On some my computers runing openSUSE Leap 15.6 or Tumbleweed with KDE the graphical login screen does not show up and I get only console login prompt. After login I can start KDE using startx command and it works as expected.
Some other computers with the same or similar hardware start graphical login sreen as expected, so the problem must be in improper configuration.
How to debug this?
What config files should I check?
What is the output of the systems were the graphical login fails?
systemctl get-default
It should be:
:~> systemctl get-default
graphical.target
To set graphical target:
sudo systemctl set-default graphical.target
The output of systemctl get-default is “graphical.target”
I suspect the problem is with Wayland. Computers with working graphical logins have been used for a long time and are more likely to run X11 than Wayland. New installs default to Wayland and it may not work properly.
No issues with Wayland on all systems here.
Did you already search the journal for hints or failing services?
What is the output of
systemctl status display-manager-legacy sddm
With working graphical boot:
~> systemctl status display-manager-legacy sddm
â—Ź display-manager-legacy.service - X Display Manager
Loaded: loaded (/usr/lib/systemd/system/display-manager-legacy.service; enabled; preset: enabled)
Active: active (running) since Fri 2026-06-12 15:12:18 CEST; 36min ago
Invocation: 2f3a17749c4a4302bc03634ea13002fc
Process: 1391 ExecStart=/usr/lib/X11/display-manager start (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS)
Main PID: 1425 (sddm)
Tasks: 4 (limit: 9267)
CPU: 17.545s
CGroup: /system.slice/display-manager-legacy.service
├─1425 /usr/bin/sddm
└─1469 /usr/bin/Xorg.bin -nolisten tcp -background none -seat seat0 vt2 -auth /run/sddm/xauth_dOIRkd -noreset -displayfd 16
Warning: some journal files were not opened due to insufficient permissions.
â—‹ sddm.service - Simple Desktop Display Manager
Loaded: loaded (/usr/lib/systemd/system/sddm.service; disabled; preset: disabled)
Active: inactive (dead)
Docs: man:sddm(1)
man:sddm.conf(5)
aste code here
With failing graphical boot:
â—Ź display-manager-legacy.service - X Display Manager
Loaded: loaded (/usr/lib/systemd/system/display-manager-legacy.service; enabled; preset: enabled)
Active: active (running) since Fri 2026-06-12 15:52:32 CEST; 1min 18s ago
Invocation: 307ac51bb8b040d5bb186d59b382d49f
Process: 1566 ExecStart=/usr/lib/X11/display-manager start (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS)
Main PID: 1577 (sddm)
Tasks: 2 (limit: 9273)
CPU: 193ms
CGroup: /system.slice/display-manager-legacy.service
└─1577 /usr/bin/sddm
Warning: some journal files were not opened due to insufficient permissions.
â—‹ sddm.service - Simple Desktop Display Manager
Loaded: loaded (/usr/lib/systemd/system/sddm.service; disabled; preset: disabled)
Active: inactive (dead)
Docs: man:sddm(1)
man:sddm.conf(5)
systemctl enable --now --force sddm.service is the command you want, if you want sddm to run as a wayland client
1 Like
Fresh Tumbleweed install with KDE and no automatic user login.
I see the graphical login screen but I’m unable to login either in x11 or wayland.
star-x or startplasma-wayland work after I log into the tty console.
The problem is probably in sddm. On good system I get ths:
jawor:/home/wk # journalctl -xb --no-tail |grep sddm
cze 29 14:44:48 jawor.ire.pw.edu.pl sddm[1426]: Initializing...
cze 29 14:44:48 jawor.ire.pw.edu.pl sddm[1426]: Starting...
cze 29 14:44:48 jawor.ire.pw.edu.pl sddm[1426]: Logind interface found
cze 29 14:44:48 jawor.ire.pw.edu.pl sddm[1426]: Adding new display...
cze 29 14:44:48 jawor.ire.pw.edu.pl sddm[1426]: Loaded empty theme configuration
cze 29 14:44:48 jawor.ire.pw.edu.pl sddm[1426]: Xauthority path: "/run/sddm/xauth_SjdwrK"
cze 29 14:44:48 jawor.ire.pw.edu.pl sddm[1426]: Using VT 2
cze 29 14:44:48 jawor.ire.pw.edu.pl sddm[1426]: Display server starting...
cze 29 14:44:48 jawor.ire.pw.edu.pl sddm[1426]: Writing cookie to "/run/sddm/xauth_SjdwrK"
cze 29 14:44:48 jawor.ire.pw.edu.pl sddm[1426]: Running: /usr/bin/X -nolisten tcp -background none -seat seat0 vt2 -auth /run/sddm/xauth_SjdwrK -noreset -displayfd 16
cze 29 14:44:52 jawor.ire.pw.edu.pl sddm[1426]: Setting default cursor
cze 29 14:44:52 jawor.ire.pw.edu.pl sddm[1426]: Running display setup script "/usr/etc/X11/xdm/Xsetup"
cze 29 14:44:52 jawor.ire.pw.edu.pl sddm[1426]: Display server started.
cze 29 14:44:52 jawor.ire.pw.edu.pl sddm[1426]: Socket server starting...
cze 29 14:44:52 jawor.ire.pw.edu.pl sddm[1426]: Socket server started.
cze 29 14:44:52 jawor.ire.pw.edu.pl sddm[1426]: Loading theme configuration from "/usr/share/sddm/themes/breeze-openSUSE/theme.conf"
cze 29 14:44:52 jawor.ire.pw.edu.pl sddm[1426]: Greeter starting...
while on not starting one there are only the first 3 lines:
wk@jawor:~/media/USB DISK/nvidia-G04> cat journal.txt |grep sddm
cze 19 12:41:51 localhost sddm[1348]: Initializing...
cze 19 12:41:51 localhost sddm[1348]: Starting...
cze 19 12:41:51 localhost sddm[1348]: Logind interface found
Did you try Shawn’s advice (post #6) yet?
As you still mention X11, anything telling reported in the Xorg.0.log?
Also, check
sudo journalctl -b -u display-manager-legacy
sudo journalctl -b | grep -Ei "sddm|Xorg|greeter|drm|amdgpu|nouveau|nvidia|i915"
Those logs should indicate whether SDDM is failing to start the greeter or if there’s a graphics/driver issue.
I also recommend moving away from the legacy display manager wrapper and using the native sddm.service instead. The display-manager-legacy.service exists mainly for compatibility with older openSUSE display manager handling, whereas sddm.service is the upstream systemd unit and is the recommended approach on current openSUSE releases. It’s worth switching to rule that out as a contributing factor.