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afrostmage

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Registered: 2024-09-05

Posts: 23

[SOLVED] tty2 stuck on sddm login screen

Kind of a minor annoyance really, but tty2 is stuck on a non-interactive sddm login screen, where I appear to have entered my password before it hung. I'm not entirely sure how I caused this to happen as it was a while ago and I was just ignoring it for the most part. Interestingly it appears to be an X11 session (I just get the feeling from how the mouse cursor moves). I'm also suspecting nvidia shenanigans.

Anyhow, is there a way to reset it to the normal tty login screen?   

I've tried

 systemctl stop getty@tty2.service 

 /sbin/agetty -8 38400 vc/2 linux  # got this from an ancient post xd  

but it didn't seem to do anything.

My main session is on tty1 and tty3-6 are fine.

Last edited by afrostmage (2025-03-23 15:39:48)

seth

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Registered: 2012-09-03

Posts: 75,332

Re: [SOLVED] tty2 stuck on sddm login screen

SDDM defaults to X11, what kind of session do you start from there?
https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/SDDM#Wayland

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afrostmage

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Registered: 2024-09-05

Posts: 23

Re: [SOLVED] tty2 stuck on sddm login screen

I use plasma on Wayland.

seth

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Registered: 2012-09-03

Posts: 75,332

Re: [SOLVED] tty2 stuck on sddm login screen

See what happens for plasma/X11 resp. SDDM/wayland (ie. align the display servers either direction)

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afrostmage

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Registered: 2024-09-05

Posts: 23

Re: [SOLVED] tty2 stuck on sddm login screen

I tried the systemctl stop command again and now it's just a black screen with the new plasma "x" cursor. lol

afrostmage

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Registered: 2024-09-05

Posts: 23

Re: [SOLVED] tty2 stuck on sddm login screen

See what happens for plasma/X11 resp. SDDM/wayland (ie. align the display servers either direction)

I'm sorry if I misunderstood, but I can login into an X11 session without problem.

seth

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Registered: 2012-09-03

Posts: 75,332

Re: [SOLVED] tty2 stuck on sddm login screen

Just to be clear, plasma on wayland doesn't start at all or it starts but switching to TTY shows the froezn SDDM?

So if running DM and DE on X11 works, what about running both on wayland?

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afrostmage

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Registered: 2024-09-05

Posts: 23

Re: [SOLVED] tty2 stuck on sddm login screen

Just to be clear, plasma on wayland doesn't start at all or it starts but switching to TTY shows the froezn SDDM?

So if running DM and DE on X11 works, what about running both on wayland?

Plasma on wayland starts. Switching to tty2 used to show a frozen sddm, but after running the command again it's now just a black screen with a cursor.  I can login with any other tty, it's just tty2 that has an issue.

seth

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From: Won't reply 2 private help req

Registered: 2012-09-03

Posts: 75,332

Re: [SOLVED] tty2 stuck on sddm login screen

what about running both on wayland?

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afrostmage

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Registered: 2024-09-05

Posts: 23

Re: [SOLVED] tty2 stuck on sddm login screen

what about running both on wayland?

I'm starting sddm with wayland now and after reboot it defaults to tty2. tty1 is now just a blinking cursor with no interaction. I'm very confused.

seth

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From: Won't reply 2 private help req

Registered: 2012-09-03

Posts: 75,332

Re: [SOLVED] tty2 stuck on sddm login screen

w/ the original situation it stands to reason that you've been starting SDDM on TTY2 all along, for whatever reason.
MinimumVT seems ignored these days, https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/SDDM#S … ad_of_tty7
But I assume some other process is blocking TTY1? At least during the startup?

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afrostmage

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Registered: 2024-09-05

Posts: 23

Re: [SOLVED] tty2 stuck on sddm login screen

I tried rebooting again then switching to tty1 before I logged in,  and it worked? but then when I switched to tty2 and back to tty1, its now back to a black screen with a blinking cursor. Could this issue be with plasma somehow? Also, when I switched to tty7 I got back to the DE that I logged into with tty1?

Last edited by afrostmage (2025-03-22 17:04:25)

seth

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Registered: 2012-09-03

Posts: 75,332

Re: [SOLVED] tty2 stuck on sddm login screen

Instead of switching TTYs (which might show you stale framebuffers) what's the output of "ps aux | grep tty"?

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afrostmage

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Registered: 2024-09-05

Posts: 23

Re: [SOLVED] tty2 stuck on sddm login screen

 ps aux | grep tty 

outputs

 
user       855  1.4  0.1 229116 43896 tty2     Ssl+ 04:00   0:00 /usr/bin/startplasma-wayland
user      2210 20.8  0.4 2779500 156572 ?      Ssl  04:01   0:00 /usr/bin/ghostty
user      2264  0.0  0.0   6600  4064 pts/1    S+   04:01   0:00 grep --color=auto tty 

seth

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Re: [SOLVED] tty2 stuck on sddm login screen

So plasma runs on tty2 and nothing runs on tty1 (it was probably used by sddm resp. its greeter but stopped)
I assume when you logout you'll find some sddm-related process on tty1 which is why nothing else must spawn there?

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cfr

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From: Cymru

Registered: 2011-11-27

Posts: 7,171

Re: [SOLVED] tty2 stuck on sddm login screen

This is actually how SDDM always behaves and always has behaved on my machine, ever since the VT specification stopped working. TTY1 shows the boot process with a blinking cursor. On shutdown, the system reverts to this and the process there continues or another process takes over. SDDM is always on TTY2. TTYs 3-6 are console. TTY7 no longer exists.

I assumed this was normal behaviour ....

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afrostmage

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Registered: 2024-09-05

Posts: 23

Re: [SOLVED] tty2 stuck on sddm login screen

So plasma runs on tty2 and nothing runs on tty1 (it was probably used by sddm resp. its greeter but stopped)
I assume when you logout you'll find some sddm-related process on tty1 which is why nothing else must spawn there?

After logging out to the sddm greeter it appears I'm back to tty1. I switched to tty2 and ran

ps aux | grep sddm

which outputted

root         586  0.0  0.0 155876 29112 ?        Ssl  17:33   0:00 /usr/bin/sddm
root        4726  0.0  0.0  76112 28736 ?        S    17:56   0:00 /usr/lib/sddm/sddm-helper --socket /tmp/sddm-auth-3367cc10-a65a-457f-8e98-e2223516edbb --id 4 --start /usr/bin/sddm-greeter-qt6 --socket /tmp/sddm--ZTXtLo --theme /usr/share/sddm/themes/Andromeda-plasma-6 --user sddm --display-server kwin_wayland --drm --no-lockscreen --no-global-shortcuts --locale1 --greeter
sddm        4731  0.1  0.0  20248 11720 ?        Ss   17:56   0:00 /usr/lib/systemd/systemd --user
sddm        4733  0.0  0.0  22496  3864 ?        S    17:56   0:00 (sd-pam)
sddm        4743  0.0  0.0  57952 17184 tty1     Ss+  17:56   0:00 /usr/lib/sddm/sddm-helper-start-wayland kwin_wayland --drm --no-lockscreen --no-global-shortcuts --locale1 /usr/bin/sddm-greeter-qt6 --socket /tmp/sddm--ZTXtLo --theme /usr/share/sddm/themes/Andromeda-plasma-6
sddm        4746  1.0  1.0 1569200 339652 tty1   Sl+  17:56   0:01 /usr/bin/kwin_wayland --drm --no-lockscreen --no-global-shortcuts --locale1
sddm        4749  0.8  1.3 2413824 444144 tty1   Sl+  17:56   0:01 /usr/bin/sddm-greeter-qt6 --socket /tmp/sddm--ZTXtLo --theme /usr/share/sddm/themes/Andromeda-plasma-6
sddm        4750  0.0  0.0   8008  3684 ?        Ss   17:56   0:00 /usr/bin/dbus-broker-launch --scope user
sddm        4751  0.0  0.0   4272  2560 ?        S    17:56   0:00 dbus-broker --log 4 --controller 10 --machine-id 15a2e22f4a484d5d84876a6252f45baf --max-bytes 100000000000000 --max-fds 25000000000000 --max-matches 5000000000
sddm        4776  0.0  0.0 100136 11840 ?        S<sl 17:56   0:00 /usr/bin/pipewire
sddm        4777  0.5  0.0 477736 20924 ?        S<sl 17:56   0:00 /usr/bin/wireplumber
sddm        4829  0.0  0.0 305948  7428 ?        Ssl  17:56   0:00 /usr/lib/xdg-permission-store
user      5091  0.0  0.0   6468  3972 tty2     S+   17:58   0:00 grep --color=auto sddm

So I think you were right?

This is actually how SDDM always behaves and always has behaved on my machine, ever since the VT specification stopped working. TTY1 shows the boot process with a blinking cursor. On shutdown, the system reverts to this and the process there continues or another process takes over. SDDM is always on TTY2. TTYs 3-6 are console. TTY7 no longer exists.

I assumed this was normal behaviour ....

Thank you for confirming! at least I don't have to worry that I accidentally messed something up

seth

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From: Won't reply 2 private help req

Registered: 2012-09-03

Posts: 75,332

Re: [SOLVED] tty2 stuck on sddm login screen

iirc SDDM/X11 would re-use X11 server (and TTY) w/ X11 session, so that's maybe the cause of some confusion.

Please always remember to mark resolved threads by editing your initial posts subject - so others will know that there's no task left, but maybe a solution to find.
Thanks.

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afrostmage

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Registered: 2024-09-05

Posts: 23

Re: [SOLVED] tty2 stuck on sddm login screen

Done! Thank you so much for your help with this.

tekstryder

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Registered: 2013-02-14

Posts: 518

Re: [SOLVED] tty2 stuck on sddm login screen

TTY1 shows the boot process with a blinking cursor. On shutdown, the system reverts to this and the process there continues or another process takes over. SDDM is always on TTY2. TTYs 3-6 are console. TTY7 no longer exists.

FTR, this is how it all works with GDM as well. For a long while now.