[SOLVED] Cosmic greeter not starting

Strider · 2025-05-15 19:44:50

As described in the Wiki I stopped my current display manager (systemctl stop lightdm) and then tried to start the cosmic-greeter (systemctl start cosmic-greeter).
This however hangs and I get the following message :

config: Config { file: ConfigFile { terminal: ConfigTerminal { vt: Specific(1), switch: true }, general: ConfigGeneral { source_profile: true, runfile: "/run/greetd.run", service: "login" }, default_session: ConfigSession { command: "cosmic-comp systemd-cat -t cosmic-greeter cosmic-greeter", user: "cosmic-greeter", service: "greetd-greeter" }, initial_session: None }, internal: ConfigInternal { session_worker: 0 } }
config: Config { file: ConfigFile { terminal: ConfigTerminal { vt: None, switch: false }, general: ConfigGeneral { source_profile: true, runfile: "/run/greetd.run", service: "greetd" }, default_session: ConfigSession { command: "", user: "", service: "" }, initial_session: None }, internal: ConfigInternal { session_worker: 11 } }
error: authentication error: pam_acct_mgmt: AUTHINFO_UNAVAIL
unable to start greeter: session start failed: authentication error: pam_acct_mgmt: AUTHINFO_UNAVAIL

What I can deduce from this message is that there is a problem with PAM. However reading through various posts on github this was a problem in the past but should have solved in the release 7.1 of cosmic I installed from the extra repo (note that I used the git version of chaotic aur also before but the problem there was the same).
I already checked in the /etc/pam.d directory but could not find anything strange ...

Last edited by Strider (2025-05-16 16:30:55)

seth · 2025-05-15 21:03:12

https://man.archlinux.org/man/pam_authenticate.3
https://man.archlinux.org/man/pam_acct_mgmt.3
https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Greetd … figuration

id greeter  cosmic-greeter

mackin_cheese · 2025-05-16 03:34:26

You got to read up on systemd units. you should be disabling (not just stopping) lightdm and enabling (not just starting) cosmic-greeter

Strider · 2025-05-16 04:49:24

mackin_cheese wrote:

You got to read up on systemd units. you should be disabling (not just stopping) lightdm and enabling (not just starting) cosmic-greeter

I did it both ways: start/stop and disable/enable : same result

seth · 2025-05-16 05:36:23

Leaving aside that stopping and starting services for transient tests is perfectly fine (well, unless the first service leaves the system in an undefined state and you need to reboot to clear that), it's also irrelevant to the pam situation.
Do you have those users in your system?

Strider · 2025-05-16 07:18:19

seth wrote:

Leaving aside that stopping and starting services for transient tests is perfectly fine (well, unless the first service leaves the system in an undefined state and you need to reboot to clear that), it's also irrelevant to the pam situation.
Do you have those users in your system?

Indeed that was my understanding too (and using start/stop is easier since you do not have to reboot).

Both users are defined, if I run the id command on both users I get :

uid=974(greeter) gid=974(greeter) groups=974(greeter),91(video)
uid=976(cosmic-greeter) gid=976(cosmic-greeter) groups=976(cosmic-greeter),91(video)

Last edited by Strider (2025-05-16 07:18:40)

seth · 2025-05-16 07:25:43

cat /usr/lib/systemd/system/cosmic-greeter-daemon.service /usr/lib/systemd/system/cosmic-greeter.service

Might be some service hardening is preventing the access - also idk how this works, but do you have to start the cosmic-greeter-daemon.service or the cosmic-greeter.service - or both?
And is greetd already running? (Since typically greetd starts the configured greeter)

Strider · 2025-05-16 11:53:28

I tried to just start greetd :

Config: Config { file: ConfigFile { terminal: ConfigTerminal { vt: Specific(1), switch: true }, general: ConfigGeneral { source_profile: true, runfile: "/run/greetd.run", service: "greetd" }, default_session: ConfigSession { command: "agreety --cmd /bin/sh", user: "greeter", service: "greetd-greeter" }, initial_session: None }, internal: ConfigInternal { session_worker: 0 } }
config: Config { file: ConfigFile { terminal: ConfigTerminal { vt: None, switch: false }, general: ConfigGeneral { source_profile: true, runfile: "/run/greetd.run", service: "greetd" }, default_session: ConfigSession { command: "", user: "", service: "" }, initial_session: None }, internal: ConfigInternal { session_worker: 11 } }
error: authentication error: pam_acct_mgmt: AUTHINFO_UNAVAIL
unable to start greeter: session start failed: authentication error: pam_acct_mgmt: AUTHINFO_UNAVAIL

Output from cat /etc/pam.d/greetd :

#%PAM-1.0
auth required pam_securetty.so
auth requisite pam_nologin.so
auth include system-local-login
account include system-local-login
session include system-local-login

Strider · 2025-05-16 16:33:36

I found out what was wrong.
A while ago I had a problem with a corrupt /etc/passwd file and had to recreate the passwords for the root and my own account.
Apparently this impacted also the greeter and cosmic-greeter account (hence the problems with PAM for these users). I deleted both users and reinstalled greetd (which than recreated these users). And now everything works fine.
Thanks for the assistance anyway.

Last edited by Strider (2025-05-16 16:34:31)

Arch Linux

#1 2025-05-15 19:44:50

[SOLVED] Cosmic greeter not starting

#2 2025-05-15 21:03:12

Re: [SOLVED] Cosmic greeter not starting

#3 2025-05-16 03:34:26

Re: [SOLVED] Cosmic greeter not starting

#4 2025-05-16 04:49:24

Re: [SOLVED] Cosmic greeter not starting

#5 2025-05-16 05:36:23

Re: [SOLVED] Cosmic greeter not starting

#6 2025-05-16 07:18:19

Re: [SOLVED] Cosmic greeter not starting

#7 2025-05-16 07:25:43

Re: [SOLVED] Cosmic greeter not starting

#8 2025-05-16 11:53:28

Re: [SOLVED] Cosmic greeter not starting

#9 2025-05-16 16:33:36

Re: [SOLVED] Cosmic greeter not starting

Board footer