Cannot login via cinnamon after system update

Issues & Assistance
1

Hi,

After I ran a system update using pacman, I am unable to login via cinnamon nor cinnamon-software-rendering. The login screen doesn’t go away after I enter my password. I am able to login via ssh (password-less) as well as via a terminal (eg Alt-Ctrl-F2).

Here are some processes I see with “ps -ef” :

root         458     351  0 10:52 tty7     00:00:01 /usr/lib/Xorg :0 -seat seat0 -auth /run/lightdm/root/:0 -nolisten tcp vt7 -novtswitch
root         653     351  0 10:52 ?        00:00:00 lightdm --session-child 17 20
lightdm      657       1  0 10:52 ?        00:00:00 /usr/lib/systemd/systemd --user
lightdm      658     657  0 10:52 ?        00:00:00 (sd-pam)
lightdm      666     653  0 10:52 ?        00:00:01 /usr/bin/lightdm-webkit2-greeter
lightdm      669     657  0 10:52 ?        00:00:00 /usr/bin/dbus-daemon --session --address=systemd: --nofork --nopidfile --systemd-activation --syslog-only
lightdm      670     657  0 10:52 ?        00:00:00 /usr/lib/at-spi-bus-launcher
lightdm      676     670  0 10:52 ?        00:00:00 /usr/bin/dbus-daemon --config-file=/usr/share/defaults/at-spi2/accessibility.conf --nofork --print-address 11 --address=unix:path=/run/user/620/at-spi/bus
lightdm      679     657  0 10:52 ?        00:00:00 /usr/lib/gvfsd
lightdm      684     657  0 10:52 ?        00:00:00 /usr/lib/gvfsd-fuse /run/user/620/gvfs -f
lightdm      719     666  0 10:52 ?        00:00:00 /usr/lib/webkit2gtk-4.0/WebKitNetworkProcess 6 20
lightdm      750     666  0 10:52 ?        00:00:06 /usr/lib/webkit2gtk-4.0/WebKitWebProcess 11 24
lightdm      779     657  0 10:52 ?        00:00:00 /usr/lib/at-spi2-registryd --use-gnome-session
rtkit        804       1  0 10:52 ?        00:00:00 /usr/lib/rtkit-daemon
root         867       1  0 10:53 ?        00:00:00 login -- fclim
fclim        872       1  0 10:53 ?        00:00:00 /usr/lib/systemd/systemd --user
fclim        873     872  0 10:53 ?        00:00:00 (sd-pam)

fclim is my username and 620 is the uid of lightdm. Here is the output of “ls -l /run/user/620” :

drwx------ 2 lightdm lightdm  60 Sep 23 10:52 at-spi
srw-rw-rw- 1 lightdm lightdm   0 Sep 23 10:52 bus
drwx------ 3 lightdm lightdm  60 Sep 23 10:52 dbus-1
drwx------ 2 lightdm lightdm  60 Sep 23 10:52 dconf
drwx------ 2 lightdm lightdm  60 Sep 23 10:52 gcr
drwx------ 2 lightdm lightdm 140 Sep 23 10:52 gnupg
d????????? ? ?       ?         ?            ? gvfs
drwx------ 2 lightdm lightdm  40 Sep 23 10:52 gvfsd
drwx------ 2 lightdm lightdm  60 Sep 23 10:52 keyring
drwxr-xr-x 2 lightdm lightdm  60 Sep 23 10:52 p11-kit
srw-rw-rw- 1 lightdm lightdm   0 Sep 23 10:52 pipewire-0
drwxr-xr-x 2 lightdm lightdm  60 Sep 23 10:52 pulse
drwxr-xr-x 5 lightdm lightdm 140 Sep 23 10:52 systemd

Is there a problem with the /run/user/620/gvfs directory?

Since the login screen (greeter??) did not go away, I am able to cancel the login and use another account (luckily I have created 3 different accounts). I entered the password of this other account but the greeter screen remains. I ran “ps -ef” and notice no change; that is, lightdm wasn’t aware of my attempt to login with the other account.

I would appreciate any advice on how I can login in graphical mode. I can’t remember the set of packages that pacman had previously updated. What package(s) should I update or re-install? Thank you.

2

We can try diagnosing the problem

sudo pacman -S --needed xorg-server-xephyr netcat

lightdm --test-mode --debug | nc termbin.com 9999

Share the URL where the file gets uploaded

3

Hi,

I chose “gnu-netcat” as the provider for netcat. Here is the output for the lightdm diagnostics:

[+0.00s] DEBUG: Logging to /home/fclim/.cache/lightdm/log/lightdm.log
[+0.00s] DEBUG: Starting Light Display Manager 1.32.0, UID=1000 PID=2569
[+0.00s] DEBUG: Loading configuration dirs from /var/lib/snapd/desktop/lightdm/lightdm.conf.d
[+0.00s] DEBUG: Loading configuration dirs from /usr/share/lightdm/lightdm.conf.d
[+0.00s] DEBUG: Loading configuration dirs from /usr/local/share/lightdm/lightdm.conf.d
[+0.00s] DEBUG: Loading configuration dirs from /var/lib/flatpak/exports/share/lightdm/lightdm.conf.d
[+0.00s] DEBUG: Loading configuration dirs from /home/fclim/.local/share/flatpak/exports/share/lightdm/lightdm.conf.d
[+0.00s] DEBUG: Loading configuration dirs from /etc/xdg/lightdm/lightdm.conf.d
[+0.00s] DEBUG: Loading configuration from /etc/lightdm/lightdm.conf
[+0.00s] DEBUG:   [LightDM] contains unknown option session-wrapper
[+0.00s] DEBUG: Running in user mode
[+0.00s] DEBUG: Registered seat module local
[+0.00s] DEBUG: Registered seat module xremote
[+0.00s] DEBUG: Using D-Bus name org.freedesktop.DisplayManager
[+0.01s] DEBUG: Using cross-namespace EXTERNAL authentication (this will deadlock if server is GDBus < 2.73.3)
[+0.02s] DEBUG: _g_io_module_get_default: Found default implementation gvfs (GDaemonVfs) for ?gio-vfs?
[+0.02s] DEBUG: Using cross-namespace EXTERNAL authentication (this will deadlock if server is GDBus < 2.73.3)
[+0.02s] DEBUG: Monitoring logind for seats
[+0.02s] DEBUG: New seat added from logind: seat0
[+0.02s] DEBUG: Seat seat0: Loading properties from config section Seat:*
[+0.02s] DEBUG: Seat seat0 has property CanMultiSession=no
[+0.02s] DEBUG: Seat seat0: Starting
[+0.02s] DEBUG: Seat seat0: Creating greeter session
[+0.02s] DEBUG: Loading users from org.freedesktop.Accounts
[+0.02s] DEBUG: User /org/freedesktop/Accounts/User1001 added
[+0.03s] DEBUG: User /org/freedesktop/Accounts/User1002 added
[+0.03s] DEBUG: User /org/freedesktop/Accounts/User1000 added
[+0.03s] DEBUG: Seat seat0: Creating display server of type x
[+0.04s] DEBUG: Could not run plymouth --ping: Failed to execute child process ?plymouth? (No such file or directory)
[+0.04s] DEBUG: Seat seat0: Starting local X display
[+0.04s] DEBUG: XServer 1: Logging to /home/fclim/.cache/lightdm/log/x-1.log
[+0.04s] DEBUG: XServer 1: Writing X server authority to /run/lightdm/root/:1
[+0.04s] WARNING: Error reading existing Xauthority: Failed to open file ?/run/lightdm/root/:1?: Permission denied
[+0.04s] WARNING: XServer 1: Failed to write authority: Failed to open X authority /run/lightdm/root/:1: Permission denied
[+0.04s] DEBUG: XServer 1: Launching X Server
[+0.04s] DEBUG: Launching process 2591: /usr/bin/X :1 -seat seat0 -auth /run/lightdm/root/:1 -nolisten tcp
[+0.04s] DEBUG: XServer 1: Waiting for ready signal from X server :1
[+0.04s] DEBUG: Acquired bus name org.freedesktop.DisplayManager
[+0.04s] DEBUG: Registering seat with bus path /org/freedesktop/DisplayManager/Seat0
[+0.04s] WARNING: Could not enumerate user data directory /var/lib/lightdm-data: Error opening directory '/var/lib/lightdm-data': Permission denied
[+0.04s] DEBUG: Process 2591 exited with return value 1
[+0.04s] DEBUG: XServer 1: X server stopped
[+0.04s] DEBUG: XServer 1: Removing X server authority /run/lightdm/root/:1
[+0.04s] DEBUG: Seat seat0: Display server stopped
[+0.04s] DEBUG: Seat seat0: Stopping session
[+0.04s] DEBUG: Seat seat0: Session stopped
[+0.04s] DEBUG: Seat seat0: Stopping display server, no sessions require it
[+0.04s] DEBUG: Seat seat0: Stopping; greeter display server failed to start
[+0.04s] DEBUG: Seat seat0: Stopping
[+0.04s] DEBUG: Seat seat0: Stopped
[+0.04s] DEBUG: Required seat has stopped
[+0.04s] DEBUG: Stopping display manager
[+0.04s] DEBUG: Display manager stopped
[+0.04s] DEBUG: Stopping daemon
[+0.04s] DEBUG: Exiting with return value 1

Hope this helps. Thanks for responding.

4

Run the below to reinstall gdk-pixbuf2

sudo pacman -Syy gdk-pixbuf2

Reboot your computer, try to login, and if the login fails, get to the tty with Ctrl Alt F3. Then run

cat /var/log/lightdm/lightdm.log | nc termbin.com 9999

cat /var/log/Xorg.0.log | nc termbin.com 9999

Share the logs

5

Before I show you the result you have requested, I just want to point out that I am running my RebornOS system under vmware. It was working earlier. I was able to login, run “pacman -Syyuu” and reboot. After the reboot, I am unable to login.

The result of “cat /var/log/lightdm/lightdm.log | nc termbin.com 9999” is

https://termbin.com/bl7p

The 2nd instruction produced

https://termbin.com/2lvj
6

Hi,

$ cat /etc/lightdm/lightdm.conf | nc termbin.com 9999
https://termbin.com/8afl6

$ cat /etc/lightdm/Xsession | nc termbin.com 9999
https://termbin.com/3hm5

$  ls -l /etc/lightdm | nc termbin.com 9999
https://termbin.com/sd3y

Sorry for the data dump. Kind of like grabbing at straws. Thanks for looking at my problem.

7

The text of the above two uploads seem identical, almost like the same command was run twice. I am unable to see problems in the regular lightdm log. I need to see Xorg.0.log and the greeter log.

Do you also have the contents of /var/log/lightdm/seat0-greeter.log?

cat /var/log/lightdm/seat0-greeter.log | nc termbin.com 9999
8

Hi,

Here is /var/log/lightdm/seat0-greeter.log:

(WebKitWebProcess:783): GLib-WARNING **: 21:32:06.296: ../glib/glib/giounix.c:412Error while getting flags for FD: Bad file descriptor (9)

(WebKitWebProcess:783): GLib-WARNING **: 21:32:06.296: Invalid file descriptor.

** (WebKitWebProcess:783): CRITICAL **: 21:32:06.638: lightdm_greeter_ensure_shared_data_dir_sync: assertion 'priv->connected' failed

** (WebKitWebProcess:783): CRITICAL **: 21:34:24.203: lightdm_greeter_authenticate: assertion 'priv->connected' failed

** (WebKitWebProcess:783): CRITICAL **: 21:34:59.491: lightdm_greeter_respond: assertion 'priv->connected' failed

I rebooted the system around 21:32:06. At 21:34:24, I clicked on my “fclim” account on the greeter screen, but had not entered the password. At 21:34.59, I entered my password and hit <RETURN>.

I noticed the recent pacman update (before my troubles began) has updated the webkit2gtk and webkit2gtk-4.1 packages. Maybe this broke the lightdm-webkit2-greeter.

Anyway, I urgently need to use my system in graphical mode. So I used the autologin workaround as described in Enabling autologin. I don’t like it, but I am able to do some work at last. I hope someone can provide a better solution. Thank you.

9

An Arch Linux user had a similar problem, and managed to fix it by downgrading webkit2gtk from the current version (2.38.0-2) to version 2.36.7-1. You can read about it on the Arch forum:

https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=279854

Perhaps some update from Arch Linux will fix the problem.
Could this solve your problem…? I hope this information is of some use to you.

lightdm-webkit2-greeter was developed by Antergos, and hasn’t had a development guy for many years. It may be better to use another greeter.

10

Yay, I got my system back again. I have decided not to roll back webkit2gtk but switched to lightdm-gtk-greeter instead. This greeter is not as pretty as lightdm-webkit2-greeter but it works.

Here is what I did:

sudo pacman -S lightdm-gtk-greeter
sudoedit /etc/lightdm/lightdm.conf

In the editor, search for “greeter-session” under the “[Seat:*]” section. It should be set to “lightdm-webgit2-greeter”. Change that to “lightdm-gtk-greeter”. Save and exit the editor and reboot.

@Rafael @shivanandvp Thank you for your help.

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