On Thursday, 4 April 2024 05:55:20 BST Markus Gustafsson wrote:
> Hi again,
> 
> I tried to catch the error again and while doing so I realized you guys are 
of course correct: sddm usually starts on tty 2. I don't know why I got it 
into my head that it would start on tty 8. Anyway, when I finally got it to 
reproduce (took a few restarts) I didn't get a blinking cursor on tty 2, the 
monitor just goes to sleep (kind of like it does when it has no signal). 
Switching to tty 1 showed me the init log and let me log on so I could run the 
commands suggested earlier in this thread:
> > $ ps aux | grep sddm
> > root      2253  0.0  0.0 142408 14248 ?        Ssl  06:26   0:00
> > /usr/bin/sddm root      2300  0.2  0.2 1653332 89588 ?       Ssl  06:26  
> > 0:00 /usr/bin/X -nolisten tcp -background none -seat seat0 vt2 -auth
> > /run/sddm/xauth_UanezA -noreset -displayfd 16 root      2358  0.0  0.0 
> > 61872 14024 ?        S    06:26   0:00 /usr/libexec/sddm-helper --socket
> > /tmp/sddm-auth-49123ec6-075d-4982-860d-ea1de56059ca --id 2 --start
> > /usr/bin/sddm-greeter --socket /tmp/sddm-:0-emmSdV --user sddm --greeter
> > sddm      2359  0.0  0.4 1557540 135804 ?      Sl   06:26   0:00
> > /usr/bin/sddm-greeter --socket /tmp/sddm-:0-emmSdV sddm      2365  0.0 
> > 0.0   4320  1892 ?        S    06:26   0:00 dbus-launch --autolaunch
> > d3bb17ba0dc5f70ad177e3f764fe168e --binary-syntax --close-stderr sddm     
> > 2366  0.0  0.0   4620   224 ?        Ss   06:26   0:00
> > /usr/bin/dbus-daemon --syslog-only --fork --print-pid 5 --print-address 7
> > --session

All of the above looks healthy to me.


> > $ rc-service sddm status
> > * rc-service: service `sddm' does not exist
> 
> This is what the command yields for a successful startup as well though. 
Should 'sddm' perhaps be 'display-manager' in the command above? 

Yes, the sddm DM is started by the 'display-manager' OpenRC service from the 
'default'  runlevel:

~ $ rc-update -s -v | grep display
      display-manager |      default                           
 display-manager-setup |                                 


> Anyway:
> > rc-status
> > Runlevel: default
> > 
> >  sysklogd                                                          [ 
> >  started  ] dhcpcd                                                       
> >      [  started  ] dbus                                                  
> >             [  started  ] netmount                                       
> >                    [  started  ] chronyd                                 
> >                           [  started  ] cupsd                            
> >                                  [  started  ] switcheroo-control        
> >                                         [  started  ] display-manager    
> >                                                [  started  ] numlock     
> >                                                       [  started  ] local
> >                                                              [  started 
> >  ]> 
> > Dynamic Runlevel: hotplugged
> > Dynamic Runlevel: needed/wanted
> > 
> >  display-manager-setup                                             [ 
> >  started  ] avahi-daemon                                                 
> >      [  started  ]> 
> > Dynamic Runlevel: manual
> 
> This is also what it looks like for a successful startup.

Yes, nothing wrong with the above.


> And finally from /var/log/sddm.log:
> > [06:26:03.740] (II) DAEMON: Initializing...
> > [06:26:03.743] (II) DAEMON: Starting...
> > [06:26:03.743] (II) DAEMON: Logind interface found
> > [06:26:03.743] (II) DAEMON: Adding new display...
> > [06:26:03.744] (II) DAEMON: Loaded empty theme configuration
> > [06:26:03.744] (II) DAEMON: Xauthority path: "/run/sddm/xauth_UanezA"
> > [06:26:03.744] (II) DAEMON: Using VT 2
> > [06:26:03.744] (II) DAEMON: Display server starting...
> > [06:26:03.744] (II) DAEMON: Writing cookie to "/run/sddm/xauth_UanezA"
> > [06:26:03.744] (II) DAEMON: Running: /usr/bin/X -nolisten tcp -background
> > none -seat seat0 vt2 -auth /run/sddm/xauth_UanezA -noreset -displayfd 16
> > [06:26:04.993] (II) DAEMON: Setting default cursor
> > [06:26:05.010] (II) DAEMON: Running display setup script 
> > "/usr/share/sddm/scripts/Xsetup" [06:26:05.012] (II) DAEMON: Display
> > server started.
> > [06:26:05.012] (II) DAEMON: Socket server starting...
> > [06:26:05.012] (II) DAEMON: Socket server started.
> > [06:26:05.012] (II) DAEMON: Loaded empty theme configuration
> > [06:26:05.012] (II) DAEMON: Greeter starting...
> > [06:26:05.022] (II) HELPER: [PAM] Starting...
> > [06:26:05.022] (II) HELPER: [PAM] Authenticating...
> > [06:26:05.022] (II) HELPER: [PAM] returning.
> > [06:26:05.142] (II) HELPER: Writing cookie to "/tmp/xauth_hBdSRs"
> > [06:26:05.142] (II) HELPER: Starting X11 session: ""
> > "/usr/bin/sddm-greeter --socket /tmp/sddm-:0-emmSdV" [06:26:05.152] (II)
> > DAEMON: Greeter session started successfully
> > [06:26:05.208] (II) DAEMON: Message received from greeter: Connect

And nothing wrong with your sddm.log either.

This makes me suspect again either some hardware issue, or some video driver 
issue.  Since the fault is intermittent and apparently random, what else can 
control the signal to the monitor?  o_O