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tyder

Member

From: Oslo, Norway

Registered: 2016-12-19

Posts: 23  

Re: Display problems with 6.1.1 live

This problem may be solved. And it may seem a bit embarrassing.
Here is the current cmdline

root@devuan:~# cat /proc/cmdline
boot=live config quiet splash initrd=(hd0,1)/boot/dev611/initrd.img  bootfrom=/dev/sda3 live-media-path=dev611/live0 persistence persistence-path=dev611s/pers0 keyboard-layouts=no noautologin 

The only 'failsafe' directive left is noautologin. Because, it seems, the default user is not created. Without any user to serve, the display does not come up.
I should have suspected this yesterday, when only root login was accepted. But I couldn't believe it was that simple.
With the default user in place, I would guess this will work out of the box ;-)

fsmithred

Administrator

Registered: 2016-11-25

Posts: 2,857  

Re: Display problems with 6.1.1 live

The default user already exists in devuan live isos. In debian live isos, the default user is created during boot if the option 'config' is included in the command line. I think if you remove that, you'll have the default user again.

dzz

Member

From: Exmouth, South West England

Registered: 2016-12-01

Posts: 104  

Re: Display problems with 6.1.1 live

the default user is not created. Without any user to serve, the display does not come up

But the cmdline you posted does not contain 'username=devuan' ..

Therefore live-config script /lib/live/config/0130-slim was not told to autologin the already system-configured user 'devuan'!

This is verifiable. Boot without 'username=devuan' and with 'sysv-rc=slim' (disable slim, show a shell login prompt) Autologin is then irrelevant.

cat /etc/slim.conf | less

shows that 'default user' set to 'user' (debian-live standard default) and autologin is set to 'default user'. There is no user 'user' on this system.

Last edited by dzz (Yesterday 20:54:52)

tyder

Member

From: Oslo, Norway

Registered: 2016-12-19

Posts: 23  

Re: Display problems with 6.1.1 live

The default user already exists in devuan live isos. In debian live isos, the default user is created during boot if the option 'config' is included in the command line. I think if you remove that, you'll have the default user again.

The user 'devuan' is not what the Debian live build procedures expect. I just created the default Debian user  'user'  in my PMI install. Works fine. With autologin: User 'user' is logged in.
But I think it may be quite good practice to disable autologin. I just activated it to demonstrate that the problem is there.

tyder

Member

From: Oslo, Norway

Registered: 2016-12-19

Posts: 23  

Re: Display problems with 6.1.1 live

Small update: This is really hard-coded on Debian's part. Even with noautologin, user 'user' is automatically logged in when it exists! ;-)

fsmithred

Administrator

Registered: 2016-11-25

Posts: 2,857  

Re: Display problems with 6.1.1 live

See 'man live-build' and 'man live-config' for details about the options for the live system.

tyder

Member

From: Oslo, Norway

Registered: 2016-12-19

Posts: 23  

Re: Display problems with 6.1.1 live

See 'man live-build' and 'man live-config' for details about the options for the live system.

Sure.
Still, there have been uncovered two bugs here:
1. Lacking noautologin parameter makes live image only run in failsafe mode. Extremely simple to fix.
2. When user 'user' is defined, noautologin does not work, 'user' is logged in. Whatever the Debian live people write in their manuals, this is wrong behavior.
None of these bugs should be left for ordinary users to fix.
But, of course doing nothing about it is also an option.

fsmithred

Administrator

Registered: 2016-11-25

Posts: 2,857  

Re: Display problems with 6.1.1 live

I don't get the same results as you. The noautologin option is working correctly here on two different live-isos.

The devuan desktop-live iso has user 'devuan' pre-defined, and with noautologin, boot stops at the slim login screen.
A refracta live iso has user 'user' pre-defined, and with noautologin, boot stops at the lightdm login screen.

Maybe I should call it a pre-existing user instead. That user already exists and has a home directory inside the squashfs as opposed to being created when the system boots.