Black screen after login Ubuntu 24.04

[BuiHoangTu]

I want to try emptty on my laptop with Ubuntu 24.04. I only installed emptty, systemctl enable emptty@tty5 and reboot. After reboot:

• Emptty enabled on tty5
• Emptty does show up after reboot
• Emptty does authenticate users
• Black screen after choose Ubuntu with Xorg

Here is some log and its status

I also tried installing emptty on linux mint 22 with the above steps and it worked normally.

[tvrzna]

Please set SESSION_ERROR_LOGGING to appending in your /etc/emptty/conf and then post your log from /var/log/emptty/session-errors.5.log. It will tell us more about the problem.

[BuiHoangTu]

There aren't any logs. I noticed that tt5 stucks with update-notifier autostart, I saw tty5 finished other autostart apps. Hope this helps.

[tvrzna]

I'm sorry, I haven't noticed you have set in your service to use config file /etc/emptty/conf-tty5. Put that option there, please.

[BuiHoangTu]

Still no session errors

[BuiHoangTu]

@tvrzna I found ~/.xsession-errors which may contain why emptty didnt work:
dbus-update-activation-environment: setting DBUS_SESSION_BUS_ADDRESS=unix:path=/run/user/1000/bus
dbus-update-activation-environment: setting DISPLAY=:0
dbus-update-activation-environment: setting XAUTHORITY=/home/tu/.Xauthority
dbus-update-activation-environment: setting XDG_CURRENT_DESKTOP=ubuntu:GNOME
/etc/X11/Xsession.d/30x11-common_xresources: line 16: has_option: command not found
/etc/X11/Xsession.d/75dbus_dbus-launch: line 9: has_option: command not found
dbus-update-activation-environment: setting GTK_MODULES=gail:atk-bridge
dbus-update-activation-environment: setting QT_ACCESSIBILITY=1
/etc/X11/Xsession.d/90x11-common_ssh-agent: line 9: has_option: command not found
dbus-update-activation-environment: setting SHELL=/bin/bash
dbus-update-activation-environment: setting QT_ACCESSIBILITY=1
dbus-update-activation-environment: setting XDG_CONFIG_DIRS=/etc/xdg/xdg-ubuntu:/etc/xdg
dbus-update-activation-environment: setting LANGUAGE=en_US
dbus-update-activation-environment: setting DESKTOP_SESSION=ubuntu
dbus-update-activation-environment: setting GTK_MODULES=gail:atk-bridge
dbus-update-activation-environment: setting PWD=/home/tu
dbus-update-activation-environment: setting XDG_SESSION_DESKTOP=ubuntu
dbus-update-activation-environment: setting LOGNAME=tu
dbus-update-activation-environment: setting XDG_SESSION_TYPE=x11
dbus-update-activation-environment: setting GPG_AGENT_INFO=/run/user/1000/gnupg/S.gpg-agent:0:1
dbus-update-activation-environment: setting XAUTHORITY=/home/tu/.Xauthority
dbus-update-activation-environment: setting XDG_GREETER_DATA_DIR=/var/lib/lightdm-data/tu
dbus-update-activation-environment: setting GDM_LANG=en_US
dbus-update-activation-environment: setting HOME=/home/tu
dbus-update-activation-environment: setting IM_CONFIG_PHASE=1
dbus-update-activation-environment: setting LANG=en_US.UTF-8
dbus-update-activation-environment: setting XDG_CURRENT_DESKTOP=ubuntu:GNOME
dbus-update-activation-environment: setting XDG_SESSION_CLASS=user
dbus-update-activation-environment: setting USER=tu
dbus-update-activation-environment: setting DISPLAY=:0
dbus-update-activation-environment: setting SHLVL=0
dbus-update-activation-environment: setting XDG_RUNTIME_DIR=/run/user/1000
dbus-update-activation-environment: setting DEBUGINFOD_URLS=https://debuginfod.ubuntu.com
dbus-update-activation-environment: setting XDG_DATA_DIRS=/usr/share/ubuntu:/usr/share/gnome:/home/tu/.local/share/flatpak/exports/share:/var/lib/flatpak/exports/share:/usr/local/share:/usr/share:/var/lib/snapd/desktop
dbus-update-activation-environment: setting PATH=/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/sbin:/bin:/usr/games:/usr/local/games:/snap/bin:/usr/local/texlive/2024/bin/x86_64-linux
dbus-update-activation-environment: setting GDMSESSION=ubuntu
dbus-update-activation-environment: setting DBUS_SESSION_BUS_ADDRESS=unix:path=/run/user/1000/bus
dbus-update-activation-environment: setting _=/usr/bin/dbus-update-activation-environment

[tvrzna]

I've tried installation of Ubuntu 24.04 LTS, same as you only installed emptty (on updated system) without issue, so I'm unable to replicate the problem to see, how it could be handled. Did it work for you with default gdm? Also, if possible, please try to log into different DM/WM (ideally something lightweight as lxde/lxqt/openbox).

[BuiHoangTu]

Hi @tvrzna

After trying emptty on VM, I found out that it worked fine with default config. But if I add .config/emptty, it only displays black screen after choosing Xorg.

My problem is Gnome Desktop started by emptty vs other DM like gdm, lightdm is very different. What do I need to do ?

Thank you.

[tvrzna]

Hello @BuiHoangTu
try to replace exec dbus-launch $@ by exec $@. In my VM there is no dbus-launch available and it could cause problem. Also make sure, that xrandr has correct values (e.g. output display, supported resolution), but with Gnome you can remove this line.

[BuiHoangTu]

Replacing with exec $@ did make emptty work. Thanks.

One more question if you dont mind. How can i make Gnome Display started by emptty look like this

instead of this

gdm or lightdm both start Gnome like the first image.

Emptty-started Gnome refuses to open setting.

[tvrzna]

There is an issue with XDG_CURRENT_DESKTOP in emptty, it takes values as they are set in *.desktop files with semicolons, however Gnome expects colons. You can try to clone latest commit and build emptty yourself or you can add export XDG_CURRENT_DESKTOP=ubuntu:GNOME before exec $@ in your .config/emptty file as temporal workaround. But be awere this simple workaround could cause issues with different desktop environments (you can improve it with some condition).

[BuiHoangTu]

thanks, everything works now. I replace ; in XDG_CURRENT_DESKTOP with :. Is there anyway to do it with every users or I need to add it manually.

[tvrzna]

No, there is no global workaround available except to build emptty by yourself.

[BuiHoangTu]

Okay, thank you.