Problem started with Minecraft 1.8.8 minus six. I suspect a bug in lwjgl-2.9.4-nightly-20150209 however couldn't simply test it since the launcher doesn't let me start mc with lwjgl 2.9.1 (used by MC 1.8.1 which still works).

Here the crash report for 1.8.8:

---- Minecraft Crash Report ----
// I blame Dinnerbone.

Time: 8/6/15 6:26 PM
Description: Initializing game

java.lang.ExceptionInInitializerError
at ave.ar(SourceFile:560)
at ave.am(SourceFile:361)
at ave.a(SourceFile:310)
at net.minecraft.client.main.Main.main(SourceFile:124)
Caused by: java.lang.ArrayIndexOutOfBoundsException: 0
at org.lwjgl.opengl.XRandR.findPrimary(XRandR.java:326)
at org.lwjgl.opengl.XRandR.ScreentoDisplayMode(XRandR.java:315)
at org.lwjgl.opengl.LinuxDisplay$3.run(LinuxDisplay.java:746)
at org.lwjgl.opengl.LinuxDisplay$3.run(LinuxDisplay.java:743)
at java.security.AccessController.doPrivileged(Native Method)
at org.lwjgl.opengl.LinuxDisplay.init(LinuxDisplay.java:743)
at org.lwjgl.opengl.Display.<clinit>(Display.java:138)
... 4 more

A detailed walkthrough of the error, its code path and all known details is as follows:
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

– Head –
Stacktrace:
at ave.ar(SourceFile:560)
at ave.am(SourceFile:361)

– Initialization –
Details:
Stacktrace:
at ave.a(SourceFile:310)
at net.minecraft.client.main.Main.main(SourceFile:124)

– System Details –
Details:
Minecraft Version: 1.8.8
Operating System: Linux (amd64) version 3.14.4
Java Version: 1.7.0_79, Oracle Corporation
Java VM Version: OpenJDK 64-Bit Server VM (mixed mode), Oracle Corporation
Memory: 159541720 bytes (152 MB) / 249102336 bytes (237 MB) up to 4281597952 bytes (4083 MB)
JVM Flags: 5 total; -Xmx4G -XX:+UseConcMarkSweepGC -XX:+CMSIncrementalMode -XX:-UseAdaptiveSizePolicy -Xmn128M
IntCache: cache: 0, tcache: 0, allocated: 0, tallocated: 0
Launched Version: 1.8.8
LWJGL: 2.9.4
OpenGL: ~_ERROR~ RuntimeException: No OpenGL context found in the current thread.
GL Caps:
Using VBOs: No
Is Modded: Probably not. Jar signature remains and client brand is untouched.
Type: Client (map_client.txt)
Resource Packs:
Current Language: ~_ERROR~ NullPointerException: null
Profiler Position: N/A (disabled)
CPU: <unknown>