Xfce Desktop fails to start on latest released image Armbian 21.02.3 Lepotato buster 5.10.21

wilburqatsi · March 13, 2021

Output of armbianmonitor -u: http://ix.io/2SDQ

The latest released 21.02.3 Lepotato buster 5.10.21 with Xfce preinstalled is unable to start a desktop environment from a fresh image install.

After booting up, the display goes to a black screen with a blinking cursor.

Initial issue seems to be lightdm failing to start

w@lepotato:~$ journalctl -u lightdm.service 
-- Logs begin at Sat 2021-03-13 05:51:27 UTC, end at Sat 2021-03-13 06:06:57 UTC. --
Mar 13 05:51:33 lepotato systemd[1]: Starting Light Display Manager...
Mar 13 05:51:33 lepotato lightdm[2457]: Could not enumerate user data directory /var/lib/lightdm/data: Error opening directory '/var/lib/lightdm/data': No such file 
Mar 13 05:51:33 lepotato systemd[1]: Started Light Display Manager.
Mar 13 05:51:35 lepotato systemd[1]: lightdm.service: Main process exited, code=exited, status=1/FAILURE
Mar 13 05:51:35 lepotato systemd[1]: lightdm.service: Failed with result 'exit-code'.
Mar 13 05:51:35 lepotato systemd[1]: lightdm.service: Service RestartSec=100ms expired, scheduling restart.
Mar 13 05:51:35 lepotato systemd[1]: lightdm.service: Scheduled restart job, restart counter is at 1.
Mar 13 05:51:35 lepotato systemd[1]: Stopped Light Display Manager.
Mar 13 05:51:35 lepotato systemd[1]: Starting Light Display Manager...
Mar 13 05:51:35 lepotato lightdm[2489]: Could not enumerate user data directory /var/lib/lightdm/data: Error opening directory '/var/lib/lightdm/data': No such file 
Mar 13 05:51:35 lepotato systemd[1]: Started Light Display Manager.
Mar 13 05:51:35 lepotato systemd[1]: lightdm.service: Main process exited, code=exited, status=1/FAILURE
Mar 13 05:51:35 lepotato systemd[1]: lightdm.service: Failed with result 'exit-code'.
Mar 13 05:51:35 lepotato systemd[1]: lightdm.service: Service RestartSec=100ms expired, scheduling restart.
Mar 13 05:51:35 lepotato systemd[1]: lightdm.service: Scheduled restart job, restart counter is at 2.
Mar 13 05:51:35 lepotato systemd[1]: Stopped Light Display Manager.
Mar 13 05:51:35 lepotato systemd[1]: Starting Light Display Manager...
Mar 13 05:51:36 lepotato lightdm[2542]: Could not enumerate user data directory /var/lib/lightdm/data: Error opening directory '/var/lib/lightdm/data': No such file 
Mar 13 05:51:36 lepotato systemd[1]: Started Light Display Manager.
Mar 13 05:51:36 lepotato systemd[1]: lightdm.service: Main process exited, code=exited, status=1/FAILURE
Mar 13 05:51:36 lepotato systemd[1]: lightdm.service: Failed with result 'exit-code'.
Mar 13 05:51:36 lepotato systemd[1]: lightdm.service: Service RestartSec=100ms expired, scheduling restart.
Mar 13 05:51:36 lepotato systemd[1]: lightdm.service: Scheduled restart job, restart counter is at 3.
Mar 13 05:51:36 lepotato systemd[1]: Stopped Light Display Manager.
Mar 13 05:51:36 lepotato systemd[1]: Starting Light Display Manager...
Mar 13 05:51:36 lepotato lightdm[2592]: Could not enumerate user data directory /var/lib/lightdm/data: Error opening directory '/var/lib/lightdm/data': No such file or directory
Mar 13 05:51:36 lepotato systemd[1]: Started Light Display Manager.
Mar 13 05:51:36 lepotato systemd[1]: lightdm.service: Main process exited, code=exited, status=1/FAILURE
Mar 13 05:51:36 lepotato systemd[1]: lightdm.service: Failed with result 'exit-code'.
Mar 13 05:51:36 lepotato systemd[1]: lightdm.service: Service RestartSec=100ms expired, scheduling restart.
Mar 13 05:51:36 lepotato systemd[1]: lightdm.service: Scheduled restart job, restart counter is at 4.
Mar 13 05:51:36 lepotato systemd[1]: Stopped Light Display Manager.
Mar 13 05:51:37 lepotato systemd[1]: Starting Light Display Manager...
Mar 13 05:51:37 lepotato lightdm[2647]: Could not enumerate user data directory /var/lib/lightdm/data: Error opening directory '/var/lib/lightdm/data': No such file or directory
Mar 13 05:51:37 lepotato systemd[1]: Started Light Display Manager.
Mar 13 05:51:37 lepotato systemd[1]: lightdm.service: Main process exited, code=exited, status=1/FAILURE
Mar 13 05:51:37 lepotato systemd[1]: lightdm.service: Failed with result 'exit-code'.
Mar 13 05:51:37 lepotato systemd[1]: lightdm.service: Service RestartSec=100ms expired, scheduling restart.
Mar 13 05:51:37 lepotato systemd[1]: lightdm.service: Scheduled restart job, restart counter is at 5.
Mar 13 05:51:37 lepotato systemd[1]: Stopped Light Display Manager.
Mar 13 05:51:37 lepotato systemd[1]: lightdm.service: Start request repeated too quickly.
Mar 13 05:51:37 lepotato systemd[1]: lightdm.service: Failed with result 'exit-code'.
Mar 13 05:51:37 lepotato systemd[1]: Failed to start Light Display Manager.
Mar 13 05:51:37 lepotato systemd[1]: lightdm.service: Triggering OnFailure= dependencies.
Mar 13 05:51:37 lepotato systemd[1]: lightdm.service: Failed to enqueue OnFailure= job, ignoring: Unit plymouth-quit.service not found.

Next, I tried startxfce4 to start xfce directly without lightdm, but got this error:

Fatal server error:
(EE) Cannot run in framebuffer mode. Please specify busIDs        for all framebuffer devices
(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 "/var/log/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

I've attached the my full Xorg.0.log, but it basically has the same error.

Has anyone else run into similar issues? Searching online for this "Cannot run in framebuffer mode" with x server, it seems that missing or broken firmware may cause this issue.

So far the only configuration that I've done is:

- create my user

- connect to wifi using the armbian-config tool

- Install full firmware using the armbian-config tool

I haven't installed any other packages beyond what was already included in the image.

Are there any additional debugging steps I could take?

Thanks in advance if anyone can give me help

Xorg.0.log