On Wed, May 05, 2021 at 08:20:21AM -0400, Dan Ritter wrote: > As your non-root user, write a .xinitrc: > > #!/bin/sh > xterm & > exec mate-session > > and then run > > startx > > Tell us what happens then. If it crashes, let us see your > /etc/apt/sources.list and anything in sources.list.d/
In addition to this: 1) Identify your video hardware. Use "lspci -nn" for this. 2) Check for any missing firmware. Use "dmesg | grep -i firmware" for this. If there are any missing firmware files that the kernel wants to use, figure out which (non-free) package they're in, install that, and reboot. The OP mentioned "nouveau", which means an nvidia device is in play. This means it may also be necessary to install some proprietary nvidia drivers. We won't know for sure until we know which device it is.
