What happens if you run startx? If that does not work, post your /usr/bin/startx file.

@terdon: When I run startx, the screen goes black and resizes, but then nothing happens and ctrl-c doesn't work. I have reboot through the virtualbox menu.

@terdon: I see the /usr/bin/startx and I am able to access it through nano, but I am not sure how to post it since I just installed Arch.

Just check if there is an exec fvwm line at the end, there shouldn't be, but just in case. Try what MariusMatutiae suggests, if that fails, just add exec fvwm to the end of startx. Oh, and Ctrl+Alt+Backspace should let you exit after you've run startx.

Neither of the suggestions worked. Also, when I run startx still goes black, and Ctrl+Alt+Backspace doesn't work. I get the error xauth: timeout in locking authority file /home/cloudcoder2000/.Xauthority. It pops up 3 times, then I see several output messages, and then finally the screen goes black.

I just got the same black screen again, and I didn't power off this time. After a few minutes, the error message No protocol specified popped up several times, then the message xinit: giving up then xinit: unable to connect to X server: Resource temporarily unavailable followed by waiting for X server to shut down (EE) Server terminated successfully (0). Closing log file. and then ` xinit: server error` and finally ` xauth: timeout in locking authority file /home/cloudcoder2000/.Xauthority`. It then returns to a terminal line.

Is this after a fresh reboot? It sounds like there is another X session running or one crashed. Have you read through this?

I re-installed X Server and rebooted. startx works properly when I run sudo startx but still goes to the blank black screen when I only run startx.

Compare /root/.xinitrc and $HOME/.xinitrc. Also, try deleting your ~/.Xauthority file in case you've changed its permissions or something. It will be recreated next time you try to log in.

Hi.

Could you show me the output of

ls -l ~/.Xauthority

Also post your ~/.xinitrc

There is no /root/.xinitrcor ~/.xinitrc or ~/.Xauthority file. However, there is a /root/.Xauthority file. Originally, when I installed arch, there was no /home/username file, so I created the folder. Do I need to copy the file to my home/user folder?

hang on

.Xauthority is created when you log in, it will be automatically placed in the $HOME of whichever user started the X session

so, there's one for root because you ran xinit as root

Let's just get the current situations straight

You have gdm installed right?

Yes

And are you logging in through it?

Well actually, that was in my other VM. In this VM, I don't have it installed, because that VM became unusable since logging in with G

DM only returned to login screen

so in this VM, no

OK

So you boot to a command line, log in as a normal user and then?

When I run startx, I get the error, but when I run sudo startx, it works properly.

which error?

xauth: timeout in locking authority file /home/cloudcoder2000/.Xauthority

that one?

yes, with all the other errors I mentioned above

well, let's deal with one at a time. Could you post the output of

ls -l ~/.Xauthority

ls: cannot access /home/<username>/.Xauthority: No such file or directory

and yet, right now, if you run xinit you will get that error?

weird

OK, can you post your ~/.xinitrc file?

just now, when I ran xinit, the screen went black with a white terminal window, however I get the same error

black with white terminal is good, that's the default when a window manager has not been specified

So, now that you got the error, you still don't have an ~/.Xauthority file?

Yes, I get the same error when I run ls -l ~/.Xauthority

ok, can you show me your ~/.xinitrc ?

I don't have that file. My /home<username>/ directory is empty

i just ran startx and now it worked.

but still no .xinitrc or .Xauthority

your $HOME is empty??

I take it you did not follow the arch wiki to install?

Anyway, you're saying it worked?

yes. I used the tutorial at wideaperture.net/blog/?p=3851 and it did work. After I first booted into my installed arch installation, there was not /home/<username> folder, so I just created the directory

OK, so what's the situation now?

Does everything work? Did you load fvwm?

I didn't install fvwm in this vm, because startx didn't work. However, I am now installing fvwm.

:)

So what actually fixed it? Removing the .Xauthority should have but if that did not exist, what did you actually do?

Oh, and once you have installed fvwm, just run

echo "exec fvwm" >> ~/.xinitrc

that should make it start automatically when you run startx

I'm honestly not sure, since I'm an arch n00b, and have pretty much no idea what I'm doing. But probably when I was messing around I somehow got it work. I'm not really sure.

I hate it when that happens.

:)

oh crap. I just rebooted, and now startx gets me back to the same black screen.

rebooting again

this should not be happening. Remember, if you see a white terminal everything is fine

Just saw your profile, basoon huh? Hell of an instrument, well done!

sudo startx worked fine. but now startx is giving me the xauth: timeout in locking authority file error again

hang on, show me the output of

ls -l /home

ls -l ~/

and ls -l ~/ returns 'total 0'

OK, that's the problem

run

sudo chown -R user:user /home/user

where user is your username of course

I should have twigged to it when you said you created the home directory

your $HOME needs to be owned by you, the error was because your user does not have write access to his own $HOME so X could not create an ~/.Xauthority

Oh. I wonder how that happened.

Well now, startx works properly.

It happened because you created your home as root, so it was owned by root

after creating a user's home (which needs to be done as root), you need to change the ownership to that user.

I will now install a display manager and see if it works. Thank you so much for the help and bearing with my ignorance!

No problem

hang on though, try simply adding exec fvwm to your ~/.xinitrc

that way you don't need to install a display manager if you don't want to

okay

Anyway, I posted the solution as an answer. You might want to consider posting your next such question on Unix & Linux. It is completely on topic on Super User as well but there are more linux geeks on Unix & Linux and far fewer questions so it won't get lost that easily.

wait, when I run ls -a in my home directory, the only items returned are .bash_history, .fvwm, and .Xauthority

okay, never mind, when I ran the command you gave above, it worked.

that's OK, it's because you created an empty directory

if you want, you can copy the defaults over:

cp /etc/skel/.* .

but it is not necessary, all needed files will be created as and when they are needed