Package: x11-common Version: 1.3-16 On a pristinely installed Debian system, if I skip the "tasksel" step to select the "Desktop" configuration, but add X11 later using dselect, I end up with a system where X does not properly start.
This happened to me on both an AMD64 and an i386 system; on the former, this was solved by re-installing from scratch and selecting "Desktop" in the "tasksel" step of the installer; after this, X worked fine. Upon trying to pinpoint the problem, I ended up executing /usr/bin/X from the command-line. It returns to the command line immediately (with exit code 0) without providing any indication on what it is doing, or why it fails to start the X server proper. This is a bug in itself, I think. Below I have added an strace log of running "/usr/bin/X" on a broken system. I have compared this to an strace on a system where X is starting properly, and the important difference is that on the broken system, we end up executing execve("/bin/true", ["X"], [/* 14 vars */]) = 0 (around line 44 of the strace below), whereas on a system that has a properly working X11, I get execve("/usr/bin/Xorg", ["X"], [/* 14 vars */]) = 0 .... after some further research, it appears that /usr/bin/X is trying to execute /etc/X11/X, which on a properly installed system is a symlink to /usr/bin/Xorg, but on my broken systems is a symlink to /bin/true. Apparantly, "some" (?) install script has seen it necessary to make /etc/X11/X a symlink to /bin/true. This is a serious problem, as it leads to a hard-to-diagnose problem. Anyway, a simple "ln -sf /usr/bin/Xorg /etc/X11/X" fixes the problem. ========== strace log execve("/usr/bin/X", ["X"], [/* 14 vars */]) = 0 brk(0) = 0x804b000 access("/etc/ld.so.nohwcap", F_OK) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory) mmap2(NULL, 8192, PROT_READ|PROT_WRITE, MAP_PRIVATE|MAP_ANONYMOUS, -1, 0) = 0xb7f75000 access("/etc/ld.so.preload", R_OK) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory) open("/etc/ld.so.cache", O_RDONLY) = 3 fstat64(3, {st_mode=S_IFREG|0644, st_size=60222, ...}) = 0 mmap2(NULL, 60222, PROT_READ, MAP_PRIVATE, 3, 0) = 0xb7f66000 close(3) = 0 access("/etc/ld.so.nohwcap", F_OK) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory) open("/lib/i686/cmov/libc.so.6", O_RDONLY) = 3 read(3, "\177ELF\1\1\1\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\3\0\3\0\1\0\0\0\260a\1"..., 512) = 512 fstat64(3, {st_mode=S_IFREG|0755, st_size=1335720, ...}) = 0 mmap2(NULL, 1340944, PROT_READ|PROT_EXEC, MAP_PRIVATE|MAP_DENYWRITE, 3, 0) = 0xb7e1e000 mmap2(0xb7f60000, 12288, PROT_READ|PROT_WRITE, MAP_PRIVATE|MAP_FIXED|MAP_DENYWRITE, 3, 0x142) = 0xb7f60000 mmap2(0xb7f63000, 9744, PROT_READ|PROT_WRITE, MAP_PRIVATE|MAP_FIXED|MAP_ANONYMOUS, -1, 0) = 0xb7f63000 close(3) = 0 mmap2(NULL, 4096, PROT_READ|PROT_WRITE, MAP_PRIVATE|MAP_ANONYMOUS, -1, 0) = 0xb7e1d000 set_thread_area({entry_number:-1 -> 6, base_addr:0xb7e1d6b0, limit:1048575, seg_32bit:1, contents:0, read_exec_only:0, limit_in_pages:1, seg_not_present:0, useable:1}) = 0 mprotect(0xb7f60000, 4096, PROT_READ) = 0 munmap(0xb7f66000, 60222) = 0 brk(0) = 0x804b000 brk(0x806c000) = 0x806c000 open("/etc/X11/Xwrapper.config", O_RDONLY) = 3 fstat64(3, {st_mode=S_IFREG|0600, st_size=614, ...}) = 0 mmap2(NULL, 4096, PROT_READ|PROT_WRITE, MAP_PRIVATE|MAP_ANONYMOUS, -1, 0) = 0xb7f74000 read(3, "# Xwrapper.config (Debian X Wind"..., 4096) = 614 read(3, "", 4096) = 0 close(3) = 0 munmap(0xb7f74000, 4096) = 0 lstat64("/etc/X11/X", {st_mode=S_IFLNK|0777, st_size=9, ...}) = 0 readlink("/etc/X11/X", "/bin/true", 1024) = 9 access("/etc/X11/X", X_OK) = 0 umask(0) = 022 mkdir("/tmp/.X11-unix", 01777) = -1 EEXIST (File exists) umask(022) = 0 lstat64("/tmp/.X11-unix", {st_mode=S_IFDIR|S_ISVTX|0777, st_size=4096, ...}) = 0 stat64("/dev/dri", 0xbfecb194) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory) setresuid32(-1, 0, -1) = 0 getpriority(PRIO_PROCESS, 0) = 20 setpriority(PRIO_PROCESS, 0, 0) = 0 getpriority(PRIO_PROCESS, 0) = 20 chdir("/etc/X11") = 0 execve("/bin/true", ["X"], [/* 14 vars */]) = 0 brk(0) = 0x804c000 access("/etc/ld.so.nohwcap", F_OK) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory) mmap2(NULL, 8192, PROT_READ|PROT_WRITE, MAP_PRIVATE|MAP_ANONYMOUS, -1, 0) = 0xb7f80000 access("/etc/ld.so.preload", R_OK) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory) open("/etc/ld.so.cache", O_RDONLY) = 3 fstat64(3, {st_mode=S_IFREG|0644, st_size=60222, ...}) = 0 mmap2(NULL, 60222, PROT_READ, MAP_PRIVATE, 3, 0) = 0xb7f71000 close(3) = 0 access("/etc/ld.so.nohwcap", F_OK) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory) open("/lib/i686/cmov/libc.so.6", O_RDONLY) = 3 read(3, "\177ELF\1\1\1\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\3\0\3\0\1\0\0\0\260a\1"..., 512) = 512 fstat64(3, {st_mode=S_IFREG|0755, st_size=1335720, ...}) = 0 mmap2(NULL, 1340944, PROT_READ|PROT_EXEC, MAP_PRIVATE|MAP_DENYWRITE, 3, 0) = 0xb7e29000 mmap2(0xb7f6b000, 12288, PROT_READ|PROT_WRITE, MAP_PRIVATE|MAP_FIXED|MAP_DENYWRITE, 3, 0x142) = 0xb7f6b000 mmap2(0xb7f6e000, 9744, PROT_READ|PROT_WRITE, MAP_PRIVATE|MAP_FIXED|MAP_ANONYMOUS, -1, 0) = 0xb7f6e000 close(3) = 0 mmap2(NULL, 4096, PROT_READ|PROT_WRITE, MAP_PRIVATE|MAP_ANONYMOUS, -1, 0) = 0xb7e28000 set_thread_area({entry_number:-1 -> 6, base_addr:0xb7e286b0, limit:1048575, seg_32bit:1, contents:0, read_exec_only:0, limit_in_pages:1, seg_not_present:0, useable:1}) = 0 mprotect(0xb7f6b000, 4096, PROT_READ) = 0 munmap(0xb7f71000, 60222) = 0 brk(0) = 0x804c000 brk(0x806d000) = 0x806d000 open("/usr/lib/locale/locale-archive", O_RDONLY|O_LARGEFILE) = 3 fstat64(3, {st_mode=S_IFREG|0644, st_size=75980576, ...}) = 0 mmap2(NULL, 2097152, PROT_READ, MAP_PRIVATE, 3, 0) = 0xb7c28000 mmap2(NULL, 4096, PROT_READ, MAP_PRIVATE, 3, 0x12f1) = 0xb7f7f000 close(3) = 0 close(1) = 0 exit_group(0) = ? -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". 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