Unable to run Regolith on Debian 13 (trixie): "unable to launch "/usr/bin/regolith-session regolith-x11" X session --- "/usr/bin/regolith-session regolith-x11" not found"

[adamroyjones]

• [x] I've run a search on the existing bug reports to make sure I'm not filing a duplicate (you can use the search box at the top left corner)
• [x] I've read the Regolith documentation and didn't find any relevant topic

Describe the bug

I recently switched from Debian 12 (bookworm) to Debian 13 (trixie). When installing Regolith, I found that I was unable to login using the Regolith session. It produces the error

unable to launch "/usr/bin/regolith-session regolith-x11" X session --- "/usr/bin/regolith-session regolith-x11" not found

and then falls back to a GNOME session.

To reproduce

I followed the installation instructions for Debian Testing.

I then ran

sudo apt install regolith-desktop regolith-session-flashback regolith-look-ayu

I logged out and then logged back in, selecting the Regolith session. This triggered the error.

I also find that running regolith-session regolith-x11 in a terminal produces a similar fault.

Expected behavior

I expected to be back in a comfy Regolith environment. (I've instead cobbled together something ghastly based on i3.)

Screenshots

N/A.

Configuration file(s)

N/A—this should be reproducible on a fresh installation.

Installation Details

• Regolith Install Stage: testing
• Regolith Version: 3.2
• Host OS: Debian 13 (trixie)

Additional context

N/A, but do let me know if you need more details in order to reproduce this.

[DinStamou]

+1 I got the same message and fallback to default session.

• Debian Trixie
• Regolith 3.2

[LordGaav]

Same issue for me, but until last week I had a working Regolith testing/testing session on Debian Trixie. I have another laptop that is slightly behind in updates that still works though, I'll try to find what the relevant differences between them are, the working laptop has no pending regolith or gdm updates.

[LordGaav]

Could not find any package based differences, altough I noticed that trawld is newer because the package is installed from Debian Apt instead of Regolith. The version is the same though between working and not working laptops.

The error is also visible in journalctl --user:

feb 03 13:39:37 archangel /usr/libexec/gdm-x-session[2800]: dbus-update-activation-environment: setting XDG_CURRENT_DESKTOP=Regolith:GNOME-Flashback:GNOME
feb 03 13:39:37 archangel /usr/libexec/gdm-x-session[2805]: Xsession: unable to launch "/usr/bin/regolith-session regolith-x11" X session
feb 03 13:39:37 archangel /usr/libexec/gdm-x-session[2805]: --- "/usr/bin/regolith-session regolith-x11" not found; falling back to default

[LordGaav]

We're hitting this bug in xorg 7.7+24: https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=1094494 , that changed the way they lookup the xsession binary, which now fails if the name is not the exact binary name.

I've mentioned this issue on the Debian bug report for now.

[LordGaav]

As a workaround for people hit by this issue, try replacing the *) case block in /etc/X11/Xsession.d/20x11-common_process-args to the following (take note to check where the block begins and ends, from *) to the first ;;, and make sure to create a backup), to restore the old behaviour from xorg 7.7+23.2:

      *)
        # Specific program was requested.
        STARTUP_FULL_PATH=$(command -v "${1%% *}" || true)
        if [ -n "$STARTUP_FULL_PATH" ] && [ -e "$STARTUP_FULL_PATH" ]; then
          if [ -x "$STARTUP_FULL_PATH" ]; then
            STARTUP="$1"
          else
            message "unable to launch \"$1\" X session ---" \
                    "\"$1\" not executable; falling back to default session."
          fi
        else
          message "unable to launch \"$1\" X session ---" \
                  "\"$1\" not found; falling back to default session."
        fi
        ;;

This works on my installation.

[kgilmer]

Repro'd issue locally. Investigating

[DinStamou]

@kgilmer Hello! Have you pushed this on any testing debian repo? I didn't get the fix yet, I am using: https://regolith-desktop.org/unstable-debian-testing-amd64/

[kgilmer]

@kgilmer Hello! Have you pushed this on any testing debian repo? I didn't get the fix yet, I am using: https://regolith-desktop.org/unstable-debian-testing-amd64/

Please stand by. It happens that some build system upgrades are being exercised in tandem to this work. I'll respond back when I've tested a package-based fix to the upstream issue.

[kgilmer]

I've tested the X11 fix (sway is broken a bit farther down, the 1.10 port isn't quite working yet) using the new apt repository:

~$ cat /etc/apt/sources.list.d/regolith.list
deb [arch=amd64 signed-by=/usr/share/keyrings/regolith-archive-keyring.gpg] https://archive.regolith-desktop.com/debian/unstable testing main

This url, archive.regoliht-desktop.com is new and hasn't been announced yet. The PR for that announcement is here if you'd like to learn more: https://github.com/regolith-linux/regolith-desktop.com/pull/61

[adamroyjones]

That works for me—thanks!

[practicalli-johnny]

I've tested the X11 fix (sway is broken a bit farther down, the 1.10 port isn't quite working yet) using the new apt repository:

~$ cat /etc/apt/sources.list.d/regolith.list
deb [arch=amd64 signed-by=/usr/share/keyrings/regolith-archive-keyring.gpg] https://archive.regolith-desktop.com/debian/unstable testing main

This unstable package archive fix has been working well for many months in Debian Trixie (thank you), until I ran apt update && apt upgrade in Debian Trixie yesterday.

After a reboot of the operating system, I get a blank screen with with the information popup containing the original error message in this issue.

Temporary fix

I have copied the text from https://github.com/regolith-linux/regolith-desktop/issues/1104#issuecomment-2631095220 into my /etc/X11/Xsession.d/20x11-common_process-args file (after making a backup) and after a reboot Regolith Desktop is working again 🥳

System details

REGOLITH_VERSION=3.3 is in /etc/regolith/version file

My `/etc/apt/sources-list.d/regolith.list file contains

deb [arch=amd64 signed-by=/usr/share/keyrings/regolith-archive-keyring.gpg] https://archive.regolith-desktop.com/debian/testing testing main
deb [arch=amd64 signed-by=/usr/share/keyrings/regolith-archive-keyring.gpg] https://archive.regolith-desktop.com/debian/unstable testing main

My /etc/apt/sources.list file contains

deb http://deb.debian.org/debian/ trixie main contrib non-free non-free-firmware
deb-src http://deb.debian.org/debian/ trixie main contrib non-free non-free-firmware

deb http://security.debian.org/debian-security trixie-security main contrib non-free non-free-firmware
deb-src http://security.debian.org/debian-security trixie-security main contrib non-free non-free-firmware

Should I change trixie to testing ? Thank you.