Multiple problems after update, some probably caused by my "repairs"

Support
1

I have been using Linux since about 1 or 2 years (Manjaro being my first distro and I love it), so while I’m not totally new to the command line, I would still call myself a beginner-intermediate.

Anyhow everything worked great until a recent update where I ran into the login problem which was a known issue caused by PAM and PAMBASE, seen here.

Luckily I still had a windows partition which I could boot into and look for solutions.

So I learned how to enter the rescue mode as mentioned in the solution here.

and merged a bunch of .pacnew files with pacdiff.
(I can provide a list of .pacnew files if it helps, as I saved both the old and the .pacnew files on an external disc before merging).

That might have solved the original problem, I’m not sure though since now I wasn’t able to boot manjaro, the error this time was:
[FAILED] Failed to start Light Display Manager
(btw in case it matters, I use manjaro with i3 desktop)

Aslo now I wasn’t even able to boot in rescue mode (the error message was:
“Cannot open access to console, the root account is locked.”)
After searching some more in this forum I found a way to reset the root password by booting from a live CD and mount my internal disc with this guide.

Which solved the rescue mode issue.
However the Failed to start Light Display Manager error still persisted.
But at least since I can boot into rescue mode I figured I would try what was recommended here under “the first thing to try” and update everything in pacman.

That a) didn’t fix the Problem and b) now the GRUB boot menu is gone and I can’t even boot into Windows anymore, it just automatically boots into manjaro, which is why I’m now working from the live CD and figured it’s time to ask for help here in the forum because I feel like I’m just screwing up things more than fixing them at this point.

Sorry for the long post,
TLDR:
a) when trying to boot into manjaro I get the error:
“Failed to start Light Dsiplay Manager”

b) GRUB dissapeared and I can no longer boot into Windows

2

Hello @Sleuth :wink:

In most cases it is the gpu driver, but more information would be useful:

mhwd -l && mhwd -li

systemctl status lightdm

journalctl -b0 | curl -F'file=@-' https://0x0.st

cat /var/log/Xorg.0.log | curl -F'file=@-' https://0x0.st
3

Thx for the reply @megavolt, I really appreaciate it!

For future references, is it possible to get this info from within the live-CD somehow? (it’s a bit annoying to write your commands to a file, then switch to tty in original install, write the output to files and then switch back again)

Anyhow, here’s the info you requested:

0000:00:02.0 (0300:8086:0126) Display controller Intel Corporation:

              NAME               VERSION          FREEDRIVER           TYPE

       video-linux            2018.05.04                true            PCI
 video-modesetting            2020.01.13                true            PCI
        video-vesa            2017.03.12                true            PCI

Installed PCI configs:

              NAME               VERSION          FREEDRIVER           TYPE

       video-linux            2018.05.04                true            PCI

Warning: No installed USB configs!

● lightdm.service - Light Display Manager
Loaded: loaded (/usr/lib/systemd/system/lightdm.service; enabled; vendor preset: disabled)
Active: failed (Result: exit-code) since Fri 2020-11-27 23:46:37 CET; 1min 17s ago
Docs: man:lightdm(1)
Process: 1015 ExecStart=/usr/bin/lightdm (code=exited, status=1/FAILURE)
Main PID: 1015 (code=exited, status=1/FAILURE)

Nov 27 23:46:37 milton-pc systemd[1]: lightdm.service: Scheduled restart job, restart counter is at 5.
Nov 27 23:46:37 milton-pc systemd[1]: Stopped Light Display Manager.
Nov 27 23:46:37 milton-pc systemd[1]: lightdm.service: Start request repeated too quickly.
Nov 27 23:46:37 milton-pc systemd[1]: lightdm.service: Failed with result ‘exit-code’.
Nov 27 23:46:37 milton-pc systemd[1]: Failed to start Light Display Manager.

https://0x0.st/iR5V.txt

https://0x0.st/iR5W.json

4

Yes. You would just need chroot.

5

I do get different results when running your commands after using manjaro-chroot though.

6

…you shouldnt.

7

but I do…

0000:00:02.0 (0300:8086:0126) Display controller Intel Corporation:

              NAME               VERSION          FREEDRIVER           TYPE

       video-linux            2018.05.04                true            PCI
 video-modesetting            2020.01.13                true            PCI
        video-vesa            2017.03.12                true            PCI

Installed PCI configs:

              NAME               VERSION          FREEDRIVER           TYPE

       video-linux            2018.05.04                true            PCI

Warning: No installed USB configs!

Running in chroot, ignoring command ‘status’

https://0x0.st/iR5D.txt

https://0x0.st/iR5W.json

Also annoyingly after manjaro-chroot certain keys (backspace, delete, left-arrow etc) stop working.

8

Oh … those specifically dont work because of what they are/doing …
journalctl has no info because you are asking for logs from current boot - and that system didnt boot.
Its roughly the same for the Xorg log.
and systemctl also - cant use status as the service isnt running.
You have access to the system and such … but you might need to augment how you are getting certain logs … ex:

journalctl -b1 | curl -F'file=@-' https://0x0.st

(mhwd output is static and correct :wink:)

9

@Sleuth mh… nothing critical found. Seems lightdm is the problem.

I would try to disable the display-manager:

sudo systemctl disable display-manager.service

After reboot there should be a black/white login prompt. Login there and enter:

startx

If that works, then the problem is 100% lightdm here.

10

@megavolt
sorry for the late reply, didn’t have much time yesterday

Got to the black/white login prompt, but startx didn’t work:

X.Org X Server 1.20.9
X Protocol Version 11, Revision 0
Build Operating System: Linux USER Linux
Current Operating System: Linux milton-pc 4.19.160-1-USER #1 SMP Tue Nov 24 18:41:45 UTC 2020 x86_64
Kernel command line: BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-4.19-x86_64 root=UUID=0j34f65-be1a-1356-2a4b-420607ac2podf rw quiet udev.log_priority=3
Build Date: 20 November 2020  09:03:19PM
 
Current version of pixman: 0.40.0
	Before reporting problems, check http://wiki.x.org
	to make sure that you have the latest version.
Markers: (--) probed, (**) from config file, (==) default setting,
	(++) from command line, (!!) notice, (II) informational,
	(WW) warning, (EE) error, (NI) not implemented, (??) unknown.
(==) Log file: "/var/log/Xorg.0.log", Time: Sun Nov 29 11:30:23 2020
(==) Using config directory: "/etc/X11/xorg.conf.d"
(==) Using system config directory "/usr/share/X11/xorg.conf.d"
Couldn't exec i3: No such file or directory
xinit: connection to X server lost

waiting for X server to shut down (II) Server terminated successfully (0). Closing log file.

Should I just try to (re)install i3?

11

You have deleted i3???

Yes please:

pamac install i3

:arrow_down:

startx /usr/bin/i3
12

I didn’t delete anything (afaik), just did
sudo pacman -Syyu
and then everything went south from there :-/

Well that sort of did the trick.
There’s still some things that don’t work (GRUB is still missing)

But at least it’s progress :slight_smile:
Thx a lot for everything so far @megavolt you really helped me out so much, I hugely appreciate it. If you ever get to Vienna I owe you a beer! :wink:

EDIT:
ps, can I just reinstall lightdm to get a login screen again?

13

Good to know, thx for your answer/time!