Open suse leap42.1 was working (ish) now stops at command line on power up

English Install/Boot/Login
1

Hi,

I have a GA-170X-UD5 dual NIC no thunderbolt, sklyake CPU, using the intel graphics card, 32 GB memory, ( expecting to run a few vm’s when more used to the system) quite used to windows, but not a lot of linux eperience.
boot is to a 120GB Samsung 951 NVME it has a heap of hdd’s attached, for various storage requirements.

It was working with an Administrator account and four user accounts, set to LXDE login, as initially plasma would totally fail to start, some other window managers would also totally fail to start, settled on that one as it stood a chance of being recognised how to drive it by some of the other users, ie it actually had a logout button.
problem 1 was that I would logout, another user would log in, then coming out of screensaver it would often, but not always ask for the administrator user to login to continue the admin session? even though I thought I was logged out, used YAST to check it was all up to date and made some trivial changes, but not listed them on paper anywhere.
Now when I turn it on it goes to the command prompt and stops.
tried the web for advice, but logging in as admin leaves me as lost as before, and “startx” just gives a wall of text that does not properly align to the screen and still does not give me a gui.
What steps do I need to do?
Family desparately needs to use the computer some time soon.
Please provide simple instructions. I initially spent almost 2 weeks messing about with windows 7 and nlite etc trying to get the install onto the nvme drive, that is why I bbit the bullet and went to linux for the first time.

2

Little confused about the admin account you speak of. In general that is not a thing in the Linux world. root is the super user account and you should avoid logging into GUI’s as root you can damage stuff by accident.

If you have skylake CPU then you will need kernel 4.3 or above to properly support it.

What do you mean it goes to terminal mode and stops?? If you log into the terminal can you run text version of yast? Or is it frozen???

3

Hi,

What I mean is that I am the administrator who set up the other accounts. I have to manage whicg GUI is the default etc for the other users who just want it to behave like windows.

The current pressing problem is that when I power it up it halts at the command line and I am unable to get any further, it does not proceed to the main login page any more

4

So can you log into the command line terminal?

As I said you should avoid logging into any Linux GUI as root. This is NOT Windows. You can inadvertently damage things if you log into a GUI as root. In Linux you log in as a normal user and become root via su, sudo, or Yast

Assuming you used default settings when you installed you have BTRFS files system and snapper. You can use snapper from the advanced boot screen to boot to a previous image. This may work

Did you allow at least 40 gig for the root partition?? If not you may be out of space on the root partition. If so you can boot to terminal mode and use yast to erase some snapshots.

Remember we can not see over your shoulder so you must tell us any errors or other hints that may tell us what the problem is. So far you have just said it is broken and it is up to use to guess why.

5

I am not logging in as “Root” just an “Administrator” with write access to more of the disks than I give the other users.

I power up, login as me, then sometimes I would logout using the LXDE gui, I had presumed logout actually meant logout, but when other users logged in and then the session went to locked screen, the system would say it was ME that had to login?? WTF, anyway trying to cure that it broke bigtime, power down, leave it a minute or two, power up and it halts at the command prompt AFTER the greeny screen with the choices of logintype, eg ordinary leap, leap with xen etc, then the command prompt comes up and I am stumped, cant get any further, from the prompt not even sure how I would get the screentext off the computer?

6

I have a 48GB ext4 partition for SUSE, a 10GB swap file, but with 32MB ram that should not be hit too often I think. The other users have their home directories on a 120GB SSD . I had some teething issues where it would freeze and the mouse would misbehave, the screen being blank below whereever the mouse was if it ever went to screensaver, but after some updates that did go away.

Yes I can login at the command line terminal, but have no idea where to start on getting the GUI back again, I have also noticed that (before it broke) when I was in YAST looking at the systemD logs that I could not get focus onto any of the text lines to save them off as a text file for investigation elesewhere, just a pane of unselectable text, so not sure how I would get any messages out of there for anyone to tell me what I should do next.

7

You are confusing things with the administrator. In Linux there is normally NO administrator there is root and there are users. Yes it can be set up as such but it is tricky to do so. So you need to explain more why you think your account is administrator because it is not standard. My guess is you may have messed up permissions somewhere acting with root powers. 48 gig root partition should be fine for space.

Logs are just files. Most are in /var/log
For systemd logs default is now to use

journalctl

man journalctl
for the manual

You can run yast form command line as root just type yast

Also maybe try starting the GUI

as root
init 5

report any errors.

BTW what video card?

BTW it is ok to log into a terminal as root it is GUIs that cause the problems logging in as root

.

8

Hi,

Well it is just the standard Intel onboard graphics inside the skylake chip, no extra video card installed.

Maybe it is just a confusion of terminology, Administrator to me means I have to try and keep everything working, and set up YAST, decide packages etc.

startx is suposed to let me start a GUI, but it doesnt for some reason.
i will try init 5 and see what that does.

9

Wow, sudo init 5 did the trick, got to the loginscreen, it seems somehow it had defaulted to “MATE” as the desktop, and that is broken for some reason, but that is lower on my priorities than working out how and why the LXDE “Logout” tab seems not to properly logout? else why would it request my login for another users session?

So a big thank you for init 5 I will have to remember that.

10

Spoke too soon, next power up it stopped at the command prompt again, sudo init 5 fixes it, but I need to know what I have to look for/change to get it to autostart properly again.

11

Hi Anyone,

I have installed a bunch more packages and now most options are available to me, but when I have to reboot (this is sometimes turned off overnight to reduce noise) It stops at the command prompt.
Has anyone got any suggestions of where I should look to see why this is happening to the computer?

I have also decided that the behaviour of KDE Plasma and Plasma 5 is too far out for the other users, is it easy enough to just uninstall that or would it break anything else?

12

Don’t uninstall Plasma5 just install any other desk top you want. Removing desktops can be an interesting experience and probably one you don’t want unless you have a lot more experience.

I’m still trying to figure out your Administrator setup since it is in no way normal… Logging into a GUI with root permissions can cause problems and may be why you are having problems. So what did you do to become “administrator”?

13

Hi,

It seems I need to ask you to forget I used the word administrator, it seems to be getting in the way of solving the broken boot process on the PC.

Currently when I reboot, it just stops at the commend prompt, then I have to login and issue the command “sudo init 5” before I get the gui that all the other users expect, I also do not want to give them the root password anyway.

Another side issue is that some of the available gui options do not work, mate for instance just bounces me back to login page, and another one, I forget which seems to be just blank.

14

hi unknown33,

sorry to butt in,

in the file /etc/sysconfig/displaymanager what does the line 14? look like?

here its
DISPLAYMANAGER=“sddm”

but sddm could be any other DM, see line 8, or could be icewm

hth

15

It is not immaterial if you are doing things logged in a GUI even with part root permissions then it is very easy to break things. This is why I need to know exactly what you mean by administrator. The most common thing is that some file permissions get changed to root from a users

What version of kernel are you running unless above 4.3 skylake processors can be a problem

You may want to look at the logs in /var/log

also look at journalctl -n 100
immediate after log ro terminal as root after a boot. Might see something to give a clue

16

Hi,

well it has sddm on line 14, here are the other lines too

code

Path: Desktop/Display manager

Type: string(Xorg)

Default: “Xorg”

DISPLAYMANAGER_XSERVER=“Xorg”

Path: Desktop/Display manager

Description: settings to generate a proper displaymanager config

Type: string(kdm,xdm,gdm,wdm,entrance,console,lightdm,sddm)

Default: “”

Here you can set the default Display manager (kdm/xdm/gdm/wdm/entrance/console).

all changes in this file require a restart of the displaymanager

DISPLAYMANAGER=“sddm”

Type: yesno

Default: no

Allow remote access (XDMCP) to your display manager (xdm/kdm/gdm). Please note

that a modified kdm or xdm configuration, e.g. by KDE control center

will not be changed. For gdm, values will be updated after change.

XDMCP service should run only on trusted networks and you have to disable

firewall for interfaces, where you want to provide this service.

DISPLAYMANAGER_REMOTE_ACCESS=“no”

Type: yesno

Default: no

Allow remote access of the user root to your display manager. Note

that root can never login if DISPLAYMANAGER_SHUTDOWN is “auto” and

System/Security/Permissions/PERMISSION_SECURITY is “paranoid”

DISPLAYMANAGER_ROOT_LOGIN_REMOTE=“no”

Type: yesno

Default: yes

Let the displaymanager start a local Xserver.

Set to “no” for remote-access only.

Set to “no” on architectures without any Xserver (e.g. s390/s390x).

DISPLAYMANAGER_STARTS_XSERVER=“yes”

/code

17

hi unknown33,

DISPLAYMANAGER="sddm"

suggest the other lines be ignored for the moment, just change line 14 as follows then reboot

DISPLAYMANAGER="icewm"

cheers

18

Hi,

Well I have had a look at /var/log/boot.log

OK ] Started Show Plymouth Boot Screen.
OK ] Reached target Paths.
[FAILED] Failed to start Load Kernel Modules.
See “systemctl status systemd-modules-load.service” for details.
Starting Apply Kernel Variables…
OK ] Started Apply Kernel Variables.
OK ] Reached target System Initialization.
OK ] Reached target Basic System.
OK ] Found device SAMSUNG_MZVPV128 primary.
OK ] Started dracut initqueue hook.
Starting dracut pre-mount hook…
OK ] Reached target Remote File Systems (Pre).
OK ] Reached target Remote File Systems.
OK ] Started dracut pre-mount hook.
Starting File System Check on /dev/disk/by-uuid/4ce851f8-2fbc-4da4-8fea-2b32fb6ca4c3…
OK ] Started File System Check on /dev/disk/by-uuid/4ce851f8-2fbc-4da4-8fea-2b32fb6ca4c3.
Mounting /sysroot…
OK ] Mounted /sysroot.
OK ] Reached target Initrd Root File System.

OK ] Started Show Plymouth Boot Screen.
OK ] Reached target Paths.
[FAILED] Failed to start Load Kernel Modules.
See “systemctl status systemd-modules-load.service” for details.
Starting Apply Kernel Variables…
OK ] Started Apply Kernel Variables.
OK ] Reached target System Initialization.
OK ] Reached target Basic System.
OK ] Found device SAMSUNG_MZVPV128 primary.

     Starting File System Check on /dev/disk/by-uuid/4ce851f8-2fbc-4da4-8fea-2b32fb6ca4c3...

OK ] Started File System Check on /dev/disk/by-uuid/4ce851f8-2fbc-4da4-8fea-2b32fb6ca4c3.
Mounting /sysroot…
OK ] Mounted /sysroot.
OK ] Reached target Initrd Root File System.

… lots mor ok’s
later on it says:
OK ] Started irqbalance daemon.
Starting /etc/init.d/boot.local Compatibility…
Starting Save/Restore Sound Card State…
Starting SuSEfirewall2 phase 1…
OK ] Started Console System Startup Logging.

OK ] Started Name Service Cache Daemon.
OK ] Reached target Host and Network Name Lookups.
[FAILED] Failed to start /etc/init.d/boot.local Compatibility.
See “systemctl status rc-local.service” for details.
OK ] Started Save/Restore Sound Card State.
Starting Terminate Plymouth Boot Screen…
Starting Wait for Plymouth Boot Screen to Quit…
OK ] Started Avahi mDNS/DNS-SD Stack.

when I look at journalctl:

Apr 17 09:32:55 linux-kijt xinetd[1512]: Reading included configuration file: /etc/xinetd.d/vnc [file=/etc/xinetd.d/vnc] [line=13]
Apr 17 09:32:55 linux-kijt xinetd[1512]: Service chargen will use IPv6 or fallback to IPv4

Apr 17 09:32:55 linux-kijt xinetd[1512]: Service echo will use IPv6 or fallback to IPv4
Apr 17 09:32:55 linux-kijt iscsiadm[1523]: iscsiadm: No records found
Apr 17 09:32:55 linux-kijt xinetd[1512]: Port not specified and can’t find service: netstat with getservbyname
Apr 17 09:32:55 linux-kijt xinetd[1512]: No such internal service: servers/stream - DISABLING
Apr 17 09:32:55 linux-kijt xinetd[1512]: No such internal service: services/stream - DISABLING
Apr 17 09:32:55 linux-kijt xinetd[1512]: Service tftp will use IPv6 or fallback to IPv4
Apr 17 09:32:55 linux-kijt xinetd[1512]: Service time will use IPv6 or fallback to IPv4
Apr 17 09:32:55 linux-kijt xinetd[1512]: Service time will use IPv6 or fallback to IPv4
Apr 17 09:32:55 linux-kijt xinetd[1512]: xinetd Version 2.3.15 started with libwrap loadavg options compiled in.
Apr 17 09:32:55 linux-kijt xinetd[1512]: Started working: 23 available services
Apr 17 09:32:55 linux-kijt ntpd[1527]: ntpd 4.2.8p4@1.3265-o Thu Dec 17 05:32:52 UTC 2015 (1): Starting
Apr 17 09:32:55 linux-kijt ntpd[1527]: Command line: /usr/sbin/ntpd -p /var/run/ntp/ntpd.pid -g -u ntp:ntp -c /etc/ntp.conf
Apr 17 09:32:55 linux-kijt start-ntpd[1514]: Starting network time protocol daemon (NTPD)
Apr 17 09:32:55 linux-kijt systemd[1]: winbind.service: Supervising process 1531 which is not our child. We’ll most likely not notice when it exits.
Apr 17 09:32:55 linux-kijt winbindd[1531]: [2016/04/17 09:32:55.595169, 0] …/source3/winbindd/winbindd_cache.c:3235(initialize_winbindd_cache)
Apr 17 09:32:55 linux-kijt winbindd[1531]: initialize_winbindd_cache: clearing cache and re-creating with version number 2
Apr 17 09:32:55 linux-kijt winbindd[1531]: [2016/04/17 09:32:55.595610, 0] …/source3/winbindd/winbindd_util.c:736(init_domain_list)
Apr 17 09:32:55 linux-kijt winbindd[1531]: Could not fetch our SID - did we join?
Apr 17 09:32:55 linux-kijt winbindd[1531]: [2016/04/17 09:32:55.595627, 0] …/source3/winbindd/winbindd.c:1294(winbindd_register_handlers)
Apr 17 09:32:55 linux-kijt winbindd[1531]: unable to initialize domain list
Apr 17 09:32:55 linux-kijt ntpd[1530]: proto: precision = 0.043 usec (-24)
Apr 17 09:32:55 linux-kijt ntpd[1530]: switching logging to file /var/log/ntp
Apr 17 09:32:55 linux-kijt systemd[1]: Failed to start Samba Winbind Daemon.
Apr 17 09:32:55 linux-kijt SuSEfirewall2[1546]: Setting up rules from /etc/sysconfig/SuSEfirewall2 …
Apr 17 09:32:55 linux-kijt libvirtd[1524]: libvirt version: 1.2.18.2
Apr 17 09:32:55 linux-kijt libvirtd[1524]: Failed to intialize libnetcontrol. Management of interface devices is disabled
Apr 17 09:32:55 linux-kijt echo[1550]: Starting mail service (Postfix)

and then

Apr 17 09:32:55 linux-kijt xinetd[1512]: Started working: 23 available services
Apr 17 09:32:55 linux-kijt ntpd[1527]: ntpd 4.2.8p4@1.3265-o Thu Dec 17 05:32:52 UTC 2015 (1): Starting
Apr 17 09:32:55 linux-kijt ntpd[1527]: Command line: /usr/sbin/ntpd -p /var/run/ntp/ntpd.pid -g -u ntp:ntp -c /etc/ntp.conf
Apr 17 09:32:55 linux-kijt start-ntpd[1514]: Starting network time protocol daemon (NTPD)
Apr 17 09:32:55 linux-kijt systemd[1]: winbind.service: Supervising process 1531 which is not our child. We’ll most likely not notice when it exits.
Apr 17 09:32:55 linux-kijt winbindd[1531]: [2016/04/17 09:32:55.595169, 0] …/source3/winbindd/winbindd_cache.c:3235(initialize_winbindd_cache)
Apr 17 09:32:55 linux-kijt winbindd[1531]: initialize_winbindd_cache: clearing cache and re-creating with version number 2
Apr 17 09:32:55 linux-kijt winbindd[1531]: [2016/04/17 09:32:55.595610, 0] …/source3/winbindd/winbindd_util.c:736(init_domain_list)
Apr 17 09:32:55 linux-kijt winbindd[1531]: Could not fetch our SID - did we join?
Apr 17 09:32:55 linux-kijt winbindd[1531]: [2016/04/17 09:32:55.595627, 0] …/source3/winbindd/winbindd.c:1294(winbindd_register_handlers)
Apr 17 09:32:55 linux-kijt winbindd[1531]: unable to initialize domain list
Apr 17 09:32:55 linux-kijt ntpd[1530]: proto: precision = 0.043 usec (-24)

Apr 17 09:32:55 linux-kijt systemd[1]: Failed to start Samba Winbind Daemon.

Apr 17 09:32:55 linux-kijt libvirtd[1524]: libvirt version: 1.2.18.2
Apr 17 09:32:55 linux-kijt libvirtd[1524]: Failed to intialize libnetcontrol. Management of interface devices is disabled

Apr 17 09:32:55 linux-kijt libvirtd[1524]: Module /usr/lib64/libvirt/connection-driver/libvirt_driver_uml.so not accessible
Apr 17 09:32:55 linux-kijt libvirtd[1524]: Module /usr/lib64/libvirt/connection-driver/libvirt_driver_vbox.so not accessible

Apr 17 09:32:55 linux-kijt systemd[1]: smb.service: Supervising process 1637 which is not our child. We’ll most likely not notice when it exits.
Apr 17 09:32:55 linux-kijt smbd[1637]: [2016/04/17 09:32:55.642436, 0] …/lib/util/become_daemon.c:124(daemon_ready)
Apr 17 09:32:55 linux-kijt smbd[1637]: STATUS=daemon ‘smbd’ finished starting up and ready to serve connections
Apr 17 09:32:55 linux-kijt kernel: Ebtables v2.0 registered
Apr 17 09:32:55 linux-kijt postfix/postfix-script[1809]: starting the Postfix mail system
Apr 17 09:32:55 linux-kijt postfix/master[1813]: daemon started – version 2.11.6, configuration /etc/postfix
Apr 17 09:32:55 linux-kijt cron[1849]: (CRON) INFO (RANDOM_DELAY will be scaled with factor 22% if used.)
Apr 17 09:32:55 linux-kijt cron[1849]: (CRON) INFO (running with inotify support)
Apr 17 09:32:55 linux-kijt SuSEfirewall2[1856]: Firewall rules successfully set

Apr 17 09:33:10 linux-kijt login[1321]: pam_unix(login:session): session opened for user admin-mike by LOGIN(uid=0)
Apr 17 09:33:10 linux-kijt NetworkManager[1381]: <info> Auto-activating connection ‘BTHub3-PCW7’.
Apr 17 09:33:10 linux-kijt NetworkManager[1381]: <info> (wlan0): Activation: starting connection ‘BTHub3-PCW7’ (badb6807-1125-4ee0-b77d-5fc04ee82274)
Apr 17 09:33:10 linux-kijt NetworkManager[1381]: <info> (wlan0): device state change: disconnected -> prepare (reason ‘none’) [30 40 0]
Apr 17 09:33:10 linux-kijt NetworkManager[1381]: <info> (wlan0): device state change: prepare -> config (reason ‘none’) [40 50 0]
Apr 17 09:33:10 linux-kijt NetworkManager[1381]: <info> (wlan0): Activation: (wifi) access point ‘BTHub3-PCW7’ has security, but secrets are required.
Apr 17 09:33:10 linux-kijt NetworkManager[1381]: <info> (wlan0): device state change: config -> need-auth (reason ‘none’) [50 60 0]
Apr 17 09:33:10 linux-kijt NetworkManager[1381]: <warn> (wlan0): No agents were available for this request.
Apr 17 09:33:10 linux-kijt NetworkManager[1381]: <info> (wlan0): device state change: need-auth -> failed (reason ‘no-secrets’) [60 120 7]
Apr 17 09:33:10 linux-kijt NetworkManager[1381]: <warn> (wlan0): Activation: failed for connection ‘BTHub3-PCW7’
Apr 17 09:33:10 linux-kijt NetworkManager[1381]: <info> (wlan0): device state change: failed -> disconnected (reason ‘none’) [120 30 0]
Apr 17 09:33:10 linux-kijt systemd[1864]: pam_unix(systemd-user:session): session opened for user admin-mike by (uid=0)
Apr 17 09:33:10 linux-kijt dbus[1273]: [system] Activating via systemd: service name=‘org.freedesktop.ConsoleKit’ unit=‘console-kit-daemon.service’
Apr 17 09:33:10 linux-kijt console-kit-daemon[1867]: missing action
Apr 17 09:33:10 linux-kijt dbus[1273]: [system] Successfully activated service ‘org.freedesktop.ConsoleKit’

Apr 17 09:33:10 linux-kijt login[1321]: LOGIN ON tty1 BY admin-mike
Apr 17 09:33:30 linux-kijt sudo[2002]: admin-mike : TTY=tty1 ; PWD=/home/admin-mike ; USER=root ; COMMAND=/sbin/init 3
Apr 17 09:33:30 linux-kijt sudo[2002]: pam_unix(sudo:session): session opened for user root by admin-mike(uid=0)
Apr 17 09:33:30 linux-kijt systemd[1865]: pam_unix(systemd-user:session): session closed for user admin-mike
Apr 17 09:33:30 linux-kijt systemd[1]: Failed to start /etc/init.d/boot.local Compatibility.
Apr 17 09:33:30 linux-kijt winbindd[2046]: [2016/04/17 09:33:30.721343, 0] …/source3/winbindd/winbindd_cache.c:3235(initialize_winbindd_cache)
Apr 17 09:33:30 linux-kijt winbindd[2046]: initialize_winbindd_cache: clearing cache and re-creating with version number 2
Apr 17 09:33:30 linux-kijt winbindd[2046]: [2016/04/17 09:33:30.721840, 0] …/source3/winbindd/winbindd_util.c:736(init_domain_list)
Apr 17 09:33:30 linux-kijt winbindd[2046]: Could not fetch our SID - did we join?
Apr 17 09:33:30 linux-kijt winbindd[2046]: [2016/04/17 09:33:30.721857, 0] …/source3/winbindd/winbindd.c:1294(winbindd_register_handlers)
Apr 17 09:33:30 linux-kijt winbindd[2046]: unable to initialize domain list
Apr 17 09:33:30 linux-kijt systemd[1]: winbind.service: Supervising process 2046 which is not our child. We’ll most likely not notice when it exits.
Apr 17 09:33:30 linux-kijt systemd[1]: Failed to start Samba Winbind Daemon.

Apr 17 09:33:30 linux-kijt vboxadd[2012]: Starting the VirtualBox Guest Additions …failed
Apr 17 09:33:30 linux-kijt vboxadd[2012]: (Not running on a virtualbox guest)
Apr 17 09:33:30 linux-kijt systemd[1]: Failed to start LSB: VirtualBox Linux Additions kernel modules.
Apr 17 09:33:30 linux-kijt systemd[1]: Dependency failed for LSB: VirtualBox Additions service.
Apr 17 09:33:30 linux-kijt sudo[2002]: pam_unix(sudo:session): session closed for user root
Apr 17 09:33:57 linux-kijt sudo[2063]: admin-mike : TTY=tty1 ; PWD=/home/admin-mike ; USER=root ; COMMAND=/sbin/init 5

that takes me to the starting of the gui I think

19

Sorry, but this is nonsense.

IceWM is no displaymanager, it is a windowmanager/desktop session.
Setting DISPLAYMANAGER to “icewm” will not work (though it should fall back to xdm then).

To the original problem: I doubt that it is related to sddm, or it wouldn’t even work with “init 5”.
Probably the display-manager.service is not started at all.

What does “systemctl status display-manager” say when the system drops to text mode?
Probably one of the dependencies could not be started, do you have some network shares in the fstab maybe that might not be reachable?

20

Hi unknown33,

another try,

in the file /etc/sysconfig/windowmanager what does the line 18? look like?

here its
DEFAULT_WM=“plasma5”

but plasma5 could be any other WM, see line 12,

suggest the above line be changed to

DEFAULT_WM=“icewm”

and then reboot

any change in outcome?

cheers