[solved] non graphical login screen at start up

[missmoondog]

at a friends house checking out his mint 19.3 install and wondering why when he starts the computer, it sets at the non graphical login screen for several seconds before going to the regular graphical login screen? can't think of what that first screen is called so i hope you can figure out what i'm talking about!

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Kernel: 5.4.0-74-generic x86_64 bits: 64 
  compiler: gcc v: 7.5.0 Desktop: Xfce 4.14.1 tk: Gtk 3.22.30 
  info: xfce4-panel wm: xfwm4 dm: LightDM 1.26.0 
  Distro: Linux Mint 19.3 Tricia base: Ubuntu 18.04 bionic 
Machine:
  Type: Desktop System: Dell product: OptiPlex 755 v: N/A serial: <filter> 
  Chassis: type: 6 serial: <filter> 
  Mobo: Dell model: 0GM819 serial: <filter> BIOS: Dell v: A22 
  date: 06/11/2012 
CPU:
  Topology: Dual Core model: Intel Core2 Duo E7500 bits: 64 type: MCP 
  arch: Penryn rev: A L2 cache: 3072 KiB 
  flags: lm nx pae sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 ssse3 vmx bogomips: 11703 
  Speed: 1596 MHz min/max: N/A Core speeds (MHz): 1: 1596 2: 1596 
Graphics:
  Device-1: NVIDIA G98 [GeForce 8400 GS Rev. 2] vendor: Micro-Star MSI 
  driver: nvidia v: 340.108 bus ID: 01:00.0 chip ID: 10de:06e4 
  Display: x11 server: X.Org 1.20.8 driver: nvidia 
  unloaded: fbdev,modesetting,nouveau,vesa resolution: 1024x768~60Hz 
  OpenGL: renderer: GeForce 8400 GS/PCIe/SSE2 v: 3.3.0 NVIDIA 340.108 
  direct render: Yes 
Audio:
  Device-1: Intel 82801I HD Audio vendor: Dell Optiplex 755 
  driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel bus ID: 00:1b.0 chip ID: 8086:293e 
  Sound Server: ALSA v: k5.4.0-74-generic 
Network:
  Device-1: Intel 82566DM-2 Gigabit Network vendor: Dell OptiPlex 755 
  driver: e1000e v: 3.2.6-k port: ecc0 bus ID: 00:19.0 chip ID: 8086:10bd 
  IF: enp0s25 state: up speed: 1000 Mbps duplex: full mac: <filter> 
Drives:
  Local Storage: total: 232.89 GiB used: 19.90 GiB (8.5%) 
  ID-1: /dev/sda vendor: Seagate model: ST3250318AS size: 232.89 GiB 
  speed: 3.0 Gb/s rotation: 7200 rpm serial: <filter> rev: CC6B scheme: MBR 
Partition:
  ID-1: / size: 228.23 GiB used: 19.90 GiB (8.7%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/sda1 
Sensors:
  System Temperatures: cpu: 35.0 C mobo: N/A gpu: nvidia temp: 60 C 
  Fan Speeds (RPM): N/A 
Repos:
  No active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list 
  Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/brave-browser-release.list 
  1: deb [signed-by=/usr/share/keyrings/brave-browser-archive-keyring.gpg arch=amd64] https://brave-browser-apt-release.s3.brave.com/ stable main
  Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/microsoft-edge-dev.list 
  1: deb [arch=amd64] http://packages.microsoft.com/repos/edge/ stable main
  Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/official-package-repositories.list 
  1: deb http://packages.linuxmint.com tricia main upstream import backport #id:linuxmint_main
  2: deb http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu bionic main restricted universe multiverse
  3: deb http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu bionic-updates main restricted universe multiverse
  4: deb http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu bionic-backports main restricted universe multiverse
  5: deb http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ bionic-security main restricted universe multiverse
  6: deb http://archive.canonical.com/ubuntu/ bionic partner
Info:
  Processes: 167 Uptime: 1h 34m Memory: 7.65 GiB used: 1.91 GiB (24.9%) 
  Init: systemd v: 237 runlevel: 5 Compilers: gcc: 7.5.0 alt: 7 Shell: bash 
  v: 4.4.20 running in: xfce4-terminal inxi: 3.0.32

[gittiest personITW]

Is it GRUB?
Does it give options?
Or is it a black screen with text scrolling?

[missmoondog]

Is it GRUB?
Does it give options?
Or is it a black screen with text scrolling?

no, it's not grub. no options except to type password, which he hasn't tried as it does go to graphical/regular login screen like it's supposed after 3-5 seconds or so and no text scrolling.

[Suwakoto]

That screen would be the TTY. I'm not sure what this stands for, but basically it's the user interface that's used when no GUI is available. You can see it again after logging in by just pressing CTRL+ALT+F2 or F3 or any of the other Fs.

Looking at the configuration, your friend uses a Core 2 Duo processor and has the system installed on an HDD. Both of these probably slow it down considerably compared to a more modern machine. If the TTY appears for a while and then you see the graphical login (that's called a Display Manager, by the way), I'd suspect that the system is just ready to go and lets you log in before the DM has the time to fully load.

You can check if that's the case with the systemctl command. It's the interface for systemd, which is what handles the operation of nearly all the stuff on your machine. Soon after logging in, open up a console and type these in:

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systemctl status lightdm

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systemctl status dbus

LightDM is the display manager that Linux Mint uses, and Dbus is just a random process that starts quite early. These commands will output the time that's passed since the services were started. On my machine, for example, when I put type these in right after logging in, it says that Dbus started 31 seconds ago, while LightDM started 24 second ago. If you see a considerable gap between these numbers when running them on your friend's machine, that might just be the reason.

[missmoondog]

ya, tty is what i thought it was! i'll have friend try logging at the tty screen and see what happens, otherwise i believe you have answered my question quite well and will mark this topic as solved.

thank you