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[WORKED AROUND] SDDM issue with Debian 9
[WORKED AROUND] SDDM issue with Debian 9
I have a Dell Inspiron 710m. I just recently updated it from Debian Jessie to Stretch.
The problem that I'm having is that after the OS starts, I'll see a slight flicker on the display but everything is black. I can see my mouse cursor and if I move it around, the cursor will change as I'm assuming it is hovering over the login dialog that I cannot see.
If I drop to shell and log in, and manually run startx, everything seems okay. If I log out, I go back to shell.
During the upgrade process, I recall seeing a screen that asked if I should update from kdm to sddm, but I'm not sure if that has anything to do with this.
Does anyone know what I could have done wrong, or need to do?
The problem that I'm having is that after the OS starts, I'll see a slight flicker on the display but everything is black. I can see my mouse cursor and if I move it around, the cursor will change as I'm assuming it is hovering over the login dialog that I cannot see.
If I drop to shell and log in, and manually run startx, everything seems okay. If I log out, I go back to shell.
During the upgrade process, I recall seeing a screen that asked if I should update from kdm to sddm, but I'm not sure if that has anything to do with this.
Does anyone know what I could have done wrong, or need to do?
Last edited by tastle on 2018-01-23 15:07, edited 1 time in total.
- Head_on_a_Stick
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Re: Cannot see login screen in Debian Stretch after upgrade
Did you follow https://www.debian.org/releases/stretch ... ng.en.html?tastle wrote:I just recently updated it from Debian Jessie to Stretch.
[...]
Does anyone know what I could have done wrong, or need to do?
Quite a lot can go wrong.
deadbang
Re: Cannot see login screen in Debian Stretch after upgrade
I followed the bits where I updated my sources and did the upgrade and cleanup. I didn't see any errors during the upgrade, and unfortunately I didn't record the upgrade. (Which might have been useful in a situation like this.) I did a lot of searching online but I didn't see anything relevant, or perhaps I wasn't using the correct keywords or terminology to get a decent hit.
At the same time, I upgraded another system and it doesn't have the "invisible login screen" problem.
It just seems so weird that the OS GUI works (KDE) after I log in and run startx, but (getting technical here... lol) "whatever" is launching the login GUI seems to launch it, but has display issues for everything but the mouse cursor.
At the same time, I upgraded another system and it doesn't have the "invisible login screen" problem.
It just seems so weird that the OS GUI works (KDE) after I log in and run startx, but (getting technical here... lol) "whatever" is launching the login GUI seems to launch it, but has display issues for everything but the mouse cursor.
- Head_on_a_Stick
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- Location: London, England
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Re: Cannot see login screen in Debian Stretch after upgrade
What is your display manager?tastle wrote:the OS GUI works (KDE) after I log in and run startx
Try:
Code: Select all
ls -l /etc/systemd/system/display-manager.service
deadbang
Re: Cannot see login screen in Debian Stretch after upgrade
Code: Select all
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 32 Jan 2 21:08 /etc/systemd/system/display-manager.service -> /lib/systemd/system/sddm.service
Re: Cannot see login screen in Debian Stretch after upgrade
Couple ways you could go, did you try typing the password and hitting enter? or typing username, tab, pw, enter while it looks like the box has focus? If you get a desktop after that then it's sddm problem for sure.
I didn't do an upgrade, but I agree sddm has some issue. I replaced it with lightdm. You might try purge and reinstall it. Stop it before you do anything though, it's really picky.
I didn't do an upgrade, but I agree sddm has some issue. I replaced it with lightdm. You might try purge and reinstall it. Stop it before you do anything though, it's really picky.
Code: Select all
# systemctl stop display-manager.service
resigned by AI ChatGPT
Re: Cannot see login screen in Debian Stretch after upgrade
Having a hard time guessing my tabs to enter my username and password, but I don't seem to have any problem eventually tabbing to either shutdown or reboot. Still guessing the number of tabs required to log in since that is an interesting test. I can't seem to make the cursor find the fields to try to put focus on them.
Re: Cannot see login screen in Debian Stretch after upgrade
So is the recommendation to re-install something? SDDM? Or should I look at something else?
Thanks to everyone for the help so far!
Thanks to everyone for the help so far!
Re: Cannot see login screen in Debian Stretch after upgrade
make sure you have these pkgs installed
sddm-theme-breeze
kde-config-sddm
go into the system settings using the working startx and set the theme there?
sddm-theme-breeze
kde-config-sddm
go into the system settings using the working startx and set the theme there?
resigned by AI ChatGPT
Re: Cannot see login screen in Debian Stretch after upgrade
Both packages are installed.
However, I noticed something odd when going to the system settings. When I select "Login Screen (SDDM)", the right hand panel doesn't change from the default "Autostart" view. Also, under "Workspace Theme", the same thing happens when I select "Look And Feel", "Desktop Theme" or "Splash Screen". "Cursor Theme" loads fine.
However, I noticed something odd when going to the system settings. When I select "Login Screen (SDDM)", the right hand panel doesn't change from the default "Autostart" view. Also, under "Workspace Theme", the same thing happens when I select "Look And Feel", "Desktop Theme" or "Splash Screen". "Cursor Theme" loads fine.
Re: Cannot see login screen in Debian Stretch after upgrade
So do you think I should re-install sddm, or just switch to a different desktop manager?
Re: Cannot see login screen in Debian Stretch after upgrade
I just gave up on sddm and installed lightdm, and that worked around the problem.
It's a shame that sddm is so buggy. I only got it to work on one of three boxes now. This past weekend I moved an Inspiron 531 from Windows 10 Home to Debian 9 because it couldn't apply the latest greenfield auto update, causing a lot of reboot grief. It appears sddm isn't much better.
It's a shame that sddm is so buggy. I only got it to work on one of three boxes now. This past weekend I moved an Inspiron 531 from Windows 10 Home to Debian 9 because it couldn't apply the latest greenfield auto update, causing a lot of reboot grief. It appears sddm isn't much better.