Login screen, black screen, login screen when using TigerVNC

Support Graphics & Display
,
1

I am a fairly new user of linux. I have installed manjaro with xfce on a mac mini and have been successfully running it for a couple of months. I do regular (once a month) updates. I recently installed tigervnc and set it up using the instructions on the arch linux wiki. The installation was successful: I can use tigerviewer to access the machine. I can also use ssh to access the machine.

But I broke something else: if I have a display connected to the machine, I get the expected login screen, enter my password, the screen goes black for two or three seconds and comes back to the login screen. Re-entering the password repeats the cycle. The display manager is xfce, I checked in the bottom right hand corner of the display

there is a .xsessions-errors file in my home directory:

gpg-agent: a gpg-agent is already running - not starting a new one
(xfwm4:1499): Gtk-WARNING **: 19:29:11.273: cannot open display: :0

i have output from inxi, too, but whenever I try to paste it into the topic, i get an error message about posting links. that’s a bit confusing because there are no links in my post! anyway…

Can someone suggest a debugging strategy or what logs to dig into? I’ve set up tigervnc on other manjaro linux boxes but haven’t run into this problem before.

Thanks,
wh

2

Welcome to Manjaro! :smiling_face_with_three_hearts:

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3

Thanks Andreas. I missed the markdown info before. Appreciate the help.


sudo inxi --verbosity=8 --filter --width
[sudo] password for worsthorse: 
System:
  Kernel: 6.6.54-2-MANJARO arch: x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc v: 14.2.1
    clocksource: tsc avail: acpi_pm
    parameters: BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-6.6-x86_64
    root=UUID=1062a0e8-551f-4c4c-a020-10ce22d4067c rw quiet
    udev.log_priority=3
  Console: pty pts/1 DM: LightDM v: 1.32.0 Distro: Manjaro base: Arch Linux
Machine:
  Type: Laptop System: Apple product: Macmini7,1 v: 1.0 serial: <filter>
    Chassis: type: 10 v: Mac-35C5E08120C7EEAF serial: <filter>
  Mobo: Apple model: Mac-35C5E08120C7EEAF v: Macmini7,1 serial: <filter>
    uuid: 35291ed3-6c7b-a855-88f6-c7fd423f1945 UEFI: Apple v: 431.0.0.0.0
    date: 02/22/2021
Battery:
  Device-1: hidpp_battery_0 model: Logitech Wireless Keyboard K360
    serial: <filter> charge: 50% (should be ignored) rechargeable: yes
    status: N/A
  Device-2: hidpp_battery_1 model: Logitech Wireless Mouse M325
    serial: <filter> charge: 50% (should be ignored) rechargeable: yes
    status: N/A
Memory:
  System RAM: total: 16 GiB available: 15.5 GiB used: 1.73 GiB (11.1%)
    igpu: 96 MiB
  Array-1: capacity: 16 GiB note: est. slots: 2 modules: 2 EC: None
    max-module-size: 8 GiB note: est.
  Device-1: DIMM0 type: DDR3 detail: synchronous size: 8 GiB speed: N/A
    volts: N/A width: N/A manufacturer: 0x02FE
    part-no: 0x4544464232333241314D412D47442D460000 serial: <filter>
  Device-2: DIMM0 type: DDR3 detail: synchronous size: 8 GiB speed: N/A
    volts: N/A width: N/A manufacturer: 0x02FE
    part-no: 0x4544464232333241314D412D47442D460000 serial: <filter>
PCI Slots:
  Slot: 0 type: PCIe status: available length: short volts: 3.3 bus-ID: N/A
  Slot: 2 type: PCI status: available length: long volts: 3.3 bus-ID: N/A
  Slot: 3 type: PCI status: available length: long volts: 3.3 bus-ID: N/A
  Slot: 4 type: PCI status: available length: long volts: 3.3 bus-ID: N/A
  Slot: 5 type: PCI status: available length: long volts: 3.3 bus-ID: N/A
CPU:
  Info: model: Intel Core i7-4578U socket: BGA1168 (U3E1) note: check bits: 64
    type: MT MCP arch: Haswell gen: core 4 level: v3 note: check built: 2013-15
    process: Intel 22nm family: 6 model-id: 0x45 (69) stepping: 1
    microcode: 0x26
  Topology: cpus: 1x dies: 1 clusters: 2 cores: 2 threads: 4 tpc: 2
    smt: enabled cache: L1: 128 KiB desc: d-2x32 KiB; i-2x32 KiB L2: 512 KiB
    desc: 2x256 KiB L3: 4 MiB desc: 1x4 MiB
  Speed (MHz): avg: 3000 min/max: 800/3500 base/boost: 3000/3000 scaling:
    driver: intel_cpufreq governor: schedutil volts: 1.1 V ext-clock: 25 MHz
    cores: 1: 3000 2: 3000 3: 3000 4: 3000 bogomips: 24008
  Flags: abm acpi aes aperfmperf apic arat arch_perfmon avx avx2 bmi1 bmi2
    bts clflush cmov constant_tsc cpuid cpuid_fault cx16 cx8 de ds_cpl dtes64
    dtherm dts epb ept ept_ad erms est f16c flexpriority flush_l1d fma fpu
    fsgsbase fxsr ht ibpb ibrs ida invpcid lahf_lm lm mca mce md_clear mmx
    monitor movbe msr mtrr nonstop_tsc nopl nx pae pat pbe pcid pclmulqdq pdcm
    pdpe1gb pebs pge pln pni popcnt pse pse36 pti pts rdrand rdtscp rep_good
    sdbg sep smep ss ssbd sse sse2 sse4_1 sse4_2 ssse3 stibp syscall tm tm2
    tpr_shadow tsc tsc_adjust tsc_deadline_timer vme vmx vnmi vpid x2apic
    xsave xsaveopt xtopology xtpr
  Vulnerabilities:
  Type: gather_data_sampling status: Not affected
  Type: itlb_multihit status: KVM: VMX disabled
  Type: l1tf mitigation: PTE Inversion; VMX: conditional cache flushes, SMT
    vulnerable
  Type: mds mitigation: Clear CPU buffers; SMT vulnerable
  Type: meltdown mitigation: PTI
  Type: mmio_stale_data status: Unknown: No mitigations
  Type: reg_file_data_sampling status: Not affected
  Type: retbleed status: Not affected
  Type: spec_rstack_overflow status: Not affected
  Type: spec_store_bypass mitigation: Speculative Store Bypass disabled via
    prctl
  Type: spectre_v1 mitigation: usercopy/swapgs barriers and __user pointer
    sanitization
  Type: spectre_v2 mitigation: Retpolines; IBPB: conditional; IBRS_FW;
    STIBP: conditional; RSB filling; PBRSB-eIBRS: Not affected; BHI: Not
    affected
  Type: srbds mitigation: Microcode
  Type: tsx_async_abort status: Not affected
Graphics:
  Device-1: Intel Haswell-ULT Integrated Graphics vendor: Apple driver: i915
    v: kernel arch: Gen-7.5 process: Intel 22nm built: 2013 ports: active: DP-2
    empty: DP-1,HDMI-A-1,HDMI-A-2 bus-ID: 00:02.0 chip-ID: 8086:0a2e
    class-ID: 0300
  Display: x11 server: X.org v: 1.21.1.14 compositor: xfwm4 driver: X:
    loaded: modesetting alternate: fbdev,vesa dri: crocus gpu: i915 tty: 130x65
  Monitor-1: DP-2 model: Dell S2721QS serial: <filter> built: 2023
    res: 3840x2160 dpi: 163 gamma: 1.2 chroma: red: x: 0.659 y: 0.329 green:
    x: 0.306 y: 0.647 blue: x: 0.149 y: 0.059 white: x: 0.314 y: 0.329
    size: 597x336mm (23.5x13.23") diag: 685mm (27") ratio: 16:9
    modes: 3840x2160, 2560x1440, 2048x1280, 1920x1080, 1920x1080i, 1600x1200,
    1600x900, 1280x1024, 1152x864, 1280x720, 1024x768, 800x600, 720x576,
    720x480, 640x480, 720x400
  EDID-Warnings: 1: parse_edid: unhandled CEA mode 97 2: parse_edid:
    unhandled CEA mode 93 3: parse_edid: unhandled CEA mode 94 4: parse_edid:
    unhandled CEA mode 95
  API: OpenGL Message: GL data unavailable in console, glxinfo missing.
Audio:
  Device-1: Intel Haswell-ULT HD Audio vendor: Apple driver: snd_hda_intel
    v: kernel bus-ID: 00:03.0 chip-ID: 8086:0a0c class-ID: 0403
  Device-2: Intel 8 Series HD Audio driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel
    bus-ID: 00:1b.0 chip-ID: 8086:9c20 class-ID: 0403
  API: ALSA v: k6.6.54-2-MANJARO status: kernel-api with: aoss
    type: oss-emulator tools: alsactl,alsamixer,amixer
  Server-1: JACK v: 1.9.22 status: off tools: N/A
  Server-2: PipeWire v: 1.2.5 status: off tools: pw-cli
  Server-3: PulseAudio v: 17.0 status: active (root, process)
    with: pulseaudio-alsa type: plugin tools: pacat,pactl
Network:
  Device-1: Broadcom BCM4360 802.11ac Dual Band Wireless Network Adapter
    vendor: Apple driver: wl v: kernel modules: bcma pcie: gen: 1 speed: 2.5 GT/s
    lanes: 1 bus-ID: 02:00.0 chip-ID: 14e4:43a0 class-ID: 0280
  IF: wlp2s0 state: up mac: <filter>
  IP v4: <filter> type: dynamic noprefixroute scope: global
    broadcast: <filter>
  IP v6: <filter> type: noprefixroute scope: link
  Device-2: Broadcom NetXtreme BCM57766 Gigabit Ethernet PCIe driver: tg3
    v: kernel pcie: gen: 1 speed: 2.5 GT/s lanes: 1 port: N/A bus-ID: 03:00.0
    chip-ID: 14e4:1686 class-ID: 0200
  IF: enp3s0f0 state: down mac: <filter>
  Info: services: NetworkManager, sshd, systemd-timesyncd, wpa_supplicant
  WAN IP: <filter>
Bluetooth:
  Device-1: Apple Bluetooth Host Controller driver: btusb v: 0.8 type: USB
    rev: 2.0 speed: 12 Mb/s lanes: 1 mode: 1.1 bus-ID: 1-3.3:7 chip-ID: 05ac:8289
    class-ID: fe01
  Report: btmgmt ID: hci0 rfk-id: 1 state: up address: <filter> bt-v: 4.0
    lmp-v: 6 status: discoverable: yes pairing: yes class-ID: 6c010c
Logical:
  Message: No logical block device data found.
RAID:
  Message: No RAID data found.
Drives:
  Local Storage: total: 233.76 GiB used: 154.28 GiB (66.0%)
  SMART Message: Required tool smartctl not installed. Check --recommends
  ID-1: /dev/sda maj-min: 8:0 vendor: Apple model: SSD SM0256F
    size: 233.76 GiB block-size: physical: 4096 B logical: 512 B speed: 6.0 Gb/s
    tech: SSD serial: <filter> fw-rev: JA1Q scheme: GPT
  Message: No optical or floppy data found.
Partition:
  ID-1: / raw-size: 233.46 GiB size: 228.74 GiB (97.98%)
    used: 154.28 GiB (67.4%) fs: ext4 block-size: 4096 B dev: /dev/sda2
    maj-min: 8:2 label: N/A uuid: 1062a0e8-551f-4c4c-a020-10ce22d4067c
  ID-2: /boot/efi raw-size: 300 MiB size: 299.4 MiB (99.80%)
    used: 288 KiB (0.1%) fs: vfat block-size: 512 B dev: /dev/sda1 maj-min: 8:1
    label: NO_LABEL uuid: ACCB-BB6F
Swap:
  Alert: No swap data was found.
Unmounted:
  Message: No unmounted partitions found.
USB:
  Hub-1: 1-0:1 info: hi-speed hub with single TT ports: 9 rev: 2.0
    speed: 480 Mb/s (57.2 MiB/s) lanes: 1 mode: 2.0 chip-ID: 1d6b:0002
    class-ID: 0900
  Hub-2: 1-3:2 info: Broadcom BCM2046B1 USB 2.0 Hub (part of BCM2046
    Bluetooth) ports: 3 rev: 2.0 speed: 12 Mb/s (1.4 MiB/s) lanes: 1 mode: 1.1
    power: 94mA chip-ID: 0a5c:4500 class-ID: 0900
  Device-1: 1-3.3:7 info: Apple Bluetooth Host Controller type: bluetooth
    driver: btusb interfaces: 4 rev: 2.0 speed: 12 Mb/s (1.4 MiB/s) lanes: 1
    mode: 1.1 chip-ID: 05ac:8289 class-ID: fe01
  Device-2: 1-4:3 info: Apple Built-in IR Receiver type: HID
    driver: appleir,usbhid interfaces: 1 rev: 2.0 speed: 1.5 Mb/s (183 KiB/s)
    lanes: 1 mode: 1.0 power: 100mA chip-ID: 05ac:8242 class-ID: 0300
  Device-3: 1-8:5 info: Logitech Unifying Receiver type: keyboard,mouse,HID
    driver: logitech-djreceiver,usbhid interfaces: 3 rev: 2.0
    speed: 12 Mb/s (1.4 MiB/s) lanes: 1 mode: 1.1 power: 98mA
    chip-ID: 046d:c52b class-ID: 0300
  Hub-3: 2-0:1 info: super-speed hub ports: 4 rev: 3.0
    speed: 5 Gb/s (596.0 MiB/s) lanes: 1 mode: 3.2 gen-1x1 chip-ID: 1d6b:0003
    class-ID: 0900
Sensors:
  System Temperatures: cpu: 44.0 C mobo: N/A
  Fan Speeds (rpm): N/A
Repos:
  Packages: pm: pacman pkgs: 1136 libs: 354 tools: pamac
  Active pacman repo servers in: /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist
    1: https://mirror.xenyth.net/manjaro/stable/$repo/$arch
    2: https://muug.ca/mirror/manjaro/stable/$repo/$arch
Processes:
  CPU top: 5 of 189
  1: cpu: 0.6% command: sdrplay_apiService pid: 694 mem: 3.88 MiB (0.0%)
  2: cpu: 0.4% command: /newerversion started-by: dropbox pid: 1394
    mem: 468.7 MiB (2.9%)
  3: cpu: 0.1% command: blueman-tray started-by: python pid: 1357
    mem: 46.1 MiB (0.2%)
  4: cpu: 0.0% command: init pid: 1 mem: 12.7 MiB (0.0%)
  5: cpu: 0.0% command: [kthreadd] pid: 2 mem: 0.00 MiB (0.0%)
  Memory top: 5 of 189
  1: mem: 468.7 MiB (2.9%) command: /newerversion started-by: dropbox
    pid: 1394 cpu: 0.4%
  2: mem: 134.5 MiB (0.8%) command: lightdm-gtk-greeter pid: 1578 cpu: 0.0%
  3: mem: 129.5 MiB (0.8%) command: Xorg pid: 1537 cpu: 0.0%
  4: mem: 86.6 MiB (0.5%) command: Xvnc pid: 774 cpu: 0.0%
  5: mem: 68.8 MiB (0.4%) command: xfwm4 pid: 997 cpu: 0.0%
Info:
  Processes: 189 Power: uptime: 13h 35m states: freeze,mem,disk suspend: deep
    avail: s2idle wakeups: 0 hibernate: platform avail: shutdown, reboot,
    suspend, test_resume image: 6.19 GiB services: upowerd,xfce4-power-manager
    Init: systemd v: 256 default: graphical tool: systemctl
  Compilers: clang: 18.1.8 gcc: 14.2.1 Shell: Sudo (sudo) v: 1.9.16
    default: Bash v: 5.2.37 running-in: pty pts/1 (SSH) inxi: 3.3.36
4

last bit of info… i spent about four hours yesterday searching the web, reading the archi and manjaro wikis, and checking this forum. lots of black screens but nothing like this problem. i am just not sure where to start…

thanks,
wh

5

Hi,
I don’t know if it is relevant but it seems you don’t have a swap partition or a swapfile, right? Maybe you need some?

6

Hi Ceres, I don’t think that matters for this problem… I’ve been running the system successfully for months.

I am guessing there is just something I don’t understand about how the display manager works in conjunction with the vncserver. Off to do more reading/searching and see if anyone can point me in the right direction here.

wh

7

so how do you access your desktop?
uninstall the tigervnc, remove/backup its configs, reboot and see if it helps…

8

A wild guess here, but is TigerVNC trying to use the same TTY as you’d normally use for your graphical login? Have you tried starting a graphical session from another TTY?

I mentioned something along these lines here, for a different (but maybe related) issue, albeit that’s for Plasma:

9

Thanks BG405. Doesn’t seem to be the problem you described.

More details. I restarted the machine and was able to log in through the attached display. I logged back out. Now my tigerviewer connection gets refused when I tried to connect to the vncserver.

It looks like I have to reboot the machine to switch back and forth between the vncserver display :1 and the normal display :0 which is definitely not the behavior I expect.

I am seriously confused now. I guess I could roll back the tigervnc install and start over again but I’d prefer to figure out what’s broken and fix it.

I could also create another user account and see if the behavior is different but I still don’t know where to look for mis-set config.

10

You might want to have a browse through this thread from 2 years ago:

The last answer in that topic:

x11vnc is available from Manjaro’s official (Extra) repo.

11

Does sound like you are trying to use the same login simultanously - this is unsupported by tigervnc.

Please see the following topics for instructions

→ [root tip] [How To] TigerVNC Quick Setup
→ [root tip] [How To] TigerVNC over SSH

display:0 is the console - the root display so to speak.

You specifically state you are using xfce - which in turn comes with lightdm - which defaults to open a session at display:7 (at least that is how I remember it)

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