On leap 16.0 GNOME switch user doesn't work

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1

on my laptop running 16.0 I’m starting to use GNOME (xorg and wayland) and clicking on system bar>switch off icon>switch user nothing happen.
how can I have switch user working on GNOME (in KDE plasma works well)

2

In the terminal, enter

su <username>

3

Which display manager are you using?
systemctl status display-manager

Open a terminal within the Gnome desktop session and run

loginctl list-users
loginctl list-sessions

then click “Switch User”. Since you report that nothing happens, you should still be at the GNOME desktop.

Now run
sudo journalctl -b | grep -Ei 'gdm|gnome-shell|logind'
Report back with collected output.

1 Like
4

hy manythanks, here are the outputs

pla@plaTW:~> systemctl status display-manager
● sddm.service - Simple Desktop Display Manager
     Loaded: loaded (/usr/lib/systemd/system/sddm.service; enabled; preset: ena>
     Active: active (running) since Wed 2026-08-19 20:08:53 CEST; 3min 40s ago
 Invocation: 4269e51f1228434795c1d075a7e14f5e
       Docs: man:sddm(1)
             man:sddm.conf(5)
   Main PID: 2163 (sddm)
      Tasks: 8 (limit: 47610)
        CPU: 19.259s
     CGroup: /system.slice/sddm.service
             ├─2163 /usr/bin/sddm
             └─2195 /usr/bin/Xorg.bin -nolisten tcp -background none -seat seat>
pla@plaTW:~> loginctl list-users
 UID USER LINGER STATE 
1000 pla  no     active

1 users listed.
pla@plaTW:~> loginctl list-sessions
SESSION  UID USER SEAT  LEADER CLASS   TTY  IDLE SINCE
      3 1000 pla  seat0 2291   user    tty2 no   -    
      4 1000 pla  -     2296   manager -    no   -    

2 sessions listed.
pla@plaTW:~> 
pla@plaTW:~> sudo journalctl -b | grep -Ei 'gdm|gnome-shell|logind'
[sudo] password for root: 
Aug 19 20:08:44 plaTW systemd-logind[1390]: New seat seat0.
Aug 19 20:08:44 plaTW systemd-logind[1390]: Watching system buttons on /dev/input/event4 (Power Button)
Aug 19 20:08:44 plaTW systemd-logind[1390]: Watching system buttons on /dev/input/event6 (Lid Switch)
Aug 19 20:08:44 plaTW systemd-logind[1390]: Watching system buttons on /dev/input/event5 (Sleep Button)
Aug 19 20:08:44 plaTW systemd-logind[1390]: Watching system buttons on /dev/input/event3 (Intel HID events)
Aug 19 20:08:44 plaTW systemd-logind[1390]: Watching system buttons on /dev/input/event0 (AT Translated Set 2 keyboard)
Aug 19 20:08:53 plaTW sddm[2163]: Logind interface found
Aug 19 20:08:53 plaTW systemd-logind[1390]: New session 1 of user sddm.
Aug 19 20:08:53 plaTW systemd-logind[1390]: New session 2 of user sddm.
Aug 19 20:09:10 plaTW systemd-logind[1390]: New session 3 of user pla.
Aug 19 20:09:10 plaTW systemd-logind[1390]: Session 1 logged out. Waiting for processes to exit.
Aug 19 20:09:10 plaTW systemd-logind[1390]: Removed session 1.
Aug 19 20:09:10 plaTW systemd-logind[1390]: New session 4 of user pla.
Aug 19 20:09:11 plaTW gnome-shell[2481]: Running GNOME Shell (using mutter 48.4) as a X11 window and compositing manager
Aug 19 20:09:12 plaTW gnome-shell[2481]: Error looking up permission: GDBus.Error:org.freedesktop.portal.Error.NotFound: No entry for geolocation
Aug 19 20:09:13 plaTW polkitd[1372]: Registered Authentication Agent for unix-session:3 (system bus name :1.36 [/usr/bin/gnome-shell], object path /org/freedesktop/PolicyKit1/AuthenticationAgent, locale en_US.UTF-8)
Aug 19 20:09:13 plaTW gnome-shell[2481]: Enabling multicore system monitor.
Aug 19 20:09:13 plaTW gnome-shell[2481]: Type interface of property NM.Object::client does not match return type void of getter get_client. Falling back to slow path
Aug 19 20:09:14 plaTW gnome-shell[2481]: GNOME Shell started at Wed Aug 19 2026 20:09:12 GMT+0200 (Central European Summer Time)
Aug 19 20:09:14 plaTW gnome-shell[2481]: Registering session with GDM
Aug 19 20:09:14 plaTW gnome-shell[2481]: Error registering session with GDM: GDBus.Error:org.freedesktop.DBus.Error.ServiceUnknown: The name is not activatable
Aug 19 20:09:20 plaTW systemd-logind[1390]: Removed session 2.
Aug 19 20:09:25 plaTW gnome-shell[2481]: Unable to create transient display: GDBus.Error:org.freedesktop.DBus.Error.ServiceUnknown: The name is not activatable
Aug 19 20:09:25 plaTW gnome-shell[2481]: JS ERROR: Gio.DBusError: Unable to create transient display: GDBus.Error:org.freedesktop.DBus.Error.ServiceUnknown: The name is not activatable
Aug 19 20:09:40 plaTW systemd[2296]: Started Application launched by gnome-shell.
Aug 19 20:09:41 plaTW gnome-shell[2481]: Can't update stage views actor unnamed [MetaWindowActorX11] is on because it needs an allocation.
Aug 19 20:09:41 plaTW gnome-shell[2481]: Can't update stage views actor unnamed [MetaSurfaceActorX11] is on because it needs an allocation.
Aug 19 20:09:41 plaTW gnome-shell[2481]: Can't update stage views actor unnamed [MetaWindowActorX11] is on because it needs an allocation.
Aug 19 20:09:41 plaTW gnome-shell[2481]: Can't update stage views actor unnamed [MetaSurfaceActorX11] is on because it needs an allocation.
Aug 19 20:09:41 plaTW gnome-shell[2481]: Can't update stage views actor unnamed [MetaWindowActorX11] is on because it needs an allocation.
Aug 19 20:09:41 plaTW gnome-shell[2481]: Can't update stage views actor unnamed [MetaSurfaceActorX11] is on because it needs an allocation.
Aug 19 20:09:41 plaTW gnome-shell[2481]: Can't update stage views actor unnamed [MetaWindowActorX11] is on because it needs an allocation.
Aug 19 20:09:41 plaTW gnome-shell[2481]: Can't update stage views actor unnamed [MetaSurfaceActorX11] is on because it needs an allocation.
Aug 19 20:09:41 plaTW gnome-shell[2481]: Can't update stage views actor unnamed [MetaWindowActorX11] is on because it needs an allocation.
Aug 19 20:09:41 plaTW gnome-shell[2481]: Can't update stage views actor unnamed [MetaSurfaceActorX11] is on because it needs an allocation.
Aug 19 20:11:35 plaTW systemd[2296]: Started Application launched by gnome-shell.
Aug 19 20:12:09 plaTW systemd[2296]: Started Application launched by gnome-shell.
Aug 19 20:12:09 plaTW gnome-shell[2481]: Can't update stage views actor unnamed [MetaWindowActorX11] is on because it needs an allocation.
Aug 19 20:12:09 plaTW gnome-shell[2481]: Can't update stage views actor unnamed [MetaSurfaceActorX11] is on because it needs an allocation.
Aug 19 20:12:09 plaTW gnome-shell[2481]: Can't update stage views actor unnamed [MetaWindowActorX11] is on because it needs an allocation.
Aug 19 20:12:09 plaTW gnome-shell[2481]: Can't update stage views actor unnamed [MetaSurfaceActorX11] is on because it needs an allocation.
Aug 19 20:12:09 plaTW gnome-shell[2481]: Can't update stage views actor unnamed [MetaWindowActorX11] is on because it needs an allocation.
Aug 19 20:12:09 plaTW gnome-shell[2481]: Can't update stage views actor unnamed [MetaSurfaceActorX11] is on because it needs an allocation.
Aug 19 20:12:09 plaTW gnome-shell[2481]: Can't update stage views actor unnamed [MetaWindowActorX11] is on because it needs an allocation.
Aug 19 20:12:09 plaTW gnome-shell[2481]: Can't update stage views actor unnamed [MetaSurfaceActorX11] is on because it needs an allocation.
Aug 19 20:12:10 plaTW gnome-shell[2481]: Can't update stage views actor unnamed [MetaWindowActorX11] is on because it needs an allocation.
Aug 19 20:12:10 plaTW gnome-shell[2481]: Can't update stage views actor unnamed [MetaSurfaceActorX11] is on because it needs an allocation.
Aug 19 20:13:02 plaTW systemd[2296]: Started Application launched by gnome-shell.
Aug 19 20:17:41 plaTW gnome-shell[2481]: Unable to create transient display: GDBus.Error:org.freedesktop.DBus.Error.ServiceUnknown: The name is not activatable
Aug 19 20:17:41 plaTW gnome-shell[2481]: JS ERROR: Gio.DBusError: Unable to create transient display: GDBus.Error:org.freedesktop.DBus.Error.ServiceUnknown: The name is not activatable
pla@plaTW:~>
5

Oh, you’re using SDDM. I think the issue is maybe with the GNOME + SDDM combination. I’m not a Gnome user, but GNOME Shell’s user-switching functionality probably expects to communicate with GDM.

gnome-shell: Registering session with GDM
gnome-shell: Error registering session with GDM:
GDBus.Error:org.freedesktop.DBus.Error.ServiceUnknown
6

Yes, Gnome is rather picky with the display manager since GDM is tightly integrated.
I’m not saying that it is impossible to have it working with sddm, but for sure it is not one of the design goals, so if some feature doesn’t work as the user expects I’m not surprised.

2 Likes
7

how can I switch to GDM and if I don’t like come back to SDDM?

8 
sudo systemctl disable sddm
sudo systemctl enable gdm

then
sudo reboot

9

I’ll just note that GDM only allows Wayland sessions. For example, I have “Icewm” installed on a system using GDM (and Leap 16.0), but GDM does not allow me to choose “Icewm”.

10

manythanks, with GDM switch user works