Cannot start X as non-root after changing X servers

Desktop Environments All WMs
21

Unit ly@tty2.service could not be found

22

OK, got it working. All I did was enable the main service (ly.service), reboot, select the correct session, (X11 Xfce), and I’m in - running as me, not root, on tty2. Not sure why that didn’t work a few months ago, but I’m happy.

What does journalctl -b -u ly.service return?

23 
journalctl -b -u ly.service
Dec 07 18:43:20 bonkmaykr-endeavour systemd[1]: Started TUI display manager.
Dec 07 18:43:20 bonkmaykr-endeavour systemd[1]: ly.service: Main process exited, code=exited, status=1/FAILU>
Dec 07 18:43:20 bonkmaykr-endeavour systemd[1]: ly.service: Failed with result 'exit-code'.

XDM works well enough in the meantime.

24

I think you should probably remove any custom configs/files before continuing. I just finished installing ly on Budgie, Cinnamon, COSMIC, and KDE - all logged in as expected, all running rootless. If nothing else, thanks for reminding me to try this DM again.

25

Updated my other computer running stock Arch and Ly has broken there too.

Arch upstream has a major Ly update in testing right now it looks like, with the version in extra being marked out of date two days ago.

26

I just hit that on my (2) testing systems. Looks like you have to use sudo systemctl enable ly@ytty2.service instead of ly.service now.

I still can’t replicate your errors, though. Sorry I can’t be more helpful.

27

One more thing to try: what does systemctl status getty@tty2.service return?

28

It’s disabled. I’ve never used it

❯ systemctl status getty@tty2.service
○ getty@tty2.service - Getty on tty2
     Loaded: loaded (/usr/lib/systemd/system/getty@.service; disabled; preset: enabled)
     Active: inactive (dead)
       Docs: man:agetty(8)
             man:systemd-getty-generator(8)
             https://0pointer.de/blog/projects/serial-console.html

When I switched to XDM the permissions thing went away without needing to chown.
So Ly opens tty2, does nothing with it (still shows the default login prompt), and I guess doesn’t close it

29

Going to mark this as solved.

Recap for any readers also encountering this:

Ly’s newest update from extra locks tty2 and crashes without releasing it, this prevents X from starting.

I fixed it by:
chowning /dev/tty2 (temporary) or
disabling Ly and using something else (permanent)

Adding myself to the input and tty groups also fixed other issues with non-root X which I don’t think are related, but weren’t there before.

I didn’t find an open issue on this in the Ly repository when I checked earlier, I’m going to wait to see if this is cleared up in the next update before deciding to open an issue there.