How to reset the Xorg / xserver?

Xserver keeps crashing on my general user account both in Unity 3D and 2D. It doesn't do it on the guest account.

That's why I want to reset / rollback everything xserver related, hoping this is going to fix it.

Most answers on this involve sudo dpkg-reconfigure xserver-xorg. However, this does nothing for me (generates no output) and I read in other forums, that it's deprecated.

So, what's the current way to reset all xserver / xorg options; what's the alternative to sudo dpkg-reconfigure xserver-xorg? X crashes during work, not before login or so. And the effect of a crash is, that I get thrown out of the session, not a freeze or machine crash.

2

4 Answers

If your guest account is not affected this could be a user-specific setting that is causing the problem. Try deleting ~/.config/monitors.xml

5

The alternative to sudo dpkg-reconfigure xserver-xorg is sudo X -configure

To reconfigure packages that are already installed, you can refer to:

Ubuntu Manpage: dpkg-reconfigure - reconfigure an already installed package

Using the terminal:

1. If you've got to a blank screen while booting up, press CTRL + ALT + F1 to access the terminal.

   Then, depending on your desktop environment, terminate the X using:

   • For Gnome (Ubuntu): sudo /etc/init.d/gdm stop

   • For KDE (Kubuntu): sudo /etc/init.d/kdm stop

   • For Xfce (Xubuntu): sudo /etc/init.d/xdm stop

2. For the reconfiguration process:

   sudo dpkg-reconfigure xserver-xorg

   Note: A backup is always recommended before running the configuration, so you can do it using:

   sudo cp /etc/X11/xorg.conf /etc/X11/xorg.conf.backup

3. Restart the GUI:

   Again, this depends on the desktop environment, so:

   • For Gnome (Ubuntu): sudo /etc/init.d/gdm start

   • For KDE (Kubuntu): sudo /etc/init.d/kdm start

   • For Xfce (Xubuntu): sudo /etc/init.d/xdm start

---

If fail to perform the above steps, one can always edit the /etc/X11/xorg.conf manually and replace the file contents.

Refer to:

• Binary package “xserver-xorg-core” in ubuntu lucid

• examples and default linux configuration files

6

After trying all you guys mentioned here I solved the very same problem by setting ownership (and permissions) of .Xauthority and .ICEauthority (located inside: /home/username/ folder) back to my general user.

to check own/perm start tty1 (CTRL+ALT+1) and login, take superuser (sudo su) and:

cd /home/username/
ls -a -l 

in my case .Xauthority wasn't even readable by my general user, so first I had to chmod:

chmod 775 .Xauthority

then:

chown username .Xauthority
chown username .ICEauthority

after this, reboot and try to login -- it worked for me.

Another note: I faced this problem after iterative experiments with xorg.conf and NVidia drivers - trying to setup 3 monitors with 2 cards. So, I spent huge amount of time trying to solve the problem playing around xserver and video settings -- while the reason of crash was totally unrelated.

1

Your Answer

Sign up or log in

Sign up using Google Sign up using Facebook Sign up using Email and Password Submit

Post as a guest

Post Your Answer Discard

By clicking “Post Your Answer”, you agree to our terms of service, privacy policy and cookie policy