Cannot find Cinnamon logs

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jpegxguy
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Cannot find Cinnamon logs

Post by jpegxguy »

I'm running Cinnamon 4.8.6, and it's been crashing sometimes. This is usually caused by an extension. In the past I have used LookingGlass to see where the problem was, but now I have 2 issues:

a) I know of the move to .xsession-errors for logging, but that file hasn't been modified since the 5th of October, 2020, for me, and it only has entries from then.
b) Melange/Looking Glass only shows logs from the last start (right after every crash, then), which is pretty useless. Where does Melange get this information? I can't find the baking log file.

I'm using startx instead of a window manager, if that changes anything
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SMG
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Re: Cannot find Cinnamon logs

Post by SMG »

Welcome to the forum, jpegxguy.
jpegxguy wrote: Wed Mar 31, 2021 10:48 ama) I know of the move to .xsession-errors for logging, but that file hasn't been modified since the 5th of October, 2020, for me, and it only has entries from then.
What relevance does that date have? It is the day you installed Cinnamon? Is it the day you decided to stop using muffin (windows manager used with Cinnamon)?
jpegxguy wrote: Wed Mar 31, 2021 10:48 amb) Melange/Looking Glass only shows logs from the last start (right after every crash, then), which is pretty useless. Where does Melange get this information? I can't find the baking log file.
As far as I am aware, the standard Linux Mint install only produces .xsession-errors and keeps it and one version back .xsession-errors.old. I just checked my .xsession-errors and I see Looking Glass is writing to it.
jpegxguy wrote: Wed Mar 31, 2021 10:48 amI'm using startx instead of a window manager, if that changes anything
I would think it does since your system does not appear to be writing the file to which we normally direct people for help in debugging Cinnamon issues.

Section 5 of READ: How To Get Help! explains the data we need to be able to help you. You might need to explain your system a bit more for us to understand how you are using Cinnamon so we might be able to direct you to the information you seek.
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jpegxguy
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Re: Cannot find Cinnamon logs

Post by jpegxguy »

I'm using Arch Linux and I think muffin goes hand-in-hand with Cinnamon, so that's what I've been using. I can't specifically remember the 5th of October being significant, It's just the date that it stopped getting modified, even though I use Cinnamon every day.

I use startx, and the file .xinitrc has

Code: Select all

exec cinnamon-session
as the last line
jpegxguy
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Re: Cannot find Cinnamon logs

Post by jpegxguy »

I just tested this by launching cinnamon though lightdm. I had an inkling it might be related to the Display Manager. I had moved .xsession-errors to a different folder to see if it gets recreated.

If one starts cinnamon-session through lightdm (any compliant dm, I suspect), cinnamon writes to .xsession-errors as expected, whereas using startx nothing gets written to .xsession-errors, at least as I have my .xinitrc right now:

Code: Select all

#!/bin/sh

userresources=$HOME/.Xresources
usermodmap=$HOME/.Xmodmap
sysresources=/etc/X11/xinit/.Xresources
sysmodmap=/etc/X11/xinit/.Xmodmap

# Merge in defaults and keymaps

[ -f $sysresources ] && xrdb -merge $sysresources
[ -f $sysmodmap ] && xmodmap $sysmodmap
[ -f "$userresources" ] && xrdb -merge "$userresources"
[ -f "$usermodmap" ] && xmodmap "$usermodmap"

# Source extra scripts

if [ -d /etc/X11/xinit/xinitrc.d ] ; then
        for f in /etc/X11/xinit/xinitrc.d/?*.sh ; do
                [ -x "$f" ] && . "$f"
        done
        unset f
fi

# Environment variables
[ -f ~/.xprofile ] && . ~/.xprofile

# Handled in autostart
# https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/GNOME/Keyring#Without_a_display_manager
#eval $(/usr/bin/gnome-keyring-daemon --start --components=pkcs11,secrets,ssh)
#export SSH_AUTH_SOCK

# Start DE/WM
exec cinnamon-session
I can see in the output of startx that several Cjs messages, like the ones you'd find in the actual .xsession-errors log, and something about nemo-desktop wanting to see the DESKTOP_SESSION variable which is not set by startx. I mean, I can try to set some environment variables that are normally set by lightdm and see if that fixes anything. I'd really like to keep using startx. The only hinderance I had until now is that you can't control a pc with Anydesk or Teamviewer if you aren't using a display manager. Controlling other pcs works fine.

UPDATE: Gathered some info. I have posted a Github issue on this.
UPDATE2: Oh well, it was closed. It was kind of expected. Seems like DMs are obligatory. At least I've found a workaround for anyone that wants it:

Launch your startx like this:

Code: Select all

mv ~/.xsession-errors-startx ~/.xsession-errors-startx.old 2> /dev/null
exec startx &> ~/.xsession-errors-startx
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Re: Cannot find Cinnamon logs

Post by SMG »

If you will edit your first post in this thread and add [SOLVED] to the beginning of the title that will let others know you are no longer seeking help on this issue and there is a resolution in the thread.

For anyone reading this thread, the response to the GitHub issue is "We don't support startx usage, the DM is meant to set it.".
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