X Server Could Not Be Started

[Corior48]

xrdp version

0.10.4.1

Detailed xrdp version, build options

[corior48@testbench ~]$ xrdp --version
xrdp 0.10.4.1
  A Remote Desktop Protocol Server.
  Copyright (C) 2004-2025 Jay Sorg, Neutrino Labs, and all contributors.
  See https://github.com/neutrinolabs/xrdp for more information.

  Configure options:
      --prefix=/usr
      --sysconfdir=/etc
      --libexecdir=/usr/lib
      --localstatedir=/var
      --sbindir=/usr/bin
      --with-systemdsystemunitdir=/usr/lib/systemd/system
      --enable-jpeg
      --enable-tjpeg
      --enable-fuse
      --enable-fdkaac
      --enable-opus
      --enable-rfxcodec
      --enable-mp3lame
      --enable-pixman
      --enable-painter
      --enable-vsock
      --enable-ipv6
      --enable-pam-config=arch
      --enable-rdpsndaudin
      --with-imlib2
      --enable-x264
      CFLAGS=-march=x86-64 -mtune=generic -O2 -pipe -fno-plt -fexceptions         -Wp,-D_FORTIFY_SOURCE=3 -Wformat -Werror=format-security         -fstack-clash-protection -fcf-protection         -fno-omit-frame-pointer -mno-omit-leaf-frame-pointer -g -ffile-prefix-map=/home/corior48/.cache/yay/xrdp/src=/usr/src/debug/xrdp -flto=auto
      LDFLAGS=-Wl,-O1 -Wl,--sort-common -Wl,--as-needed -Wl,-z,relro -Wl,-z,now          -Wl,-z,pack-relative-relocs -flto=auto
      CXXFLAGS=-march=x86-64 -mtune=generic -O2 -pipe -fno-plt -fexceptions         -Wp,-D_FORTIFY_SOURCE=3 -Wformat -Werror=format-security         -fstack-clash-protection -fcf-protection         -fno-omit-frame-pointer -mno-omit-leaf-frame-pointer -Wp,-D_GLIBCXX_ASSERTIONS -g -ffile-prefix-map=/home/corior48/.cache/yay/xrdp/src=/usr/src/debug/xrdp -flto=auto

  Compiled with OpenSSL 3.5.2 5 Aug 2025

Operating system & version

Arch Linux

Installation method

dnf / apt / zypper / pkg / etc

Which backend do you use?

xorgxrdp

What desktop environment do you use?

Plasma KDE

Environment xrdp running on

Physical PC with MSI Geforce 210

What's your client?

Windows 11 Pro's Remote Desktop Protocol / Microsoft's Official Windows App for macOS

Area(s) with issue?

Session manager (sesman)

Steps to reproduce

Remote into the computer and log into the user.

✔️ Expected Behavior

Log into the user and load the desktop environment

❌ Actual Behavior

Spits out "Cannot create session for user - X server could not be started."

Anything else?

I have tried all of the session options, same error, I have tried multiple clients, from Windows 11 Pro to macOS 15.3.1, and i've had no luck getting into the xrdp server. I have added

allowed_users=
needs_root_rights=

to etc/X11/Xwrapper.conf and didn't work

attached below is xrdp.log, xrdp-sesman.log, and xorg.conf

xrdp.log
xrdp-sesman.log
xorg.conf.txt

NOTE: github told me .conf was not allowed, so i added .txt to the file extension to be attached, let me know if it still wont open for you.

[matt335672]

Hi @Corior48

Looking in your log, you've tried a variety of things. Your last session attempt from the sesman log is:-

[2025-09-17T12:56:25.555-0500] [INFO ] Received request from xrdp to create a session for user corior48
[2025-09-17T12:56:25.616-0500] [INFO ] Starting X server on display 10:  :10 -auth .Xauthority -config xrdp/xorg.conf -noreset -nolisten tcp -logfile .xorgxrdp.%s.log 
[2025-09-17T12:56:25.618-0500] [ERROR] Error calling exec (excutable: , arguments:  :10 -auth .Xauthority -config xrdp/xorg.conf -noreset -nolisten tcp -logfile .xorgxrdp.%s.log) returned errno: 2, description: No such file or directory
[2025-09-17T12:56:25.620-0500] [ERROR] A fatal error has occurred attempting to start the X server on display 10, aborting connection
[2025-09-17T12:56:35.624-0500] [ERROR] waitforx: Unable to open display :10
[2025-09-17T12:56:35.626-0500] [ERROR] X server failed to start
[2025-09-17T12:56:35.629-0500] [INFO ] Session on display 10 has finished.

There's no X server in this command line:-

Starting X server on display 10:  :10 -auth .Xauthority -config xrdp/xorg.conf -noreset -nolisten tcp -logfile .xorgxrdp.%s.log 

It looks like you're missing the first line from the [Xorg] section in /etc/xrdp/sesman.ini. For Arch it should say something like:

param=/usr/lib/Xorg

Can you fix that first, and then we'll go from there.

[Corior48]

ahh gotcha (sorry for late reply, been busy myself haha)

i have located the line, seems like there wasnt any equal sign in there, its now added, however now i cannot even log in with windows, it crashes after inputting the right password, macOS wont even remote into it

xrdp-sesman.log
xrdp.log
attached are the new logs, as long as i can get windows working i can work from there to get macOS working haha

[matt335672]

Thanks for that.

According to the log, the X server is now starting, but your session is finishing early.

Firstly, and most importantly, make sure the user you want to log in as over RDP is not logged in on the console. This isn't supported on systemd-based systems

If that's not it, we need to figure out why /etc/xrdp/startwm.sh is not working. Can you get a trace of that file from the command line with this command (note the space after DISPLAY=):-

DISPLAY= sh -x /etc/xrdp/startwm.sh

[Corior48]

okay, after logging out of the system i went ahead and tried again, same issue, so i ran the command provided to get this output

+ wm_start
+ '[' -r /etc/locale.conf ']'
+ . /etc/locale.conf
++ LANG=en_US.UTF-8
+ export LANG LANGUAGE
+ '[' -r /home/corior48/.xinitrc ']'
+ pre_start
+ '[' -r /etc/profile ']'
+ . /etc/profile
++ append_path /usr/local/sbin
++ case ":$PATH:" in
++ append_path /usr/local/bin
++ case ":$PATH:" in
++ append_path /usr/bin
++ case ":$PATH:" in
++ export PATH
++ test -d /etc/profile.d/
++ for profile in /etc/profile.d/*.sh
++ test -r /etc/profile.d/70-systemd-shell-extra.sh
++ . /etc/profile.d/70-systemd-shell-extra.sh
+++ '[' -n '' ']'
+++ '[' -n '' ']'
+++ '[' -n '' ']'
++ for profile in /etc/profile.d/*.sh
++ test -r /etc/profile.d/debuginfod.sh
++ . /etc/profile.d/debuginfod.sh
+++ prefix=/usr
+++ '[' -z 'https://debuginfod.archlinux.org ' ']'
+++ '[' -z '' ']'
++++ find /etc/debuginfod -name '*.certpath' -print0
++++ tr '\n' :
++++ xargs -0 cat
+++ DEBUGINFOD_IMA_CERT_PATH=
+++ '[' -n '' ']'
+++ unset DEBUGINFOD_IMA_CERT_PATH
+++ unset prefix
++ for profile in /etc/profile.d/*.sh
++ test -r /etc/profile.d/freetype2.sh
++ . /etc/profile.d/freetype2.sh
++ for profile in /etc/profile.d/*.sh
++ test -r /etc/profile.d/gawk.sh
++ . /etc/profile.d/gawk.sh
++ for profile in /etc/profile.d/*.sh
++ test -r /etc/profile.d/gpm.sh
++ . /etc/profile.d/gpm.sh
+++ case $(/usr/bin/tty) in
++++ /usr/bin/tty
++ for profile in /etc/profile.d/*.sh
++ test -r /etc/profile.d/jre.sh
++ . /etc/profile.d/jre.sh
+++ append_path /usr/lib/jvm/default/bin
+++ case ":$PATH:" in
+++ export PATH
++ for profile in /etc/profile.d/*.sh
++ test -r /etc/profile.d/locale.sh
++ . /etc/profile.d/locale.sh
+++ '[' -z en_US.UTF-8 ']'
+++ LANG=en_US.UTF-8
+++ export LANG LANGUAGE LC_CTYPE LC_NUMERIC LC_TIME LC_COLLATE LC_MONETARY LC_MESSAGES LC_PAPER LC_NAME LC_ADDRESS LC_TELEPHONE LC_MEASUREMENT LC_IDENTIFICATION
++ for profile in /etc/profile.d/*.sh
++ test -r /etc/profile.d/perlbin.sh
++ . /etc/profile.d/perlbin.sh
+++ '[' -d /usr/bin/site_perl ']'
+++ append_path /usr/bin/site_perl
+++ case ":$PATH:" in
+++ '[' -d /usr/bin/vendor_perl ']'
+++ append_path /usr/bin/vendor_perl
+++ case ":$PATH:" in
+++ '[' -d /usr/bin/core_perl ']'
+++ append_path /usr/bin/core_perl
+++ case ":$PATH:" in
+++ export PATH
++ for profile in /etc/profile.d/*.sh
++ test -r /etc/profile.d/vte.sh
++ . /etc/profile.d/vte.sh
+++ '[' -n '5.3.3(1)-release' -o -n '' ']'
+++ [[ hxB == *i* ]]
+++ return 0
++ unset profile
++ unset -v GLOBSORT
++ unset -f append_path
++ test /usr/bin/sh
++ test ''
++ unset TERMCAP
++ unset MANPATH
+ '[' -r /home/corior48/.bash_profile ']'
+ . /home/corior48/.bash_profile
++ [[ -f /home/corior48/.bashrc ]]
++ . /home/corior48/.bashrc
+++ [[ hxB != *i* ]]
+++ return
+ return 0
+ . /home/corior48/.xinitrc
++ prefix=/usr
++ exec_prefix=/usr
++ xrdb=xrdb
++ xinitdir=/etc/X11/xinit
++ xclock=xclock
++ xterm=xterm
++ twm=twm
++ xmodmap=xmodmap
++ userresources=/home/corior48/.Xresources
++ usermodmap=/home/corior48/.Xmodmap
++ sysresources=/etc/X11/xinit/.Xresources
++ sysmodmap=/etc/X11/xinit/.Xmodmap
++ '[' -f /etc/X11/xinit/.Xresources ']'
++ '[' -f /etc/X11/xinit/.Xmodmap ']'
++ '[' -f /home/corior48/.Xresources ']'
++ '[' -f /home/corior48/.Xmodmap ']'
++ '[' -d /etc/X11/xinit/xinitrc.d ']'
++ for f in "$xinitdir/xinitrc.d"/?*.sh
++ '[' -x /etc/X11/xinit/xinitrc.d/40-libcanberra-gtk-module.sh ']'
++ . /etc/X11/xinit/xinitrc.d/40-libcanberra-gtk-module.sh
+++ case "${DESKTOP_SESSION-}" in
+++ '[' -z '' ']'
+++ GTK_MODULES=canberra-gtk-module
+++ export GTK_MODULES
++ for f in "$xinitdir/xinitrc.d"/?*.sh
++ '[' -x /etc/X11/xinit/xinitrc.d/50-systemd-user.sh ']'
++ . /etc/X11/xinit/xinitrc.d/50-systemd-user.sh
+++ systemctl --user import-environment DISPLAY XAUTHORITY
Environment variable $XAUTHORITY not set, ignoring.
+++ command -v dbus-update-activation-environment
+++ dbus-update-activation-environment DISPLAY XAUTHORITY
++ unset f
++ exec xterm -geometry 80x66+0+0 -name login
/home/corior48/.xinitrc: line 52: exec: xterm: not found

[metalefty]

here it is

/home/corior48/.xinitrc: line 52: exec: xterm: not found

[Corior48]

i did notice that, and installed xterm myself and it says that display is not set

+++ systemctl --user import-environment DISPLAY XAUTHORITY
Environment variable $XAUTHORITY not set, ignoring.
+++ command -v dbus-update-activation-environment
+++ dbus-update-activation-environment DISPLAY XAUTHORITY
++ unset f
++ exec xterm -geometry 80x66+0+0 -name login
xterm: Xt error: Can't open display:
xterm: DISPLAY is not set

[matt335672]

Now you've got xterm installed, you should be able to start a session with just an xterm in it using xrdp.

The problem seems to be that your script /etc/xrdp/startwm.sh is not starting Plasma KDE.

This might be a duplicate of #2975. Do you want to take a look at that one and report back?

[Corior48]

sure thing! if it works out after this i appreciate the time!
if not, ill be reporting back here!

[Corior48]

i have looked at that issue as well, i tried its solution and im still getting the same issues as before, even after changing the ~/.xinitrc file

[matt335672]

Can you change the ~/.xinitrc file and then do the DISPLAY= sh -x /etc/xrdp/startwm.sh ? I'd expect the log to change as a result,

[Corior48]

will do, it'll be later on that i do that but i can for sure do so when i get home haha

[matt335672]

Hi @Sp0ngy

Please can you open a separate issue on this? It will get confusing if there is more than on issue in this thread.

Thanks.