SDDM hangs randomly on boot, randomly misbehaves on waking

[manatee]

I have had SDDM randomly fail to take over the display when booting for some time. I have not been able to diagnose the issue myself with rc.log, sddm.log, or auth.log.

SDDM doesn't seem to have hung, since I can hit the power button and get a graceful shutdown.

I also experience the issue of waking from sleep into a black screen with terminal cursor.

Any system debugging advice is welcome.

I run the correct modeset for nvidia drivers.
My locale is all en_US.UTF8.

• SDDM
• Wayland
• Nvidia Drivers
• KDE
• OpenRC
• Grub

SDDM helper doesn't seem to normally support this error

sddm.log

Code: Select all

[18:53:21.785] (II) DAEMON: Initializing...
[18:53:21.796] (II) DAEMON: Starting...
[18:53:21.796] (II) DAEMON: Logind interface found
[18:53:21.798] (II) DAEMON: Adding new display...
[18:53:21.799] (II) DAEMON: Loaded empty theme configuration
[18:53:21.801] (II) DAEMON: Using VT 7
[18:53:21.801] (II) DAEMON: Display server started.
[18:53:21.801] (II) DAEMON: Socket server starting...
[18:53:21.802] (II) DAEMON: Socket server started.
[18:53:21.802] (II) DAEMON: Loading theme configuration from "/usr/share/sddm/themes/breeze/theme.conf"
[18:53:21.803] (II) DAEMON: Greeter starting...
[18:53:21.812] (II) HELPER: [PAM] Starting...
[18:53:21.812] (II) HELPER: [PAM] Authenticating...
[18:53:21.812] (II) HELPER: [PAM] returning.
[18:53:21.827] (II) HELPER: Jumping to VT 7
[18:53:21.827] (II) HELPER: VT mode didn't need to be fixed
[18:53:21.828] (II) DAEMON: Greeter session started successfully
[18:53:21.828] (II) HELPER: [PAM] Closing session
[18:53:21.830] (II) HELPER: [PAM] Ended.
[18:53:21.831] (WW) DAEMON: Auth: sddm-helper exited with 63
[18:53:21.831] (II) DAEMON: Greeter stopped. SDDM::Auth::HelperExitStatus(63)
[18:53:52.838] (WW) DAEMON: Signal received: SIGTERM
[18:53:52.839] (II) DAEMON: Socket server stopping...
[18:53:52.839] (II) DAEMON: Socket server stopped.
[18:54:46.889] (II) DAEMON: Initializing...
[18:54:46.898] (II) DAEMON: Starting...
[18:54:46.898] (II) DAEMON: Logind interface found
[18:54:46.900] (II) DAEMON: Adding new display...
[18:54:46.902] (II) DAEMON: Loaded empty theme configuration
[18:54:46.903] (II) DAEMON: Using VT 7
[18:54:46.903] (II) DAEMON: Display server started.
[18:54:46.903] (II) DAEMON: Socket server starting...
[18:54:46.903] (II) DAEMON: Socket server started.
[18:54:46.904] (II) DAEMON: Loading theme configuration from "/usr/share/sddm/themes/breeze/theme.conf"
[18:54:46.905] (II) DAEMON: Greeter starting...
[18:54:46.912] (II) HELPER: [PAM] Starting...
[18:54:46.912] (II) HELPER: [PAM] Authenticating...
[18:54:46.912] (II) HELPER: [PAM] returning.
[18:54:46.925] (II) HELPER: Jumping to VT 7
[18:54:46.925] (II) HELPER: VT mode didn't need to be fixed
[18:54:46.926] (II) DAEMON: Greeter session started successfully
[18:54:48.500] (II) DAEMON: Message received from greeter: Connect
[18:55:20.238] (II) DAEMON: Message received from greeter: Login
[18:55:20.238] (II) DAEMON: Reading from "/usr/share/wayland-sessions/plasma.desktop"
[18:55:20.239] (II) DAEMON: Session "/usr/share/wayland-sessions/plasma.desktop" selected, command: "/usr/libexec/plasma-dbus-run-session-if-needed /usr/bin/startplasma-wayland" for VT 8
[18:55:20.261] (II) HELPER: [PAM] Starting...
[18:55:20.261] (II) HELPER: [PAM] Authenticating...
[18:55:20.270] (II) HELPER: [PAM] Preparing to converse...
[18:55:20.270] (II) HELPER: [PAM] Conversation with 1 messages
[18:55:20.285] (II) HELPER: [PAM] returning.
[18:55:20.289] (II) DAEMON: Authentication for user  "jeremy"  successful
[18:55:20.291] (II) HELPER: [PAM] Preparing to converse...
[18:55:20.291] (II) HELPER: [PAM] Conversation with 1 messages
[18:55:20.291] (WW) DAEMON: Authentication information: SDDM::Auth::INFO_UNKNOWN "Last login: Mon Nov  3 19:25:10 EST 2025"
[18:55:20.445] (II) HELPER: Starting Wayland user session: "/usr/share/sddm/scripts/wayland-session" "/usr/libexec/plasma-dbus-run-session-if-needed /usr/bin/startplasma-wayland"
[18:55:20.446] (II) HELPER: Jumping to VT 8
[18:55:20.446] (II) HELPER: VT mode didn't need to be fixed
[18:55:20.712] (II) DAEMON: Session started true
[18:55:20.984] (II) HELPER: [PAM] Closing session
[18:55:20.984] (II) HELPER: [PAM] Ended.
[18:55:20.985] (II) DAEMON: Auth: sddm-helper exited successfully
[18:55:20.985] (II) DAEMON: Greeter stopped. SDDM::Auth::HELPER_SUCCESS

auth.log

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Nov  4 18:53:21 Gentoo sddm-helper: pam_unix(sddm-greeter:session): session opened for user sddm(uid=219) by (uid=0)
Nov  4 18:53:21 Gentoo sddm-helper: pam_unix(sddm-greeter:session): session closed for user sddm
Nov  4 18:53:21 Gentoo polkitd[2215]: Loading rules from directory /etc/polkit-1/rules.d
Nov  4 18:53:21 Gentoo polkitd[2215]: Loading rules from directory /run/polkit-1/rules.d
Nov  4 18:53:21 Gentoo polkitd[2215]: Error opening rules directory: Error opening directory “/run/polkit-1/rules.d”: No such file or directory (g-file-error-quark, 4)
Nov  4 18:53:21 Gentoo polkitd[2215]: Loading rules from directory /usr/local/share/polkit-1/rules.d
Nov  4 18:53:21 Gentoo polkitd[2215]: Error opening rules directory: Error opening directory “/usr/local/share/polkit-1/rules.d”: No such file or directory (g-file-error-quark, 4)
Nov  4 18:53:21 Gentoo polkitd[2215]: Loading rules from directory /usr/share/polkit-1/rules.d
Nov  4 18:53:21 Gentoo polkitd[2215]: Finished loading, compiling and executing 2 rules
Nov  4 18:53:21 Gentoo polkitd[2215]: Acquired the name org.freedesktop.PolicyKit1 on the system bus
Nov  4 18:54:46 Gentoo sddm-helper: pam_unix(sddm-greeter:session): session opened for user sddm(uid=219) by (uid=0)
Nov  4 18:54:46 Gentoo polkitd[2224]: Loading rules from directory /etc/polkit-1/rules.d
Nov  4 18:54:46 Gentoo polkitd[2224]: Loading rules from directory /run/polkit-1/rules.d
Nov  4 18:54:46 Gentoo polkitd[2224]: Error opening rules directory: Error opening directory “/run/polkit-1/rules.d”: No such file or directory (g-file-error-quark, 4)
Nov  4 18:54:46 Gentoo polkitd[2224]: Loading rules from directory /usr/local/share/polkit-1/rules.d
Nov  4 18:54:46 Gentoo polkitd[2224]: Error opening rules directory: Error opening directory “/usr/local/share/polkit-1/rules.d”: No such file or directory (g-file-error-quark, 4)
Nov  4 18:54:46 Gentoo polkitd[2224]: Loading rules from directory /usr/share/polkit-1/rules.d
Nov  4 18:54:46 Gentoo polkitd[2224]: Finished loading, compiling and executing 2 rules
Nov  4 18:54:46 Gentoo polkitd[2224]: Acquired the name org.freedesktop.PolicyKit1 on the system bus
Nov  4 18:55:20 Gentoo sddm-helper: pam_kwallet5(sddm:auth): pam_kwallet5: pam_sm_authenticate
Nov  4 18:55:20 Gentoo sddm-helper: pam_kwallet5(sddm:setcred): pam_kwallet5: pam_sm_setcred
Nov  4 18:55:20 Gentoo sddm-helper: pam_unix(sddm:session): session opened for user jeremy(uid=1000) by jeremy(uid=0)
Nov  4 18:55:20 Gentoo sddm-helper: pam_lastlog(sddm:session): unable to open /var/log/btmp: No such file or directory
Nov  4 18:55:20 Gentoo openrc-user: pam_unix(openrc-user:session): session opened for user jeremy(uid=1000) by jeremy(uid=0)
Nov  4 18:55:20 Gentoo sddm-helper[2468]: pam_kwallet5(sddm:session): pam_kwallet5: pam_sm_open_session
Nov  4 18:55:20 Gentoo sddm-helper: pam_unix(sddm-greeter:session): session closed for user sddm
Nov  4 18:55:22 Gentoo polkitd[2224]: Registered Authentication Agent for unix-session:1 (system bus name :1.54 [/usr/libexec/polkit-kde-authentication-agent-1], object path /org/kde/PolicyKit1/AuthenticationAgent, locale en_US.utf8)
Nov  4 18:55:47 Gentoo sudo:   jeremy : TTY=pts/1 ; PWD=/home/jeremy ; USER=root ; COMMAND=/usr/sbin/su
Nov  4 18:55:47 Gentoo sudo: pam_unix(sudo:session): session opened for user root(uid=0) by jeremy(uid=1000)
Nov  4 18:55:47 Gentoo su[3027]: (to root) root on pts/2
Nov  4 18:55:47 Gentoo su[3027]: pam_unix(su:session): session opened for user root(uid=0) by jeremy(uid=0)
Nov  4 18:59:38 Gentoo su[3027]: pam_unix(su:session): session closed for user root
Nov  4 18:59:38 Gentoo sudo: pam_unix(sudo:session): session closed for user root
Nov  4 19:03:10 Gentoo unix_chkpwd[4178]: password check failed for user (jeremy)
Nov  4 19:03:10 Gentoo sudo: pam_unix(sudo:auth): authentication failure; logname=jeremy uid=1000 euid=0 tty=/dev/pts/1 ruser=jeremy rhost=  user=jeremy
Nov  4 19:03:17 Gentoo sudo:   jeremy : TTY=pts/1 ; PWD=/home/jeremy ; USER=root ; COMMAND=/usr/sbin/locale-gen
Nov  4 19:03:17 Gentoo sudo: pam_unix(sudo:session): session opened for user root(uid=0) by jeremy(uid=1000)
Nov  4 19:03:18 Gentoo sudo: pam_unix(sudo:session): session closed for user root
Nov  4 19:18:40 Gentoo sudo:   jeremy : TTY=pts/1 ; PWD=/home/jeremy ; USER=root ; COMMAND=/usr/sbin/cat /var/log/rc.log
Nov  4 19:18:40 Gentoo sudo: pam_unix(sudo:session): session opened for user root(uid=0) by jeremy(uid=1000)
Nov  4 19:18:40 Gentoo sudo: pam_unix(sudo:session): session closed for user root
Nov  4 19:40:32 Gentoo unix_chkpwd[8396]: password check failed for user (jeremy)
Nov  4 19:40:32 Gentoo sudo: pam_unix(sudo:auth): authentication failure; logname=jeremy uid=1000 euid=0 tty=/dev/pts/1 ruser=jeremy rhost=  user=jeremy
Nov  4 19:40:38 Gentoo sudo:   jeremy : TTY=pts/1 ; PWD=/home/jeremy ; USER=root ; COMMAND=/usr/sbin/less /var/log/auth.log
Nov  4 19:40:38 Gentoo sudo: pam_unix(sudo:session): session opened for user root(uid=0) by jeremy(uid=1000)
Nov  4 19:43:05 Gentoo sudo: pam_unix(sudo:session): session closed for user root
Nov  4 19:43:15 Gentoo sudo:   jeremy : TTY=pts/1 ; PWD=/home/jeremy ; USER=root ; COMMAND=/usr/sbin/hx /var/log/auth.log
Nov  4 19:43:15 Gentoo sudo: pam_unix(sudo:session): session opened for user root(uid=0) by jeremy(uid=1000)

make.conf

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# These settings were set by the catalyst build script that automatically
# built this stage.
# Please consult /usr/share/portage/config/make.conf.example for a more
# detailed example.
COMMON_FLAGS="-march=alderlake -mabm -mno-cldemote -mno-kl -mno-sgx -mno-widekl -mshstk --param=l1-cache-line-size=64 --param=l1-cache-size=48 --param=l2-cache-size=20480 -O2 -pipe"
CFLAGS="${COMMON_FLAGS}"
CXXFLAGS="${COMMON_FLAGS}"
FCFLAGS="${COMMON_FLAGS}"
FFLAGS="${COMMON_FLAGS}"
RUSTFLAGS="-C target-cpu=native"

# NOTE: This stage was built with the bindist USE flag enabled

# This sets the language of build output to English.
# Please keep this setting intact when reporting bugs.
LC_MESSAGES=C.utf8

MINUS_USE="-aqua -css -a52 -coreaudio -bluetooth -gtk -gnome -systemd -ldap -ios -ipod -emacs -xemacs -webengine -iee1394 -emboss -smartcard -ibm -qt5"
PLUS_USE="udev elogind dbus elogind qt6 kde modules-sign wayland nvidia pulseaudio vulkan"

USE="${PLUS_USE} ${MINUS_USE}"

MAKEOPTS="-j8 -l9"
PORTAGE_NICENESS=20
EMERGE_DEFAULT_OPTS="--verbose"
ACCEPT_KEYWORDS="~amd64"

PORTDIR="/var/db/repos/gentoo"
PORTAGE_LOGDIR="/var/log/portage"
DISTDIR="/var/cache/distfiles"
PKGDIR="/var/cache/binpkgs"

GRUB_PLATFORMS="efi-64"
INPUT_DEVICES="evdev keyboard mouse wacom joystick"

GENTOO_MIRRORS="http://www.gtlib.gatech.edu/pub/gentoo \
    https://gentoo.osuosl.org/ \
    http://gentoo.osuosl.org/"

SECUREBOOT_SIGN_KEY="/etc/ssl/private/secure_boot/my_db.pem"
SECUREBOOT_SIGN_CERT="/etc/ssl/private/secure_boot/my_db.pem"

MODULES_SIGN_KEY="/etc/ssl/private/kernel/signing_key.pem"
MODULES_SIGN_CERT="/etc/ssl/private/kernel/signing_key.pem"
MODULES_SIGN_HASH="sha3-512"

BINPKG_FORMAT="gpkg"

[Navar]

Maybe include your current rc-update services with run levels output (the output of just rc-update, since this sounds like a race condition.

Also, presuming I've understood you correctly, this is not a situation where you're unable to type in your prompt or get cursor into the login dialog window shown? That's another race condition scenario that can be easily addressed with a small delay config modifier set for openrc.

Have you considered temporarily trying a different DM, like lightdm to see if the problem goes away?

I have no experience with Wayland in Gentoo, only messing around with outside distributions utilizing, in case that is somehow causing the issue(s).

[Navar]

Suggest changing your title to 'SDDM issues on wayland openrc'

[Banana]

Suggest changing your title to 'SDDM issues on wayland openrc'

Quite tricky since OP does clearly describe the problem and the suggested change would move this topic into a general area. Yes it can be anything, but for now this specify title does a good description of the problem.

[manatee]

Also, presuming I've understood you correctly, this is not a situation where you're unable to type in your prompt or get cursor into the login dialog window shown?

Describing precisely the symptoms during a bad boot:

• I cannot type, move the tty cursor or mouse cursor
• Sometimes the screen flashes to black and back to openrc tty and sometimes it does not.
• The system is unresponsive to keyboard and mouse input and stuck on the openrc boot tty, usually around 'display-manager' or 'local'
• I can use a short press of the power button to cleanly shutdown the machine. Typically, but not always I will be able to see the normal openrc shutdown process

Here is the contents of

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root# rc-update

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       NetworkManager |      default                           
             apparmor | boot                                   
               auditd |      default                           
               binfmt | boot                                   
            bluetooth |      default                           
             bootmisc | boot                                   
              cgroups |                                 sysinit
              chronyd |      default                           
                dcron |      default                           
                devfs |                                 sysinit
      display-manager |      default                           
                dmesg |                                 sysinit
              elogind | boot                                   
                 fsck | boot                                   
             hostname | boot                                   
              hwclock | boot                                   
 kernel-bootcfg-boot-successful |      default                           
              keymaps | boot                                   
            killprocs |                        shutdown        
    kmod-static-nodes |                                 sysinit
                local |      default nonetwork                 
           localmount | boot                                   
             loopback | boot                                   
              modules | boot                                   
             mount-ro |                        shutdown        
                 mtab | boot                                   
             netmount |      default nonetwork                 
             nftables |      default                           
               procfs | boot                                   
                 rngd |      default                           
                 root | boot                                   
         save-keymaps | boot                                   
    save-termencoding | boot                                   
            savecache |                        shutdown        
              seedrng | boot                                   
                 swap | boot                                   
               sysctl | boot                                   
                sysfs |                                 sysinit
            syslog-ng |      default                           
 systemd-tmpfiles-setup | boot                                   
 systemd-tmpfiles-setup-dev |                                 sysinit
         termencoding | boot                                   
                 udev |                                 sysinit
         udev-trigger |                                 sysinit

[Navar]

Thank you for the additional info. Suspect wayland/power/sddm issues/interactions, which I'm not using.

That said, please try editing or adding this entry (try a higher value if needed) to your /etc/rc.conf

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rc_start_wait=100

Without this, vs amdgpu/console, etc. of the dm interactions and rc, one of my systems will not allow any login interaction with the dm. It's a race condition situation on daemon startup behavior. This ads a sanity checker and very slight delay, but resolves that situation.

[manatee]

Thanks, I've applied your suggestion and will follow up with the results in a ~week.

[manatee]

Issue happened again. Upping the setting to 150

[manatee]

Unfortunately, the rc_start_wait option does not seem to help even at 200ms delay. I had the bad boot twice in a row this morning and once yesterday.

[manatee]

Since my last post it's only happened once. Stability seems to have increased after that one off double failure.

[SCR4MBL3]

I don't really use SDDM, but here I give 2 things I reccomend you to do:
Firstly: See if the problem has something to do with wayland, or it's just Open-RC... see if the same thing happens when using other DMs. For example, you can try using another GUI to see if the problem is in Wayland, and a CLI one to see if it's a problem of Open-RC (My recomendation for the last one is Emptty, it's so stable).

Secondly: You should try changing the value from '100' to '50' or '75'.

Thirdly: Are you sure your system is up to date ? Maybe you should try updating too...

[manatee]

see if the same thing happens when using other DMs.
...
You should try changing the value from '100' to '50' or '75'.
...
Thirdly: Are you sure your system is up to date ? Maybe you should try updating too

1. I changed to greetd + tuigreet
2. changed to 50
3. system is updated at least once a week

I'll post the results in the thread for a week of these settings. See you in a week.

[manatee]

I'll post the results in the thread for a week of these settings. See you in a week.

I have experienced no bad boots since switching to greetd + tuigreet.