Arch Linux

Foxhole

Member

Registered: 2015-08-14

Posts: 37

Display/Login manager SDDM doesn't work

Hi all,
i've made a beginner installation (following the beginners guide) successfully. Then i decided to use a desktop enviroment. I'm using an old pc, pentium 4@3 ghz, 1 gb of ram and a radeon 9200 se (128 mb). I decided to use LXQt. To use that, the wiki said to install a display manager, and for LXQt i've read that the best display manager is SDDM. I've installed the Xorg-server package, the X auth package, created a /etc/sddm.conf file, enabled sddm.service but when Arch Linux finishes the boot process and i should see the graphical login form (i think), i get a black screen (ctrl+alt+F1-7 doesn't work). I'm still able to use the system by pressing ctrl + alt + F1 when the login manager (or display manager) is loading.
I've also installed the right video driver (for ATI video cards). Why it doesn't work? What should i do?

EDIT: i've rebooted the pc, then i loaded tty1 (by ctrl + alt+ F1) that was almost stuck, then i changed to tty2, 3, 4, 5, and 6 without troubles. Then i changed to "tty7", because i've set in sddm.conf MinimumVT=7. I've seen a white screen for 1-2 seconds, then i was again stuck over the black screen

Last edited by Foxhole (2015-08-14 14:31:39)

SirMyztiq

Member

Registered: 2015-03-24

Posts: 118

Re: Display/Login manager SDDM doesn't work

Hi all,
i've made a beginner installation (following the beginners guide) successfully. Then i decided to use a desktop enviroment. I'm using an old pc, pentium 4@3 ghz, 1 gb of ram and a radeon 9200 se (128 mb). I decided to use LXQt. To use that, the wiki said to install a display manager, and for LXQt i've read that the best display manager is SDDM. I've installed the Xorg-server package, the X auth package, created a /etc/sddm.conf file, enabled sddm.service but when Arch Linux finishes the boot process and i should see the graphical login form (i think), i get a black screen (ctrl+alt+F1-7 doesn't work). I'm still able to use the system by pressing ctrl + alt + F1 when the login manager (or display manager) is loading.
I've also installed the right video driver (for ATI video cards). Why it doesn't work? What should i do?

Do you have any logs for those processes?

Foxhole

Member

Registered: 2015-08-14

Posts: 37

Re: Display/Login manager SDDM doesn't work

Hi all,
i've made a beginner installation (following the beginners guide) successfully. Then i decided to use a desktop enviroment. I'm using an old pc, pentium 4@3 ghz, 1 gb of ram and a radeon 9200 se (128 mb). I decided to use LXQt. To use that, the wiki said to install a display manager, and for LXQt i've read that the best display manager is SDDM. I've installed the Xorg-server package, the X auth package, created a /etc/sddm.conf file, enabled sddm.service but when Arch Linux finishes the boot process and i should see the graphical login form (i think), i get a black screen (ctrl+alt+F1-7 doesn't work). I'm still able to use the system by pressing ctrl + alt + F1 when the login manager (or display manager) is loading.
I've also installed the right video driver (for ATI video cards). Why it doesn't work? What should i do?

Do you have any logs for those processes?

I don't know where i can find them, i'm new to Linux enviroment...

Xabre

Member

From: Serbia

Registered: 2009-03-19

Posts: 753

Re: Display/Login manager SDDM doesn't work

journalctl --unit=sddm.service

Foxhole

Member

Registered: 2015-08-14

Posts: 37

Re: Display/Login manager SDDM doesn't work

Thanks you all, here is the journal http://pasted.co/f313de24
Password is 123
I took a lot of time for doing this because i had to export the journal using a USB device, and it was kinda hard to me.
As i've installed xauth, it seems that it works properly, so, what is now the problem? Is there something regarding Xorg that requires configuration?

Last edited by Foxhole (2015-08-14 15:56:16)

Xabre

Member

From: Serbia

Registered: 2009-03-19

Posts: 753

Re: Display/Login manager SDDM doesn't work

According to journald, sddm is actually running, but for some reason, sddm-greeter in not showing up on screen. (greeter is the part of whole thing where you enter your username and password)

Have you tried explicitly setting the theme in sddm.conf?

Last edited by Xabre (2015-08-14 16:02:14)

ewaller

Administrator

From: Pasadena, CA

Registered: 2009-07-13

Posts: 19,906

Re: Display/Login manager SDDM doesn't work

I took a lot of time for doing this because i had to export the journal using a USB device, and it was kinda hard to me.

You may want to investigate https://www.archlinux.org/packages/comm … wgetpaste/.  It will pipe program output straight to paste sites on the net.

---

Nothing is too wonderful to be true, if it be consistent with the laws of nature -- Michael Faraday
Sometimes it is the people no one can imagine anything of who do the things no one can imagine. -- Alan Turing
---
How to Ask Questions the Smart Way

Foxhole

Member

Registered: 2015-08-14

Posts: 37

Re: Display/Login manager SDDM doesn't work

I took a lot of time for doing this because i had to export the journal using a USB device, and it was kinda hard to me.

You may want to investigate https://www.archlinux.org/packages/comm … wgetpaste/.  It will pipe program output straight to paste sites on the net.

cool, i'll try it. Anyway, i'll keep searching on the wikia for a solution...

Fixxer

Member

From: Poland

Registered: 2011-08-29

Posts: 217

Re: Display/Login manager SDDM doesn't work

I've also installed the right video driver (for ATI video cards). Why it doesn't work? What should i do?

Which one and how? Post output of commands as ewaller wrote - with wgetpaste:

lspci -k | grep -A2 VGA

cat /var/log/Xorg.0.log

OR

egrep -e '(II)|(EE)|(WW)' /var/log/Xorg.0.log

Foxhole

Member

Registered: 2015-08-14

Posts: 37

Re: Display/Login manager SDDM doesn't work

According to journald, sddm is actually running, but for some reason, sddm-greeter in not showing up on screen. (greeter is the part of whole thing where you enter your username and password)

Have you tried explicitly setting the theme in sddm.conf?

This is my sddm conf file:
[Autologin]
# Autologin again on session exit
Relogin=false

# Autologin session
Session=

# Autologin user
User=

[General]
# Halt command
HaltCommand=/usr/bin/systemctl poweroff

# Initial NumLock state
# Valid values: on|off|none
# If property is set to none, numlock won't be changed
Numlock=none

# Reboot command
RebootCommand=/usr/bin/systemctl reboot

[Theme]
# Current theme name
Current=maui

# Cursor theme
CursorTheme=

# Face icon directory
# The files should be in username.face.icon format
FacesDir=/usr/share/sddm/faces

# Theme directory path
ThemeDir=/usr/share/sddm/themes

[Users]
# Default $PATH
DefaultPath=/bin:/usr/bin:/usr/local/bin

# Hidden shells
# Users with these shells as their default won't be listed
HideShells=

# Hidden users
HideUsers=

# Maximum user id for displayed users
MaximumUid=65000

# Minimum user id for displayed users
MinimumUid=1000

# Remember the session of the last successfully logged in user
RememberLastSession=true

# Remember the last successfully logged in user
RememberLastUser=true

[XDisplay]
# Xsetup script path
# A script to execute when starting the display server
DisplayCommand=/usr/share/sddm/scripts/Xsetup

# Minimum VT
# The lowest virtual terminal number that will be used.
MinimumVT=7

# X server path
ServerPath=/usr/bin/X

# Xsession script path
# A script to execute when starting the desktop session
SessionCommand=/usr/share/sddm/scripts/Xsession

# Session description directory
SessionDir=/usr/share/xsessions

# Xauth path
XauthPath=/usr/bin/xauth

Foxhole

Member

Registered: 2015-08-14

Posts: 37

Re: Display/Login manager SDDM doesn't work

I've also installed the right video driver (for ATI video cards). Why it doesn't work? What should i do?

Which one and how? Post output of commands as ewaller wrote - with wgetpaste:

lspci -k | grep -A2 VGA

cat /var/log/Xorg.0.log

OR

egrep -e '(II)|(EE)|(WW)' /var/log/Xorg.0.log

The problem regards Xorg, not SDDM. Thanks Fixxer. This is the output of:
egrep -e II -e EE -e WW /var/log/Xorg.0.log
(i've corrected it because your command gives no output)

http://pasted.co/d22b8785
2 modules are missing, vesa and fbdev, and there are some other errors...

Last edited by Foxhole (2015-08-14 17:44:15)

ewaller

Administrator

From: Pasadena, CA

Registered: 2009-07-13

Posts: 19,906

Re: Display/Login manager SDDM doesn't work

Let's stop and do a quick sanity check.   Let's ensure that the kernel you are running is the same kernel that is installed.  If they are not matched, then the kernel will not be able to find its modules.  This can happen if you upgrade the kernel, but for a variety of reasons the kernel on the boot partition does not get upgraded.

Either post our compare the outputs of uname -a and pacman -Qi linux
Ensure that the version numbers reported by both are exactly the same.

Last edited by ewaller (2015-08-14 17:55:15)

---

Nothing is too wonderful to be true, if it be consistent with the laws of nature -- Michael Faraday
Sometimes it is the people no one can imagine anything of who do the things no one can imagine. -- Alan Turing
---
How to Ask Questions the Smart Way

DrShame

Member

Registered: 2014-04-26

Posts: 21

Re: Display/Login manager SDDM doesn't work

Just a few moments ago i had something like this happen to me too (also an ati card).

The system was ok and i did a Syu, it pulled a few libs like mesa, llvm (i use mesa-git) and a bunch of others. But for some unknown reason steam didn't want to run, so i've rebooted and ended up with a black screen instead of the usual sddm login greeter. So i went into a tty console and checked out the xorg log for errors (EE), Turns out there is some problem with some kind of drm. I decided to do a Syu again, this time it pulled libdrm and lib32-libdrm and one other i don't remember (logs are in tmpfs ) , and after reboot it works again. Dunno, maybe it was related or not. Before all that i was fiddling with virtualbox and dkms, but removing or adding the dkms service didn't seem to have any effect whatsoever.

Foxhole

Member

Registered: 2015-08-14

Posts: 37

Re: Display/Login manager SDDM doesn't work

Let's stop and do a quick sanity check.   Let's ensure that the kernel you are running is the same kernel that is installed.  If they are not matched, then the kernel will not be able to find its modules.  This can happen if you upgrade the kernel, but for a variety of reasons the kernel on the boot partition does not get upgraded.

Either post our compare the outputs of uname -a and pacman -Qi linux
Ensure that the version numbers reported by both are exactly the same.

They are, if you read somewhere Archy instead of Arch, it's because i made some allowed edits while installing arch linux (with allowed edits i mean i changed some echo contents). Archy is the pcname i gave to the archlinux pc. This is the output, in my language :\
Linux Archy 4.1.4-1-ARCH #1 SMP PREEMPT Mon Aug 3 21:53:10 UTC 2015 i686 GNU/Linux

Nome           : linux
Versione       : 4.1.4-1
Descrizione    : The Linux kernel and modules
Architettura   : i686
URL            : http://www.kernel.org/
Licenze        : GPL2
Gruppi         : base
Fornisce       : kernel26=4.1.4
Dipende da     : coreutils  linux-firmware  kmod  mkinitcpio>=0.7
Dip. opzionali : crda: to set the correct wireless channels of your country
Richiesto da   : Nessuno
Opzionale per  : Nessuno
Conflitti con  : kernel26
Sostituisce    : kernel26
KiB richiesti  :  66,38 MiB
Autore         : Evangelos Foutras <evangelos@foutrelis.com>
Creato il      : lun 03 ago 2015 23:54:52 CEST
Installato il  : mer 12 ago 2015 22:35:16 CEST
Motivo         : Installato esplicitamente
Script install : Sì
Convalidato da : Firma

ohmysql

Member

Registered: 2015-03-13

Posts: 33

Re: Display/Login manager SDDM doesn't work

So you also were unable to resolve this, I take it? I've been pretty baffled. I haven't been able to get lightdm to work either. I do assume it's some kind of X problem, but startx is working. I also recently changed my graphics card, so I'm not saying I can't figure out the cause, but how to fix it is another matter.

Valvar

Member

Registered: 2012-11-01

Posts: 15

Re: Display/Login manager SDDM doesn't work

I have the exact same issue, and I can't figure out any way to solve it. GDM stopped working for me a long time ago for some mysterious reason, but recently SDDM stopped working as well. I have no clue what is going on.

Edit: Resolved by replacing nvidia-libgl and lib32-nvidia-libgl with mesa-libgl and lib32-mesa-libgl. Just remove the nvidia packages with pacman -Rdd before installing the mesa packages, dependencies will be fine.

Last edited by Valvar (2016-04-20 19:36:43)

Irok

Member

Registered: 2015-10-10

Posts: 56

Re: Display/Login manager SDDM doesn't work

Hi, use the open source drivers. Using privatives is only problems.

headkase

Member

Registered: 2011-12-06

Posts: 1,981

Re: Display/Login manager SDDM doesn't work

Edit: Resolved by replacing nvidia-libgl and lib32-nvidia-libgl with mesa-libgl and lib32-mesa-libgl. Just remove the nvidia packages with pacman -Rdd before installing the mesa packages, dependencies will be fine.

Why don't you pour gasoline on your computer and throw a match at it?  At least that would be slightly more entertaining than your suggestion.  You want a solution that actually addresses the root issue, not poor advice for a band-aid.

Valvar

Member

Registered: 2012-11-01

Posts: 15

Re: Display/Login manager SDDM doesn't work

Edit: Resolved by replacing nvidia-libgl and lib32-nvidia-libgl with mesa-libgl and lib32-mesa-libgl. Just remove the nvidia packages with pacman -Rdd before installing the mesa packages, dependencies will be fine.

Why don't you pour gasoline on your computer and throw a match at it?  At least that would be slightly more entertaining than your suggestion.  You want a solution that actually addresses the root issue, not poor advice for a band-aid.

So, have you got any advice on how to find and address  the root issue or are you just here to be snide?

headkase

Member

Registered: 2011-12-06

Posts: 1,981

Re: Display/Login manager SDDM doesn't work

Edit: Resolved by replacing nvidia-libgl and lib32-nvidia-libgl with mesa-libgl and lib32-mesa-libgl. Just remove the nvidia packages with pacman -Rdd before installing the mesa packages, dependencies will be fine.

Why don't you pour gasoline on your computer and throw a match at it?  At least that would be slightly more entertaining than your suggestion.  You want a solution that actually addresses the root issue, not poor advice for a band-aid.

So, have you got any advice on how to find and address  the root issue or are you just here to be snide?

In this instance I am just here to be snide.  However, your advice is still bad.

Valvar

Member

Registered: 2012-11-01

Posts: 15

Re: Display/Login manager SDDM doesn't work

Why don't you pour gasoline on your computer and throw a match at it?  At least that would be slightly more entertaining than your suggestion.  You want a solution that actually addresses the root issue, not poor advice for a band-aid.

So, have you got any advice on how to find and address  the root issue or are you just here to be snide?

In this instance I am just here to be snide.  However, your advice is still bad.

Well, thanks for the input I guess. Anyone else have any ideas for how to find the issue and resolve it?