Arch Linux

hoppyhopps

Member

Registered: 2024-08-03

Posts: 12

Various SDDM Issues, not starting session - HP OMEN 17-db1004nr

Hello,

I have recently bought an HP OMEN 17-db1004nr laptop, and installed Arch Linux on it.

All would be good, except for some reason SDDM will not display any image at all if I allow it to load with Xorg. Additionally, it seems to be completely frozen, and will accept no user input blindly. Setting it to use Wayland displays an image just fine, but logging in will not start a session.

Curiously, startplasma-wayland works without a problem when ran from a tty.

I have ensured that my AMD iGPU's drivers are installed, and I have ensured that the discrete GPU's drivers are installed, and there seems to be no issues with them.

I am at a bit of a loss, but if the end result is "Simply login through a tty" I suppose that's fine, though I'd like for my partner to feel comfortable using the laptop as well, and I doubt a tty + a startplasma command would be her idea of a good time.

Thank you in advance, if there is any other information I can provide, please let me know!

skirmish

Member

Registered: 2018-02-28

Posts: 10

Re: Various SDDM Issues, not starting session - HP OMEN 17-db1004nr

Not sure if this is what happening here but I had a similar problem when I used KDE preferences and changed the SDDM theme.  Then I would get a black screen on each reboot.

The solution was to boot in text mode and manually edit configuration files to revert SDDM back to its default Breeze theme.  Apparently, only Breeze works, all other themes cause a black screen.

If you didn't change the SDDM theme then it must be something else.

Last edited by skirmish (2026-02-08 02:53:51)

seth

Member

From: Don't DM me only for attention

Registered: 2012-09-03

Posts: 72,859

Re: Various SDDM Issues, not starting session - HP OMEN 17-db1004nr

@skirmish, there're some qt5 themes around that will require you to install the Qt5 QML/quick packages

@hoppyhopps
https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php … 8#p2256418
Since ~6 months there're a lot of reports about startup race conditions, mostly lightdm and sddm and on hybrid graphics systems - try to slightly delay the SDDM start.
You can also try to just boot the multi-user.target (2nd link below) and start sddm from there.

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hoppyhopps

Member

Registered: 2024-08-03

Posts: 12

Re: Various SDDM Issues, not starting session - HP OMEN 17-db1004nr

seth, thank you very much.  I will take a look at both of the provided links. Appreciate your insight.

Skirmish, I am unsure. I've more or less always used breeze dark for both plasma itself and SDDM so I am inclined to believe it's something related to the forum post that seth sent.  Thank you!