Boots into tty after update

After system updates my computer boots straight to tty. Logging in there and typing exec xfce4 starts the DE, and everything works fine (so it seems). I’d like to get it back to booting to a graphical login screen if possible.

Hi @Ermac ,

Can you show the output of:

systemctl status lightdm.service
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startxfce4 would also work,
from TTY,
when the display manager (lightdm) would not work for some reason.

There was nothing in an update that could have caused lightdm to fail :man_shrugging:

Perhaps it’s something related to Nvidia graphics in your system?

inxi -zv8

could help to clarify

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output:

○ lightdm.service - Light Display Manager
     Loaded: loaded (/usr/lib/systemd/system/lightdm.service; disabled; preset:>
     Active: inactive (dead)
       Docs: man:lightdm(1)

edit - no nvidia card, just intel integrated graphics.

The lightdm service is disabled.

To enable do:

systemctl enable lightdm.service

Reboot.

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Got this. This computer sat for a while without updates, at least a few months. Not an ideal situation, I know. Thanks for the help trying to get it back up to speed.

Failed to enable unit: File '/etc/systemd/system/display-manager.service' already exists and is a symlink to /usr/lib/systemd/system/lightdm-plymouth.service

probably much longer

That service doesn’t exist here, for me.

even this:
/usr/lib/systemd/system/lightdm-plymouth.service
doesn’t exist here
but that could be due to the fact that I have removed plymouth

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@Ermac

Did you install a plymouth theme/service?

Can you give full output of

systemctl status lightdm.service

Because it could give hints we don’t see now.

Same output as above. plymouth and plymouth-theme-manjaro-elegant packages are installed.

To fix the error the link should be removed.

When you use lightdm, try the next.

First, check what’s actually there:

ls -la /etc/systemd/system/display-manager.service

Then remove the stale symlink and re-enable properly:

sudo rm /etc/systemd/system/display-manager.service
sudo systemctl enable lightdm.service

In case of plymouth

sudo systemctl enable lightdm-plymouth.service
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Thank you! The ls command confirmed it was a symlink; the next two commands were successful and lightdm was back on reboot.

Very much appreciate the patience and speedy replies. :slightly_smiling_face:

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Great it worked out!

One small request for next time: when we ask for the output of a command, please paste the full output in your reply — it makes troubleshooting a lot easier and faster for everyone. Much appreciated, and happy to help you again!

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