Question about the plasma-login-manager

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1

As I found it on the update forum I installed the plasma-login-manager. Now I found this message:

sudo systemctl status plasmalogin
● plasmalogin.service - Plasma Login Manager
     Loaded: loaded (/usr/lib/systemd/system/plasmalogin.service; enabled; preset: disabled)
     Active: active (running) since Sun 2026-08-16 17:58:02 CEST; 5min ago
 Invocation: b47cfae914464f6eb29947a1e632e019
       Docs: man:plasmalogin(1)
             man:plasmalogin.conf(5)
   Main PID: 796 (plasmalogin)
      Tasks: 2 (limit: 18736)
     Memory: 45.6M (peak: 65.7M)
        CPU: 623ms
     CGroup: /system.slice/plasmalogin.service
             └─796 /usr/bin/plasmalogin

Aug 16 17:58:41 J3710M plasmalogin-helper[1181]: [PAM] Conversation with 1 messages
Aug 16 17:58:41 J3710M plasmalogin-helper[1181]: pam_kwallet5(plasmalogin:auth): pam_kwallet5: pam_sm_a>
Aug 16 17:58:41 J3710M plasmalogin-helper[1181]: [PAM] returning.
Aug 16 17:58:41 J3710M plasmalogin[796]: Authentication for user  "moritz"  successful
Aug 16 17:58:41 J3710M plasmalogin-helper[1181]: pam_kwallet5(plasmalogin:setcred): pam_kwallet5: pam_s>
Aug 16 17:58:41 J3710M plasmalogin-helper[1181]: pam_unix(plasmalogin:session): session opened for user>
Aug 16 17:58:42 J3710M plasmalogin[796]: Session started true
Aug 16 17:58:48 J3710M plasmalogin[796]: Greeter stopping...
Aug 16 17:58:48 J3710M plasmalogin[796]: Auth: plasmalogin-helper exited with 255
Aug 16 17:58:48 J3710M plasmalogin[796]: Greeter stopped. PLASMALOGIN::Auth::HelperExitStatus(255)

While everything seems to run normally and I experience no difference to sddm it is frightening to receive an exit message of (255). What does this mean? Is there something dangerous or something to solve to get a better HelperExitStatus.

2

I don’t know why plasmalogin-helper concretely terminates with exit code 255, but one potential cause of this particular exit code could be a permissions issue.

Keeping this in mind, there have been some reported permissions and file ownership issues here on the forum with regard to plasma-login-manager due to a permissions/ownership error in the original package.

If I remember correctly, it was the ownership and permissions on /var/lib/plasmalogin/ and its contents (/var/lib/plasmalogin/wallpapers/). They should all be owned plasmalogin:plasmalogin instead of root:root or anything else.

3

I am thinking it means the handover to the plasma session was a success.

It is quite contrary to what we are used to expect - what goes on in the mind of developers - does not always make sense from a user perspective - believe me - I know - I am a developer and my users often ask me to use a language they understand.

Nope - it is likely something we need to get used to.

I have exactly the same status messages - and no issues what-so-ever

But I agree - it looks strange

[tiger fh]# systemctl status plasmalogin
● plasmalogin.service - Plasma Login Manager
     Loaded: loaded (/usr/lib/systemd/system/plasmalogin.service; enabled; preset: disabled)
     Active: active (running) since Mon 2026-08-17 05:25:15 CEST; 2h 0min ago
 Invocation: c6feb555d8644b9096431880635c17f7
       Docs: man:plasmalogin(1)
             man:plasmalogin.conf(5)
    Process: 1207 ExecStartPre=udevadm settle --timeout=10 (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS)
   Main PID: 1211 (plasmalogin)
      Tasks: 2 (limit: 154320)
     Memory: 32.8M (peak: 53.6M)
        CPU: 100ms
     CGroup: /system.slice/plasmalogin.service
             └─1211 /usr/bin/plasmalogin

aug 17 06:49:43 tiger plasmalogin-helper[1869]: [PAM] Conversation with 1 messages
aug 17 06:49:43 tiger plasmalogin[1211]: Authentication information: PLASMALOGIN::Auth::INFO_UNKNOWN "\n1 device has a firmware upgrade available.\nRun `f>
aug 17 06:49:43 tiger plasmalogin[1211]: Authentication information: PLASMALOGIN::Auth::INFO_UNKNOWN "Web console: https://tiger:9090/ or https://172.30.3>
aug 17 06:49:43 tiger plasmalogin-helper[1869]: gkr-pam: unlocked login keyring
aug 17 06:49:43 tiger plasmalogin-helper[1869]: pam_kwallet5(plasmalogin:session): pam_kwallet5: pam_sm_open_session
aug 17 06:49:43 tiger plasmalogin-helper[1869]: Starting Wayland user session: "/usr/share/plasmalogin/scripts/wayland-session" "/usr/lib/plasma-dbus-run->
aug 17 06:49:43 tiger plasmalogin[1211]: Session started true
aug 17 06:49:49 tiger plasmalogin[1211]: Greeter stopping...
aug 17 06:49:49 tiger plasmalogin[1211]: Auth: plasmalogin-helper exited with 255
aug 17 06:49:49 tiger plasmalogin[1211]: Greeter stopped. PLASMALOGIN::Auth::HelperExitStatus(255)
6

@Aragorn

Thank you for the answer. Everything is already plasmalogin:plasmalogin only there was no folder /var/lib/plasmalogin/wallpapers/ .

@linux-aarhus

Thank you. I you say that status message is OK that’s all I want to know. I hope it’s really no issue.

After reading the message about the AMD RDNA 4 there’s to add, my i405 GPU doesn’t work. As the Wayland display server just switches to another driver I don’t take notice of it.

Moderator edit: Merged consecutive replies

@MoritzD

Mod edit:- Consecutive posts merged – again – please pay attention and note any “Mod notes” or “Mod edits” added to your post(s). Remedied – no charge. However, in future you are expected to tend to this yourself.

Mod edit:- Please avoid consecutive posts. If there are no posts from others since your previous post, edit that previous post instead. To address specific member comments, @mention them in the same post - when you type an @ character a selection modal will appear from which you may choose the member to respond to.