Re: Opening vim causes lockout

[Daniel Shahaf <d.s@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

This should have gone to -users@ but I'll answer here to avoid splitting
the thread.

Steven Walton wrote on Tue, 04 Jul 2017 12:23 -0500:
> I have an open stack exchange on this issue:
> https://askubuntu.com/questions/931965/vim-takes-me-to-lockout-screen-zsh-error-possibly-x
> 

First of all, your response to immediately reboot was wrong.  You should
have kept the working shells open so as to diff them to the broken
shells.  Fortunately this problem doesn't involve the boot loader or
you'd have learnt this lesson the hard way.

> My Problem:
> When I type `vim` I get taken to my lockout screen. This happens without
> fail. When I log back in I have my file open. I also randomly logout, but
> this has only happened twice in the last hour.
> 

Frankly, it sounds like you left your workstation unlocked and a
coworker pulled a prank on you by changing your dotfiles.  Depending on
how skillful/vindictive they are, they may also have overwritten your
'which'.  There is no command you can run inside zsh to rule this out.

> I think this is connected to zsh because if I switch to bash I do not have
> this problem.I am using antigen and oh-my-zsh but I moved my zshrc file and
> opened a blank session and still have the problem. `which zsh` points to
> `/usr/bin/zsh`.
> 

But if I have to debug this on the assumption that it's a genuine
problem: first of all, _which_ screen do you get --- the initial login
screen (e.g., lightdm) or the screensaver screen (e.g., light-locker)?
If it's the former, check syslog.  (Run 'tail -f /var/log/{Xorg.log,messages,auth}'
and 'journalctl -f' in screen or tmux --- you need to be root to
tail /v/l/auth --- then reproduce the problem and see if there are
any relevant messages.)

> When being locked out my screens display "no signal" for a second.
> 

Good luck,

Daniel

> Distributor ID: Ubuntu
> Description:    Ubuntu 16.04.2 LTS
> Release:    16.04
> Codename:   xenial