---
service: x2go
symptoms: x2go session fails to start, x2go black screen, x2go disconnects immediately, no desktop in session, authentication failure, x2go agent not starting, sound forwarding broken
tags: x2go, nx, remote-desktop, x2goserver, x2goclient, session, desktop, xauth
---

## Symptoms

- X2Go login succeeds but the session immediately disconnects
- Black screen after login
- Session is created but no desktop appears
- `x2goruncommand error` or `X2Go Agent got stuck in state`
- Sound, clipboard, or drive sharing fails while login itself works
- Authentication works over SSH but X2Go session startup fails

## Diagnostics

### Check X2Go services and packages

```
systemctl status x2goserver
systemctl status sshd
rpm -qa | grep x2go
apt list --installed | grep x2go
which x2golistsessions
```

X2Go depends on working SSH plus installed `x2goserver` and `x2goserver-xsession` components.

### Check X2Go logs

```
journalctl -u x2goserver -n 100
journalctl -u sshd -n 100
ls -la ~/.x2go/
find ~/.x2go -type f -maxdepth 2 -print
x2golistsessions
```

Look for session startup failures, agent crashes, and auth helper errors.

### Check desktop environment startup command

```
cat /etc/x2go/Xsession
cat ~/.xsession
cat ~/.Xclients
```

A missing or broken desktop session command is a common cause of black screens.

### Check X11 and xauth availability

```
which xauth
xauth -V
ls -la ~/.Xauthority
which sshfs
```

X2Go requires a working X11 session setup. Missing `xauth` or a bad `.Xauthority` often breaks startup.

Filesystem and folder-sharing features may also depend on `sshfs` being installed.

### Check session limits and stale sessions

```
x2golistsessions
x2gocleansessions
ulimit -a
loginctl list-sessions
```

Stale sessions or per-user process limits can prevent a new desktop from starting.

### Check desktop dependencies

```
which startxfce4
which mate-session
which startplasma-x11
env | grep -E 'DESKTOP|XDG'
```

If the selected desktop command does not exist, X2Go may connect and then terminate immediately.

## Remediation

**Missing or broken desktop startup command:**
Set the session to a known-good desktop such as XFCE and verify the binary exists.

**Corrupt Xauthority or stale X2Go session files:**
Remove stale session state and regenerate auth files:
```
rm -f ~/.Xauthority
rm -rf ~/.x2go/C-*
```

**Missing `xauth` or X11 helpers:**
Install the missing X11 packages, then retry the session.

**Required server packages missing:**
Install `x2goserver` and `x2goserver-xsession` first, then retry before debugging desktop startup.

**SSH works but X2Go session fails:**
Treat it as a desktop startup or X11 auth problem, not an SSH transport problem.