Re: MATE freezes after being started with startx

dummy@example.com (lynch9) — Thu, 02 Apr 2026 22:12:02 +0000

Don’t source /etc/X11/Xsession in .xinitrc and don’t use exec in .xsessionrc for background services

Should fix it

keep it minimal

MATE freezes after being started with startx

dummy@example.com (fsnix) — Mon, 08 Dec 2025 11:32:16 +0000

Hello everyone,
this is my first post here, I hope I'm doing it right. I've been using Debian for some years, but I recently switched to Devuan Excalibur.
However, I'm having some problems starting MATE desktop environment with startx. Here my .xinitrc and .xsessionrc (respectively):

#!/bin/sh

# /etc/X11/xinit/xinitrc
#
# global xinitrc file, used by all X sessions started by xinit (startx)

# invoke global X session script
. /etc/X11/Xsession

exec mate-session

#!/usr/bin/bash
# kill any existing pipewire instance to restore sound
pkill -u "$USER" -fx /usr/bin/pipewire-pulse 1>/dev/null 2>&1
pkill -u "$USER" -fx /usr/bin/wireplumber 1>/dev/null 2>&1
pkill -u "$USER" -fx /usr/bin/pipewire 1>/dev/null 2>&1

exec /usr/bin/pipewire &

# wait for pipewire to start before attempting to start related daemons
while [ "$(pgrep -f /usr/bin/pipewire)" = "" ] ; do
   sleep 1
done

exec /usr/bin/wireplumber &

exec /usr/bin/pipewire-pulse &

MATE starts correctly at first, but later the problem arises. For example, if I mistype the name of a directory and then press "tab" to autocomplete it, instead of just doing nothing, the entire desktop environment freezes for 10/15 seconds.
If I use lightdm instead of startx, everything goes smoothly.

Thank you very much for your time and your help.

Dev1 Galaxy Forum / MATE freezes after being started with startx

Re: MATE freezes after being started with startx

MATE freezes after being started with startx