vlc 3.0.8 CLI failed to create video output on Ubuntu

[SidFishous]

I apologize for asking what seems like such a basic question. I am trying to run vlc from the command line, and while I can play audio files, and can hear the audio from video files, I can't seem to get any video to play.
I am running Ubuntu 16.04.6 with xfce (xfwm4). I am a linux hack at best, and while I have been using vlc for many years, this is my first attempt to run it from the command line. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

if I type: vlc test.avi

i get:

VLC media player 2.2.2 Weatherwax (revision 2.2.2-0-g6259d80)
[0000000000ee40d8] core interface error: no suitable interface module
[0000000000dc4148] core libvlc error: interface "globalhotkeys,none" initialization failed
[0000000000dc4148] core libvlc: Running vlc with the default interface. Use 'cvlc' to use vlc without interface.
[0000000000ed9b08] [cli] lua interface: Listening on host "*console".
VLC media player 2.2.2 Weatherwax
Command Line Interface initialized. Type `help' for help.
> commandline read: vlc
commandline read: test.avi

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| DirectFB 1.2.10 |~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
(c) 2001-2008 The world wide DirectFB Open Source Community
(c) 2000-2004 Convergence (integrated media) GmbH
----------------------------------------------------------------

(*) DirectFB/Core: Single Application Core. (2014-10-24 12:33)
(*) Direct/Memcpy: Using libc memcpy()
(!) Direct/Util: opening '/dev/fb0' and '/dev/fb/0' failed
--> No such file or directory
(!) DirectFB/FBDev: Error opening framebuffer device!
(!) DirectFB/FBDev: Use 'fbdev' option or set FRAMEBUFFER environment variable.
(!) DirectFB/Core: Could not initialize 'system_core' core!
--> Initialization error!
[00007ffaa8001268] directfb vout display error: Cannot create primary surface
[00007ffaa8001268] fb vout display error: cannot get terminal mode (Inappropriate ioctl for device)
[00007ffad0c4d108] core video output error: video output creation failed
[00007ffabcd03968] core decoder error: failed to create video output
[00007ffab0005f08] mpgatofixed32 audio converter error: libmad error: bad main_data_begin pointer
^C[0000000000ed9b08] [cli] lua interface error: Error loading script /usr/lib/vlc/lua/intf/cli.luac: lua/intf/modules/host.lua:279: Interrupted.

Granted, /dev/fb0 does not seem to exist on my system, so I have also tried adding options such as -V x11, -V xvideo, and -V nvidia0. These all result in skipping the /dev/fb0 problems, but the end result is the same with:

VLC media player 2.2.2 Weatherwax (revision 2.2.2-0-g6259d80)
[00000000010bd248] core interface error: no suitable interface module
[0000000000f9d148] core libvlc error: interface "globalhotkeys,none" initialization failed
[0000000000f9d148] core libvlc: Running vlc with the default interface. Use 'cvlc' to use vlc without interface.
[000000000110ec88] [cli] lua interface: Listening on host "*console".
VLC media player 2.2.2 Weatherwax
Command Line Interface initialized. Type `help' for help.
> [00007fa26804a168] core video output error: video output creation failed
[00007fa264d04058] core decoder error: failed to create video output
[00007fa254010488] mpgatofixed32 audio converter error: libmad error: bad main_data_begin pointer
^C[000000000110ec88] [cli] lua interface error: Error loading script /usr/lib/vlc/lua/intf/cli.luac: lua/intf/modules/host.lua:279: Interrupted.

[Rémi Denis-Courmont]

VLC cannot start the X server. If you want to use it, you need to start it (normally the DM does it for you when you log in).

[SidFishous]

My goal for this exercise is to create launchers to open specific network streams. When my launcher didn't work, I opened a terminal emulator (from within my X session) to make sure I had the syntax correct, which lead to the results posted above. Since I opened a terminal emulator from X, and I can see my desktop in the background, I am thinking that X is already running, and VLC just isn't connecting to it. Am I missing something obvious?

[Rémi Denis-Courmont]

Check 'xdpyinfo' from the command line. Seems that either the X server is not visible or not permitted from the terminal.