[SOLVED] Failing dbus-broker Due To "not well-formed" nvidia-dbus.conf

Lanklow · 2025-12-16 08:41:08

I updated my system several days ago, and when I rebooted, the screen went black (no cursor) instead of SDDM... It looks to me like dbus-broker.service is reacting to nvidia-dbus.conf and failing. I cannot switch TTY either. This error shows up regardless of nvidia-utils being installed or not, or whether the file is present or missing.

(I don't even use Nvidia graphics; the package just happened to be installed).

journalctl -g dbus

DEC 15 00:52:18 radon dbus-broker-launch[732]: Invalid XML in /usr/share/dbus-1/system.d/nvidia-dbus.conf +1: not well-formed (invalid token)
DEC 15 00:52:18 radon dbus-broker-launch[732]: ERROR run @ ../dbus-broker-37/src/launch/main.c +152: Return code 1
DEC 15 00:52:18 radon dbus-broker-launch[732]: main @ ../dbus-broker-37/src/launch/main.c +178
DEC 15 00:52:18 radon systemd[1]: dbus-broker.service: Main process exited, code: exited, status=1/FAILURE
DEC 15 00:52:18 radon systemd[1]: dbus-broker.service: Failed with result 'exit-code'.

Last edited by Lanklow (2025-12-18 22:03:17)

mithrial · 2025-12-16 08:57:14

What happens if you delete the nvidia package?

seth · 2025-12-16 09:07:48

https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=292494

What does /usr/share/dbus-1/system.d/nvidia-dbus.conf look like and what's

pacman -Qikk nvidia-utils

Lanklow · 2025-12-16 17:25:44

seth wrote:

https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=292494
What does /usr/share/dbus-1/system.d/nvidia-dbus.conf look like and what's
pacman -Qikk nvidia-utils

pacman -Qikk nvidia-utils

Name            : nvidia-utils
Version         : 580.105.08-5
Description     : NVIDIA drivers utilities
Architecture    : x86_64
URL             : http://www.nvidia.com/
Licenses        : custom
Groups          : None
Provides        : vulkan-driver  opengl-driver  nvidia-libgl
Depends On      : libglvnd  egl-wayland  egl-gbm  egl-x11
Optional Deps   : nvidia-settings: configuration tool
                  xorg-server: Xorg support [installed]
                  xorg-server-devel: nvidia-xconfig
                  opencl-nvidia: OpenCL support [installed]
Required By     : libglvnd  steam
Optional For    : ffmpeg  ffmpeg4.4  libvdpau  sdl3  vulkan-icd-loader
Conflicts With  : nvidia-libgl
Replaces        : nvidia-libgl
Installed Size  : 900.56 MiB
Packager        : Jan Alexander Steffens (heftig) <heftig@archlinux.org>
Build Date      : Mon Dec  1 16:09:59 2025
Install Date    : Mon Dec 15 13:14:39 2025
Install Reason  : Explicitly installed
Install Script  : Yes
Validated By    : Signature

nvidia-utils: 256 total files, 0 altered files

nvidia-dbus.conf

<busconfig>
  <type>system</type>
  <policy user="root">
    <allow own="nvidia.powerd.server"/>
  </policy>
  <policy context="default">
    <allow send_destination="nvidia.powerd.server"/>
  </policy>
</busconfig>

seth · 2025-12-16 21:08:30

That's the entire file?
Does it help to add the doctype?

<!DOCTYPE busconfig PUBLIC "-//freedesktop//DTD D-BUS Bus Configuration 1.0//EN"
 "http://www.freedesktop.org/standards/dbus/1.0/busconfig.dtd">

Lanklow · 2025-12-17 09:30:33

seth wrote:

That's the entire file?
Does it help to add the doctype?

<!DOCTYPE busconfig PUBLIC "-//freedesktop//DTD D-BUS Bus Configuration 1.0//EN"
 "http://www.freedesktop.org/standards/dbus/1.0/busconfig.dtd">

Yes, that is the entire file.
No, unfortunately adding the doctype didn't help.

Last edited by Lanklow (2025-12-17 09:30:47)

seth · 2025-12-17 09:34:23

Stray non-printable chars?

cat /usr/share/dbus-1/system.d/nvidia-dbus.conf | curl -F 'file=@-' 0x0.st

Lanklow · 2025-12-17 18:47:22

seth wrote:

Stray non-printable chars?

cat /usr/share/dbus-1/system.d/nvidia-dbus.conf | curl -F 'file=@-' 0x0.st

https://0x0.st/PrIg.txt

I can retry that command after work, if that output wasn't the expected one.

Last edited by Lanklow (2025-12-17 18:48:44)

seth · 2025-12-17 19:45:59

It's equivalent of 404, did you manually transcribe the url or copy and paste it?

Lanklow · 2025-12-18 04:35:30

I tried both, same error... It works on other files, though.

Edit: Upload successful here: https://o.uguu.se/YRXPnNsm.conf

Last edited by Lanklow (2025-12-18 05:45:38)

seth · 2025-12-18 07:45:08

It works on other files, though.

Is super-suspicious.
Is the uguu.se upload a byte-for by copy or did you paste the contents there manually?

stat /usr/share/dbus-1/system.d/nvidia-dbus.conf

The file does not looks overly suspicious.
Does the dbus-unbreaker scrip report anything about it?
Please post your complete system journal for the boot:

sudo journalctl -b | curl -F 'file=@-' 0x0.st

Lanklow · 2025-12-18 08:16:58

The uguu.se upload is byte-for-byte.

journalctl -b -1
https://0x0.st/Pr5k.txt

./dbus-unbreaker.sh
https://0x0.st/Pr5h.txt
(Nothing reported)

Last edited by Lanklow (2025-12-18 08:17:59)

seth · 2025-12-18 08:25:33

WARNING: xmlstarlet not found, limited validity check only

https://archlinux.org/packages/extra/x86_64/xmlstarlet/

Dec 17 01:24:49 radon dbus-broker-launch[872]: Invalid XML in /usr/share/dbus-1/system.d/nvidia-dbus.conf +1: not well-formed (invalid token)
Dec 17 01:24:49 radon dbus-broker-launch[872]: ERROR run @ ../dbus-broker-37/src/launch/main.c +152: Return code 1
Dec 17 01:24:49 radon dbus-broker-launch[872]:       main @ ../dbus-broker-37/src/launch/main.c +178
Dec 17 01:24:49 radon dbus-broker-launch[872]: Exiting due to fatal error: -131
Dec 17 01:24:49 radon systemd[1]: dbus-broker.service: Main process exited, code=exited, status=1/FAILURE
Dec 17 01:24:49 radon systemd[1]: dbus-broker.service: Failed with result 'exit-code'.

so… despite editing (doctype) the file the message hasn't changed at all.

Dec 17 01:24:48 radon systemd[1]: Mounting /.snapshots...
Dec 17 01:24:48 radon systemd[1]: Mounting /boot...
Dec 17 01:24:48 radon systemd[1]: Mounting /home...
Dec 17 01:24:48 radon systemd[1]: opt.mount: Directory /opt to mount over is not empty, mounting anyway.
Dec 17 01:24:48 radon systemd[1]: Mounting /opt...
Dec 17 01:24:48 radon systemd[1]: tmp.mount: Directory /tmp to mount over is not empty, mounting anyway.
Dec 17 01:24:48 radon systemd[1]: Mounting /tmp...
Dec 17 01:24:48 radon systemd[1]: var.mount: Directory /var to mount over is not empty, mounting anyway.
Dec 17 01:24:48 radon systemd[1]: Mounting /var...
Dec 17 01:24:48 radon systemd[1]: Mounted /.snapshots.
Dec 17 01:24:48 radon systemd[1]: Mounted /boot.
Dec 17 01:24:48 radon systemd[1]: Mounted /home.
Dec 17 01:24:48 radon systemd[1]: Mounted /opt.
Dec 17 01:24:48 radon systemd[1]: Mounted /tmp.
Dec 17 01:24:48 radon systemd[1]: Mounted /var.

You're probably looking at the wrong file.

Only boot the rescue.target (2nd link below) and check the file again.

Lanklow · 2025-12-18 08:51:58

Still nothing reported with xmlstarlet installed.

Everything that is being mounted over is old/redundant, likely from when I forgot to mount subvolumes in a live environment.

Journal after setting rescue.target as default
https://0x0.st/PrRm.txt

seth · 2025-12-18 09:19:53

The idea was to look at /usr/share/dbus-1/system.d/nvidia-dbus.conf from the rescue target because the unclean mountpoints an the error being invariant to actual edits to a sne looking file heavily suggest that the file you're looking at, editing and posting is *not* what dbus-broker sees early on.

Lanklow · 2025-12-18 09:27:51

Forgive me for not understanding this well... I see what you're saying now.

Even with rescue.target set as default, there is no prompt shown (just a black screen still), any pointers?

seth · 2025-12-18 09:37:50

Inspect the partitions offline, boot http://grml.org/

Lanklow · 2025-12-18 10:06:19

To confirm: Looking at the file through Grml should show the "early" version (what dbus-broker sees) of the conf file?

So far, I've been using the standard Arch ISO (while chrooted in).

seth · 2025-12-18 14:25:46

Oh, you *are* looking at the FS offline - chances are you're looking at the wrong file - move it away

mv /usr/share/dbus-1/system.d/nvidia-dbus.conf /usr/share/dbus-1_system.d_nvidia-dbus.conf

Chances are the next boot is still gonna fail - you need to figure what you're actually mounting (possibly some snapshot) during the boot and which file gets affected.
Also don't change the default target by editing any files - use the kernel commandline parameter.

Lanklow · 2025-12-18 22:02:49

Thanks for bringing up snapshots, that did the trick!

I switched the subvolume in /etc/default/grub, to the one I was mounting (and not a snapshot), and it booted right up. Adding the doctype evidently made it work again...

Thank you so much for lending your time and expertise!

seth · 2025-12-18 22:16:59

Adding the doctype evidently made it work again...

Possibly not - there's probably some bogus file in the specific snapshot that looks much different from the xml you've been editing.

Arch Linux

#1 2025-12-16 08:41:08

[SOLVED] Failing dbus-broker Due To "not well-formed" nvidia-dbus.conf

#2 2025-12-16 08:57:14

Re: [SOLVED] Failing dbus-broker Due To "not well-formed" nvidia-dbus.conf

#3 2025-12-16 09:07:48

Re: [SOLVED] Failing dbus-broker Due To "not well-formed" nvidia-dbus.conf

#4 2025-12-16 17:25:44

Re: [SOLVED] Failing dbus-broker Due To "not well-formed" nvidia-dbus.conf

#5 2025-12-16 21:08:30

Re: [SOLVED] Failing dbus-broker Due To "not well-formed" nvidia-dbus.conf

#6 2025-12-17 09:30:33

Re: [SOLVED] Failing dbus-broker Due To "not well-formed" nvidia-dbus.conf

#7 2025-12-17 09:34:23

Re: [SOLVED] Failing dbus-broker Due To "not well-formed" nvidia-dbus.conf

#8 2025-12-17 18:47:22

Re: [SOLVED] Failing dbus-broker Due To "not well-formed" nvidia-dbus.conf

#9 2025-12-17 19:45:59

Re: [SOLVED] Failing dbus-broker Due To "not well-formed" nvidia-dbus.conf

#10 2025-12-18 04:35:30

Re: [SOLVED] Failing dbus-broker Due To "not well-formed" nvidia-dbus.conf

#11 2025-12-18 07:45:08

Re: [SOLVED] Failing dbus-broker Due To "not well-formed" nvidia-dbus.conf

#12 2025-12-18 08:16:58

Re: [SOLVED] Failing dbus-broker Due To "not well-formed" nvidia-dbus.conf

#13 2025-12-18 08:25:33

Re: [SOLVED] Failing dbus-broker Due To "not well-formed" nvidia-dbus.conf

#14 2025-12-18 08:51:58

Re: [SOLVED] Failing dbus-broker Due To "not well-formed" nvidia-dbus.conf

#15 2025-12-18 09:19:53

Re: [SOLVED] Failing dbus-broker Due To "not well-formed" nvidia-dbus.conf

#16 2025-12-18 09:27:51

Re: [SOLVED] Failing dbus-broker Due To "not well-formed" nvidia-dbus.conf

#17 2025-12-18 09:37:50

Re: [SOLVED] Failing dbus-broker Due To "not well-formed" nvidia-dbus.conf

#18 2025-12-18 10:06:19

Re: [SOLVED] Failing dbus-broker Due To "not well-formed" nvidia-dbus.conf

#19 2025-12-18 14:25:46

Re: [SOLVED] Failing dbus-broker Due To "not well-formed" nvidia-dbus.conf

#20 2025-12-18 22:02:49

Re: [SOLVED] Failing dbus-broker Due To "not well-formed" nvidia-dbus.conf

#21 2025-12-18 22:16:59

Re: [SOLVED] Failing dbus-broker Due To "not well-formed" nvidia-dbus.conf

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