Hello all: TL;DR: One Arch installation will allow redirecting startx's stderr to a file, one won't. What is the difference between systems? I am having an issue with logging xsession errors. Specifically, if I create an .xsession-errors file in /home/user, then startx with <<startx 2> /home/user/.xsession-errors>>, startx will write to the file, but otherwise error-out and not actually start X. The error, in its entirety, is: "X.Org X Server 1.18.4 Release Date: 2016-07-19 X Protocol Version 11, Revision 0 Build Operating System: Linux 4.5.4-1-ARCH x86_64 Current Operating System: Linux archlinux 4.7.4-1-ARCH #1 SMP PREEMPT Thu Sep 15 15:24:29 CEST 2016 x86_64 Kernel command line: BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-linux root=UUID=763598c6-08b4-44d9-9b21-d4dbd558b107 rw Build Date: 19 July 2016 05:54:24PM Current version of pixman: 0.34.0 Before reporting problems, check http://wiki.x.org to make sure that you have the latest version. Markers: (--) probed, (**) from config file, (==) default setting, (++) from command line, (!!) notice, (II) informational, (WW) warning, (EE) error, (NI) not implemented, (??) unknown. (==) Log file: "/home/dutch/.local/share/xorg/Xorg.0.log", Time: Sat Sep 17 20:01:10 2016 (==) Using config directory: "/etc/X11/xorg.conf.d" (==) Using system config directory "/usr/share/X11/xorg.conf.d" (EE) Fatal server error: (EE) xf86OpenConsole: Cannot open virtual console 1 (Permission denied) (EE) (EE) Please consult the The X.Org Foundation support at http://wiki.x.org for help. (EE) Please also check the log file at "/home/dutch/.local/share/xorg/Xorg.0.log" for additional information. (EE) (EE) Server terminated with error (1). Closing log file. xinit: giving up xinit: unable to connect to X server: Connection refused xinit: server error" For the correctness of the specific incantation <<startx 2> /home/user/.xsession-errors>>, see these [1][2] threads. In addition, that command works on any number of other distros (Fedora, Gentoo, etc., and even OpenBSD). But here is the real kicker - I have another computer with a very similar Arch installation, i.e., x86_64, fully up-to-date, "full" KDE and other window managers installed, using identical (actually copied from machine-to-machine) .xinitrc files. The above error only happens on one machine, and happens regardless of whether I am trying to start Plasma or just DWM, Awesome, i3, or whatever. Searching for that specific error does return a few hits [3][4], but none of those issues/remedies are similar to mine. Any ideas on how I can determine the differences between the two Arch installations that are causing only one to error-out when redirecting stderr to a file? [1] https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=143068 [2] https://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/slackware-14/where-is-~- xsession-errors-log-867498/ [3] https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/xinit/+bug/1562219 [4] https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=192329
