox,icewm,afterstep,xterm,logout -file - -print -timeout 60 -default cde -center`

I don't use dtlogin, the CDE display manager, because it doesn't support NIS nor LDAP logins. Though it would be easy to add PAM support to CDE, I don't have the time and XDM does the job with the added benefit of allowing me to show off to non-FreeBSD users any number of windowing environments.

T-Daemon · 2025-11-05T03:22:25+0000

MrBSD said:
Also, i have several entries in my .xinitrc file for when i test various desktops. I just uncoment the line i need, and viola.

I have developed a method to switch between desktops via the command line without having to edit the ~/.xinitrc file each time.

xinit(1) provides the environment variable XINITRC. This variable allows to use different xinit files to start different desktops from command line easily.

There is a user account on my system with a ~/.xinitrc.d directory, containing various xinitrc files. Desktops are launched with an alias.

Code:

 %  ls  -1  .xinitrc.d
awesome.xinitrc
dwm.xinitrc
fluxbox.xinitrc
herbstluftwm.xinitrc
i3.xinitrc
icewm.xinitrc
jwm.xinitrc
openbox.xinitrc
sawfish.xinitrc

%  cat  .xinitrc.d/herbstluftwm.xinitrc
tint2 -c ~/.config/tint2/custom/herbstluftwm.tint2rc &
compton -o 0.0 &
fbsetbg "/home/Wallpapers/Dark Spots Texture Background.jpg"
exec herbstluftwm --locked

Code:

alias   xawesome="env XINITRC=$HOME/.xinitrc.d/awesome.xinitrc startx >& /dev/null"
alias   xdwm="env XINITRC=$HOME/.xinitrc.d/dwm.xinitrc startx >& /dev/null"
alias   xfluxbox="env XINITRC=$HOME/.xinitrc.d/fluxbox.xinitrc startx >& /dev/null"
alias   xherbst="env XINITRC=$HOME/.xinitrc.d/herbstluftwm.xinitrc startx >& /dev/null"
alias   xi3="env XINITRC=$HOME/.xinitrc.d/i3.xinitrc startx >& /dev/null"
alias   xicewm="env XINITRC=$HOME/.xinitrc.d/icewm.xinitrc startx >& /dev/null"
alias   xjwm="env XINITRC=$HOME/.xinitrc.d/jwm.xinitrc startx >& /dev/null"
alias   xopenbox="env XINITRC=$HOME/.xinitrc.d/openbox.xinitrc startx >& /dev/null"
alias   xsawfish="env XINITRC=$HOME/.xinitrc.d/sawfish.xinitrc startx >& /dev/null"

MrBSD · 2025-11-05T06:34:38+0000

I mean, yeah. You can go crazy with it. But its not like i juggle with different desktops every day all day, so this is overkill if you ask me. I usually test new Plasma release once every few months. And for that, simply commenting out my cinnamon line, and un-commenting my Plasma session line is enough.

balanga · 2025-11-05T06:53:47+0000

balanga said:
Are messages output after X has terminated saved in a log file somewhere?

I see a number of errors shown after I have logged out of X (LXDE in my case) and I'd like to be able to examine them but I don't know if they are written anywhere.

One of the messages i see is

WARNING: Kernel has no file descriptor comparitive support: No such file or directory.

Anyone know what this means?

I just noticed similar error but am none the wiser.