Graphical login fail

English Install/Boot/Login
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1

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?

2

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
3

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.

4

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

5

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)
6

systemctl enable --now --force sddm.service is the command you want, if you want sddm to run as a wayland client

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