no login screen after boot

[SaintDanBert]

Running Mint 18.3 Cinnamon, I no longer get a login screen after boot. Things appear to stall with a black screen.
I regret that I'm not certain how to diagnose this, much less fix things. I appreciate any guidance and help.

I can use CTRL-ALT-F1 to open a console, login and then 'startx'. However, for my sins, I cannot discover why the login screen does not appear.

I found the following in /var/log/X0rg.0.log

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...
[    33.788] (II) Module ABI versions:
[    33.788]    X.Org ANSI C Emulation: 0.4
[    33.788]    X.Org Video Driver: 20.0
[    33.788]    X.Org XInput driver : 22.1
[    33.788]    X.Org Server Extension : 9.0
[    33.789] (++) using VT number 7

[    33.789] (II) systemd-logind: logind integration requires -keeptty and -keeptty was not provided, disabling logind integration
[    33.789] (II) xfree86: Adding drm device (/dev/dri/card0)
[    33.790] (--) PCI:*(0:0:2:0) 8086:0126:17aa:21db rev 9, Mem @ 0xf0000000/4194304, 0xe0000000/268435456, I/O @ 0x00005000/64
[    33.791] (II) LoadModule: "glx"
...

My workstation is:

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prompt$  inxi -S
System:    Host: kaywine Kernel: 4.4.0-104-generic x86_64 (64 bit)
           Desktop: Cinnamon 3.6.7  Distro: Linux Mint 18.3 Sylvia
           
prompt$ uname --all

Linux kaywine 4.4.0-104-generic #127-Ubuntu SMP Mon Dec 11 12:16:42 UTC 2017 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux

I also have the 4.4.0.109-generic kernel. I did a fall back to the pervious edition thinking that it might be the culprit.

Thanks in advance,
~~~ 0;-Dan

[SaintDanBert]

FOLLOW-UP:

When I start the laptop from power off, things proceed normally until I should expect to see the login screen. The disk activity LED continues to flicker until it stops. The next thing I observer is the screen remains black.

At this point, I can press CTRL-ALT-F1 and I will get a login prompt. I am able to login without troubles.

Lastly, I can activate the desktop using:

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prompt$  startx
...
..... the desktop starts are runs as expected

On another occasion, I performed the login as described above. I did not launch the desktop.
Instead, I did the following:

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prompt$ sudo -i
*********
prompt# lightdm
...

The display presented a loging screen without any wallpaper. I was able to login, but I did not get a desktop.
[/i]
[/color]
Thanks in advance,
~~~ 0;-( Dan

[SaintDanBert]

After lots of searching and not a lot of help online, I moved the flat tire to a different wheel and hoped that it went away. More specifically, I did the following:

• after a failed boot, I used CTRL+ALT+F1 to open a console
• login with my username
• use startx to launch my desktop
• open synaptic
• marked 'lightdm' for removal and applied that change
• marked 'lightdm' for install and applied that change
• did a power-off, shutdown, restart

This time, boot ran and launched the login screen. I was able to login and my desktop launched.

I have no idea what happened. I have no idea about how I should have been able to see something in the logs and journals that would explain what was going on. Most importantly, I did not receive much help either here or on linuxquestions.

Maybe next time,
~~~ 0;-< Dan

[chtwright]

I had this exact same issue, but it was directly after installing Linux Mint on my Dell Vostro. I've installed it on several other computers around the house with no issue so I'm not sure if it was hardware related or what.

After install, when booting up to the computer it just came to a black screen with nothing. After waiting for the hard drive to finish what it was doing I would just simply type my password and hit enter, then I would be logged in. I've been dealing with this for a few months as I figured as long as it is working why bother, but then I just figured what the heck and looked it up and found your post. I followed your steps by removing and re-installing lightdm.

I now have a login screen, but for some odd reason the bottom left of my login screen says "Ubuntu 20. whatever LTS" instead of "Linux mint".

Also not sure if this was related but I noticed that my left column of desktop icons were offset from my other columns of desktop icons(the left column icons were down lower slightly) after logging in. I went to customize my desktop and clicked auto-arrange icons and it put them all back aligned correctly so then I unclicked autoarrange and they are still aligned correctly I just have to reorganize them back in the correct order. I just thought that was weird because I'm almost certain everything was aligned correctly before restarting after removing and re-installing lightdm.

Anyway as long as the desktop icon issue doesn't resurface when I reboot my computer again I guess the only main issue I have ATM is the wrong thing listed. How do I get the login screen to properly say "Linux Mint" instead of "Ubuntu"?

UPDATE:
I can now confirm that my icons are still arranged correctly after a 2nd reboot so that is not an issue anymore. The incorrect text at the bottom left of the login screen is "ubuntu 20.04 LTS"

UPDATE 2:
I guess something is really screwed up after this because I figured maybe I can fix this by going to "Administration", then "Login Window" from the menu to fix the issue, but nothing happens at all now when I choose "Login Window" from the menu. I was able to go to this previously and a window popped up(I forgot what all options it had though, but this is no longer working after removing and re-installing lightdm). Any help would be greatly appreciated to get things back to normal, keep my login window(updated to show correct linux distribution) and be able to access the "Login Window" menu item.

UPDATE 3:
I tried to figure out what was going on with the "Login Window" settings option in the menu as to why it wasn't doing anything so I added it to the desktop so I could click on settings to figure out the command, then I tried running "lightdm-settings" from terminal & I got an error about "slick-greeter" being missing then it hit me, I forgot that when uninstalling lightdm that a box came up saying that it would have to uninstall slick-greeter as well, and I had planned on reinstalling that just like with lightdm, but I forgot to. So then I went back into Synaptic and re-installed slick-greeter. After that I was able to get something when clicking the "Login Window" menu item. Unfortunately though I'm back at square one as after re-installing slick-greeter I have no login screen again. Just a black screen but if I type my password I can log in, just as I've been doing before. So I'm assuming there is something going on with slick-greeter not liking my dell or something as I don't have issues on my other computers. Would still like to get this working if anyone has a solution.

UPDATE 4:
I know this is a lot but I want to make sure I give any information that may be helpful. I had forgot to mention that also when I log out there is no login screen as well, and it is just like when I boot the computer up with the black screen, but entering my pass will work just as when booting up. The only time I get a login window is if I select "Switch Users". No login screen on boot or logging out. It works without the login screen but still annoying.

[mikeflan]

Hi chtwright. You probably should start your own Topic, but if you don't want to I'm OK with that.
I'm a bit confused now and ask that you post a summary.

UPDATE:
I can now confirm that my icons are still arranged correctly after a 2nd reboot so that is not an issue anymore. The incorrect text at the bottom left of the login screen is "ubuntu 20.04 LTS"

So you got to the desktop and can still get to the desktop, right?

I guess something is really screwed up after this because I figured maybe I can fix this by going to "Administration", then "Login Window" from the menu to fix the issue, but nothing happens at all now when I choose "Login Window" from the menu.

You did that just to fix the "ubuntu 20.04 LTS" on the bottom left of the login screen, correct?
If so, I'm not sure if that should have worked or not.

So all we need to do is fix the "ubuntu 20.04 LTS" on the bottom left of the login screen, correct?

[chtwright]

I apologize for not starting my own topic but replied to this one because it was the same issue. You can ignore anything I mentioned about icons I should have just left that out that may not have even had anything to do with it.

To summarize, the main issue was the black screen after boot which I've been bypassing by just typing in my password and hitting enter, which was fixed by following what the OP did by removing and re-installing lightdm as I then got a login screen, other than it said "ubuntu 20.04 LTS" when I have Linux Mint 20.1.

I remembered there was a "Login Window" option in the menu items(I couldn't remember what all you can do with it) and you were correct in saying "If so, I'm not sure if that should have worked or not." But at the time I was thinking maybe it gives you options for different login screens or something that you can select, know that is not the case now. So at the time I went to click on this menu item, and it wouldn't even show up anyway, and realized it was because when I removed lightdm that slick-greeter was also removed, and after re-installing slick-greeter then that menu item worked again and I was able to see what all you can do in the "Login Window" settings item.

However also after re-installing slick-greeter I am back at the issue of no login screen. I'm thinking the issue is for some odd reason slick-greeter isn't compatible with my Dell or some other issue. If I remove slick-greeter again I can have a log in window but it will show "ubuntu 20.04 LTS" instead of what I'm using which is Linux Mint. That is where I'm at, sorry for the confusion.


UPDATE:
I figured I would try some other things while waiting on a response. The greeter I'm seeing at boot with slick-greeter removed looks just like the slick-greeter I see when I have it installed(by choosing "Switch User" as I don't see that one at boot) other than the fact that it says "ubuntu 20.04 LTS" on bottom left, and the cinnamon logo above the user is just a white circle. It is as if that is a default that is used when no greeter is installed.

What I tried to do was this. I uninstalled the slick-greeter again, and this time installed the gtk greeter. I again had a black screen at boot, just as with the slick-greeter installed. But this time, since that greeter in settings had the default mint background chosen I noticed that right after I put my password in and hit enter I saw the different background, before my desktop showed up, as if as soon as I logged in it loaded the greeter.

So now I've discovered that no matter what, if I have slick-greeter or gtk I will not see any greeter at all unless I'm logged in. This explains why I'm able to see the login screen when I select "Switch User"(as I'm still logged in) as apposed to when I select "Log out" as I'm immediately logged out, so therefore the greeter does not show. So this tells me that whatever greeter settings I have are somehow tied to just me as a user and isn't global on my PC. This seems to be what my issue is and I don't know how to fix it. This was like this ever since the first day I installed Linux Mint on this computer and I installed it just like I did every other computer I have in the house so I'm not understanding why this is the case.

[mikeflan]

OK, got it. You explained it very thoroughly. So your problem is not very bad, but is a valid question/issue. I really don't know hardly anything about the early login period of any computer. One would think that the bios might be the issue, but I really don't know. I don't duel boot, so I almost never see grub and I just accept the normal signin page as designed.

I must say I am always surprised when one of my youtube videos or something else is shown on the login page when waking from a suspend. It is rare and I don't know the mechanism behind that.

[chtwright]

Thanks for the reply.

I have some more information as well. I tried to compare my settings from other computers and my desktop didn't even have a lightdm.conf file or slick-greeter.conf file in the etc/lightdm/ folder so I guess it was just default, which is probably what mine was before I started messing with it today because today is the first time I had messed with the settings, so I went ahead and just deleted those two files to see and still had the same results though.

So then I got to thinking what could be different that is allowing a login window when I remove slick-greeter as apposed to when I have slick-greeter, so I went into the var/log/lightdm/ folder and checked the lightdm.log file after having slick-greeter installed as apposed to when I do not have slick-greeter installed.

So this is the difference I discovered.
With slick-greeter installed
[+9.34s] DEBUG: Seat seat0: Session authenticated, running command
[+9.34s] DEBUG: Session pid=1231: Running command /usr/lib/lightdm/lightdm-greeter-session /usr/sbin/slick-greeter

Without slick-greeter installed
[+8.69s] DEBUG: Seat seat0: Session authenticated, running command
[+8.69s] DEBUG: Session pid=1218: Running command /usr/lib/lightdm/lightdm-greeter-session /usr/sbin/unity-greeter

So now at least I know what the greeter is it is using, and also why it looks like the slick-greeter as I learned slick-greeter is forked from unity-greeter so that now makes sense.

I just don't understand why it works with unity-greeter and not slick-greeter or gtk-greeter. But I guess I'm getting further. Also I've been looking online trying to see if there is a configuration program or something for the unity-greeter but cannot find one, or where the configuration files are stored for this greeter so maybe I can manually make some changes to it. Since this one is working maybe I will just leave slick-greeter uninstalled and let it default to the unity-greeter, and maybe try to figure out how to get rid of the "ubuntu 20.04 LTS" branding on the login page.

I did notice that when I was testing prior with slick-greeter when I could get to it by going to "Switch User" that it doesn't mention the distribution in the lower left, which is absolutely fine with me, it just erks me with the unity-greeter listing the wrong distribution.

So I'm still up for any help getting the slick-greeter working on boot up and log out, or being able to config what is showing with the unity-greeter.

[mikeflan]

On my computer all these files are empty:

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/var/log/lightdm/lightdm.log
/var/log/lightdm/seat0-greeter.log
/var/log/lightdm/x-0.log
/var/log/lightdm/x-1.log

/usr/sbin/slick-greeter is a binary file.