LightDM GUI does not work

[ktlwgrandchp]

I inherited a Debian 10 computer and project.
Sometime after (with some errors) running some shell scripts from the project, the screen just turned dark. I have not yet found anything in them that might cause that, though on a correct run they do seem to disable most GUI functions.
Thinking the computer froze, I pressed the power button for a hardware shutdown.

Upon rebooting, I only have access to the console, no GUI.

startx and xinit give errors, such as 'Server terminated with error (1)' and 'no screens found (EE)'. Everything is installed, as it was there before. Anyone know how to get the Gnome gui back working?

[ktlwgrandchp]

I installed or reinstalled Gnome Desktop, and changed the default display manager from lightdm to gnome with

Code: Select all

sudo dpkg-reconfigure gdm3

, which successfully activates the Gnome GUI.
However, lightdm still DOES NOT WORK.

[ktlwgrandchp]

Bumping - still can't get lightdm to work. I've tried updates, reinstallation, systemctl enable, startx, and so on.

[4D696B65]

Gnome uses gdm3. Why do you insist on using lightdm?

[stevepusser]

Does it work for other distros' Live USBs or discs--I know MX 19.4's XFCE version uses lightdm, and that would at least rule out hardware failure.

Since you haven't told us how new your hardware is, I'd try the MX AHS version, which should support quite recent machines.

You can also try some other distros, but I don't really know which ones have lightdm as default.

If you think these mystery scripts could be to blame, a little info on those can't hurt!

[ktlwgrandchp]

Gnome uses gdm3. Why do you insist on using lightdm?

That's the preset for this project - maybe (?) it was used so they can somehow disable (or alter) the standard GUI, instead simply showing an html webpage. Apparently one of the perks of lightdm is its customizability.

If you think these mystery scripts could be to blame, a little info on those can't hurt!

There are multiple, some of which call other shell files or expand tar files which do their own commands, and I do not exactly know all the ones I activated.
I suppose it wouldn't hurt to try another distro for sure, though I'm pretty sure hardware failure is not the problem, given gdm works.