Sample Header Ad - 728x90

Change SSH TTY session type to X11 at console?

0 votes
1 answer
2072 views
I have a Debian 12 VM that and when I boot it remotely the user session is a TTY, can I have it launch an X11 session at the console end? ### Attempt A ### - KDE is installed - I have selected plasma-x11 as my default session manager - I have changed the default display manager to sddm
loginctl
SESSION  UID USER   SEAT TTY  
      3 1000 user1      pts/0

1 sessions listed.

loginctl show-session 3 -p Type                                   
Type=tty

update-alternatives --config x-session-manager             
There are 3 choices for the alternative x-session-manager (providing /usr/bin/x-session-manager).

  Selection    Path                      Priority   Status
------------------------------------------------------------
  0            /usr/bin/startxfce4        50        auto mode
* 1            /usr/bin/startplasma-x11   40        manual mode
  2            /usr/bin/startxfce4        50        manual mode
  3            /usr/bin/xfce4-session     40        manual mode

Press  to keep the current choice[*], or type selection number: 1

cat /etc/X11/default-display-manager
/usr/sbin/sddm

ls /usr/share/xsessions
lightdm-xsession.desktop  plasma.desktop  xfce.desktop
but my user keeps login into a TTY session. How can I solve it? ### Attempt B ### - I have tried starting the display-manager.service
systemctl start display-manager.service
==== AUTHENTICATING FOR org.freedesktop.systemd1.manage-units ====
Authentication is required to start 'lightdm.service'.
Authenticating as: root
Password: 
==== AUTHENTICATION COMPLETE ====

loginctl show-session 22 -p Type
Type=tty
but it started lightdm instead of sddm even though I set x-session-manager to /usr/bin/startplasma-x11, and the session is still type=tty. ### Attempt C ### - I have manually started sddm - I have tried startx, startplasma-x11 and startkde, but to no avail.
systemctl start sddm.service
==== AUTHENTICATING FOR org.freedesktop.systemd1.manage-units ====
Authentication is required to start 'sddm.service'.
Authenticating as: root
Password: 
==== AUTHENTICATION COMPLETE ====

startx
/usr/lib/xorg/Xorg.wrap: Only console users are allowed to run the X server
^Cxinit: giving up
xinit: unable to connect to X server: Connection refused
xinit: unexpected signal 2
Couldn't get a file descriptor referring to the console.

startkde
zsh: command not found: startkde

startplasma-x11
$DISPLAY is not set or cannot connect to the X server.
As a result, an x11 session has been started for the sddm user instead of changing my user's session to X11.
loginctl
SESSION  UID USER   SEAT  TTY  
     22 1000 user1       pts/0
     24  111 sddm   seat0 

2 sessions listed.
When I have a regular X11 session, it's my user's session, not the session for the display manager user. ### Attempt D ### - I have tried startX with root privileges and detaching it, so it doesn't block the terminal.
doas startx &
 2446
  + suspended (tty output)  doas startx
but it doesn't work.
Asked by Centaro (33 rep)
Dec 5, 2023, 03:31 PM
Last activity: Jun 12, 2025, 08:02 PM