Re: [HOWTO] Start X server manually instead of using a login manager

[zloster <more@edno.moe>]

On 23.07.2018 10:43, Divan Santana wrote:

> Alex Kost <alezost@gmail.com> writes:
>
>> Hello,
>>
>> People often ask how they can use startx/xinit on GuixSD.  It is
>> possible, although it is not as easy as on other distros.  Hopefully,
>> this tutorial will answer some questions on the subject.
>>
>> At first, a couple of points:
>>
>> - We will run X server with user privileges, so if something goes wrong,
>>    look at the X log, which is placed at "~/.local/share/xorg/Xorg.N.log"
>>    by default.
>>
>> - We will run "xinit", not "startx": the latter is just a wrapper that
>>    does some preparations and runs "xinit".  (startx is a usual shell
>>    script with a usual script's behavior: it does not like that Guix
>>    violates Filesystem Hierarchy Standard, so it successfully fails to
>>    start).
>>
>> Now the steps you need to do to use "xinit":
>>
>> 1. Install xinit, X server and required modules to some guix profile,
>>     for example:
>>
>>       guix package -i xinit xorg-server xf86-input-libinput xf86-video-fbdev xf86-video-nouveau
>>
>> 2. Make "~/.xinitrc" file.  If you don't know what its content should
>>     be, just put "exec xterm" there, or even better read:
>>
>>       https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Xinit
>>
>> 3. Running "xinit" requires specifying multiple arguments, so you will
>>     probably make an auxiliary script to run it.  This script will look
>>     like this:
>>
>> --8<---------------cut here---------------start------------->8---
>> #!/bin/sh
>>
>> DIR=$HOME/.guix-profile
>>
>> $DIR/bin/xinit -- $DIR/bin/Xorg :0 vt1 -keeptty \
>>                 -configdir $DIR/share/X11/xorg.conf.d \
>>                 -modulepath $DIR/lib/xorg/modules
>> --8<---------------cut here---------------end--------------->8---
>>
>>    Note that using the current terminal ("vt1" in this case) and
>>    "-keeptty" is required, otherwise X server refuses to start without
>>    root privileges.
>>
>>    For testing purposes, you may change the above arguments to ":1 vt2",
>>    switch to vt2 (Ctrl-Alt-F2) and run this script.
>>
>> 4. Finally (if the above script works), you can remove login manager
>>     from your os services (if you use %desktop-services):
>>
>> --8<---------------cut here---------------start------------->8---
>> (use-modules
>>   ;; ...
>>   (srfi srfi-1)                  ; for 'remove'
>>   (gnu services desktop)
>>   (gnu services xorg))
>>
>> (operating-system
>>    ;; ...
>>    (services
>>     (remove (lambda (service)
>>               (eq? (service-kind service) slim-service-type))
>>             %desktop-services)))
>> --8<---------------cut here---------------end--------------->8---
> To help others, a few other notes.
>
> To auto start x upon login one can do something like
>
> --8<---------------cut here---------------start------------->8---
>              (mingetty-service (mingetty-configuration
> 	    		       (tty "tty1")
> 	    		       (auto-login "ds")))
> --8<---------------cut here---------------end--------------->8---
>
> And this in you bashrc/zshrc.
> --8<---------------cut here---------------start------------->8---
> if [[ ! $DISPLAY && $XDG_VTNR -eq 1 ]]; then
>    exec $HOME/bin/startx.sh
> fi
> --8<---------------cut here---------------end--------------->8---
>
> Also I needed to set these in order for my icons to be detected
> again. Failing to do so, the icons aren't found and some apps crash like
> libreoffice.
>
> --8<---------------cut here---------------start------------->8---
> export XDG_DATA_DIRS="/run/current-system/profile/share:$HOME/.guix-profile/share:/run/current-system/profile/share"
> export XDG_CONFIG_DIRS="$HOME/.guix-profile/etc/xdg:/run/current-system/profile/etc/xdg"
> export XDG_CONFIG_HOME="$HOME/.config"
> export XDG_CACHE_HOME="$HOME/.cache"
> export XDG_DATA_HOME="$HOME/.local/share"
> --8<---------------cut here---------------end--------------->8---
Hi, I have an idea about this problem. How ever my understanding is very 
limited so take care to do additional research:
> I'm still strangely getting this error when my terminals (termite)
> launch since switching to this method:
>
> tput: unknown terminal "xterm-termite"
>
> Not sure why that is yet.
There is a shell variable $TERM. Also there is a '/usr/share/terminfo/' 
directory with some definitions about the various terminals. If a 
description of terminal is missing from '/usr/share/terminfo/' it is 
possible to see this message from some command-line utilities.
Start with searching the man page of 'tset', 'reset' and 'terminfo' 
commands.

Best regards,
Radoslav Petrov