[SOLVED] Login tty displays before lightdm

[huntera108]

When I turn on my computer, (quickly) before lightdm displays I see a tty that shows the option to log in. Then, it is immediately followed by the lightdm display, which is where I end up logging in.

In more simple terms, tty shows for a few seconds and then lightdm displays.

Is this normal? Thanks.

[MrEen]

Hi huntera108, and welcome to the forum.

I see that is well, so I'd call it normal. I have a somewhat older computer. I imagine on a newer system that would flash by so fast you wouldn't see it.

[huntera108]

Ok, cool, thanks for your response! I have used Arch, Ubuntu, Manjaro, Pop!_OS, etc. etc. etc. I never noticed anything like that with other distros. Linux Mint was my first distro and I recently came back to it, because I never had issues with it.

[MrEen]

I don't think I saw it originally, but definitely do now. Don't know if there may have been a change in LightDM/slick-greeter that may have caused this.

[Termy]

I've seen that before in Linux (generally speaking), but usually in virtual machines, which are typically much slower, so I'd agree with MrEen.

There may be a particular service or something taking a bit longer than it should. Do you see any errors during boot? When you next boot, and have loaded up a terminal, have a look at the result of this command cat /var/log/boot.log and show us if anything is in red or otherwise shows errors.

[huntera108]

I've seen that before in Linux (generally speaking), but usually in virtual machines, which are typically much slower, so I'd agree with MrEen.

There may be a particular service or something taking a bit longer than it should. Do you see any errors during boot? When you next boot, and have loaded up a terminal, have a look at the result of this command cat /var/log/boot.log and show us if anything is in red or otherwise shows errors.

The only thing I find that is red is:

[FAILED] Failed to start VirtualBox Web Service.
See 'systemctl status vboxweb.service' for details.

Other than that, everything else is good. Should the system be trying to start VirtualBox Web Service? This install is on hardware. I do have VirtualBox installed though, so I am not sure if that is typical after VirtualBox is installed.

[huntera108]

When I checked systemctl status vboxweb.service, it displayed:

● vboxweb.service - VirtualBox Web Service
Loaded: loaded (/lib/systemd/system/vboxweb.service; enabled; vendor prese>
Active: failed (Result: protocol) since Sun 2020-11-22 20:49:29 EST; 7min >
Process: 786 ExecStart=/usr/lib/virtualbox/vboxweb-service.sh start (code=e>

Nov 22 20:49:28 lm-pc systemd[1]: Starting VirtualBox Web Service...
Nov 22 20:49:29 lm-pc systemd[1]: vboxweb.service: Can't open PID file /run/vbo>
Nov 22 20:49:29 lm-pc systemd[1]: vboxweb.service: Failed with result 'protocol>
Nov 22 20:49:29 lm-pc systemd[1]: Failed to start VirtualBox Web Service.
lines 1-9/9 (END)

[zcot]

That's not a problem with that Vbox Web Service, unless you want to control the vm remotely.

I've seen the boot TTY for years on many versions. I guess it's the obvious point where init is happening. TTY7 is not set up yet. Well, the DM is not there, it's getting ready to fire. I don't know why it shows.

[huntera108]

That's not a problem with that Vbox Web Service, unless you want to control the vm remotely.

I've seen the boot TTY for years on many versions. I guess it's the obvious point where init is happening. TTY7 is not set up yet. Well, the DM is not there, it's getting ready to fire. I don't know why it shows.

Cool, sounds like everything is working as it should. Thanks for the answers!

[Termy]

I'd welcome suggestions to the contrary, but my thinking is that if things are halted while the vboxweb service tries to start, maybe that's causing just enough slow-down to notice the TTY log-in prompt. Seems a bit of a wonky idea though, because I'd expect to just be staring at the stuff before the prompt even shows ('/var/log/boot.log' stuff), but maybe that would be applicable to a different boot setup.

I wonder why you have that service, because I have VirtualBox 6.1.16 and don't seem to have that service at all. If you don't need it, you could always try sudo systemctl disable vboxweb to disable it; if you need to enable it again, just use the same command but substitute 'disable' for 'enable'.