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I know the answer to this question, I've been looking there for years and its here too: Where is Xserver log file located?

Only it isn't - it's December 2020 and I'm logged into the desktop, but there are no logs since July (probably when I updated from 16.04 to 18.04)

$ ls -la /var/log/Xorg.*
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 133637 Jul 23 19:38 /var/log/Xorg.0.log
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root  94763 Jul 23 16:31 /var/log/Xorg.0.log.old
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root   6382 Sep  2  2014 /var/log/Xorg.1.log
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root  65653 Jun 18  2014 /var/log/Xorg.1.log.old
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root  21314 May 27  2014 /var/log/Xorg.failsafe.log
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root     64 May 27  2014 /var/log/Xorg.failsafe.log.old

Any ideas?

Greg
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2 Answers2

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This is perhaps not as intuitive as everyone might think. For my ubuntu mate 18.04 system using lightdm for the display manager I have valid data in /var/log/lightdm/x-#.log.

The user xsession log sould be in $HOME.

This answer is definitely not comprehensive.

uDude
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Ok - it seems like the answer depends on what the definition of "is" is ;)

In earlier versions of ubuntu things may have been simpler, but there are a number of possible variations on how the desktop is presented, relating to systemd sessions and/or X or Wayland. I have seen some variations on machines I've looked for and provide info here, this is not complete.

  1. X(org) running as root for display manager and/or user session: logs in /var/log/Xorg.0.log (display manager), /var/log/Xorg.1.log additional (user) sessions
  • for example nVidia proprietary driver
  1. X(org) running as user in a user session: $HOME/.local/share/xorg/Xorg.0.log
  • for example AMD drivers (probably intel too)
  1. XWayland running a display manager: no Xorg logs - I'm not sure where to look for wayland errors - I'm guessing journalctl?
  • for example AMD drivers (probably intel too)

I would assume its possible to have gdm run as user gdm on X(org), but I haven't seen such a configuration.

If anyone has any links to real references on desktop architecture of Ubuntu, X, Wayland and user sessions I'd be really interested.

Greg
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