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I have cross-compiled VLC (version 2.1.2) media player using buildroot for an arm board. I have connected the board to my linux PC using serial cable. When I try to run the player using "vlc" command in minicom, which is located in /usr/bin of my root filesystem. I get the following error:

inhibit interface error: Failed to connect to the D-Bus session daemon: /usr/bin/dbus-launch terminated abnormally with the following error: Autolaunch error: X11 initialization failed.

Can anyone please clarify what this error means and also can any one please tell me what is a dbus and why it is required for my VLC player.

Thanks for any help.

minghua
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Hugh
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    The internet is a great place to gather basic information about a wide range of topics, such as ["What is dbus?"](http://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/Software/dbus/). (Anyway, how is this VLC supposed to play without X11 being "initialized correctly"?) – user2864740 Feb 07 '14 at 07:12
  • Thanks for quick reply. Can you please suggest how to initialize X11. I am a newbie to linux. – Hugh Feb 07 '14 at 07:23
  • X11 is usually used for the "desktop". Is such available in your installation? – user2864740 Feb 07 '14 at 07:26
  • Yes libX11 is present in my rootfs/usr/lib directory. – Hugh Feb 07 '14 at 07:31
  • But is X11 running? Look for a process called `/usr/bin/X`. Which desktop do you use? KDE? Gnome? Unity? Which Linux distribution? – Aaron Digulla Feb 07 '14 at 16:21
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    It looks like you are using an embedded ARM board, such as a Beaglebone or a RaspberryPi... Those don't have the usual desktop, but many still can handle the X server. You can try running `startx` to start your X11 server. If that fails do just `X` as root and see what happens. – rodrigo Feb 07 '14 at 17:52
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    @rodrigo BR has at least [FluxBox](http://fluxbox.org/) and [Enlightenment](http://www.enlightenment.org/). Try FluxBox and select xdm. That should start X automatically on startup. – yegorich Feb 07 '14 at 19:57

2 Answers2

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I am working on a minimal rootfs based on buildroot. This error is solved for me after I have included the package "twm" in my rootfs. Then after the board is up I run following commands on the terminal:

export DISPLAY=:0
startx &

then run vlc

vlc

This way I got rid of this error.

Philipp Moers
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Hugh
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2

Since you say that you have cross compiled vlc and facing dbus launch issues, I expect you are working on a minimal root fs.

Try doing this in your terminal before you run vlc:

$ export DISPLAY=:0

If you have compiled dbus with x11 support, then dbus-launch will succeed.

Phil Ross
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Ranjit Katuri
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  • Apparently, this is also needed in a script called from a cron job. (Raspbian on a 3B+, fully updated just before testing on Feb. 2, 2020) – AaronD Feb 06 '20 at 00:00