There was a report upstream and that was the solution. However, that report dated back years ago, that’s why I said it was a long shot.
What does journalctl say around the time of the crash?
P/S: Honestly, at this point, I’d just ditch the whole display manager and just stick with xinit. You mentioned that things didn’t work quite the way you wanted when you started your cinnamon session with startx. Maybe try to resolve those issues?
1367 Mar 16 20:38:58 e-minor systemd[1]: Reached target Network.
1368 Mar 16 20:38:58 e-minor vmnet-natd[630]: RTM_NEWLINK: name:wlan0 index:2 flags:0x00001003
1369 Mar 16 20:38:58 e-minor vmnetBridge[568]: RTM_NEWLINK: name:wlan0 index:2 flags:0x00001003
1370 Mar 16 20:38:58 e-minor systemd[1]: Starting CUPS Scheduler...
1371 Mar 16 20:38:58 e-minor systemd[1]: Started OpenSSH Daemon.
1372 Mar 16 20:38:58 e-minor systemd[1]: Starting Permit User Sessions...
1373 Mar 16 20:38:58 e-minor sshd[670]: Server listening on 0.0.0.0 port 22.
1374 Mar 16 20:38:58 e-minor sshd[670]: Server listening on :: port 22.
1375 Mar 16 20:38:58 e-minor systemd[1]: Finished Permit User Sessions.
1376 Mar 16 20:38:58 e-minor systemd[1]: Starting Light Display Manager...
1377 Mar 16 20:38:58 e-minor NetworkManager[589]: <info> [1710617938.8753] device (wlan0): supplicant interface state: internal-starting
-> disconnected
1378 Mar 16 20:38:58 e-minor NetworkManager[589]: <info> [1710617938.8754] Wi-Fi P2P device controlled by interface wlan0 created
1379 Mar 16 20:38:58 e-minor NetworkManager[589]: <info> [1710617938.8758] manager: (p2p-dev-wlan0): new 802.11 Wi-Fi P2P device (/org/fr
eedesktop/NetworkManager/Devices/5)
1380 Mar 16 20:38:58 e-minor NetworkManager[589]: <info> [1710617938.8760] device (p2p-dev-wlan0): state change: unmanaged -> unavailable
(reason 'managed', sys-iface-state: 'external')
1381 Mar 16 20:38:58 e-minor NetworkManager[589]: <info> [1710617938.8764] device (wlan0): state change: unavailable -> disconnected (rea
son 'supplicant-available', sys-iface-state: 'managed')
1382 Mar 16 20:38:58 e-minor NetworkManager[589]: <info> [1710617938.8770] device (p2p-dev-wlan0): state change: unavailable -> disconnec
ted (reason 'none', sys-iface-state: 'managed')
1383 Mar 16 20:38:58 e-minor systemd[1]: Started Light Display Manager.
1384 Mar 16 20:38:58 e-minor systemd[1]: Reached target User and Group Name Lookups.
1385 Mar 16 20:38:58 e-minor systemd[1]: Starting Accounts Service...
1386 Mar 16 20:38:58 e-minor systemd[1]: Starting Manage, Install and Generate Color Profiles...
1387 Mar 16 20:38:58 e-minor avahi-daemon[485]: Server startup complete. Host name is e-minor.local. Local service cookie is 874478922.
1388 Mar 16 20:38:58 e-minor systemd[1]: Started Manage, Install and Generate Color Profiles.
1389 Mar 16 20:38:59 e-minor accounts-daemon[683]: started daemon version 23.13.0
1390 Mar 16 20:38:59 e-minor systemd[1]: Started Accounts Service.
1391 Mar 16 20:38:59 e-minor systemd[1]: Started CUPS Scheduler.
1392 Mar 16 20:38:59 e-minor systemd[1]: Reached target Multi-User System.
1393 Mar 16 20:38:59 e-minor systemd[1]: Reached target Graphical Interface.
1394 Mar 16 20:38:59 e-minor systemd[1]: Startup finished in 11.037s (firmware) + 49.129s (loader) + 7.284s (kernel) + 9.835s (userspace)
= 1min 17.286s.
1395 Mar 16 20:38:59 e-minor avahi-daemon[485]: Joining mDNS multicast group on interface vmnet8.IPv6 with address fe80::250:56ff:fec0:8.
1396 Mar 16 20:38:59 e-minor avahi-daemon[485]: New relevant interface vmnet8.IPv6 for mDNS.
1397 Mar 16 20:38:59 e-minor avahi-daemon[485]: Registering new address record for fe80::250:56ff:fec0:8 on vmnet8.*.
1398 Mar 16 20:39:00 e-minor avahi-daemon[485]: Joining mDNS multicast group on interface vmnet1.IPv6 with address fe80::250:56ff:fec0:1.
1399 Mar 16 20:39:00 e-minor avahi-daemon[485]: New relevant interface vmnet1.IPv6 for mDNS.
1400 Mar 16 20:39:00 e-minor avahi-daemon[485]: Registering new address record for fe80::250:56ff:fec0:1 on vmnet1.*.
1401 Mar 16 20:39:00 e-minor lightdm[701]: pam_unix(lightdm-greeter:session): session opened for user lightdm(uid=970) by (uid=0)
1402 Mar 16 20:39:00 e-minor systemd-logind[491]: New session c1 of user lightdm.
1403 Mar 16 20:39:00 e-minor systemd[1]: Created slice User Slice of UID 970.
1404 Mar 16 20:39:00 e-minor systemd[1]: Starting User Runtime Directory /run/user/970...
1405 Mar 16 20:39:00 e-minor systemd[1]: Finished User Runtime Directory /run/user/970.
1406 Mar 16 20:39:00 e-minor systemd[1]: Starting User Manager for UID 970...
1407 Mar 16 20:39:00 e-minor dbus-broker-launch[482]: Activation request for 'org.freedesktop.home1' failed: The systemd unit 'dbus-org.fr
eedesktop.home1.service' could not be found.
1408 Mar 16 20:39:00 e-minor (systemd)[708]: pam_warn(systemd-user:setcred): function=[pam_sm_setcred] flags=0x8002 service=[systemd-user]
terminal=[] user=[lightdm] ruser=[<unknown>] rhost=[<unknown>]
1409 Mar 16 20:39:00 e-minor (systemd)[708]: pam_unix(systemd-user:session): session opened for user lightdm(uid=970) by lightdm(uid=0)
1410 Mar 16 20:39:00 e-minor systemd[708]: Queued start job for default target Main User Target.
1411 Mar 16 20:39:00 e-minor systemd[708]: Created slice User Application Slice.
1412 Mar 16 20:39:00 e-minor systemd[708]: Reached target Paths.
1413 Mar 16 20:39:00 e-minor systemd[708]: Reached target Timers.
1414 Mar 16 20:39:00 e-minor systemd[708]: Starting D-Bus User Message Bus Socket...
1415 Mar 16 20:39:00 e-minor systemd[708]: Listening on GnuPG network certificate management daemon.
1416 Mar 16 20:39:00 e-minor systemd[708]: Starting GCR ssh-agent wrapper...
1417 Mar 16 20:39:00 e-minor systemd[708]: Listening on GNOME Keyring daemon.
1418 Mar 16 20:39:00 e-minor systemd[708]: Listening on GnuPG cryptographic agent and passphrase cache (access for web browsers).
1419 Mar 16 20:39:00 e-minor systemd[708]: Listening on GnuPG cryptographic agent and passphrase cache (restricted).
1420 Mar 16 20:39:00 e-minor systemd[708]: Listening on GnuPG cryptographic agent (ssh-agent emulation).
1421 Mar 16 20:39:00 e-minor systemd[708]: Listening on GnuPG cryptographic agent and passphrase cache.
1422 Mar 16 20:39:00 e-minor systemd[708]: Listening on GnuPG public key management service.
1423 Mar 16 20:39:00 e-minor systemd[708]: Listening on p11-kit server.
1424 Mar 16 20:39:00 e-minor systemd[708]: Listening on PipeWire PulseAudio.
1425 Mar 16 20:39:00 e-minor systemd[708]: Listening on PipeWire Multimedia System Sockets.
1426 Mar 16 20:39:00 e-minor systemd[708]: Listening on D-Bus User Message Bus Socket.
1427 Mar 16 20:39:00 e-minor systemd[708]: Listening on GCR ssh-agent wrapper.
1428 Mar 16 20:39:00 e-minor systemd[708]: Reached target Sockets.
1429 Mar 16 20:39:00 e-minor systemd[708]: Reached target Basic System.
1430 Mar 16 20:39:00 e-minor systemd[1]: Started User Manager for UID 970.
1431 Mar 16 20:39:00 e-minor systemd[708]: Starting Update XDG user dir configuration...
1432 Mar 16 20:39:00 e-minor systemd[1]: Started Session c1 of User lightdm.
1433 Mar 16 20:39:00 e-minor systemd[708]: Finished Update XDG user dir configuration.
1434 Mar 16 20:39:00 e-minor systemd[708]: Reached target Main User Target.
1435 Mar 16 20:39:00 e-minor systemd[708]: Startup finished in 254ms.
1436 Mar 16 20:39:00 e-minor systemd[708]: Created slice User Core Session Slice.
1437 Mar 16 20:39:00 e-minor systemd[708]: Starting D-Bus User Message Bus...
1438 Mar 16 20:39:00 e-minor dbus-broker-launch[726]: Service file '/usr/share/dbus-1/services/nemo.FileManager1.service' is not named aft
er the D-Bus name 'org.freedesktop.FileManager1'.
1439 Mar 16 20:39:00 e-minor dbus-broker-launch[726]: Service file '/usr/share/dbus-1/services/nemo.service' is not named after the D-Bus
name 'org.Nemo'.
1440 Mar 16 20:39:00 e-minor dbus-broker-launch[726]: Service file '/usr/share/dbus-1/services/org.gnome.Caribou.Antler.service' is not na
med after the D-Bus name 'org.gnome.Caribou.Keyboard'.
1441 Mar 16 20:39:00 e-minor dbus-broker-launch[726]: Policy to allow eavesdropping in /usr/share/dbus-1/session.conf +31: Eavesdropping i
s deprecated and ignored
1442 Mar 16 20:39:00 e-minor dbus-broker-launch[726]: Policy to allow eavesdropping in /usr/share/dbus-1/session.conf +33: Eavesdropping i
s deprecated and ignored
1443 Mar 16 20:39:00 e-minor systemd[708]: Started D-Bus User Message Bus.
1444 Mar 16 20:39:00 e-minor dbus-broker-launch[726]: Ready
1445 Mar 16 20:39:00 e-minor systemd[708]: Starting User preferences database...
1446 Mar 16 20:39:00 e-minor systemd[708]: Started User preferences database.
1447 Mar 16 20:39:01 e-minor slick-greeter-check-hidpi[725]: Window scale: 1
1448 Mar 16 20:39:01 e-minor slick-greeter-set-keyboard-layout[735]: Current keyboard configuration: rules: evdev
1449 model: pc105
1450 layout: at
1451 variant: nodeadkeys
1452 Mar 16 20:39:01 e-minor slick-greeter-set-keyboard-layout[735]: Applying keyboard configuration: ['setxkbmap', '-model', 'pc105', '-l
ayout', 'at', '-variant', 'nodeadkeys', '-option', '', '-v']
1453 Mar 16 20:39:01 e-minor slick-greeter-set-keyboard-layout[735]: Result: Warning! Multiple definitions of keyboard model
1454 Using command line, ignoring X server
1455 Warning! Multiple definitions of keyboard layout
1456 Using command line, ignoring X server
1457 Warning! Multiple definitions of layout variant
1458 Using command line, ignoring X server
1459 Trying to build keymap using the following components:
1460 keycodes: evdev+aliases(qwerty)
1461 types: complete
1462 compat: complete
1463 symbols: pc+at(nodeadkeys)+inet(evdev)
1464 geometry: pc(pc105)
1465 Mar 16 20:39:01 e-minor slick-greeter-set-keyboard-layout[735]: New keyboard configuration: rules: evdev
1466 model: pc105
1467 layout: at
1468 variant: nodeadkeys
1469 Mar 16 20:39:01 e-minor slick-greeter-enable-tap-to-click[740]: Found xinput pointer: id=2
1470 Mar 16 20:39:01 e-minor slick-greeter-enable-tap-to-click[740]: Found xinput pointer: id=4
1471 Mar 16 20:39:01 e-minor slick-greeter-enable-tap-to-click[740]: Found xinput pointer: id=11
1472 Mar 16 20:39:01 e-minor slick-greeter-enable-tap-to-click[740]: Found xinput pointer: id=12
1473 Mar 16 20:39:01 e-minor systemd[708]: Starting Accessibility services bus...
1474 Mar 16 20:39:01 e-minor systemd[708]: Started Accessibility services bus.
1475 Mar 16 20:39:01 e-minor at-spi-bus-launcher[752]: Policy to allow eavesdropping in /usr/share/defaults/at-spi2/accessibility.conf +15
: Eavesdropping is deprecated and ignored
1476 Mar 16 20:39:01 e-minor at-spi-bus-launcher[752]: Policy to allow eavesdropping in /usr/share/defaults/at-spi2/accessibility.conf +17
: Eavesdropping is deprecated and ignored
1477 Mar 16 20:39:01 e-minor dbus-broker-launch[752]: Ready
1478 Mar 16 20:39:01 e-minor systemd[708]: Starting Virtual filesystem service...
1479 Mar 16 20:39:01 e-minor systemd[708]: Started Virtual filesystem service.
1480 Mar 16 20:39:01 e-minor systemd[1]: Created slice Slice /system/systemd-coredump.
1481 Mar 16 20:39:01 e-minor systemd[1]: Started Process Core Dump (PID 775/UID 0).
1482 Mar 16 20:39:01 e-minor systemd-coredump[776]: Process 720 (slick-greeter) of user 970 dumped core.
Well, I genuinely thought that would make for a better workaround.
But GTK greeter crashes as well. 
Mar 17 00:47:05 e-minor systemd[1]: Reached target Network.
Mar 17 00:47:05 e-minor vmnet-natd[636]: RTM_NEWLINK: name:wlan0 index:2 flags:0x00001003
Mar 17 00:47:05 e-minor vmnetBridge[560]: RTM_NEWLINK: name:wlan0 index:2 flags:0x00001003
Mar 17 00:47:05 e-minor systemd[1]: Starting CUPS Scheduler...
Mar 17 00:47:05 e-minor systemd[1]: Started OpenSSH Daemon.
Mar 17 00:47:05 e-minor systemd[1]: Starting Permit User Sessions...
Mar 17 00:47:05 e-minor NetworkManager[595]: <info> [1710632825.2681] device (wlan0): supplicant interface state: internal-starting -> disco
nnected
Mar 17 00:47:05 e-minor NetworkManager[595]: <info> [1710632825.2684] Wi-Fi P2P device controlled by interface wlan0 created
Mar 17 00:47:05 e-minor NetworkManager[595]: <info> [1710632825.2689] manager: (p2p-dev-wlan0): new 802.11 Wi-Fi P2P device (/org/freedeskto
p/NetworkManager/Devices/5)
Mar 17 00:47:05 e-minor NetworkManager[595]: <info> [1710632825.2692] device (p2p-dev-wlan0): state change: unmanaged -> unavailable (reason
'managed', sys-iface-state: 'external')
Mar 17 00:47:05 e-minor NetworkManager[595]: <info> [1710632825.2698] device (wlan0): state change: unavailable -> disconnected (reason 'sup
plicant-available', sys-iface-state: 'managed')
Mar 17 00:47:05 e-minor NetworkManager[595]: <info> [1710632825.2705] device (p2p-dev-wlan0): state change: unavailable -> disconnected (rea
son 'none', sys-iface-state: 'managed')
Mar 17 00:47:05 e-minor sshd[677]: Server listening on 0.0.0.0 port 22.
Mar 17 00:47:05 e-minor sshd[677]: Server listening on :: port 22.
Mar 17 00:47:05 e-minor systemd[1]: Finished Permit User Sessions.
Mar 17 00:47:05 e-minor avahi-daemon[490]: Server startup complete. Host name is e-minor.local. Local service cookie is 3990711680.
Mar 17 00:47:05 e-minor systemd[1]: Starting Manage, Install and Generate Color Profiles...
Mar 17 00:47:05 e-minor systemd[1]: Starting Light Display Manager...
Mar 17 00:47:05 e-minor systemd[1]: Started Light Display Manager.
Mar 17 00:47:05 e-minor systemd[1]: Reached target User and Group Name Lookups.
Mar 17 00:47:05 e-minor systemd[1]: Starting Accounts Service...
Mar 17 00:47:05 e-minor systemd[1]: Started Manage, Install and Generate Color Profiles.
Mar 17 00:47:05 e-minor accounts-daemon[692]: started daemon version 23.13.0
Mar 17 00:47:05 e-minor systemd[1]: Started Accounts Service.
Mar 17 00:47:05 e-minor systemd[1]: Started CUPS Scheduler.
Mar 17 00:47:05 e-minor systemd[1]: Reached target Multi-User System.
Mar 17 00:47:05 e-minor systemd[1]: Reached target Graphical Interface.
Mar 17 00:47:05 e-minor systemd[1]: Startup finished in 11.294s (firmware) + 24.788s (loader) + 7.311s (kernel) + 10.239s (userspace) = 53.63
3s.
Mar 17 00:47:05 e-minor avahi-daemon[490]: Joining mDNS multicast group on interface vmnet1.IPv6 with address fe80::250:56ff:fec0:1.
Mar 17 00:47:05 e-minor avahi-daemon[490]: New relevant interface vmnet1.IPv6 for mDNS.
Mar 17 00:47:05 e-minor avahi-daemon[490]: Registering new address record for fe80::250:56ff:fec0:1 on vmnet1.*.
Mar 17 00:47:06 e-minor avahi-daemon[490]: Joining mDNS multicast group on interface vmnet8.IPv6 with address fe80::250:56ff:fec0:8.
Mar 17 00:47:06 e-minor avahi-daemon[490]: New relevant interface vmnet8.IPv6 for mDNS.
Mar 17 00:47:06 e-minor avahi-daemon[490]: Registering new address record for fe80::250:56ff:fec0:8 on vmnet8.*.
Mar 17 00:47:06 e-minor lightdm[706]: pam_unix(lightdm-greeter:session): session opened for user lightdm(uid=970) by (uid=0)
Mar 17 00:47:06 e-minor systemd-logind[496]: New session c1 of user lightdm.
Mar 17 00:47:06 e-minor systemd[1]: Created slice User Slice of UID 970.
Mar 17 00:47:06 e-minor systemd[1]: Starting User Runtime Directory /run/user/970...
Mar 17 00:47:06 e-minor systemd[1]: Finished User Runtime Directory /run/user/970.
Mar 17 00:47:07 e-minor systemd[1]: Starting User Manager for UID 970...
Mar 17 00:47:07 e-minor systemd[1]: Starting User Manager for UID 970...
Mar 17 00:47:07 e-minor dbus-broker-launch[487]: Activation request for 'org.freedesktop.home1' failed: The systemd unit 'dbus-org.freedeskto
p.home1.service' could not be found.
Mar 17 00:47:07 e-minor (systemd)[713]: pam_warn(systemd-user:setcred): function=[pam_sm_setcred] flags=0x8002 service=[systemd-user] termina
l=[] user=[lightdm] ruser=[<unknown>] rhost=[<unknown>]
Mar 17 00:47:07 e-minor (systemd)[713]: pam_unix(systemd-user:session): session opened for user lightdm(uid=970) by lightdm(uid=0)
Mar 17 00:47:07 e-minor systemd[713]: Queued start job for default target Main User Target.
Mar 17 00:47:07 e-minor systemd[713]: Created slice User Application Slice.
Mar 17 00:47:07 e-minor systemd[713]: Reached target Paths.
Mar 17 00:47:07 e-minor systemd[713]: Reached target Timers.
Mar 17 00:47:07 e-minor systemd[713]: Starting D-Bus User Message Bus Socket...
Mar 17 00:47:07 e-minor systemd[713]: Listening on GnuPG network certificate management daemon.
Mar 17 00:47:07 e-minor systemd[713]: Starting GCR ssh-agent wrapper...
Mar 17 00:47:07 e-minor systemd[713]: Listening on GNOME Keyring daemon.
Mar 17 00:47:07 e-minor systemd[713]: Listening on GnuPG cryptographic agent and passphrase cache (access for web browsers).
Mar 17 00:47:07 e-minor systemd[713]: Listening on GnuPG cryptographic agent and passphrase cache (restricted).
Mar 17 00:47:07 e-minor systemd[713]: Listening on GnuPG cryptographic agent (ssh-agent emulation).
Mar 17 00:47:07 e-minor systemd[713]: Listening on GnuPG cryptographic agent and passphrase cache.
Mar 17 00:47:07 e-minor systemd[713]: Listening on GnuPG public key management service.
Mar 17 00:47:07 e-minor systemd[713]: Listening on p11-kit server.
Mar 17 00:47:07 e-minor systemd[713]: Listening on PipeWire PulseAudio.
Mar 17 00:47:07 e-minor systemd[713]: Listening on PipeWire Multimedia System Sockets.
Mar 17 00:47:07 e-minor systemd[713]: Listening on D-Bus User Message Bus Socket.
Mar 17 00:47:07 e-minor systemd[713]: Listening on GCR ssh-agent wrapper.
Mar 17 00:47:07 e-minor systemd[713]: Reached target Sockets.
Mar 17 00:47:07 e-minor systemd[713]: Reached target Basic System.
Mar 17 00:47:07 e-minor systemd[1]: Started User Manager for UID 970.
Mar 17 00:47:07 e-minor systemd[713]: Starting Update XDG user dir configuration...
Mar 17 00:47:07 e-minor systemd[1]: Started Session c1 of User lightdm.
Mar 17 00:47:07 e-minor systemd[713]: Finished Update XDG user dir configuration.
Mar 17 00:47:07 e-minor systemd[713]: Reached target Main User Target.
Mar 17 00:47:07 e-minor systemd[713]: Startup finished in 243ms.
Mar 17 00:47:07 e-minor systemd[713]: Created slice User Core Session Slice.
Mar 17 00:47:07 e-minor systemd[713]: Starting D-Bus User Message Bus...
Mar 17 00:47:07 e-minor dbus-broker-launch[730]: Service file '/usr/share/dbus-1/services/nemo.FileManager1.service' is not named after the D
-Bus name 'org.freedesktop.FileManager1'.
Mar 17 00:47:07 e-minor dbus-broker-launch[730]: Service file '/usr/share/dbus-1/services/nemo.service' is not named after the D-Bus name 'or
g.Nemo'.
Mar 17 00:47:07 e-minor dbus-broker-launch[730]: Service file '/usr/share/dbus-1/services/org.gnome.Caribou.Antler.service' is not named afte
r the D-Bus name 'org.gnome.Caribou.Keyboard'.
Mar 17 00:47:07 e-minor dbus-broker-launch[730]: Policy to allow eavesdropping in /usr/share/dbus-1/session.conf +31: Eavesdropping is deprec
ated and ignored
Mar 17 00:47:07 e-minor dbus-broker-launch[730]: Policy to allow eavesdropping in /usr/share/dbus-1/session.conf +33: Eavesdropping is deprec
ated and ignored
Mar 17 00:47:07 e-minor systemd[713]: Started D-Bus User Message Bus.
Mar 17 00:47:07 e-minor dbus-broker-launch[730]: Ready
Mar 17 00:47:07 e-minor systemd[713]: Starting Accessibility services bus...
Mar 17 00:47:07 e-minor systemd[713]: Started Accessibility services bus.
Mar 17 00:47:07 e-minor at-spi-bus-launcher[738]: Policy to allow eavesdropping in /usr/share/defaults/at-spi2/accessibility.conf +15: Eavesd
ropping is deprecated and ignored
Mar 17 00:47:07 e-minor at-spi-bus-launcher[738]: Policy to allow eavesdropping in /usr/share/defaults/at-spi2/accessibility.conf +17: Eavesd
ropping is deprecated and ignored
Mar 17 00:47:07 e-minor dbus-broker-launch[738]: Ready
Mar 17 00:47:07 e-minor systemd[713]: Starting Virtual filesystem service...
Mar 17 00:47:07 e-minor systemd[713]: Started Virtual filesystem service.
Mar 17 00:47:07 e-minor systemd[1]: Created slice Slice /system/systemd-coredump.
Mar 17 00:47:07 e-minor systemd[1]: Started Process Core Dump (PID 759/UID 0).
Mar 17 00:47:08 e-minor systemd-coredump[760]: Process 725 (lightdm-gtk-gre) of user 970 dumped core.
Stack trace of thread 725:
The issue is probably related to lightdm. At this point, I’m afraid the only way to get to the bottom of this is to analyse the coredump file using a debugger.
I was going to suggest you open an issue upstream, but then I saw that you had already done do.
Alas, when going back in time in the logs I can’t see any correlation.
Also since I seem to be the only one with this issue, could it be hardware related?
Then again, for a test I booted several systems from USB just fine.
Looking at the github page I wouldn’t expect a response anytime soon.
I’ll prepare an installation on a USB-stick and see what it does.
Personally, I would ditch lightdm altogether and just rely on xinit. It’s just a simpler (especially if you want to launch start-up/initialization scripts) way to launch your desktop session without any fluff.
I hear you and I can see you point, esp. now where my preferred workaround (GTK greeter) doesn’t work either.
Then again, the screen I got via startx/xinit was a mess.
Either it’s just another symptom of the same problem or not as smooth as it seems.
Also, and I stick to my POV, I want to know what happened; for multiple reasons.
And deciding to go with startx/xinit doesn’t feel like I had a choice.
Can you go into a bit more detail about this? What do you mean exactly when you say that the screen is a mess? Are you using a multi-monitor setup?
At present, I don’t see how xinit will have any effect on your desktop environment’s behavior. xinit is essentially just a simple shell script that starts your desktop environment.
basically still this, in hindsight it feels a bit like a permissions problem.
I went back and reconfigured everything to using xinit.
This time I also went through the files .xinitrc is referring to and it doesn’t look good:
$ ll "/etc/X11/Xkbmap" "$HOME/.Xkbmap"
ls: cannot access '/etc/X11/Xkbmap': No such file or directory
ls: cannot access '/home/mz/.Xkbmap': No such file or directory
$ ll "/etc/X11/Xmodmap" "$HOME/.Xmodmap"
ls: cannot access '/etc/X11/Xmodmap': No such file or directory
ls: cannot access '/home/mz/.Xmodmap': No such file or directory
$ ll "/etc/X11/Xresources" "$HOME/.Xresources"
ls: cannot access '/etc/X11/Xresources': No such file or directory
ls: cannot access '/home/mz/.Xresources': No such file or directory
$ ll /etc/xprofile
ls: cannot access '/etc/xprofile': No such file or directory
$ ll /usr/local/etc/xprofile
ls: cannot access '/usr/local/etc/xprofile': No such file or directory
$ ll "$HOME/.xprofile"
ls: cannot access '/home/mz/.xprofile': No such file or directory
No, just an older laptop (Dell XPS 13 9350), no external devices.
This is what it looks like:
Anthony, I had an epiphany:
reflector --protocol https --verbose --latest 25 --sort rate --save /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist
yay -Syyu
And it … worked! 
Since the update already contained 86+ items I can’t really tell which it was.
And alas I don’t know what mirrors were involved a week ago.
But the system works now!
I reverted everything back to its original state and configuration and I can’t see a problem!
Thank you so much for your persistence and patience!!
Michael.
I didn’t occur to me that the issue was caused by outdated mirrors…
If you don’t mind, can you share your /etc/pacman.conf?
Sure …
(active lines only)
[options]
HoldPkg = pacman glibc
Architecture = auto
Color
ILoveCandy
VerbosePkgLists
DisableDownloadTimeout
ParallelDownloads = 5
SigLevel = Required DatabaseOptional
LocalFileSigLevel = Optional
[endeavouros]
SigLevel = PackageRequired
Include = /etc/pacman.d/endeavouros-mirrorlist
[core]
Include = /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist
[extra]
Include = /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist
[community]
Include = /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist
[multilib]
Include = /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist
I think this is the underlying cause of the problem. The community repo is deprecated and no longer available. So if your mirrors are super old (as in they are so old that they still provide the community repo), then you may inadvertently pull in older libraries or packages and thus end up in a partial upgrade situation.
That is also why this ceases to be an issue after you have refreshed your mirrors. Because the latest mirrors no longer supplies the community.db database.
Please post the output of
$ ls -l /var/lib/pacman/sync
Ok, I realise, I need to do some reading here. 
You mean in general?
That seems to be the case!
$ ls -l /var/lib/pacman/sync
total 49348
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 45 20. May 2023 community.db
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 45 20. May 2023 community.files
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 133747 18. Mar 15:15 core.db
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1038167 12. Jul 2023 core.files
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 21528 18. Mar 17:23 endeavouros.db
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 152432 13. Jul 2023 endeavouros.files
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 8761017 19. Mar 00:41 extra.db
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 40035949 13. Jul 2023 extra.files
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 143564 18. Mar 00:23 multilib.db
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 217131 12. Jul 2023 multilib.files
This seems to be a start:
A Complete Idiot’s Guide To Endeavour OS Maintenance / Update / Upgrade
So that means my updates/upgrades have been potentially incomplete and this system was sitting on a time-bomb which went off 8 days ago?
This seems to be the explanation why all our efforts to downgrade/re-install packages didn’t help.
Yeah. The entire [community] repo was merged into [extra] after Arch Linux performed their git migration last year.
Try this:
[community] entry inside your pacman.conf/var/lib/pacman/sync/community.db and the community.filessudo pacman -SyyuYou can check /var/lib/pacman/sync again after step 3. Refreshing the db files should no longer include the community.db.
Ok, but wasn’t that just some cleaning up I just did?
Because current mirrors don’t carry a community-repo any more?
So the community entry in pacman.conf wouldn’t have any effect anyway?
And wasn’t that entry supposed to be removed with some upgrade later after the merger?
$ ls -l /var/lib/pacman/sync
total 49348
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 131636 19. Mar 06:32 core.db
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1038167 12. Jul 2023 core.files
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 21528 18. Mar 17:23 endeavouros.db
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 152432 13. Jul 2023 endeavouros.files
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 8761030 19. Mar 09:11 extra.db
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 40035949 13. Jul 2023 extra.files
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 143577 19. Mar 08:29 multilib.db
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 217131 12. Jul 2023 multilib.files
If your mirrors are up-to-date, then yes, it’s just cleanup. Leaving the entry inside the pacman.conf is a bad idea anyway. If your mirrors are old, disaster might strike. In fact, I believe you’ve experienced such a disaster already.
So on the bottom-line testing several version of packages was in vain because the mirrors were outdated and the packages invalid anyway.
A normal system update/upgrade didn’t help for the same reason.
In fact the repo structure changed and never was updated on my system. 
The time-bomb I mentioned before.
Since yesterday I can see quite a few (not so) slight changes on this system.
Which means I didn’t do a proper update for almost a year?
Wow! Dang!
That was a bitter lesson to learn!