Xorg
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Xorg is the public, open-source implementation of the X window system version 11. Since Xorg is the most popular choice among Linux users, its ubiquity has led to making it an ever-present requisite for GUI applications, resulting in massive adoption from most distributions. See the Xorg Wikipedia article or visit the Xorg website for more details.
Contents
- 1 Installation
- 2 Running
- 3 Configuration
- 4 Input devices
- 5 Graphics
- 6 Composite
- 7 Sample configurations
- 8 Tips and tricks
- 9 Troubleshooting
- 9.1 Common problems
- 9.2 Ctrl+Alt+Backspace does not work
- 9.3 CTRL right key does not work with oss keymap
- 9.4 Apple keyboard issues
- 9.5 Touchpad tap-click issues
- 9.6 Extra mouse buttons not recognized
- 9.7 X clients started with "su" fail
- 9.8 Program requests "font '(null)'"
- 9.9 Frame-buffer mode problems
- 9.10 DRI with Matrox cards stops working
- 9.11 Recovery: disabling Xorg before GUI login
- 9.12 X failed to start : Keyboard initialization failed
Installation
First, you will need to install the X server with the package xorg-server, available in the Official Repositories. You may also want the useful utilities contained in the xorg-apps group.
Udev will detect your hardware and evdev will act as the hotplugging input driver for almost all devices. Udev is provided by systemd and xf86-input-evdev is required by xorg-server, so there is no need to explicitly install those packages.
Running
See also: Start X at Login
If you want to start X without a display manager, install the package xorg-xinit. Optionally, the packages xorg-twm, xorg-xclock and xterm allows for a default environment, as described below.
The startx and xinit commands will start the X server and clients (the startx script is merely a front end to the xinit command). To determine the client to run, startx/xinit will first look to parse a ~/.xinitrc file in the user's home directory. In the absence of ~/.xinitrc, it defaults to the global file /etc/X11/xinit/xinitrc, which defaults to starting a basic environment with the Twm window manager, Xclock and Xterm.
For more information, see xinitrc.
Configuration
Using split files
The /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/ directory stores user-specific configuration. You are free to add configuration files to /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/, but they must start with XX- (where XX is a number) and have a .conf suffix (10 is read before 20, for example). These files are parsed by the X server upon startup and are treated like part of the traditional xorg.conf configuration file. The X server essentially treats the collection of configuration files as one big file with entries from xorg.conf at the end.
Using single file
Xorg can also be configured via /etc/X11/xorg.conf or /etc/xorg.conf. You can also generate skeleton for the xorg.conf by
# Xorg :0 -configure
That should create an xorg.conf.new file in /root/ that you can copy over to /etc/X11/xorg.conf for more information see man xorg.conf
Alternatively, your video card drivers may come with a tool to automatically configure Xorg. In the case of NVIDIA, try nvidia-xconfig. For ATI with the proprietary driver, try aticonfig.
Input devices
Installing input drivers is not needed for most hardware. Nevertheless, if evdev does not support your device, install the needed driver from the xorg-drivers group (try pacman -Sg xorg-drivers for a listing).
You should have 10-evdev.conf in the /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d directory, which manages the keyboard, the mouse, the touchpad and the touchscreen.
Touchpad Synaptics
Main page: Touchpad Synaptics
If you have a laptop, you need to install the touchpad driver provided by the xf86-input-synaptics package in the Official Repositories.
After installation, you can find 10-synaptics.conf in the /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d directory. It is safe to comment out/delete the InputClass line regarding the touchpad in 10-evdev.conf.
Disabling input hot-plugging
Since version 1.8 Xorg-server uses udev for device detection. The following will disable the use of udev.
Section "ServerFlags"
Option "AutoAddDevices" "False"
EndSection
Keyboard settings
Xorg may fail to detect your keyboard correctly. This might give problems with your keyboard layout or keyboard model not being set correctly.
To see a full list of keyboard models, layouts, variants and options, open /usr/share/X11/xkb/rules/xorg.lst.
To set the keymap for the current Xorg session:
# setxkbmap dvorak
Key repeat delay and rate
Use xset r rate DELAY RATE to change them, then use xinitrc to make it permanent.
Viewing keyboard settings
$ setxkbmap -print -verbose 10
Setting verbose level to 10
locale is C
Applied rules from evdev:
model: evdev
layout: us
options: terminate:ctrl_alt_bksp
Trying to build keymap using the following components:
keycodes: evdev+aliases(qwerty)
types: complete
compat: complete
symbols: pc+us+inet(evdev)+terminate(ctrl_alt_bksp)
geometry: pc(pc104)
xkb_keymap {
xkb_keycodes { include "evdev+aliases(qwerty)" };
xkb_types { include "complete" };
xkb_compat { include "complete" };
xkb_symbols { include "pc+us+inet(evdev)+terminate(ctrl_alt_bksp)" };
xkb_geometry { include "pc(pc104)" };
};
Setting keyboard layout with hot-plugging
To change your keyboard layout, create a number-*.conf file (e.g. 10-keyboard.conf) with the following content:
/etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/10-keyboard.conf
Section "InputClass"
Identifier "Keyboard Defaults"
MatchIsKeyboard "yes"
Option "XkbLayout" "us"
Option "XkbVariant" "colemak"
EndSection
Alternatively, you can also combine XkbLayout and XkbVariant:
/etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/10-keyboard.conf
Section "InputClass"
Identifier "Keyboard Defaults"
MatchIsKeyboard "yes"
Option "XkbLayout" "us(colemak)"
EndSection
Setting keyboard layout without hot-plugging (deprecated)
To change the keyboard layout, use the XkbLayout option in the keyboard InputDevice section. For example, if you have a keyboard with the English (Great Britain) layout, your keyboard InputDevice section might look similar to this:
Section "InputDevice"
Identifier "Keyboard0"
Driver "kbd"
Option "XkbLayout" "gb"
EndSection
To change the keyboard model, use the XkbModel option in the keyboard InputDevice section. For example, if you have a Microsoft Wireless Multimedia Keyboard:
Option "XkbModel" "microsoftmult"
Switching between keyboard layouts
To be able to easily switch keyboard layouts, modify the Options used in either of the above two methods. For example, to switch between a US and a Swedish layout using the Template:Keypress key, create a file /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/01-keyboard-layout.conf with the following content:
Section "InputClass"
Identifier "keyboard-layout"
MatchIsKeyboard "on"
Option "XkbLayout" "us, se"
Option "XkbOptions" "grp:caps_toggle"
EndSection
As an alternative, you can add the following to your .xinitrc:
setxkbmap -layout "us, se" -option "grp:caps_toggle"
This is mainly useful if you run a Desktop Environment which does not take care of keyboard layouts for you.
Enable pointerkeys
Mouse keys is now disabled by default and has to be manually enabled:
/etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/20-enable-pointerkeys.conf
Section "InputClass"
Identifier "Keyboard Defaults"
MatchIsKeyboard "yes"
Option "XkbOptions" "keypad:pointerkeys"
EndSection
You can also run:
$ setxkbmap -option keypad:pointerkeys
Both will make the Template:Keypress shortcut toggle mouse keys.
InputClasses
Taken from: https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Input_device_configuration
InputClasses are a new type of configuration section that does not apply to a single device but rather to a class of devices, including hotplugged devices. An InputClass section's scope is limited by the matches specified – to apply to an input device, all matches must apply to a device. An example InputClass section is provided below:
Section "InputClass"
Identifier "touchpad catchall"
MatchIsTouchpad "on"
Driver "synaptics"
EndSection
The next snippet might also be helpful:
Section "InputClass"
Identifier "evdev touchpad catchall"
MatchIsTouchpad "on"
MatchDevicePath "/dev/input/event*"
Driver "evdev"
EndSection
If this snippet is present in the xorg.conf or xorg.conf.d, any touchpad present in the system is assigned the synaptics driver. Note that due to precedence order (alphanumeric sorting of xorg.conf.d snippets) the Driver setting overwrites previously set driver options – the more generic the class, the earlier it should be listed. The default snippet shipped with the xorg-x11-drv-Xorg package is 00-evdev.conf and applies the evdev driver to all input devices.
The match options specify which devices a section may apply to. To match a device, all match lines must apply. The following match lines are supported (with examples):
-
MatchIsPointer,MatchIsKeyboard,MatchIsTouchpad,MatchIsTouchscreen,MatchIsJoystick– boolean options to apply to a group of devices. -
MatchProduct "foo|bar": match any device with a product name containing either "foo" or "bar" -
MatchVendor "foo|bar|baz": match any device with a vendor string containing either "foo", "bar", or "baz" -
MatchDevicePath "/dev/input/event*": match any device with a device path matching the given patch (see fnmatch(3) for the allowed pattern) -
MatchTag "foo|bar": match any device with a tag of either "foo" or "bar". Tags may be assigned by the config backend – udev in our case – to label devices that need quirks or special configuration.
An example section for user-specific configuration is:
Section "InputClass"
Identifier "lasermouse slowdown"
MatchIsPointer "on"
MatchProduct "Lasermouse"
MatchVendor "LaserMouse Inc."
Option "ConstantDeceleration" 20
EndSection
This section would match a pointer device containing "Lasermouse" from "Lasermouse Inc." and apply a constant deceleration of 20 on this device – slowing it down by factor 20.
Some devices may get picked up by the X server when they really should not be. These devices can be configured to be ignored:
Section "InputClass"
Identifier "no need for accelerometers in X"
MatchProduct "accelerometer"
Option "Ignore" "on"
EndSection
Example configurations
The following subsections describe example configurations for commonly used configuration options. Note that if you use a desktop environment such as GNOME or KDE, options you set in the xorg.conf may get overwritten with user-specific options upon login.
Example: Wheel emulation (for a Trackpoint)
If you own a computer with a Trackpoint (a Thinkpad, for example) you can add the following to the xorg.conf to use the middle button to emulate a mouse wheel:
Section "InputClass"
Identifier "Wheel Emulation"
MatchIsPointer "on"
MatchProduct "TrackPoint"
Option "EmulateWheelButton" "2"
Option "EmulateWheel" "on"
EndSection
For full support of TrackPoints (including horizontal scrolling) you can use the following:
Section "InputClass"
Identifier "Trackpoint Wheel Emulation"
MatchProduct "TPPS/2 IBM TrackPoint|DualPoint Stick|Synaptics Inc. Composite TouchPad / TrackPoint|ThinkPad USB Keyboard with TrackPoint|USB Trackpoint pointing device"
MatchDevicePath "/dev/input/event*"
Option "EmulateWheel" "true"
Option "EmulateWheelButton" "2"
Option "Emulate3Buttons" "false"
Option "XAxisMapping" "6 7"
Option "YAxisMapping" "4 5"
EndSection
Example: Tap-to-click
Tap-to-click can be enabled in the mouse configuration dialog (in the touchpad tab) but if you need tapping enabled at gdm already, the following snippet does it for you:
Section "InputClass"
Identifier "tap-by-default"
MatchIsTouchpad "on"
Option "TapButton1" "1"
EndSection
Example: Keyboard layout and model on Acer 5920G laptop
Keyboard model and layout may be set in the file /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/keyboard.conf or any other .conf file in the same directory.
-
MatchIsKeyboard "yes": set the input device to a keyboard -
Option "XkbModel" "acer_laptop": set the keyboard model to an Acer *Option "XkbLayout" "be": set the keyboard layout to belgian. You may replacebewith whatever layout you have. -
Option "XkbVariant" "sundeadkeys": set the layout variant to Sun dead keys. You may omit theXkbVariantoption if you stick with the default variant.
laptop keyboard. You may replace acer_laptop with your actual keyboard layout.
Note that a list of keyboard layouts and models can be found in /usr/share/X11/xkb/rules/base.lst
Section "InputClass"
Identifier "Keyboard Defaults"
MatchIsKeyboard "yes"
Option "XkbModel" "acer_laptop"
Option "XkbLayout" "be"
Option "XkbVariant" "sundeadkeys"
EndSection
Example: Third button emulation (for all attached mice)
Third button emulation allows you to use the 1 and 2 buttons (left and right click) together to produce a button 3 event (middle-click), which is really useful for copy and paste in X.
We will modify the mouse input catchall in /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/10-evdev.conf
Section "InputClass"
Identifier "evdev pointer catchall"
MatchIsPointer "on"
MatchDevicePath "/dev/input/event*"
Driver "evdev"
Option "Emulate3Buttons" "True"
Option "Emulate3Timeout" "25"
EndSection
Here you see the Option "Emulate3Buttons" "True" and Option "Emulate3Timeout" "25" options that specify that 3 buttons should be emulated and the delay to recognize both buttons down as a middle click is 25ms.
Graphics
Driver installation
The default graphics driver is vesa (xf86-video-vesa), which handles a large number of chipsets but does not include any 2D or 3D acceleration. To enable graphics acceleration, you will need to install and use the driver specific to your graphics card.
First, identify your card:
$ lspci | grep VGA
Then, install an appropriate driver. You can search for these packages with the following command:
$ pacman -Ss xf86-video
Common open source drivers:
- NVIDIA: xf86-video-nouveau (see Nouveau)
- Intel: xf86-video-intel (see Intel)
- ATI: xf86-video-ati (see ATI)
Common proprietary drivers:
- NVIDIA: nvidia (see NVIDIA)
- ATI: catalystAUR (see ATI Catalyst)
Xorg should run smoothly without closed source drivers, which are typically needed only for advanced features such as fast 3D-accelerated rendering for games, dual-screen setups, and TV-out.
Monitor settings
Getting started
First, create a new config file, such as /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/10-monitor.conf.
Insert the following code into the config file mentioned above:
Section "Monitor"
Identifier "Monitor0"
EndSection
Section "Device"
Identifier "Device0"
Driver "vesa" #Choose the driver used for this monitor
EndSection
Section "Screen"
Identifier "Screen0" #Collapse Monitor and Device section to Screen section
Device "Device0"
Monitor "Monitor0"
DefaultDepth 16 #Choose the depth (16||24)
SubSection "Display"
Depth 16
Modes "1024x768_75.00" #Choose the resolution
EndSubSection
EndSection
Multiple monitors/Dual screen
NVIDIA
Please see: NVIDIA#Multiple monitors.
More than one graphics card
You must define the correct driver to use and put the bus ID of your graphic cards.
Section "Device"
Identifier "Screen0"
Driver "nouveau"
BusID "PCI:0:12:0"
EndSection
Section "Device"
Identifier "Screen1"
Driver "radeon"
BusID "PCI:1:0:0"
EndSection
To get your bus ID:
$ lspci | grep VGA 01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: nVidia Corporation G96 [GeForce 9600M GT] (rev a1)
The bus ID here is 1:0:0.
Script to toggle internal/external display for laptops
Run the following script after connecting to external displays with your computer to change the display used by Xorg. It checks if a display is connected to the port specified in EXT before changing displays.
To find out the display names to be specified in EXT run:
# xrandr -q
The internal display should be connected when running the script, which is always true for a laptop. To use this script the package xorg-xrandr needs to be installed.
#!/bin/bash
IN="LVDS1"
EXT="VGA1"
if (xrandr | grep "$EXT" | grep "+")
then
xrandr --output $EXT --off --output $IN --auto
else
if (xrandr | grep "$EXT" | grep " connected")
then
xrandr --output $IN --off --output $EXT --auto
fi
fi
Display Size and DPI
The DPI of the X server is determined in the following manner:
- The -dpi command line option has highest priority.
- If this is not used, the DisplaySize setting in the X config file is used to derive the DPI, given the screen resolution.
- If no DisplaySize is given, the monitor size values from DDC are used to derive the DPI, given the screen resolution.
- If DDC does not specify a size, 75 DPI is used by default.
In order to get correct dots per inch (DPI) set, the display size must be recognized or set. Having the correct DPI is especially necessary where fine detail is required (like font rendering). Previously, manufacturers tried to create a standard for 96 DPI (a 10.3" diagonal monitor would be 800x600, a 13.2" monitor 1024x768). These days, screen DPIs vary and may not be equal horizontally and vertically. For example, a 19" widescreen LCD at 1440x900 may have a DPI of 89x87. To be able to set the DPI, the Xorg server attempts to auto-detect your monitor's physical screen size through the graphic card with DDC. When the Xorg server knows the physical screen size, it will be able to set the correct DPI depending on resolution size.
To see if your display size and DPI are detected/calculated correctly:
$ xdpyinfo | grep -B2 resolution
Check that the dimensions match your display size. If the Xorg server is not able to correctly calculate the screen size, it will default to 75x75 DPI and you will have to calculate it yourself.
If you have specifications on the physical size of the screen, they can be entered in the Xorg configuration file so that the proper DPI is calculated:
Section "Monitor"
Identifier "Monitor0"
DisplaySize 286 179 # In millimeters
EndSection
If you only want to enter the specification of your monitor without creating a full xorg.conf create a new config file. For example (/etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/90-monitor.conf):
Section "Monitor"
Identifier "<default monitor>"
DisplaySize 286 179 # In millimeters
EndSection
If you do not have specifications for physical screen width and height (most specifications these days only list by diagonal size), you can use the monitor's native resolution (or aspect ratio) and diagonal length to calculate the horizontal and vertical physical dimensions. Using the Pythagorean theorem on a 13.3" diagonal length screen with a 1280x800 native resolution (or 16:10 aspect ratio):
echo 'scale=5;sqrt(1280^2+800^2)' | bc # 1509.43698
This will give the pixel diagonal length and with this value you can discover the physical horizontal and vertical lengths (and convert them to millimeters):
echo 'scale=5;(13.3/1509)*1280*25.4' | bc # 286.43072 echo 'scale=5;(13.3/1509)*800*25.4' | bc # 179.01920
Setting DPI manually
DPI can be set manually if you only plan to use one resolution (DPI calculator):
Section "Monitor"
Identifier "Monitor0"
Option "DPI" "96 x 96"
EndSection
If you use an NVIDIA card, you can manually set the DPI adding the options bellow on /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/20-nvidia.conf (inside Device section):
Option "UseEdidDpi" "False" Option "DPI" "96 x 96"
For RandR compliant drivers, you can set it by:
xrandr --dpi 96
See Execute commands after X start to make it permanent.
Note: while you can set any dpi you like and applications using Qt and GTK will scale accordingly, it's recommended to set it to 96, 120 (25% higher), 144 (50% higher), 168 (75% higher), 192 (100% higher) etc., to reduce scaling artifacts to GUI that use bitmaps. Reducing it below 96 dpi may not reduce size of graphical elements of GUI as typically the lowest dpi the icons are made for is 96.
DPMS
DPMS (Display Power Management Signaling) is a technology that allows power saving behaviour of monitors when the computer is not in use. This will allow you to have your monitors automatically go into standby after a predefined period of time. See: DPMS
Composite
The Composite extension for X causes an entire sub-tree of the window hierarchy to be rendered to an off-screen buffer. Applications can then take the contents of that buffer and do whatever they like. The off-screen buffer can be automatically merged into the parent window or merged by external programs, called compositing managers.
The Composite extension can't be used simultaneously with Xinerama. However, it can be used simultaneously with Nvidia Twinview.
Disabling the extension
The composite extension is enabled by default. To disable it, add this to xorg.conf or a file in /etc/xorg.conf.d:
Section "Extensions"
Option "Composite" "Disable"
EndSection
This may slightly improve your performance with some drivers.
See also
- AIGLX
- Compiz -- The original composite/window manager from Novell
- Xcompmgr -- A simple composite manager capable of drop shadows and primitive transparency
- Compton -- A fork of xcompmgr with feature improves and bug fix
- Cairo Composite Manager -- A versatile and extensible composite manager which uses cairo for rendering.
- Wikipedia:Compositing window manager
Sample configurations
Anyone who has an xorg.conf file written up that works, go ahead and post a link to it here for others to look at. Please do not in-line the entire configuration file; upload it somewhere else and link to it.
Please post input hotplugging configurations only, otherwise note that your config is not using input hotplugging. (Xorg 1.8 = udev)
Sample 1: xorg.conf & /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/10-evdev.conf
This is a sample configuration file using /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/10-evdev.conf for the keyboard layouts:
xorg.conf: http://pastebin.com/raw.php?i=EuSKahkn/etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/10-evdev.conf: http://pastebin.com/raw.php?i=4mPY35Mw/etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/10-monitor.conf(VMware): http://pastebin.com/raw.php?i=fJv8EXGb/etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/10-monitor.conf(KVM): http://pastebin.com/raw.php?i=NRz7v0Kn
Tips and tricks
X startup (/usr/bin/startx) tweaking
For X's option reference see:
$ man Xserver
The following options have to be appended to the variable "defaultserverargs" in the /usr/bin/startx file:
- Enable deferred glyph loading for 16 bit fonts:
-deferglyphs 16
Nested X session
To run a nested session of another desktop environment:
$ /usr/bin/Xnest :1 -geometry 1024x768+0+0 -ac -name Windowmaker & wmaker -display :1
This will launch a Window Maker session in a 1024 by 768 window within your current X session.
This needs the package xorg-server-xnest to be installed.
Starting GUI Programs Remotely
To start up a program that uses X when logged in remotely (such as through ssh), you need to type this in from the remote login Bash shell:
export DISPLAY=:0
Then invoke the program the way you would locally from the shell.
Hint: Add that line to ~/.bashrc to have it happen automatically every time you log in.
Troubleshooting
Common problems
If Xorg will not start, the screen is completely black, the keyboard and mouse are not working, etc., first take these simple steps:
- Check the log file:
cat /var/log/Xorg.0.log - Install input driver (keyboard, mouse, joystick, tablet, etc...):
- Finally, search for common problems in ATI, Intel and NVIDIA articles.
Ctrl+Alt+Backspace does not work
There are two ways of restoring Template:Keypress; with and without input-hotplugging. Using hot-plugging is recommended.
With input hot-plugging
System-wide
Within /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/10-evdev.conf, simply add the following:
Section "InputClass"
Identifier "Keyboard Defaults"
MatchIsKeyboard "yes"
Option "XkbOptions" "terminate:ctrl_alt_bksp"
EndSection
User-specific
Another way is to put this line in xinitrc:
setxkbmap -option terminate:ctrl_alt_bksp
Without input hot-plugging
New Xorg disables zapping with Template:Keypress by default. You can enable it by adding the following line to /etc/X11/xorg.conf,
Option "XkbOptions" "terminate:ctrl_alt_bksp"
to InputDevice section for keyboard.
CTRL right key does not work with oss keymap
Edit as root /usr/share/X11/xkb/symbols/fr, and change the line :
include "level5(rctrl_switch)"
to
// include "level5(rctrl_switch)"
Then restart X or reboot.
Apple keyboard issues
- See: Apple Keyboard
Touchpad tap-click issues
- See: Synaptics
Extra mouse buttons not recognized
X clients started with "su" fail
If you are getting "Client is not authorized to connect to server", try adding the line:
session optional pam_xauth.so
to /etc/pam.d/su. pam_xauth will then properly set environment variables and handle xauth keys.
Program requests "font '(null)'"
- Error message: "unable to load font `(null)'."
Some programs only work with bitmap fonts. Two major packages with bitmap fonts are available, xorg-fonts-75dpi and xorg-fonts-100dpi. You do not need both; one should be enough. To find out which one would be better in your case, try this:
$ xdpyinfo | grep resolution
and use what is closer to you (75 or 100 instead of XX)
# pacman -S xorg-fonts-XXdpi
Frame-buffer mode problems
If X fails to start with the following log messages,
(WW) Falling back to old probe method for fbdev
(II) Loading sub module "fbdevhw"
(II) LoadModule: "fbdevhw"
(II) Loading /usr/lib/xorg/modules/linux//libfbdevhw.so
(II) Module fbdevhw: vendor="X.Org Foundation"
compiled for 1.6.1, module version=0.0.2
ABI class: X.Org Video Driver, version 5.0
(II) FBDEV(1): using default device
Fatal server error:
Cannot run in framebuffer mode. Please specify busIDs for all framebuffer devices
uninstall fbdev:
# pacman -R xf86-video-fbdev
DRI with Matrox cards stops working
If you use a Matrox card and DRI stops working after upgrading to Xorg, try adding the line:
Option "OldDmaInit" "On"
to the Device section that references the video card in xorg.conf.
Recovery: disabling Xorg before GUI login
If Xorg is set to boot up automatically and for some reason you need to prevent it from starting up before the login/display manager appears (if /etc/rc.conf is wrongly configured and Xorg does not recognize your mouse or keyboard input, for instance), you can accomplish this task with two methods.
- From the GRUB menu, you can specify the runlevel in the kernel line by adding a number to the end of the kernel line specifying the run level you want. The following example sets the run level to 3:
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-linux root=/dev/disk/by-uuid/..ro 3
- If you have not only a faulty
/etc/rc.confto make Xorg unusable, but you have also set the GRUB menu wait time to zero, or cannot otherwise use GRUB to prevent Xorg from booting, you can use the Arch Linux live CD. Boot up the live CD and login as root. You need a mount point, such as/mnt, and you need to know the name of the partition you want to mount.
- You can use the command,
# fdisk -l
- to see your partitions. Usually, the one you want will be resembling
/dev/sda1. Then, to mount this to/mnt, use
# mount /dev/sda1 /mnt
- Then your filesystem will show up under
/mnt. So your/etc/rc.conffile, for example, would be in/mnt/etc/rc.conf. From here you can delete thegdmdaemon to prevent Xorg from booting up normally or make any other necessary changes to the configuration.
X failed to start : Keyboard initialization failed
If your hard disk is full, startx will fail. /var/log/Xorg.0.log will end with:
(EE) Error compiling keymap (server-0) (EE) XKB: Couldn't compile keymap (EE) XKB: Failed to load keymap. Loading default keymap instead. (EE) Error compiling keymap (server-0) (EE) XKB: Couldn't compile keymap XKB: Failed to compile keymap Keyboard initialization failed. This could be a missing or incorrect setup of xkeyboard-config. Fatal server error: Failed to activate core devices. Please consult the The X.Org Foundation support at http://wiki.x.org for help. Please also check the log file at "/var/log/Xorg.0.log" for additional information. (II) AIGLX: Suspending AIGLX clients for VT switch
Make some free space on your root partition and X will start.