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scoot

scoot troubleshooting

No picture

Section titled “No picture”
  • Black screen on --tty. Read the startup error: it lists every DRM device tried and why each was rejected. “Seat takes one client at a time” means another compositor holds the seat — no device choice fixes that. See which device runs.
  • Nested window opens and instantly closes. Closing the window is quitting — re-run and use Super+Shift+e only to leave. See First session.
  • A monitor stays dark after plug. The output gets an id per plug — scootctl outputs shows whether scoot sees it. Only what the kernel reports is followed: a disconnect the kernel never reports leaves scoot driving a screen that is no longer there.

Keys

Section titled “Keys”
  • Super does nothing nested. The host owns Super first inside a nested window — use the keys that get through, or rebind to something free (change one binding).
  • A bind silently does nothing. Unparseable binds skip with a warning (check the log); two combos resolving to the same key both drop. See the bind grammar.
  • VT keys don’t switch. Under --headless/--nested there is no VT to switch to — those binds exist only on --tty, where they always win.

Config

Section titled “Config”
  • Scoot won’t start after an edit. It still starts: everything but [tty] gpu and [renderer] backend = "gles" falls back to defaults and logs. Those two are deliberate startup errors naming the key. See failure semantics.
  • Reload changed nothing. Both lists empty means file and session agree. tty.gpu, renderer.backend, xwayland.enabled and output mode need a restart — each refusal says so.

Windows and outputs

Section titled “Windows and outputs”
  • Dialog tiles / tiled dialog. Float is decided at map time from dialog hints, parent, and fixed size — plus your rules, which always have the last word. See Windows.
  • X app has no window. Package and switch: without the xwayland build the knob warns and runs Wayland-only. See XWayland.
  • Wrong scale / blurry X apps. Scale is per output, told to windows on move; X apps draw at ceil(scale) unless fractional = "light". See Outputs and XWayland.
  • --renderer gles exits naming EGL. Intended: no silent downgrade, no automatic fallback. Drop the flag or fix the cause — see Backends.