#992592 lightdm fails to start after update to bullseye (missing '/var/lib/lightdm/data')

Package:
lightdm
Source:
lightdm
Description:
simple display manager
Submitter:
Pavel Sanda
Date:
2024-07-12 08:00:02 UTC
Severity:
grave
Tags:
#992592#5
Date:
2021-08-20 17:26:06 UTC
From:
To:
Dear Maintainer,

updating debian to bullseye killed access to my desktop environment.
It was actually stretch->buster and then (after appropriate reboots etc.)
buster->bullseye, so not sure which of two steps broke it.

lightdm used to be default DM and was not working anymore after the update.
Checking logs with
lightdm --test-mode --debug
showed critical line about missing /var/lib/lightdm/data like in bugs
#947319 and #931335.

apt-get purge lightdm
apt-get install lightdm

fixed the situation (purge was clearly doing bunch of stuff in /etc/
which should be probably part of distro-update procedures(?).

#992592#10
Date:
2022-01-04 17:08:26 UTC
From:
To:
Hello maintainer,

here i have the same problem after upgrading a server with XFCE from Debian 9 to 10 and then to 11.

After the upgrade there is only a blinking cursor on the monitor.
I already did make an reinstall of the package lightdm.

The X-server and XFCE is working.
I have to get an user console with Ctrl-Alt-F1 and the login with the user.
After that i can call startx to start the X-Server and XFCE.

This package is unusable now.
Please help to solve the problem.

Best regards
karsten

#992592#15
Date:
2022-01-07 17:00:31 UTC
From:
To:
There seems no solution in sight.

When there is only one user that can be automatically logged in the nodm display manager can solve the problem.

Use:
agt-get purge lightdm
apget install nodm

Best regards
karsten

#992592#20
Date:
2022-01-08 02:10:08 UTC
From:
To:
If you want use nodm, only run apt-get install nodm in enough.

lightdm and nodm can co-exist in the same machine.

When install nodm after lightdm, It'll display a prompt let user choise
"Default display manager".

You may choice nodm to use.


在 2022/1/8 01:00, Karsten Malcher 写道:

I do not agree use this command directly, this will cause dark screen
and back to tty.

My wireless network connection is also down, (My notebook use Xfce)

so I can't install nodm use apt in the next.

#992592#25
Date:
2022-01-08 10:38:45 UTC
From:
To:
Am 08.01.22 um 03:10 schrieb xiao sheng wen(肖盛文):

Yes - thanks.
But a package that does not work and is useless can be purged.

#992592#30
Date:
2022-10-15 17:21:12 UTC
From:
To:
# ... without rendering it completely unusable to everyone
severity 992592 important
tags 992592 moreinfo unreproducible
user debian-release@lists.debian.org
usertags 992592 + bsp-2022-10-de-karlsruhe
thank you

Pavel Sanda wrote...

Looking into that issue, I failed to reproduce it. So I started with
stretch and did both dist-upgrades up to bullseye, and still lightdm
starts up as expected.

This is strange since in postinst, /var/lib/lightdm/ is created if
missing, and permissions are set as needed by lightdm. I'd expect
breakage only in conditions you would have noticed anyway - like
unfinished installation, or full disk.

In case you still have the files around (or still can reproduce the
problem), the content of /var/log/lightdm/ should contain more bits
what's going wrong. Out of curiosity, did you purge packages no longer
needed after the upgrade (as listed by deborphan)?

    Christoph (not the lightdm maintainer, just trying to help here)

#992592#39
Date:
2022-10-16 08:40:04 UTC
From:
To:
Am 15.10.22 um 19:21 schrieb Christoph Biedl:

That's interesting.

The problem occured on an PC that is running as a server.

I would say when this is not reproducible then simply close the bug.
When I encounter such a problem again I can reopen the bug.

Best regards and thank you
karsten

#992592#44
Date:
2022-12-07 01:45:15 UTC
From:
To:
Hi!

A friend just hit this on a fresh lightdm install on current sid;
she did apt install lightdm; dpkg-reconfigure lightdm,
and on restart she kept getting
  Could not enumerate user data directory /var/lib/lightdm/data: Error opening directory '/var/lib/lightdm/data': No such file or directory
from lightdm in the journal.

Inexplicably, repeating the steps from the postinst:
  mkdir -p /var/lib/lightdm
  chown lightdm:lightdm /var/lib/lightdm
  chmod 0750 /var/lib/lightdm
/and then/
  sudo -u lightdm mkdir /var/lib/lightdm/data
made lightdm go on until an unrelated X.org error killed it.

Adding just the latter to the presumably-run-by-the-postinst
bit may've worked as well, but we were hardly in a clinical
environment.

Best,
наб

#992592#49
Date:
2024-07-12 07:45:27 UTC
From:
To:
Hi,

I actually still do see the same issue with a fresh install of lightdm
(1.26.0-8) on Bookworm on several machines:


fai[79971]: liblightdm-gobject-1-0:amd64 (1.26.0-8) wird eingerichtet ...
fai[79971]: gir1.2-lightdm-1 (1.26.0-8) wird eingerichtet ...
fai[79971]: lightdm-autologin-greeter (1.0-5) wird eingerichtet ...
fai[79971]: lightdm (1.26.0-8) wird eingerichtet ...
fai[79971]: Lege Gruppe »lightdm« (GID 127) an …
fai[79971]: Fertig.
fai[79971]: Lege Systembenutzer »lightdm« (UID 118) an …
fai[79971]: Lege neuen Benutzer »lightdm« (UID 118) mit Gruppe »lightdm« an …
fai[79971]: Erstelle Home-Verzeichnis »/var/lib/lightdm« …

systemd[1]: Reloading.
systemd[1]: Starting lightdm.service - Light Display Manager...
lightdm[93963]: Error getting user list from org.freedesktop.Accounts: GDBus.Error:org.freedesktop.DBus.Error.ServiceUnknown: The name org.freedesktop.Accounts was not provided by any .service files
lightdm[93963]: Could not enumerate user data directory /var/lib/lightdm/data: Error opening directory '/var/lib/lightdm/data': No such file or directory
systemd[1]: Started lightdm.service - Light Display Manager.


However, the directory does exist now and I don't know who created it
when. It is created with owner/group root and 755 permissions, though.

Best,
Max