Leap 15.5 boots to text mode (init 3) when laptop not plugged in

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1

Hello,

Strange issue. If my laptop is plugged in and is booted, I land on a graphical login screen (sddm / KDE). If I boot my laptop and it is unplugged, running on battery, only a text login appears. Other services like internet seem to start (I have an ip address) but no gui. I login in and try either startx or sudo init 5 but X / graphics mode doesn’t start.

This wasn’t a problem before when I installed and first updated openSUSE Leap 15.5. In fact, I reverted back to that early snapshot and confirmed that I am able to reach a graphical login screen and KDE regardless, plugged in or unplugged. After updating, something goes awry but not sure why; can’t reach gui when booting from a laptop running on battery.

Is anyone else experiencing or has experienced the same issue? What is causing this and more importantly, how do I fix it?

During boot, I noticed errors with acpi so I installed acpi and acpid from YaST but that didn’t solve the issue. This is something new I’ve encountered and it happened after some update.

Operating System: openSUSE Leap 15.5
KDE Plasma Version: 5.27.9
KDE Frameworks Version: 5.103.0
Qt Version: 5.15.8
Kernel Version: 5.14.21-150500.55.59-default (64-bit)
Graphics Platform: X11
Processors: 16 × 11th Gen Intel® Core™ i7-11800H @ 2.30GHz
Memory: 15.4 GiB of RAM
Graphics Processor: Mesa Intel® UHD Graphics + NVIDIA GEFORCE RTX 3050ti
Manufacturer: Acer
Product Name: Nitro AN515-57
System Version: V1.11

Any help is greatly appreciated. Thank you.

Dad4Linux

2

“Plugged in” what?

Anyway, capture as root the output of

journalctl -b --no-pager --full

immediately after boot in both cases and upload to https://paste.opensuse.org/

3

The UNIX® “init” world went away more than a few years ago …

  • Currently openSUSE uses “systemd”.

You’re using a Laptop –

  • Is the network connection a LAN cable or, a WiFi/WLAN connection?
  • Given KDE Plasma and a Laptop, are you using “Network Manager” to manage the network connections?

If you boot the box without the battery charger being plugged in –

  • From a VT (Virtual Terminal) – tty1 … tty6 – and, the user “root”, what’s the output of –

# systemctl status display-manager.service

Alternatively, the following may provide more information and, there’s the possibility to avoid posting the hostname on the network –

# journalctl -b 0 --no-hostname --output=short-monotonic --unit=display-manager.service

4

“Plugged in” what?

plugged into an electrical wall socket.

Anyway capture as root the output of
journalctl -b --no-pager --full
Immediately after boot in both cases and upload to https://paste.opensuse.org/

It over 7000 lines of text; you sure you want me to do that?

5

Thanks. You’re right that openSUSE doesn’t use an old-style init system but systemd; was using that as a way to express init 3 as (non-gui) text login init 3. Sorry, maybe that was confusing on my part to mention that.

The network connection is a wifi/wlan connection; yes, using NetworkManager but that doesn’t seem to be affected at all - just the gui & sddm don’t start when booting while the laptop is running on battery.

Here’s the output of systemctl status display-manager.service :

After booting while on battery:

● display-manager.service - X Display Manager
Loaded: loaded (/usr/lib/systemd/system/display-manager.service; enabled; vendor preset: enabled)
Active: active (running) since Fri 2024-05-10 20:45:41 EDT; 14min ago
Process: 2072 ExecStart=/usr/lib/X11/display-manager start (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS)
Main PID: 2139 (sddm)
Tasks: 2 (limit: 4915)
CGroup: /system.slice/display-manager.service
└─ 2139 /usr/bin/sddm
May 10 20:45:41 newton sddm[2139]: Attempt 1 starting the Display server on vt 7 failed
May 10 20:45:43 newton sddm[2139]: Display server starting…
May 10 20:45:43 newton sddm[2139]: Running: /usr/bin/X -nolisten tcp -auth /run/sddm/{32275f46-8c6d-4080-ab2c-9b6986b09a6f} -background none -noreset -displayfd 17 -seat seat0 vt7
May 10 20:45:43 newton sddm[2139]: Failed to read display number from pipe
May 10 20:45:43 newton sddm[2139]: Attempt 2 starting the Display server on vt 7 failed
May 10 20:45:45 newton sddm[2139]: Display server starting…
May 10 20:45:45 newton sddm[2139]: Running: /usr/bin/X -nolisten tcp -auth /run/sddm/{32275f46-8c6d-4080-ab2c-9b6986b09a6f} -background none -noreset -displayfd 17 -seat seat0 vt7
May 10 20:45:45 newton sddm[2139]: Failed to read display number from pipe
May 10 20:45:45 newton sddm[2139]: Attempt 3 starting the Display server on vt 7 failed
May 10 20:45:45 newton sddm[2139]: Could not start Display server on vt 7

After booting when laptop is plugged in:

● display-manager.service - X Display Manager
Loaded: loaded (/usr/lib/systemd/system/display-manager.service; enabled; vendor preset: enabled)
Active: active (running) since Fri 2024-05-10 21:03:32 EDT; 1h 6min ago
Process: 2177 ExecStart=/usr/lib/X11/display-manager start (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS)
Main PID: 2199 (sddm)
Tasks: 31 (limit: 4915)
CGroup: /system.slice/display-manager.service
├─ 2199 /usr/bin/sddm
└─ 2201 /usr/bin/X -nolisten tcp -auth /run/sddm/{b28051de-3f40-4bfb-ae49-eb6bd2e5213e} -background none -noreset -displayfd 17 -seat seat0 vt7
May 10 21:04:32 newton sddm-helper[2565]: [PAM] Conversation with 1 messages
May 10 21:04:32 newton sddm-helper[2565]: [PAM] returning.
May 10 21:04:32 newton sddm[2199]: Authenticated successfully
May 10 21:04:32 newton sddm-helper[2565]: pam_kwallet5(sddm:setcred): pam_kwallet5: pam_sm_setcred
May 10 21:04:32 newton sddm[2199]: Auth: sddm-helper exited successfully
May 10 21:04:32 newton sddm[2199]: Greeter stopped.
May 10 21:04:33 newton sddm-helper[2565]: pam_unix(sddm:session): session opened for user karl by (uid=0)
May 10 21:04:33 newton sddm-helper[2565]: pam_kwallet5(sddm:session): pam_kwallet5: pam_sm_open_session
May 10 21:04:33 newton sddm-helper[2565]: Starting: “/etc/X11/xdm/Xsession "/usr/bin/startplasma-x11"”
May 10 21:04:33 newton sddm[2199]: Session started

For the command (run as root):
# journalctl -b -0 --no-hostname --output=short-monotonic --unit=display.manager.service

After booting while on battery, the output was:

– No entries –

After booting with the laptop plugged in, the output was:

[ 14.098651] systemd[1]: Starting X Display Manager…
[ 14.123777] display-manager[2185]: /etc/vconsole.conf available
[ 14.124118] display-manager[2185]: KEYMAP: ca
[ 14.124118] display-manager[2185]: Command: localectl set-keymap ca
[ 14.130578] display-manager[2185]: I: Using systemd /usr/share/systemd/kbd-model-map mapping
[ 14.317705] sddm[2199]: Initializing…
[ 14.320080] sddm[2199]: Starting…
[ 14.320127] sddm[2199]: Logind interface found
[ 14.320501] sddm[2199]: Adding new display on vt 7 …
[ 14.320589] sddm[2199]: Loading theme configuration from “”
[ 14.320621] sddm[2199]: Display server starting…
[ 14.320636] sddm[2199]: Running: /usr/bin/X -nolisten tcp -auth /run/sddm/{b28051de-3f40-4bfb-ae49-eb6bd2e5213e} -background none -noreset -displayfd 17 -seat seat0 vt7
[ 14.776195] display-manager[2177]: Starting service sddm…done
[ 14.776535] systemd[1]: Started X Display Manager.
[ 15.277491] sddm[2199]: Setting default cursor
[ 15.343190] sddm[2199]: Running display setup script “/etc/X11/xdm/Xsetup”
[ 15.395292] sddm[2199]: Display server started.
[ 15.395368] sddm[2199]: Socket server starting…
[ 15.395587] sddm[2199]: Socket server started.
[ 15.396428] sddm[2199]: Loading theme configuration from “/usr/share/sddm/themes/breeze-openSUSE/theme.conf”
[ 15.396544] sddm[2199]: Greeter starting…
[ 15.402785] sddm-helper[2241]: [PAM] Starting…
[ 15.402929] sddm-helper[2241]: [PAM] Authenticating…
[ 15.402946] sddm-helper[2241]: [PAM] returning.
[ 15.488491] sddm-helper[2241]: pam_unix(sddm-greeter:session): session opened for user sddm by (uid=0)
[ 15.488550] sddm-helper[2241]: pam_kwallet5(sddm-greeter:session): pam_kwallet5: pam_sm_open_session
[ 15.488574] sddm-helper[2241]: pam_kwallet5(sddm-greeter:session): pam_kwallet5: open_session called without kwallet5_key
[ 15.490375] sddm[2199]: Greeter session started successfully
[ 15.555642] sddm[2199]: Message received from greeter: Connect
[ 73.932539] sddm[2199]: Message received from greeter: Login
[ 73.932856] sddm[2199]: Reading from “/usr/share/xsessions/plasma5.desktop”
[ 73.934245] sddm[2199]: Reading from “/usr/share/xsessions/plasma5.desktop”
[ 73.934389] sddm[2199]: Session “/usr/share/xsessions/plasma5.desktop” selected, command: “/usr/bin/startplasma-x11”
[ 73.945914] sddm-helper[2565]: [PAM] Starting…
[ 73.946393] sddm-helper[2565]: pam_kwallet5(sddm:auth): pam_kwallet5: pam_sm_authenticate
[ 73.946453] sddm-helper[2565]: [PAM] Authenticating…
[ 73.946518] sddm-helper[2565]: pam_kwallet5(sddm:auth): pam_kwallet5: Couldn’t get password (it is empty)
[ 73.946570] sddm-helper[2565]: [PAM] Preparing to converse…
[ 73.946639] sddm-helper[2565]: [PAM] Conversation with 1 messages
[ 73.954115] sddm-helper[2565]: [PAM] returning.
[ 73.954305] sddm[2199]: Authenticated successfully
[ 73.954510] sddm-helper[2565]: pam_kwallet5(sddm:setcred): pam_kwallet5: pam_sm_setcred
[ 74.030754] sddm[2199]: Auth: sddm-helper exited successfully
[ 74.030802] sddm[2199]: Greeter stopped.
[ 74.053497] sddm-helper[2565]: pam_unix(sddm:session): session opened for user karl by (uid=0)
[ 74.053532] sddm-helper[2565]: pam_kwallet5(sddm:session): pam_kwallet5: pam_sm_open_session
[ 74.134178] sddm-helper[2565]: Starting: “/etc/X11/xdm/Xsession "/usr/bin/startplasma-x11"”
[ 74.145855] sddm[2199]: Session started

6

@arvidjaar Sorry correction, 2830 lines of text not 7000. I can still paste in paste.opensuse.org if you want me to…

7

As long as we cannot see whatever clues may be in whatever logs contain them, we can do little more than speculate.

I have a 65W TDP i5-11400, 3 months older, same UHD GPU as your i7-11800H, but it’s in a desktop, running 3 displays without a DGPU.

I speculate that something is causing your laptop to boot on the DGPU but the current battery cannot provide enough power for everything in that mode. How old is the battery? Could it be in preliminary/premature failure mode? Are you aware of the methods of switching between GPU modes when using an Optimus graphics configuration? Can you force the DGPU off while booting without line power to shore up a possible battery shortfall, and/or force to IGPU mode as part of shutdown process?

8

@dad4linux:

It is strange that, when the Laptop is running on the battery, SDDM can’t read a display number from a pipe.
Meaning that, for whatever reason, when on battery the Display (hardware???) isn’t being setup properly.

Please drop a copy of the complete systemd Journal’s entries for the last «battery only» boot into the openSUSE Paste.

# journalctl -b 0 --no-hostname --output=short-monotonic

9

@dad4linux:

Here with a Lenovo G505s manufactured 2008 and BIOS from 2014 –

 # inxi -xxx --battery
Battery:
  ID-1: BAT1 charge: 0.7 Wh (2.2%) condition: 31.7/63.4 Wh (50.0%) volts: 16.8
    min: 14.4 model: SANYO PABAS0241231 type: Li-ion serial: 41167
    status: charging
  Device-1: hidpp_battery_0 model: Logitech Wireless Mouse B330/M330/M331
    serial: d6-47-ba-a0 charge: 55% (should be ignored) rechargeable: yes
    status: discharging
 #

Even if the battery was 100 % charged when powered off, if I attempt to boot with “battery only”, the boot only manages to get past the Grub selection screen and, before the Plymouth splash happens, the box powers off – with an empty battery …

Therefore, the suspicion is, for your Use Case, the battery is somewhat old and weak and can’t initialise the graphics hardware properly which then, results in a missing (graphics) pipe for SDDM …

10

Exactly the same happened to me on my Clevo laptop after I replaced the battery (with a third party new one).

Uninstalling upower was the only way to solve this (i.e. to be able to start the machine on battery only).

11

I’m considering buying a new Laptop – the thing is now 16 years old – has suffered several battery renewals and several HDD renewals – time to renew the thing despite it running quite OK but, sometimes quite warm, when the battery charger is plugged in … :blush:

12

Thank you! That was it. I uninstalled upower using YaST Software Management, rebooted on the battery alone and sddm / the gui appeared! I tried installing upower again and rebooted on the battery and sddm appeared as expected and as normal. It appears uninstalling and reinstalling this package was sufficient to resolve the issue. Thank you to everyone who offered suggestions. Yeah, was kind of weird; some update made upower interfere with the gui starting up.

13

My and laptop and battery are fairly new (purchased last October). Here is the result from the suggested command:

$ sudo inxi -xxx --battery
Battery:
  ID-1: BAT1 charge: 50.5 Wh (100.0%) condition: 50.5/57.5 Wh (87.9%) volts: 17.3 min: 15.4
    model: LGC AP18E8M type: Li-ion serial: 9447 status: full cycles: 9
14

Thanks! That’s it! Uninstalled upower using YaST Software Management, rebooted on laptop battery alone, and the gui and sddm started. I was curious and reinstalled upower and rebooted again using the laptop battery alone for power and it worked! Uninstalling, rebooting, and reinstalling upower seemed to fix the issue. Some update (not sure which one) caused some condition in upower to interfere with the gui / sddm starting up.

Thanks to everyone who offered suggestions. Appreciate this community’s support!

Have a wonderful day to all.

15

Battery and laptop are fairly new; purchased late 2023. The thing is that when I first installed openSUSE Leap and after several updates, this wasn’t an issue. Only after some update (not sure which one), my laptop would not start a gui / sddm from battery only (not plugged into the electrical outlet). I confirmed this by reverting to an older good snapshot and there were no boot and gui issues when starting on battery alone.

16

I’m considering buying a new Laptop – the thing is now 16 years old – has suffered several battery renewals and several HDD renewals – time to renew the thing despite it running quite OK but, sometimes quite warm, when the battery charger is plugged in … :blush:

Been there and done that. Maybe good to use your old laptop as a home server without the battery but powered with a power adapter :slight_smile: I have older laptops (T430 and a 32-bit Dell Latitude D630) I use for servers. No need to throw them out or recycle them but can still make good use of them. If running a bit hot, see if there is dust accumulation inside; use a can of compressed air to carefully blow away dust. I’ve also found using a laptop cooling pad helpful to help keep the older laptop temp down a bit.

1 Like
17

Ok. I was mistaken; the problem persists. Removing upower does work and I do reach a gui and sddm on battery power alone but now finding that after reinstalling upower it fails to reach gui and sddm on battery alone; it boots to gui and sddm while the laptop is plugged in.

Here is the link to the output of the journalctl command you suggested to execute after booting on laptop battery alone and not reaching gui / sddm:

$ sudo journalctl -b 0 --no-hostname --output=short-monotonic

https://paste.opensuse.org/pastes/67ef198c4069

Here is the output of the same journalctl command after rebooting the laptop whille plugged in (boots as expected to gui and sddm):

https://paste.opensuse.org/pastes/a995588e7e9e

Why does upower seem to interfere with booting to gui? It worked before up until some update. Need battery notification and Advanced Battery Power Management for laptop so need upower. Thank you all for your help again

18 
[   18.972254] sddm[2127]: Display server starting...
[   18.972325] sddm[2127]: Running: /usr/bin/X -nolisten tcp -auth /run/sddm/{63172e10-3165-4189-81b6-751c196e384c} -background none -noreset -displayfd 17 -seat seat0 vt7
[   19.424119] display-manager[2105]: Starting service sddm..done
[   19.424757] systemd[1]: Started X Display Manager.
[   19.620188] sddm[2127]: Failed to read display number from pipe
[   19.620365] sddm[2127]: Attempt 1 starting the Display server on vt 7 failed

Xorg.log could be useful.

19

See the link below for the /var/log/ Xorg.0.log right after booting on battery; gui failed to start:

https://paste.opensuse.org/pastes/397bf9ef31f2

Now, even if upower is uninstalled, booting on battery the gui / sddm fails to start; drops to text login. I’m at a loss to know why.

20

@dad4linux Hi hybrid laptop, Leap is probably a bit long in the tooth. I suspect it’s suse-prime blocking intel or nouveau use… Perhaps look at uninstalling suse-prime if it’s present and see if that helps.