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Booting Manjaro KDE edition from an external USB drive. Intel N100 processor. HMDI cable to an Assus monitor
Boot lands me in a terminal. **systemctl status sddm** yields this:
● sddm.service - Simple Desktop Display Manager
Loaded: loaded (/usr/lib/systemd/system/sddm.service; enabled; preset: disabled)
Active: active (running) since Mon 2024-05-06 15:50:12 BST; 1min 1s ago
Docs: man:sddm(1)
man:sddm.conf(5)
Main PID: 772 (sddm)
Tasks: 2 (limit: 9322)
Memory: 73.8M (peak: 93.5M)
CPU: 459ms
CGroup: /system.slice/sddm.service
└─772 /usr/bin/sddm
May 06 15:50:27 WD500-azed sddm[772]: Failed to read display number from pipe
May 06 15:50:27 WD500-azed sddm[772]: Display server stopping...
May 06 15:50:27 WD500-azed sddm[772]: Attempt 2 starting the Display server on vt 2 failed
May 06 15:50:29 WD500-azed sddm[772]: Display server starting...
May 06 15:50:29 WD500-azed sddm[772]: Writing cookie to "/run/sddm/xauth_DtdkIb"
May 06 15:50:29 WD500-azed sddm[772]: Running: /usr/bin/X -nolisten tcp -background none -seat seat0 vt2 -auth /run/sddm/xauth_DtdkIb -noreset -displayfd 16
May 06 15:50:31 WD500-azed sddm[772]: Failed to read display number from pipe
May 06 15:50:31 WD500-azed sddm[772]: Display server stopping...
May 06 15:50:31 WD500-azed sddm[772]: Attempt 3 starting the Display server on vt 2 failed
May 06 15:50:31 WD500-azed sddm[772]: Could not start Display server on vt 2
When I try **systemctl restart sddm**, the system seems to make 3 attempts to activate **sddm** (on each occasion the terminal screen disappears in favour of a cursor which blinks twice before I am returned to the terminal)
**Anyone seen this before**?
**Solution ideas**?
**Any help offered, very gratefully received**
**Additional info**:
**uname -r**
6.6.26-1-MANJARO
**lspci**
00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Device 461b
00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation Alder Lake-N [UHD Graphics]
00:08.0 System peripheral: Intel Corporation Device 467e
00:0a.0 Signal processing controller: Intel Corporation Platform Monitoring Technology (rev 01)
00:0d.0 USB controller: Intel Corporation Device 464e
00:14.0 USB controller: Intel Corporation Alder Lake-N PCH USB 3.2 xHCI Host Controller
00:14.2 RAM memory: Intel Corporation Alder Lake-N PCH Shared SRAM
00:14.3 Network controller: Intel Corporation CNVi: Wi-Fi
00:16.0 Communication controller: Intel Corporation Alder Lake-N PCH HECI Controller
00:17.0 SATA controller: Intel Corporation Device 54d3
00:1d.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation Device 54b0
00:1d.1 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation Device 54b1
00:1d.3 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation Device 54b3
00:1e.0 Communication controller: Intel Corporation Device 54a8
00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corporation Alder Lake-N PCH eSPI Controller
00:1f.3 Audio device: Intel Corporation Alder Lake-N PCH High Definition Audio Controller
00:1f.4 SMBus: Intel Corporation Device 54a3
00:1f.5 Serial bus controller: Intel Corporation Device 54a4
01:00.0 Ethernet controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL8111/8168/8211/8411 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet Controller (rev 15)
02:00.0 Ethernet controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL8125 2.5GbE Controller (rev 05)
03:00.0 Non-Volatile memory controller: Phison Electronics Corporation E18 PCIe4 NVMe Controller (rev 01)
**inxi -G**
Graphics:
Device-1: Intel Alder Lake-N [UHD Graphics] driver: i915 v: kernel
Display: server: X.org v: 1.21.1.12 driver: X: loaded: intel gpu: i915 tty: 240x67
resolution: 1920x1080
API: EGL v: 1.5 drivers: iris,swrast platforms: surfaceless,device
API: OpenGL v: 4.6 compat-v: 4.5 vendor: mesa v: 24.0.2-manjaro1.1 note: console (EGL sourced)
renderer: Mesa Intel Graphics (ADL-N), llvmpipe (LLVM 16.0.6 256 bits)
API: Vulkan v: 1.3.279 drivers: intel surfaces: N/A
**mhwd --list**
e[1me[31m> e[m0000:01:00.0 (0200:10ec:8168) Network controller Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd.:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
NAME VERSION FREEDRIVER TYPE
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
network-r8168 2023.09.12 true PCI
e[1me[31m> e[m0000:00:02.0 (0300:8086:46d0) 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
A full boot-log can also be provided
**Note**:
I get the same behaviour with kernel 6.8
Ubuntu 22.04 with kernel 6.5 on the machine's native drive boots without a problem