X11 not starting after upgrade to 24.11

[Zer0-]

Describe the bug

I updated my nix-channel from 24.05 to 24.11, ran rebuild switch and rebooted. X11 did not start and I had to use the console to set up gnome and wayland, whereas before I was using XMonad.

systemctl --failed told me that display-manager.service failed. Restarting the service did not work.

Log: x11.txt

Steps To Reproduce

Steps to reproduce the behavior:

1. Run XMonad on 24.05
2. Update nix-channel to 24.11: nix-channel --add https://nixos.org/channels/nixos-24.11 nixos
3. nixos-rebuild switch
4. Reboot

Expected behavior

I expected to be greeted by lightdm (or whatever default display manager) but I got the default text console instead.

Screenshots

N/A - graphics issue

Additional context

I'm using an nvidia GTX 1080 with the nouveau driver. I have 'nouveau' as my only driver listed in my config. I asked about this on IRC in #xorg on the OFTC server, and I was told to submit a bug report to my distro. Attached is my x11 log.

Metadata

• system: "x86_64-linux"
• host os: Linux 6.6.63, NixOS, 24.11 (Vicuna), 24.11.710050.62c435d93bf0
• multi-user?: yes
• sandbox: yes
• version: nix-env (Nix) 2.24.10
• channels(phil): ""
• channels(root): "nixos-24.11"
• nixpkgs: /nix/var/nix/profiles/per-user/root/channels/nixos

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[2403772980ygy]

If you are using nerdfonts, remember to run fc-cache -r, which (partially) solved my problem.

[nethorne]

I get the same issue with lightdm (or ly for that matter) + xmonad when trying to switch to 24.11. My stack trace from the crash also contains glxConvertConfigs when trying to activate X.

[alexvorobiev]

I am having the same issue with 24.11 (failed display manager) with lightdm + xmonad. Switching to GDM doesn't help. I am using vmware videoDriver. The core dump also points to GLX:

II) Initializing extension GLX
EE)
EE) Backtrace:
EE) 0: /nix/store/sgzwfb9k14myjfdxmz7zg6wqhb7mi0d9-xorg-server-21.1.14/bin/X (OsSigHandler+0x33) [0x5c2c33]
EE) unw_get_proc_name failed: no unwind info found [-10]
EE) 1: /nix/store/wn7v2vhyyyi6clcyn0s9ixvl7d4d87ic-glibc-2.40-36/lib/libc.so.6 (?+0x0) [0x7fd0dc648620]
EE) 2: /nix/store/sgzwfb9k14myjfdxmz7zg6wqhb7mi0d9-xorg-server-21.1.14/lib/xorg/modules/extensions/libglx.so (glxConvertConfigs+0x12) [0x7fd0dc3c2b92]
EE) 3: /nix/store/sgzwfb9k14myjfdxmz7zg6wqhb7mi0d9-xorg-server-21.1.14/lib/xorg/modules/extensions/libglx.so (__glXDRIscreenProbe+0x2e8) [0x7fd0dc3cae98]
EE) 4: /nix/store/sgzwfb9k14myjfdxmz7zg6wqhb7mi0d9-xorg-server-21.1.14/lib/xorg/modules/extensions/libglx.so (xorgGlxServerInit+0xb7) [0x7fd0dc3c12b7]
EE) 5: /nix/store/sgzwfb9k14myjfdxmz7zg6wqhb7mi0d9-xorg-server-21.1.14/bin/X (_CallCallbacks+0x34) [0x44c474]
EE) 6: /nix/store/sgzwfb9k14myjfdxmz7zg6wqhb7mi0d9-xorg-server-21.1.14/bin/X (GlxExtensionInit+0x15f) [0x57e9bf]
EE) 7: /nix/store/sgzwfb9k14myjfdxmz7zg6wqhb7mi0d9-xorg-server-21.1.14/bin/X (InitExtensions+0x89) [0x4bbce9]
EE) 8: /nix/store/sgzwfb9k14myjfdxmz7zg6wqhb7mi0d9-xorg-server-21.1.14/bin/X (dix_main+0x1ac) [0x44ad8c]
EE) 9: /nix/store/wn7v2vhyyyi6clcyn0s9ixvl7d4d87ic-glibc-2.40-36/lib/libc.so.6 (__libc_start_call_main+0x7e) [0x7fd0dc63227e]
EE) 10: /nix/store/wn7v2vhyyyi6clcyn0s9ixvl7d4d87ic-glibc-2.40-36/lib/libc.so.6 (__libc_start_main+0x89) [0x7fd0dc632339]
EE) 11: /nix/store/sgzwfb9k14myjfdxmz7zg6wqhb7mi0d9-xorg-server-21.1.14/bin/X (_start+0x25) [0x433175]
EE)
EE) Segmentation fault at address 0x0
EE)
atal server error:
EE) Caught signal 11 (Segmentation fault). Server aborting

Some more observations:

1. Disabling the vmware video driver lets xmonad start but it is unusable - the screen is constantly blinking.
2. Disabling 3D acceleration in the VMWare Workstation settings seems to be fixing the issue (presumably GLX is not loaded in that case).

[TheSaintDiratof]

same error on Intel UHD 630

[vhsconnect]

For those experiencing the issue outside of vmware - be sure to remove this intel driver

{
    services.xserver.videoDrivers =  [ "intel" ];
}

[Zer0-]

I switched to an older AMD gpu and set services.xserver.videoDrivers = [ "radeon" ]; and everything works. My issue seems to only happen when using "nouveau" (and of course an nvidia gpu).

[shajra]

I had this problem too.

Here's my hardware:

❯ lspci -nn | grep VGA
00:02.0 VGA compatible controller [0300]: Intel Corporation TigerLake-LP GT2 [Iris Xe Graphics] [8086:9a49] (rev 01)

The fact I have an Xe GPU might have been a factor in my exposure to this problem.

The workaround that worked for me was discontinuing the use of the "intel" driver and just using the default "modesetting" one (dropping explicit configuration of services.xserver.videoDrivers and just taking the defaults).

I'm not sure what exactly changed between 24.05 and 24.11 that made the "intel" driver no longer work. The kernel version only bumped up slightly from 6.6.59 to 6.6.63, and I don't believe the version of X bumped at all. I'm guessing answering that would be part of closing this ticket.

After that, I'm unsure what the trade-offs are between using "intel" and "modesetting." I'm still reading up on that online. With "modesetting" the glxgears demo seems to be working fine. I don't remember my original decision to use "intel" being that informed. But maybe in my situation, I should be using "modesetting" independent of this ticket?

[shajra]

No surprise that the Arch wiki has some pretty good information to address my questions. Seems like there's general motivation to put people on modesetting over intel.

I guess the workaround might be optimal. Still, curious why this was working in NixOS 24.05.

[paradx]

I had the same problem with my laptop using intel onboard graphics.

Changing services.xserver.videoDrivers from intel to modesetting worked for me as well.

It might be nice to add a warning during upgrade if this is a general issue with that driver?

[ma3s7r0]

1. Disabling the vmware video driver lets xmonad start but it is unusable - the screen is constantly blinking.
2. Disabling 3D acceleration in the VMWare Workstation settings seems to be fixing the issue (presumably GLX is not loaded in that case).

Same issue here, running in virtualbox. Disabling 3d acceleration in VirtualBox made X.org start. Are there any efforts repairing that or is the vmware-implementation broken?

[alexvorobiev]

@ma3s7r0 The workaround for VMWare is to disable DirectX (#362294 (comment)).

[tricktron]

Closed as completed in #386450.