EndeavourOS fails to boot

Hi,

EndeavourOS fails to start properly on random occasions. GRUB gets displayed followed by the file counter and then and error “Failed to start light display manager” is shown at which point it won’t move forward. TTYs are accessible and can be used to login and reboot or perform any task though.

EndeavourOS Release: September 2020.
Variant: i3 wm
Modifications made: None except uninstalling xf86-video-intel (xf86-video-vesa is installed)

this is needed if you are booting on an older intel GPU.

can you still login from another tty? pressing Ctrl+Alt+F3

Nope, it will use the kernel modesetting driver if not installed:

Graphics:  Device-1: Intel 4th Gen Core Processor Integrated Graphics driver: i915 v: kernel
           Device-2: Chicony Chicony USB 2.0 Camera type: USB driver: uvcvideo
           Display: x11 server: X.Org 1.20.10 driver: modesetting unloaded: fbdev,vesa resolution: 1600x900~60Hz
           OpenGL: renderer: Mesa DRI Intel HD Graphics 4600 (HSW GT2) v: 4.5 Mesa 20.3.2

I don’t use it, in fact most don’t.

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The system is not an older one. It’s Dell Latitude 5400 with i5 8th generation. Also, xf86-video-intel causes issues with display(attached a screenshot)

xf86-video-intel-issue

Yes as mentioned in description, I am able to login on other TTYs and even perform all tasks I need

Can you return from a terminal:
inxi -Fxxxza --no-host?

Sure, please take a look at the attachments and let me know if you need something more.

System

Graphics

Can you try a different DM:

sudo pacman -S sddm
sudo systemctl enable sddm -f
reboot

??

Have you looked at journalctl to see if there’s some simple error already?

journalctl -u lightdm

Yes and it seems there is a similar open bug logged in lightdm’s Github repo since April 2019

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Please don’t post screencaps of data. Post the full output. Copy and paste it here and format it by highlighting it and pressing the </> button. That being said, have you set up your monitor in arandr?

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Yes and the issue appears when the secondary monitor(screen-1) is not connected as well. Also, I faced this issue for the first time even before I connected secondary monitor for the first time.

That is an old bug. It is considered harmless. My system has the same warning. It is not causing your issue.

Jan 05 08:38:18 elloquin-i3 lightdm[852]: gkr-pam: unable to locate daemon control file

This does solve my issue as expected. However, I am curious why this was happening after uninstalling xf86-video-intel package only. Even reinstalling that package fixes this issue, but that causes the messy display issue.

older intel GPU’s can have issue with modesetting driver… but not the case here;)

could help to set grub to the resolution of your screen and enable keep it option:
sudo nano /etc/default/grub

and change this two lines:

# The resolution used on graphical terminal
# note that you can use only modes which your graphic card supports via VBE
# you can see them in real GRUB with the command `vbeinfo'

GRUB_GFXMODE=1920x1080

# Uncomment to allow the kernel use the same resolution used by grub
GRUB_GFXPAYLOAD_LINUX=keep

put in your resolution instead of 1920x1080
save: Ctrl+X
regenerate grub:
sudo grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg

Just reinstalled lightdm after trying out sddm and this issue is no longer reproducible. Thing to note here is that the background is black now instead of wallpaper and stuff. I have tried rebooting for at least a dozen times, but it is working every time now. Will update if I find something more.

Also @joekamprad I will try setting the GRUB variables in a fresh installation in another system and let you know if this fixes the issue out of the box.

Scratch that, reinstalling lightdm does not fix the issue.

Error updating user /org/freedesktop/Accounts/User1000: GDBus.Error:org.freedesktop.Accounts.Error.PermissionDenied: Not authorized: GDBus.Error:org.freedesktop.PolicyKit1.Error.Failed: Action org.freedesktop.Accounts.Error.PermissionDenied: Not authorized: GDBus.Error:org.freedesktop.PolicyKit1.Error.Failed: Action org.freedesktop.DisplayManager.AccountsService.ReadAny is not registered

This is the only error I see in journal related to lightdm(apart from the previously mentioned one).