Arch Linux

bitfreak

Member

Registered: 2018-05-02

Posts: 15

Re: [solved] start of lightdm fails with a blinking screen

Hi,

first of all: Thank for your support!

Now I will save my current system and start a new installation, so I can check if I've made mistake at the installation-process. When it work or don't work using this manual, I will reply afterwards.

seth

Member

Registered: 2012-09-03

Posts: 51,253

Re: [solved] start of lightdm fails with a blinking screen

Rather try https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Installation_guide

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bitfreak

Member

Registered: 2018-05-02

Posts: 15

Re: [solved] start of lightdm fails with a blinking screen

Hi,

now I tested it with a simplified installation and using the nouveau drivers. The result is still the same.

This is my installation-process:

## start Debian
# format /dev/sda4 using ext4
# copy scripts to /dev/sda4/install

## start from USB-stick (archlinux-2018.05.01-x86_64.iso)
loadkeys de
mount /dev/sda4 /mnt
sh /mnt/install/startup.sh
pacstrap /mnt base base-devel
genfstab -p /mnt > /mnt/etc/fstab

arch-chroot /mnt
# Note: use defaults and accept the install-steps with "y"
sh /install/chroot.sh
passwd root
passwd user

exit
umount /mnt
reboot

## start Debian
# remove USB-stick (before update-grub)
# call update-grub

startup.sh

#!/bin/bash
set -e
set -u

# language
loadkeys de
loadkeys de-latin1

# workaround for non-working tg3-driver
## See: http://lkml.iu.edu/hypermail/linux/kernel/1204.2/01162.html
rmmod tg3
modprobe tg3
rmmod tg3
rmmod broadcom
modprobe tg3
ip link set enp24s0 up
systemctl start dhcpcd.service
sleep 10s
ping -c2 www.debian.org

# correct time
timedatectl set-ntp true

chroot.sh

#!/bin/bash
set -e
set -u

# hostname
echo "LIFEBOOK-ARCH" > /etc/hostname

# localization
echo "LANG=de_DE.UTF-8" > /etc/locale.conf
echo "de_DE.UTF-8 UTF-8" >> /etc/locale.gen
echo "de_DE ISO-8859-1" >> /etc/locale.gen
echo "de_DE@euro ISO-8859-15" >> /etc/locale.gen
locale-gen

echo "KEYMAP=de-latin1" > /etc/vconsole.conf
echo "FONT=lat9w-16" >> /etc/vconsole.conf
ln -sf /usr/share/zoneinfo/Europe/Berlin /etc/localtime

echo "127.0.0.1      localhost" > /etc/hosts
echo "127.0.1.1      LIFEBOOK-ARCH" >> /etc/hosts

# create user "user"
useradd -m -g users -s /bin/bash user

# activate dhcp-service
systemctl enable dhcpcd.service

# install desktop
pacman -S xorg-server xorg-xinit xorg-drivers

# install xfce
pacman -S  xfce4 ttf-dejavu

# install lightdm
pacman -S lightdm lightdm-gtk-greeter

Steps to reproduce my behaviour after installation:

## start Arch linux
# login as root
systemctl start lightdm

And this is the last output you wanted (called in the new system):

# LC_ALL=C su -s /usr/bin/bash lightdm touch
su: failed to execute /usr/bin/bash: Permission denied

# LC_ALL=C pacman -Qkk sudo
sudo: 189 total files, 0 altered files

# LC_ALL=C id -u user
1000

# LC_ALL=C stat /usr/bin/sudo
  File: /usr/bin/sudo
  Size: 132408    	Blocks: 264        IO Block: 4096   regular file
Device: 804h/2052d	Inode: 681900      Links: 1
Access: (4755/-rwsr-xr-x)  Uid: (    0/    root)   Gid: (    0/    root)
Access: 2018-05-11 11:21:23.000000000 +0200
Modify: 2018-01-21 20:06:17.000000000 +0100
Change: 2018-05-11 11:21:23.889852735 +0200
 Birth: -

# LC_ALL=C stat /etc
  File: /etc
  Size: 4096      	Blocks: 8          IO Block: 4096   directory
Device: 804h/2052d	Inode: 393217      Links: 48
Access: (0755/drwxr-xr-x)  Uid: (    0/    root)   Gid: (    0/    root)
Access: 2018-05-11 11:22:09.723161886 +0200
Modify: 2018-05-11 11:29:46.873447224 +0200
Change: 2018-05-11 11:29:46.873447224 +0200
 Birth: -

# LC_ALL=C stat /
  File: /
  Size: 4096      	Blocks: 8          IO Block: 4096   directory
Device: 804h/2052d	Inode: 2           Links: 18
Access: (0700/drwx------)  Uid: ( 1000/    user)   Gid: ( 1000/ UNKNOWN)
Access: 2018-05-11 11:22:08.483342734 +0200
Modify: 2018-05-11 11:20:53.597621697 +0200
Change: 2018-05-11 11:20:53.597621697 +0200
 Birth: -

# LC_ALL=C mount
proc on /proc type proc (rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime)
sys on /sys type sysfs (rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime)
dev on /dev type devtmpfs (rw,nosuid,relatime,size=1944864k,nr_inodes=486216,mode=755)
run on /run type tmpfs (rw,nosuid,nodev,relatime,mode=755)
/dev/sda4 on / type ext4 (rw,relatime,data=ordered)
securityfs on /sys/kernel/security type securityfs (rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime)
tmpfs on /dev/shm type tmpfs (rw,nosuid,nodev)
devpts on /dev/pts type devpts (rw,nosuid,noexec,relatime,gid=5,mode=620,ptmxmode=000)
tmpfs on /sys/fs/cgroup type tmpfs (ro,nosuid,nodev,noexec,mode=755)
cgroup2 on /sys/fs/cgroup/unified type cgroup2 (rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime,nsdelegate)
cgroup on /sys/fs/cgroup/systemd type cgroup (rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime,xattr,name=systemd)
pstore on /sys/fs/pstore type pstore (rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime)
bpf on /sys/fs/bpf type bpf (rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime,mode=700)
cgroup on /sys/fs/cgroup/rdma type cgroup (rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime,rdma)
cgroup on /sys/fs/cgroup/net_cls,net_prio type cgroup (rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime,net_cls,net_prio)
cgroup on /sys/fs/cgroup/freezer type cgroup (rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime,freezer)
cgroup on /sys/fs/cgroup/blkio type cgroup (rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime,blkio)
cgroup on /sys/fs/cgroup/memory type cgroup (rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime,memory)
cgroup on /sys/fs/cgroup/cpu,cpuacct type cgroup (rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime,cpu,cpuacct)
cgroup on /sys/fs/cgroup/hugetlb type cgroup (rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime,hugetlb)
cgroup on /sys/fs/cgroup/pids type cgroup (rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime,pids)
cgroup on /sys/fs/cgroup/perf_event type cgroup (rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime,perf_event)
cgroup on /sys/fs/cgroup/devices type cgroup (rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime,devices)
cgroup on /sys/fs/cgroup/cpuset type cgroup (rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime,cpuset)
systemd-1 on /proc/sys/fs/binfmt_misc type autofs (rw,relatime,fd=29,pgrp=1,timeout=0,minproto=5,maxproto=5,direct,pipe_ino=12779)
debugfs on /sys/kernel/debug type debugfs (rw,relatime)
hugetlbfs on /dev/hugepages type hugetlbfs (rw,relatime,pagesize=2M)
tmpfs on /tmp type tmpfs (rw,nosuid,nodev)
mqueue on /dev/mqueue type mqueue (rw,relatime)
configfs on /sys/kernel/config type configfs (rw,relatime)
tmpfs on /run/user/0 type tmpfs (rw,nosuid,nodev,relatime,size=390140k,mode=700)

Last edited by bitfreak (2018-05-11 10:14:49)

seth

Member

Registered: 2012-09-03

Posts: 51,253

Re: [solved] start of lightdm fails with a blinking screen

# LC_ALL=C stat /
  File: /
  Size: 4096      	Blocks: 8          IO Block: 4096   directory
Device: 804h/2052d	Inode: 2           Links: 18
Access: (0700/drwx------)  Uid: ( 1000/    user)   Gid: ( 1000/ UNKNOWN)

How, the fuck, did that happen?

Also on the fresh system we should try

sudo -u lightdm touch /var/lib/lightdm/.Xauthority

But the misowned/permitted root filesystem looks like some giant fuck-up that could have random other implications.
Such usually happens by some recursive chmod or chmod as exec parameter to find or whatever - but it doesn't "just happen".

---

How to upload text · How to boot w/o GUI · Disable Windows Fast-Start! · Fix your xinitrc

bitfreak

Member

Registered: 2018-05-02

Posts: 15

Re: [solved] start of lightdm fails with a blinking screen

# LC_ALL=C stat /
  File: /
  Size: 4096      	Blocks: 8          IO Block: 4096   directory
Device: 804h/2052d	Inode: 2           Links: 18
Access: (0700/drwx------)  Uid: ( 1000/    user)   Gid: ( 1000/ UNKNOWN)

How, the fuck, did that happen?

The short answer:
gnome-disk-utility 3.28.1

The long answer:
I've used gnome-disk-utility on Debian to format /dev/sda4 as ext4. When mounting "mount /dev/sda4 /mnt" and calling "stat /mnt" I've got the above output.

When I use gparted on Debian to format /dev/sda4 as ext4, I've got the following output for "stat /mnt" (I think this should now be correct):

  File: /mnt
  Size: 4096      	Blocks: 8          IO Block: 4096   directory
Device: 804h/2052d	Inode: 2           Links: 3
Access: (0755/drwxr-xr-x)  Uid: (    0/    root)   Gid: (    0/    root)
Access: 2018-05-11 16:00:31.000000000 +0000
Modify: 2018-05-11 16:09:09.806797550 +0000
Change: 2018-05-11 16:09:09.806797550 +0000
 Birth: -

So now I will reinstall Arch Linux with this and check if it works (I hope so).

Update: This was the solution! Now I can start lightdm correctly.

Last edited by bitfreak (2018-05-11 16:46:48)