Bug#798906: sddm crashes on boot

Carlos Kosloff

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Sep 13, 2015, 7:10:02 PM9/13/15

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Package: sddm
Version: 0.12.0-1
Severity: grave

-- System Information:
Debian Release: stretch/sid
Architecture: amd64 (x86_64)
Foreign Architectures: i386

Kernel: Linux 4.1.0-2-amd64 (SMP w/8 CPU cores)
Locale: LANG=en_US.UTF-8, LC_CTYPE=en_US.UTF-8 (charmap=UTF-8)
Shell: /bin/sh linked to /bin/dash
Init: systemd (via /run/systemd/system)

Versions of packages sddm depends on:
ii adduser                         3.113+nmu3
ii debconf [debconf-2.0]           1.5.57
ii libc6                           2.19-19
ii libgcc1                         1:5.2.1-16
ii libpam0g                        1.1.8-3.1
ii libqt5core5a                    5.4.2+dfsg-9
ii libqt5dbus5                     5.4.2+dfsg-9
ii libqt5gui5                      5.4.2+dfsg-9
ii libqt5network5                  5.4.2+dfsg-9
ii libqt5qml5                      5.4.2-6
ii libqt5quick5                    5.4.2-6
ii libstdc++6                      5.2.1-16
ii libsystemd0                     225-1
ii libxcb-xkb1                     1.10-3+b1
ii libxcb1                         1.10-3+b1
ii qml-module-qtquick2             5.4.2-6
ii sddm-theme-breeze [sddm-theme] 4:5.3.2-4+b1

sddm recommends no packages.

Versions of packages sddm suggests:
pn pam-kwallet5 <none>

-- debconf information:
* shared/default-x-display-manager: sddm
sddm/daemon_name: /usr/bin/sddm

Dear maintainer,

I only removed leftovers of packages that had already been removed by a dist-upgrade.
After that, sddm would not give me a login prompt so I was unable to log into KDE the normal way.
I had to do 'systemctl stop sddm.service', as root.
Then 'startx startkde' as user to access the desktop, this bypassing sddm.
I checked the above mentioned packages and they are installed and the latest version in stretch.
In order to log into desktop the normal way I installed kdm and set is as default.

To help troubleshooting I will attach some traces I collected from error logs.

Sep 12 16:17:01 crosshair CRON[2632]: pam_unix(cron:session): session opened for user root by (uid=0)Sep 12 16:17:01 crosshair CRON[2633]: (root) CMD ( cd / && run-parts --report /etc/cron.hourly)Sep 12 16:17:01 crosshair CRON[2632]: pam_unix(cron:session): session closed for user rootSep 12 16:19:54 crosshair acpid[852]: client 1105[0:0] has disconnectedSep 12 16:19:59 crosshair login[1080]: pam_unix(login:auth): check pass; user unknownSep 12 16:19:59 crosshair login[1080]: pam_unix(login:auth): authentication failure; logname=LOGIN uid=0 euid=0 tty=/dev/tty1 ruser= rhost=Sep 12 16:20:02 crosshair login[1080]: FAILED LOGIN (1) on '/dev/tty1' FOR 'UNKNOWN', Authentication failureSep 12 16:20:12 crosshair login[1080]: pam_unix(login:session): session opened for user ckosloff by LOGIN(uid=0)Sep 12 16:20:12 crosshair systemd[1]: Created slice user-1000.slice.Sep 12 16:20:12 crosshair systemd[1]: Starting User Manager for UID 1000...Sep 12 16:20:12 crosshair systemd-logind[853]: New session 3 of user ckosloff.Sep 12 16:20:12 crosshair systemd[1]: Started Session 3 of user ckosloff.Sep 12 16:20:12 crosshair systemd[2762]: pam_unix(systemd-user:session): session opened for user ckosloff by (uid=0)Sep 12 16:20:12 crosshair systemd[2762]: Reached target Paths.Sep 12 16:20:12 crosshair systemd[2762]: Reached target Sockets.Sep 12 16:20:12 crosshair systemd[2762]: Reached target Timers.Sep 12 16:20:12 crosshair systemd[2762]: Reached target Basic System.Sep 12 16:20:12 crosshair systemd[2762]: Reached target Default.Sep 12 16:20:12 crosshair systemd[2762]: Startup finished in 9ms.Sep 12 16:20:12 crosshair systemd[1]: Started User Manager for UID 1000.Sep 12 16:20:24 crosshair su[2807]: pam_unix(su:auth): authentication failure; logname=ckosloff uid=1000 euid=0 tty=/dev/tty1 ruser=ckosloff rhost= user=rootSep 12 16:20:26 crosshair su[2807]: pam_authenticate: Authentication failureSep 12 16:20:26 crosshair su[2807]: FAILED su for root by ckosloffSep 12 16:20:26 crosshair su[2807]: - /dev/tty1 ckosloff:rootSep 12 16:20:35 crosshair su[2810]: Successful su for root by ckosloffSep 12 16:20:35 crosshair su[2810]: + /dev/tty1 ckosloff:rootSep 12 16:20:35 crosshair su[2810]: pam_unix(su:session): session opened for user root by ckosloff(uid=1000)Sep 12 16:20:35 crosshair su[2810]: pam_systemd(su:session): Cannot create session: Already running in a sessionSep 12 16:20:54 crosshair polkitd(authority=local)[998]: Registered Authentication Agent for unix-process:2817:43654 (system bus name :1.28 [/usr/bin/pkttyagent --notify-fd 5 --fallback], object path /org/freedesktop/PolicyKit1/AuthenticationAgent, locale en_US.UTF-8)Sep 12 16:20:54 crosshair systemd[1]: Stopping Simple Desktop Display Manager...Sep 12 16:20:54 crosshair sddm[1014]: Signal received: SIGTERMSep 12 16:20:54 crosshair sddm-greeter[1646]: The X11 connection broke (error 1). Did the X11 server die?Sep 12 16:20:54 crosshair sddm[1014]: Greeter stopping...Sep 12 16:20:54 crosshair sddm[1014]: Socket server stopping...Sep 12 16:20:54 crosshair sddm[1014]: Socket server stopped.Sep 12 16:20:54 crosshair sddm[1014]: Display server stopping...Sep 12 16:20:54 crosshair sddm[1014]: Display server stopped.Sep 12 16:20:54 crosshair sddm[1014]: Running display stop script "/usr/share/sddm/scripts/Xstop"Sep 12 16:20:54 crosshair sddm[1014]: Greeter stopping...Sep 12 16:20:54 crosshair sddm[1014]: QProcess: Destroyed while process ("/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/sddm/sddm-helper") is still running.Sep 12 16:20:54 crosshair systemd[1]: Stopped Simple Desktop Display Manager.Sep 12 16:20:54 crosshair polkitd(authority=local)[998]: Unregistered Authentication Agent for unix-process:2817:43654 (system bus name :1.28, object path /org/freedesktop/PolicyKit1/AuthenticationAgent, locale en_US.UTF-8) (disconnected from bus)Sep 12 16:20:57 crosshair systemd-logind[853]: Removed session 1.Sep 12 16:20:57 crosshair systemd[1]: Stopping User Manager for UID 122...Sep 12 16:20:57 crosshair systemd[1638]: Stopped target Default.Sep 12 16:20:57 crosshair systemd[1638]: Reached target Shutdown.Sep 12 16:20:57 crosshair systemd[1638]: Stopped target Basic System.Sep 12 16:20:57 crosshair systemd[1638]: Stopped target Paths.Sep 12 16:20:57 crosshair systemd[1638]: Stopped target Sockets.Sep 12 16:20:57 crosshair systemd[1638]: Stopped target Timers.Sep 12 16:20:57 crosshair systemd[1638]: Starting Exit the Session...Sep 12 16:20:57 crosshair systemd[1638]: Received SIGRTMIN+24 from PID 2831 (kill).Sep 12 16:20:57 crosshair systemd[1642]: pam_unix(systemd-user:session): session closed for user sddmSep 12 16:20:57 crosshair systemd[1]: Stopped User Manager for UID 122.Sep 12 16:20:57 crosshair systemd[1]: Removed slice user-122.slice.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
● sddm.service - Simple Desktop Display Manager Loaded: loaded (/lib/systemd/system/sddm.service; enabled; vendor preset: enabled) Active: failed (Result: start-limit) since Sat 2015-09-12 21:52:34 EDT; 12min ago Docs: man:sddm(1) man:sddm.conf(5) Process: 1639 ExecStartPre=/bin/sh -c [ "$(cat /etc/X11/default-display-manager 2>/dev/null)" = "/usr/bin/sddm" ] (code=exited, status=1/FAILURE)

Thank you,

Carlos Kosloff

Carlos Kosloff

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Sep 16, 2015, 11:50:03 PM9/16/15

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I could not completely understand what the maintainer wrote, because:
1.
The failure occurred after I purged leftovers from packages previously
removed by dist-upgrade, not after the dist-upgrade itself.
It did start normally after the dist-upgrade.
2.
There was no other dm installed. I installed kdm after the crash, in
order to get a normal boot.
Anyway, no problem, I will stop kdm from tty1, and attempt to launch
sddm tomorrow.
Will keep you posted, thank you.

On 09/16/2015 07:11 AM, Maximiliano Curia wrote:
> I couldn't reproduce the bug as reported. But since the log showed
> starting sddm from tty1 after an upgrade I tested sddm with a running
> display-manager, it fails in similar ways to the reported error.
> Either having an X on tty7, an non-stopped kdm, lightdm, or any other
> display manager running in tty7 would fail. I think that sddm is
> failing to detect the 'seat' already in use. I'll keep on
> investigating this issue. In the mean time, it would be nice to if you
> could check if stopping a running display manager before starting sddm
> allows sddm to work for you, as this would confirm that we are talking
> about the same issue. Happy hacking,

Carlos Kosloff

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Sep 17, 2015, 10:40:03 AM9/17/15

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Here is additional info.
From terminal as root I stopped kdm.service and started sddm, which failed to start, reports follow.
This is output of 'systemctl status sddm.service'.

● sddm.service - Simple Desktop Display Manager
   Loaded: loaded (/lib/systemd/system/sddm.service; enabled; vendor preset: enabled)
   Active: failed (Result: start-limit) since Sat 2015-09-12 21:52:34 EDT; 12min ago
     Docs: man:sddm(1)
           man:sddm.conf(5)
Process: 1639 ExecStartPre=/bin/sh -c [ "$(cat /etc/X11/default-display-manager 2>/dev/null)" = "/usr/bin/sddm" ] (code=exited, status=1/FAILURE)

Output of 'journal -xe' is much larger, Debian paste would not take it so had to use pastebin.
pastebin.com/DQ9WBp4Y

After setting sddm as default-display-manager in /etc/X11, and rebooting, I got a completely black screen.
Had to tty again and set kdm back as default to get normal boot again.
I think that severity is grave since sddm is unusable.

Maximiliano Curia

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Sep 17, 2015, 12:20:04 PM9/17/15

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¡Hola Carlos!

El 2015-09-17 a las 10:32 -0400, Carlos Kosloff escribió:
> After setting sddm as default-display-manager in /etc/X11, and rebooting, I got
> a completely black screen.

Having to set the default-display-manager in order to start the display
manager is working as intended.

The black screen is clearly not. It could be useful to have just the sddm
related logs of this last error. But there are some known black screen bugs
see the upstream related issues here:

https://github.com/sddm/sddm/labels/crash%2Fwhitescreen

So the next question is, what video card are you using? Which video driver is
that using? Is it showing the mouse cursor in the black screen?

Could you test changing the theme to a simpler one, like maui, installing the
sddm-theme-maui package and setting the current theme to it in the
/etc/sddm.conf file?

If the file is not created simply adding this to it would be enough:
[Theme]
Current=maui

Happy hacking,
--
A computer scientist is someone who, when told to "Go to Hell,"
sees the "go to," rather than the destination, as harmful.
Saludos /\/\ /\ >< `/

signature.asc

Scott Kitterman

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Sep 17, 2015, 12:40:03 PM9/17/15

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Now that the sddm service is in a failed state (so the log claims), I think you will also need to reset-failed for it. See http://www.freedesktop.org/software/systemd/man/systemctl.html.

Scott K

Carlos Kosloff

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Sep 17, 2015, 4:40:03 PM9/17/15

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The following is info from lshw, as root:

*-display
description: VGA compatible controller
product: GM107 [GeForce GTX 750 Ti]
vendor: NVIDIA Corporation
physical id: 0
bus info: pci@0000:06:00.0
version: a2
width: 64 bits
clock: 33MHz
capabilities: pm msi pciexpress vga_controller
bus_master cap_list rom
configuration: driver=nvidia latency=0
resources: irq:60 memory:fd000000-fdffffff
memory:c0000000-cfffffff memory:d0000000-d1ffffff ioport:c000(size=128)
memory:fe000000-fe07ffff

This is output from inxi -G

Graphics: Card: NVIDIA GM107 [GeForce GTX 750 Ti]
Display Server: X.Org 1.17.2 driver: nvidia Resolution:
1680...@59.95hz, 1680...@59.95hz
GLX Renderer: GeForce GTX 750 Ti/PCIe/SSE2 GLX Version:
4.4.0 NVIDIA 340.76

This is sddm.log

[19:55:07.100] (II) DAEMON: Initializing...
[19:55:07.104] (II) DAEMON: Starting...
[19:55:07.104] (II) DAEMON: Adding new display on vt 7 ...
[19:55:07.104] (II) DAEMON: Display server starting...
[19:55:07.104] (II) DAEMON: Running: /usr/bin/X -nolisten tcp -auth
/var/run/sddm/{3a2e4a8d-d349-4df7-be14-44161c6cd3a4} -background none
-noreset -displayfd 19 vt7
[19:55:07.920] (II) DAEMON: Running display setup script
"/usr/share/sddm/scripts/Xsetup"
[19:55:07.921] (II) DAEMON: Display server started.
[19:55:07.921] (II) DAEMON: Socket server starting...
[19:55:07.921] (II) DAEMON: Socket server started.
[19:55:07.921] (II) DAEMON: Greeter starting...
[19:55:07.922] (II) DAEMON: Adding cookie to
"/var/run/sddm/{3a2e4a8d-d349-4df7-be14-44161c6cd3a4}"
[19:55:07.929] (II) DAEMON: Greeter session started successfully
[19:55:08.036] (II) DAEMON: Message received from greeter: Connect
[19:55:41.464] (WW) DAEMON: Signal received: SIGINT
[19:55:41.464] (WW) DAEMON: Error from greeter session: "Process crashed"
[19:55:41.464] (WW) DAEMON: Auth: sddm-helper crashed (exit code 0)
[19:55:41.464] (WW) DAEMON: Error from greeter session: "Process crashed"
[19:55:41.464] (II) DAEMON: Auth: sddm-helper exited successfully
[19:55:41.464] (II) DAEMON: Greeter stopped.
[19:55:41.464] (II) DAEMON: Socket server stopping...
[19:55:41.464] (II) DAEMON: Socket server stopped.
[19:55:41.464] (II) DAEMON: Display server stopping...
[19:55:41.474] (II) DAEMON: Display server stopped.
[19:55:41.474] (II) DAEMON: Running display stop script
"/usr/share/sddm/scripts/Xstop"

This is /etc/sddm/Xsession

#! /bin/sh
# Xsession - run as user

session=$1

# Note that the respective logout scripts are not sourced.
case $SHELL in
*/bash)
[ -z "$BASH" ] && exec $SHELL $0 "$@"
set +o posix
[ -f /etc/profile ] && . /etc/profile
if [ -f $HOME/.bash_profile ]; then
. $HOME/.bash_profile
elif [ -f $HOME/.bash_login ]; then
. $HOME/.bash_login
elif [ -f $HOME/.profile ]; then
. $HOME/.profile
fi
;;
*/zsh)
[ -z "$ZSH_NAME" ] && exec $SHELL $0 "$@"
emulate -R zsh
[ -d /etc/zsh ] && zdir=/etc/zsh || zdir=/etc
zhome=${ZDOTDIR:-$HOME}
# zshenv is always sourced automatically.
[ -f $zdir/zprofile ] && . $zdir/zprofile
[ -f $zhome/.zprofile ] && . $zhome/.zprofile
[ -f $zdir/zlogin ] && . $zdir/zlogin
[ -f $zhome/.zlogin ] && . $zhome/.zlogin
setopt shwordsplit noextendedglob
;;
*/csh|*/tcsh)
# [t]cshrc is always sourced automatically.
# Note that sourcing csh.login after .cshrc is non-standard.
xsess_tmp=`mktemp /tmp/xsess-env-XXXXXX`
$SHELL -c "if (-f /etc/csh.login) source /etc/csh.login; if (-f
~/.login) source ~/.login; /bin/sh -c 'export -p' >! $xsess_tmp"
. $xsess_tmp
rm -f $xsess_tmp
;;
*) # Plain sh, ksh, and anything we do not know.
[ -f /etc/profile ] && . /etc/profile
[ -f $HOME/.profile ] && . $HOME/.profile
;;
esac

# invoke global X session script
. /etc/X11/Xsession

I purged sddm and reinstalled after reboot, mandatory sddm-theme-breeze
is installed, so is maui.
However, I do not see /etc/sddm.conf file
I have not set sddm as default manager, and will reboot.
Will post next, sddm log after crash.

Carlos Kosloff

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Sep 17, 2015, 5:00:04 PM9/17/15

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This is sddm.log after expected crash.

[19:55:07.100] (II) DAEMON: Initializing...
[19:55:07.104] (II) DAEMON: Starting...
[19:55:07.104] (II) DAEMON: Adding new display on vt 7 ...
[19:55:07.104] (II) DAEMON: Display server starting...
[19:55:07.104] (II) DAEMON: Running: /usr/bin/X -nolisten tcp -auth /var/run/sddm/{3a2e4a8d-d349-4df7-be14-44161c6cd3a4} -background none -noreset -displayfd 19 vt7
[19:55:07.920] (II) DAEMON: Running display setup script "/usr/share/sddm/scripts/Xsetup"
[19:55:07.921] (II) DAEMON: Display server started.
[19:55:07.921] (II) DAEMON: Socket server starting...
[19:55:07.921] (II) DAEMON: Socket server started.
[19:55:07.921] (II) DAEMON: Greeter starting...
[19:55:07.922] (II) DAEMON: Adding cookie to "/var/run/sddm/{3a2e4a8d-d349-4df7-be14-44161c6cd3a4}"
[19:55:07.929] (II) DAEMON: Greeter session started successfully
[19:55:08.036] (II) DAEMON: Message received from greeter: Connect
[19:55:41.464] (WW) DAEMON: Signal received: SIGINT
[19:55:41.464] (WW) DAEMON: Error from greeter session: "Process crashed"
[19:55:41.464] (WW) DAEMON: Auth: sddm-helper crashed (exit code 0)
[19:55:41.464] (WW) DAEMON: Error from greeter session: "Process crashed"
[19:55:41.464] (II) DAEMON: Auth: sddm-helper exited successfully
[19:55:41.464] (II) DAEMON: Greeter stopped.
[19:55:41.464] (II) DAEMON: Socket server stopping...
[19:55:41.464] (II) DAEMON: Socket server stopped.
[19:55:41.464] (II) DAEMON: Display server stopping...
[19:55:41.474] (II) DAEMON: Display server stopped.
[19:55:41.474] (II) DAEMON: Running display stop script "/usr/share/sddm/scripts/Xstop"

In order to get back to desktop I had to go Ctl + Alt + F1, login in as root and hard code /etc/X11/default-display-manager back to kdm.
I know that sddm works, at least on some computers, in fact I have another one with sddm and it works.
Problem is this computer, it did not even want to start with sddm, I had to turn it off manually and reboot it.
Thank you.

On 09/17/2015 12:13 PM, Maximiliano Curia wrote:

Carlos Kosloff

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Nov 2, 2015, 10:20:03 PM11/2/15

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Hi all,
I do have an nvidia card, as I previously reported.
I did see bug 799948, and entered sddm in the video group, right before
my user, comma-separated.
Also, today's dist-upgrade brought glx-alternative-* to 0.6.93 so
nothing happening now is related to that bug.
sddm never worked since I posted this bug, it does not work now either,
but at least I am not getting a black screen.
The display however is unusable, cannot complete login to my kde desktop.
Kdm does not work either, I have to use startx startkde, to get a
somewhat usable system.
Any ideas?