Lightdm not starting in Arch/EndeavourOS
08 Feb 2021
This is the kind of thing that I notice after a fresh installation of Endeavour OS, but it may apply to Arch itself or any other Arch-based distribution. After a fresh install you reboot your computer and you see a black screen with blinking cursor or with an error message about lighdm (the display manager) not starting.
Some people find it so frustrating that they give up and install another system on their machine. There is, however, a possibility that a small change in the lighdm's config file could solve the problem. What do we do?
Just press Ctrl+Alt+F2 on your keyboard and you should see a prompt where you can enter your login (your username), then press Enter. Then you will be asked your password - fill it in (there will be no asterisks visible) and again press Enter. If you successfully logged in, you can go to the file in question and change it: just enter the following in the terminal:
You will probably be asked your password again - fill it in and hit Enter. You should see the contents of the configuration file for the lightdm display manager. Just find the line
and change it into
Now we should save the file - press Ctrl+o and hit Enter. you can exit the text editor by pressing Ctrl+x. you should be back in the command line, so it's time to reboot the computer - just enter
and hit Enter. Your machine should now reboot and, if you're lucky, the display manager should start properly.
Some people find it so frustrating that they give up and install another system on their machine. There is, however, a possibility that a small change in the lighdm's config file could solve the problem. What do we do?
Just press Ctrl+Alt+F2 on your keyboard and you should see a prompt where you can enter your login (your username), then press Enter. Then you will be asked your password - fill it in (there will be no asterisks visible) and again press Enter. If you successfully logged in, you can go to the file in question and change it: just enter the following in the terminal:
click code to copy
sudo nano /etc/lightdm/lightdm.conf
You will probably be asked your password again - fill it in and hit Enter. You should see the contents of the configuration file for the lightdm display manager. Just find the line
click code to copy
#logind-check-graphical=false
and change it into
click code to copy
logind-check-graphical=true
Now we should save the file - press Ctrl+o and hit Enter. you can exit the text editor by pressing Ctrl+x. you should be back in the command line, so it's time to reboot the computer - just enter
click code to copy
reboot
and hit Enter. Your machine should now reboot and, if you're lucky, the display manager should start properly.
Tested on: Endeavour OS, Feb. 2021
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