Thinlinc client crashes after OK

I’m setting up our first installation of thinlinc. I got the server running (on Linux Mint 20.1) and I can login with the client (on Linux Mint 20.2). Both of these OSs are based on Ubuntu 20.04. I get to the blue screen with a message that says “Welcome to Cendio ThinLinc” & more. I press OK. Then there is a progress bar for one second. The last time I tried I also got a message that said “Your session lasted less than 10 seconds. If you did not log out yourself, it could mean that there is some problem with your ThinLinc system. Please contact your system administrator.” which I can only close.

xinit.log:

xauth:  file /var/opt/thinlinc/sessions/lukas/10/Xauthority does not exist
tl-xinit: Waiting for Xserver to accept connections...

Xvnc ThinLinc release 4.13.0 build 2253 - built Aug 24 2021 10:46:24
Copyright (C) 1999-2021 TigerVNC Team and many others (see README.rst)
See https://www.tigervnc.org for information on TigerVNC.
Underlying X server release 12001000, The X.Org Foundation

(II) Initializing extension VNC-EXTENSION

Thu Sep 23 09:07:08 2021
 vncext:      VNC extension running!
 vncext:      Listening for VNC connections on local interface(s), port 5910
 vncext:      created VNC server for screen 0
(II) Initializing extension Generic Event Extension
(II) Initializing extension SHAPE
(II) Initializing extension MIT-SHM
(II) Initializing extension XInputExtension
(II) Initializing extension XTEST
(II) Initializing extension BIG-REQUESTS
(II) Initializing extension SYNC
(II) Initializing extension XKEYBOARD
(II) Initializing extension XC-MISC
(II) Initializing extension XFIXES
(II) Initializing extension RENDER
(II) Initializing extension RANDR
(II) Initializing extension COMPOSITE
(II) Initializing extension DAMAGE
(II) Initializing extension MIT-SCREEN-SAVER
(II) Initializing extension DOUBLE-BUFFER
(II) Initializing extension RECORD
(II) Initializing extension DPMS
(II) Initializing extension Present
(II) Initializing extension DRI3
(II) Initializing extension X-Resource
(II) Initializing extension XVideo
(II) Initializing extension XVideo-MotionCompensation
(II) Initializing extension GLX
(II) IGLX: Loaded and initialized swrast
(II) GLX: Initialized DRISWRAST GL provider for screen 0
The XKEYBOARD keymap compiler (xkbcomp) reports:
> Warning:          Unsupported high keycode 372 for name <I372> ignored
>                   X11 cannot support keycodes above 255.
>                   This warning only shows for the first high keycode.
Errors from xkbcomp are not fatal to the X server
 Connections: accepted: 127.0.0.1::49866
 VNCSConnST:  closing 127.0.0.1::49866: Clean disconnection
 EncodeManager: Framebuffer updates: 0
 EncodeManager:   Total: 0 rects, 0 pixels
 EncodeManager:          0 B (1:-nan ratio)
 TcpSocket:   unable to get peer name for socket
 Connections: closed: ::0
 ComparingUpdateTracker: 0 pixels in / 0 pixels out
 ComparingUpdateTracker: (1:-nan ratio)
tl-xinit: Xserver ready for clients.

Thu Sep 23 09:07:09 2021
 Connections: accepted: 127.0.0.1::49868
 SConnection: Client needs protocol version 3.8
 SConnection: Client requests security type VncAuth(2)
 VNCSConnST:  Replacing existing connection
 VNCSConnST:  Server default pixel format depth 24 (32bpp) little-endian rgb888
--- System information ---
ThinLinc 4.13.0
Linux <MYMACHINE> 5.4.0-80-generic #90-Ubuntu SMP Fri Jul 9 22:49:44 UTC 2021 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux
Linux Mint 20.1 Ulyssa \n \l

No LSB modules are available.
--- End system information ---
Cannot find xsri. Background image support not available.
Running /opt/thinlinc/etc/xstartup.d/01-tl-kinit.sh (Obtaining Kerberos ticket)
Running /opt/thinlinc/etc/xstartup.d/02-tl-dbus-launch.sh (Starting session D-Bus server)
Existing session D-Bus server found.
Setting initial D-Bus and systemd environment...
Running /opt/thinlinc/etc/xstartup.d/11-tl-set-title (Setting client window title)
Running /opt/thinlinc/etc/xstartup.d/12-tl-default-keyboard (Configuring default keyboard layout)
Setting default keyboard layout to "us"
The XKEYBOARD keymap compiler (xkbcomp) reports:
> Warning:          Unsupported high keycode 372 for name <I372> ignored
>                   X11 cannot support keycodes above 255.
>                   This warning only shows for the first high keycode.
Errors from xkbcomp are not fatal to the X server
Running /opt/thinlinc/etc/xstartup.d/15-tl-shadow-notify (Enabling notifications when the session is shadowed)
Running /opt/thinlinc/etc/xstartup.d/20-tl-select-profile.sh (Choosing a profile)
Running /opt/thinlinc/etc/xstartup.d/30-tl-xdg-user-dirs (Translating standard folders)
Running /opt/thinlinc/etc/xstartup.d/40-tl-mount-localdrives (Mounting local drives)
Running /opt/thinlinc/etc/xstartup.d/41-tl-lp-redir-launch (Setting up printer port redirection)
Running /opt/thinlinc/etc/xstartup.d/43-tl-pulseaudio-launch.sh (Starting session PulseAudio server)
W: [pulseaudio] main.c: Couldn't canonicalize binary path, cannot self execute.
Session PulseAudio server started. Redirecting applications...
Running /opt/thinlinc/etc/xstartup.d/50-tl-wait-smartcard (Waiting for smart card connection)
Client has no smartcard capability
Stopping initial window manager...
Done.
Executing profile: xfce
Using XDG session: xfce
Updating D-Bus and systemd environment...
Executing XDG session command: startxfce4
/bin/startxfce4: X server already running on display :10
gpg-agent[2318227]: WARNING: "--write-env-file" is an obsolete option - it has no effect
gpg-agent: a gpg-agent is already running - not starting a new one

(xfce4-session:2318199): xfce4-session-WARNING **: 09:07:18.437: gpg-agent returned no PID in the variables

(xfce4-session:2318199): xfce4-session-WARNING **: 09:07:18.439: xfsm_manager_load_session: Something wrong with /home/lukas/.cache/sessions/xfce4-session-<MYMACHINE>:10, Does it exist? Permissions issue?
/opt/thinlinc/etc/xstartup.default: line 24: 2318199 Segmentation fault      (core dumped) "${TLPREFIX}/libexec/tl-run-profile"
Profile command exited with exit code 139
Running /opt/thinlinc/etc/xlogout.d/tl-kdestroy.sh
Running /opt/thinlinc/etc/xlogout.d/tl-umount-localdrives
tl-xinit: client terminated and returned 0
tl-xinit: Terminating X server...
X I/O error
tl-while-x11: lost Xserver connection, terminating child 2318135 ...
tl-while-x11: lost Xserver connection, terminating child 2318148 ...

Thu Sep 23 09:07:18 2021
 VNCSConnST:  closing 127.0.0.1::49868: Server shutdown
 EncodeManager: Framebuffer updates: 141
 EncodeManager:   Tight:
 EncodeManager:     Solid: 83 rects, 4.90983 Mpixels
 EncodeManager:            1.29688 KiB (1:14789.4 ratio)
 EncodeManager:     Bitmap RLE: 36 rects, 15.885 kpixels
 EncodeManager:                 1.11328 KiB (1:56.1158 ratio)
 EncodeManager:     Indexed RLE: 28 rects, 73.638 kpixels
 EncodeManager:                  7.06445 KiB (1:40.7642 ratio)
 EncodeManager:   Tight (JPEG):
 EncodeManager:     Full Colour: 143 rects, 532.858 kpixels
 EncodeManager:                  399.787 KiB (1:5.21065 ratio)
 EncodeManager:   Total: 290 rects, 5.53221 Mpixels
 EncodeManager:          409.262 KiB (1:52.8112 ratio)
 ComparingUpdateTracker: 4.1702 Mpixels in / 3.23862 Mpixels out
 ComparingUpdateTracker: (1:1.28765 ratio)
tl-xinit: X server has terminated
tl-xinit: deleting ../10.1632380696.ended
tl-xinit: Session terminated. Exiting.

The problem appears to be that the file /home/lukas/.cache/sessions/xfce4-session-<MYMACHINE>:10 doesn’t exist.

The xfce4-session folder only has a bunch of files with names like xfwm4-21b893db0-197c-4a38-af2a-6ef4a239c56f.state.

Does anyone know how to solve this issue?

Hello @ljschreiber

The /home/lukas/.cache/sessions/xfce4-session-:10 only gets created on logout, and if it is the first time you create a session this file won’t exist, so I think this warning is not the cause.
But to make sure, please verify the owner/group permissions on all the folders in that path, /home/lukas/.cache/sessions/

Do you already have a graphical session running as the lukas user? If so, please try to logout any other sessions currently running, including graphical sessions on the local server and not just through Thinlinc.

Best regards,
Martin

I have read/write permission on all that I checked.

Thanks! I can’t close the other graphical session because I’m running a long-running task there. Anyhow, I just created a new user for the laptop on the server and when I log into the ThinLinc client with the new user, it works.

I’m used to VNC, so I was completely unaware of this restriction. With VNC I can bring up an extra graphical session to my laptop while I’m logged in on the server.

This is not a restriction in ThinLinc, but in many popular desktop environments. If your desktop supports running multiple sessions per user, ThinLinc won’t stop you.

1 Like

I guess VNC doesn’t create an extra session then but uses the existing session instead. So that’s a difference between the two.

There are indeed VNC solutions that let you connect to an existing local display. There are also those that require you to create a new virtual display for the VNC session.