Niels Thykier wrote: >> <note> >> <para> >> This change only applies if your X Display Manager supports >> - running X as rootless (or if you start X manually via >> + running X without root privileges (or if you start X manually via >> <command>startx</command>). Currently the only known display >> - manager supporting this is gdm. Other display managers simply >> + manager supporting this is <systemitem >> role="package">gdm</systemitem>. >> + Other display managers simply >> start X as root regardless of this change. >> </para> >> </note> >> >> "Rootless" isn't a common way of expressing this even in technical >> jargon, and the word has a distracting non-technical sense (which even >> seems as if it would make sense here: it would mean "without a root >> window"). >> >> This way of phrasing it makes it really difficult to work out that >> using startx *does* require the installation of xserver-xorg-legacy. >> > > Sadly, then I have confused you. Assuming the system meets the > requirements, then the following will *not* require root: > > * startx (from a virtual terminal "owned" by the current user) > * gdm (which knows how to start X without using root)
I was assuming otherwise because the first symptom I ran into was that running startx in the absence of xserver-xorg-legacy gave me an X session with non-functional mouse and keyboard. But when I check now, installing every available xserver-xorg-* package in main including -legacy as well as -input-libinput makes no difference to that. On a testbed stretch machine with functional logind and so on but with an old KMS-incapable graphics card, I haven't found any way of making startx usable. Switching over to lightdm I can get a usable session without -legacy as long as I have -input-libinput. So I'm afraid I have no idea what's going on, or even how many problems there are. -- JBR with qualifications in linguistics, experience as a Debian sysadmin, and probably no clue about this particular package