startx cannot open /dev/fb0: Permission denied
27,474
Gilles is correct; this is due to the changes in xorg-server
1.16 which were announced on the Arch News.
To work around the permissions issue, you can use a Xorg.wrap config file to pass root rights, using:
needs_root_rights = yes
See man Xorg.wrap
for the details.
You could also try using xf86-video-modesetting
instead of xf86-video-fbdev
until the fbdev driver is updated.
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Author by
Anonymous Entity
Updated on September 18, 2022Comments
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Anonymous Entity almost 2 years
When I try to start my WM using
startx
, I am unable to because the permission of something called/dev/fb0
are restricted.From
home/user/.local/share/xorg/Xorg.0.log
:[ 198.569] (--) controlling tty is VT number 1, auto-enabling KeepTty [ 198.569] (II) Loading sub module "fbdevhw" [ 198.569] (II) LoadModule: "fbdevhw" [ 198.569] (II) Loading /usr/lib/xorg/modules/libfbdevhw.so [ 198.570] (II) Module fbdevhw: vendor="X.Org Foundation" [ 198.570] compiled for 1.16.0, module version = 0.0.2 [ 198.570] ABI class: X.Org Video Driver, version 18.0 [ 198.570] (EE) open /dev/fb0: Permission denied [ 198.570] (WW) Falling back to old probe method for fbdev [ 198.570] (II) Loading sub module "fbdevhw" [ 198.570] (II) LoadModule: "fbdevhw" [ 198.570] (II) Loading /usr/lib/xorg/modules/libfbdevhw.so [ 198.570] (II) Module fbdevhw: vendor="X.Org Foundation" [ 198.570] compiled for 1.16.0, module version = 0.0.2 [ 198.570] ABI class: X.Org Video Driver, version 18.0 [ 198.571] (EE) open /dev/fb0: Permission denied
Now of course I can change it using chmod, but I shouldn't have to do that every time I reboot the computer, so it seems like something is wrong / I haven't set up something properly.
What should I do to fix this?
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Gilles 'SO- stop being evil' almost 10 yearsIt's a consequence of the recent change to rootless X (i.e. the X server doesn't run as root any longer). Looks like rootless X is not ready for prime time on Arch. You can arrange to get the permission to access
/dev/fb0
, but you should not have to (if you google, you'll find recommendations to add yourself to thevideo
group… but that's propping the armored door open, it defeats the purpose).
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Magpie almost 9 yearsI have this same problem with Fedora but this solution doesn't help I have
/etc/X11/Xwrapper.config
withallowed_users=anybody
andneeds_root_rights=yes
. Any suggestions? -
Cbhihe over 5 yearsI second @Magpie's comment, even though (not sure whether it matters) inserting a space before and after the "=" sign for each key-value pair in Xwrapper.config might help. In my case, having
needs_root_rights = yes
generates a few other errors, which weren't there to begin with, i.e. when only(EE) open /dev/fb0: Permission denied
showed.