On Tue, Jul 23, 2024 at 14:20:43 +0200, Thomas Schmitt wrote: > The only helpful match is > > > https://wiki.debian.org/JigdoOnLive?action=fullsearch&context=180&value=.xsession-errors&fullsearch=Text > > "What Does The Log Say? > ... > If you're doing something with your window manager or other X client > programs, then their output probably won't be visible to you > immediately. The location of their output will depend on how you > started X. If you used startx(1) from a console, the output probably > appeared on that console (try Ctrl-Alt-F1 to get back to it, then > Alt-F7 (usually) to get back to X). If you logged in with xdm(8), then > xdm creates a file called .xsession-errors in your home directory, and > you should look there. gdm(8) uses .gnome-errors. The other "*dm" > programs may have similar files."
There's some outdated info in that paragraph. In Debian, startx uses /etc/X11/Xsession (among many other files), which redirects all output to ~/.xsession-errors if it can. ~/.xsession-errors has been the standard place to look for WM and X client errors for so long that I can't even remember where I first learned about it. Also, it's unlikely you'll be able to "get back to" the underlying console from which you ran startx in a modern version of Debian. I want to say... since jessie? Whenever the big X server changes occurred. Ever since then, on most systems, the X server runs in the same TTY where startx was typed, instead of opening a new TTY. This is actually really good, security-wise, because it means someone can't walk up to your machine, press Ctrl-Alt-F1, and then use Ctrl-C or Ctrl-Z to kill or suspend your X session and get control of your shell. That used to be a possibility.
