(Partially solved) Lightdm not working right in Excalibur

greenjeans · 2025-03-11 16:01:42

So yeah, I know the fact that it's still testing is likely to be the issue and may not be quite fixable, but taking a shot here. It's only a few days before the first soft freeze now, so testing season is almost upon us and I wanted to whip up a test iso to get ahead of it.

Procedure for reference:

Clean install of the Devuan-mate-mini I did not long ago, just vanilla Devuan with Mate desktop.

Updates, a dozen or so, new kernel, install, reboot.

Install usrmerge. Reboot.

Change sources.list to Excalibur, open Synaptic and reload, mark all upgrades, apply.

Check lightdm.conf to make sure it's set to autologin user. When done, reboot.

Upon reboot into the new kernel/system, instead of desktop, it throws me into console tty1, username/password and startx gets me into desktop no problem. But rebooting or just trying to logout user, throws me back into console, no lightdm graphical interface at all.

Watching boot sequence, it clearly says "starting lightdm" every time. Once i'm in after using startx, services --status-all shows that lightdm is indeed there and enabled and running.

Any ideas where to start trying to troubleshoot this one?

ETA: Other than that, everything seems to be working fine, even seems a little snappier to me, kinda mind-blowing because it replaced literally every package in the old system.

Last edited by greenjeans (2025-03-13 16:47:39)

greenjeans · 2025-03-11 18:41:34

Contents of lightdm.log:

[+0.02s] DEBUG: Logging to /var/log/lightdm/lightdm.log
[+0.02s] DEBUG: Starting Light Display Manager 1.32.0, UID=0 PID=1608
[+0.02s] DEBUG: Loading configuration dirs from /usr/share/lightdm/lightdm.conf.d
[+0.02s] DEBUG: Loading configuration from /usr/share/lightdm/lightdm.conf.d/01_debian.conf
[+0.02s] DEBUG: Loading configuration dirs from /usr/local/share/lightdm/lightdm.conf.d
[+0.02s] DEBUG: Loading configuration dirs from /etc/xdg/lightdm/lightdm.conf.d
[+0.02s] DEBUG: Loading configuration from /etc/lightdm/lightdm.conf
[+0.02s] DEBUG: Registered seat module local
[+0.02s] DEBUG: Registered seat module xremote
[+0.02s] DEBUG: Using D-Bus name org.freedesktop.DisplayManager
[+0.55s] DEBUG: _g_io_module_get_default: Found default implementation local (GLocalVfs) for ‘gio-vfs’
[+0.56s] DEBUG: Monitoring logind for seats
[+0.56s] DEBUG: Acquired bus name org.freedesktop.DisplayManager
[+0.56s] DEBUG: Could not run plymouth --ping: Failed to execute child process “plymouth” (No such file or directory)
[+2.12s] DEBUG: Loading users from org.freedesktop.Accounts
[+2.12s] DEBUG: User /org/freedesktop/Accounts/User1000 added
[+146.72s] DEBUG: Seat seat0 changes active session to 1
[+2833.11s] DEBUG: Seat seat0 changes active session to 
[+2833.39s] DEBUG: Got signal 15 from process 4930
[+2833.39s] DEBUG: Caught Terminated signal, shutting down
[+2833.39s] DEBUG: Stopping display manager
[+2833.39s] DEBUG: Display manager stopped
[+2833.39s] DEBUG: Stopping daemon
[+2833.40s] DEBUG: Exiting with return value 0

fsmithred · 2025-03-11 18:58:46

Yeah, I have half an idea of where to start looking. This looks like it's at least partly related to this one:
https://dev1galaxy.org/viewtopic.php?id=7106

Do you have the sysvinit dummy package installed, or just sysvinit-core and sysvinit-utils? I'm guessing you don't have it, or you wouldn't get to tty1. Try adding or removing the dummy and see if it helps or breaks it worse. And/or remove lightdm, log in at tty1 and see if the live-config xinit script takes over and loads the desktop like it does here.

Edited to correct typos: *sysvinit* not syslinux.

Last edited by fsmithred (2025-03-12 09:50:03)

rolfie · 2025-03-11 20:31:42

Well, I have got two VBox VMs running Excalibur, based on Daedalus netinstalls and upgraded, one running LightDM and Mate, one Cinnamon, both on sysvinit, efi, encrypted, no Autologin. Can't tell when I set them, about summer last year? Both work fine so far. Looked at the syslinux packages in both VM's, none of them is installed.

I would first try with normal login.

greenjeans · 2025-03-12 02:58:14

No syslinux dummy package, just syslinux and syslinux-common, no dummy syslinux package listed in the repo. Just have what I had before the upgrade.

To be clear i'm talking about the installed system, not a live-iso, haven't tried to snapshot one yet due to this issue.

Have tried multiple recommended fixes from searches i've done but no luck yet. Hope to get this figured out, it's so far the only real bug in this mini-system, everything else seems to be working really well.

fsmithred · 2025-03-12 09:52:48

Thanks for the clarification. I was thinking you had this problem in the live-iso, which is where I'm having the problem.

Also, I meant "sysvinit" not "syslinux". I edited my post above to correct that mistake.

sysvinit is the dummy transitional package. You'll get to deal with that when you make the live-iso.

greenjeans · 2025-03-12 16:56:00

Okay so I looked and I did have the basic sysvinit package (transitional) installed alongside the other two, uninstalled it and no change sadly.

Looking for differences here, so am posting the lightdm.log from a working daedalus system, you can see the differences up near the top starting after "monitoring logind for seats", in the daedalus install it finds one and adds it, in the excalibur log it's failing to find a seat.

[+0.07s] DEBUG: Logging to /var/log/lightdm/lightdm.log
[+0.07s] DEBUG: Starting Light Display Manager 1.26.0, UID=0 PID=1230
[+0.07s] DEBUG: Loading configuration dirs from /usr/share/lightdm/lightdm.conf.d
[+0.07s] DEBUG: Loading configuration from /usr/share/lightdm/lightdm.conf.d/01_debian.conf
[+0.07s] DEBUG: Loading configuration dirs from /usr/local/share/lightdm/lightdm.conf.d
[+0.07s] DEBUG: Loading configuration dirs from /etc/xdg/lightdm/lightdm.conf.d
[+0.07s] DEBUG: Loading configuration from /etc/lightdm/lightdm.conf
[+0.07s] DEBUG: Registered seat module local
[+0.07s] DEBUG: Registered seat module xremote
[+0.07s] DEBUG: Registered seat module unity
[+0.07s] DEBUG: Using D-Bus name org.freedesktop.DisplayManager
[+0.30s] DEBUG: Using cross-namespace EXTERNAL authentication (this will deadlock if server is GDBus < 2.73.3)
[+0.70s] DEBUG: _g_io_module_get_default: Found default implementation local (GLocalVfs) for ‘gio-vfs’
[+0.71s] DEBUG: Monitoring logind for seats
[+0.71s] DEBUG: New seat added from logind: seat0
[+0.71s] DEBUG: Seat seat0: Loading properties from config section Seat:*
[+0.71s] DEBUG: Seat seat0 has property CanMultiSession=no
[+0.71s] DEBUG: Seat seat0: Starting
[+0.71s] DEBUG: Seat seat0: Creating user session
[+2.70s] DEBUG: Loading users from org.freedesktop.Accounts
[+2.70s] DEBUG: User /org/freedesktop/Accounts/User1000 added
[+2.97s] DEBUG: Seat seat0: Creating display server of type x
[+2.97s] DEBUG: Could not run plymouth --ping: Failed to execute child process “plymouth” (No such file or directory)
[+2.97s] DEBUG: Using VT 7
[+2.97s] DEBUG: Seat seat0: Starting local X display on VT 7
[+2.97s] DEBUG: XServer 0: Logging to /var/log/lightdm/x-0.log
[+2.97s] DEBUG: XServer 0: Writing X server authority to /var/run/lightdm/root/:0
[+2.97s] DEBUG: XServer 0: Launching X Server
[+2.97s] DEBUG: Launching process 1328: /usr/bin/X :0 -seat seat0 -auth /var/run/lightdm/root/:0 -nolisten tcp vt7 -novtswitch
[+2.97s] DEBUG: XServer 0: Waiting for ready signal from X server :0
[+2.97s] DEBUG: Acquired bus name org.freedesktop.DisplayManager
[+2.97s] DEBUG: Registering seat with bus path /org/freedesktop/DisplayManager/Seat0
[+12.26s] DEBUG: Got signal 10 from process 1328
[+12.26s] DEBUG: XServer 0: Got signal from X server :0
[+12.26s] DEBUG: XServer 0: Connecting to XServer :0
[+12.27s] DEBUG: Seat seat0: Display server ready, starting session authentication
[+12.27s] DEBUG: Session pid=1425: Started with service 'lightdm-autologin', username 'vuudo'
[+12.53s] DEBUG: Session pid=1425: Authentication complete with return value 0: Success
[+12.53s] DEBUG: Seat seat0: Session authenticated, running command
[+12.53s] DEBUG: Registering session with bus path /org/freedesktop/DisplayManager/Session0
[+12.53s] DEBUG: Session pid=1425: Running command /etc/X11/Xsession default
[+12.54s] DEBUG: Creating shared data directory /var/lib/lightdm/data/vuudo
[+12.54s] DEBUG: Session pid=1425: Logging to .xsession-errors
[+12.63s] DEBUG: Activating VT 7
[+12.63s] DEBUG: Activating login1 session 1
[+12.63s] DEBUG: Seat seat0 changes active session to 1
[+12.63s] DEBUG: Session 1 is already active
[+247.60s] DEBUG: Got signal 15 from process 2260
[+247.60s] DEBUG: Caught Terminated signal, shutting down
[+247.60s] DEBUG: Stopping display manager
[+247.60s] DEBUG: Seat seat0: Stopping
[+247.60s] DEBUG: Seat seat0: Stopping display server
[+247.60s] DEBUG: Sending signal 15 to process 1328
[+247.60s] DEBUG: Seat seat0: Stopping session
[+247.60s] DEBUG: Terminating login1 session 1

fsmithred · 2025-03-13 01:34:56

The problem might be with seatd. I'm getting seatd errors in Xorg.O.log when the screen goes blank and becomes unresponsive. This is happening in excalibur installed in a VM, not a live-iso. I'm using startx. No display manager or screen saver or power manager or elogind. Here's a short sample.

[ 10109.368] (II) seatd_libseat try close /dev/input/event3 (4:25)
[ 10109.368] (EE) [libseat/backend/seatd.c:122] Could not flush connection: Broken pipe
[ 10109.368] (EE) seatd_libseat close failed -32
[ 10109.368] (**) Option "fd" "25"
[ 10109.369] (II) seatd_libseat try close /dev/input/event2 (5:26)
[ 10109.369] (EE) seatd_libseat close failed -107

greenjeans · 2025-03-13 16:46:45

Well I got it running, i'd say "fixed" but it's not really. After many other attempts I finally went in and installed firmware for my machine.
firmware-amd-graphics and amd-microcode and everything started working.

But with this iso I have tried to keep everything OEM Devuan as much as possible i.e. not adding extra firmware etc., and on the previous (daedalus) version I had some visual artifacts and funkiness, but it worked without the extra packages.

So now i'm wondering if people with Nvidia or Intel graphics might have the same issue? Again, this is early in the testing process and first freeze does not happen until Saturday according to what i've read.

There are some errors noted during the boot process too, there's a new alsa_restore error, but I had previously found why and it's fixable if I can find my notes on it, the usual wdat_wdt error which is also easy to get past by blacklisting it. But there is a 24 second delay during boot right after "waiting for dev to be populated" that I didn't have before.

So i'll mark this partially solved, and try to run an iso tonight and post later if anyone else would like to test.

fsmithred · 2025-03-13 16:57:30

I want to add that you showed me your Xorg log and there were no errors related to seatd. Just the missing firmware stuff.

FYI - intel graphics work without additional firmware. The microcode packages are for cpu patches, so you might want to add the intel microcode just to be "hardware-neutral" for lack of a better term.

greenjeans · 2025-03-14 01:40:57

Well dang, didn't think to add the Intel microcode and didn't check here until the snapshot was already started. Well it's easy enough to add stuff in live-session I guess. Hopefully Nvidia cards don't have the issue I had. Testing iso up now, when you get a chance check it out and let me know what needs to change or improve on the next run or if I should even do more runs.

The officially official Devuan Forum!

#1 2025-03-11 16:01:42

(Partially solved) Lightdm not working right in Excalibur

#2 2025-03-11 18:41:34

Re: (Partially solved) Lightdm not working right in Excalibur

#3 2025-03-11 18:58:46

Re: (Partially solved) Lightdm not working right in Excalibur

#4 2025-03-11 20:31:42

Re: (Partially solved) Lightdm not working right in Excalibur

#5 2025-03-12 02:58:14

Re: (Partially solved) Lightdm not working right in Excalibur

#6 2025-03-12 09:52:48

Re: (Partially solved) Lightdm not working right in Excalibur

#7 2025-03-12 16:56:00

Re: (Partially solved) Lightdm not working right in Excalibur

#8 2025-03-13 01:34:56

Re: (Partially solved) Lightdm not working right in Excalibur

#9 2025-03-13 16:46:45

Re: (Partially solved) Lightdm not working right in Excalibur

#10 2025-03-13 16:57:30

Re: (Partially solved) Lightdm not working right in Excalibur

#11 2025-03-14 01:40:57

Re: (Partially solved) Lightdm not working right in Excalibur

Board footer