SOLVED: SDDM does not start any session

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Hi everyone,

I’m running Arch Linux and recently updated to Plasma 6.2.1. After the update, SDDM stopped working — it wouldn’t start any session. Regardless of whether I chose Wayland, X11, GNOME, or XFCE4, after entering my password, nothing happened.

I switched to a TTY by pressing Ctrl+Alt+F6 and logged into the console. From there, I ran startplasma-wayland, and my Plasma session started without any issues.

Once inside Plasma, I opened the System Settings and navigated to the SDDM settings. I changed the theme from “Breeze” to “Maldives” and restarted the system. After the reboot, SDDM worked again, and I could start any session without problems.

Curious, I switched back to “Breeze” in the SDDM settings and rebooted. To my surprise, everything still worked fine, and SDDM continued to start sessions without issue.

What I noticed is that after the update, the Breeze theme had a new default background (I had still been using the old blue mountain wallpaper until today). It seems like SDDM may have been stuck because of that background change.

After switching to “Maldives” and then back to “Breeze,” I now have a new background image on the SDDM login screen, and everything works smoothly again.

Hopefully, this helps anyone experiencing a similar issue! :wink:

Greetings from Germany

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Thank you for the hint about switching the SDDM theme :grinning: :+1:

Switching back did not work for me but I’m happy with using “Maldives” until this is fixed.

My issue was slightly different: I have connected two screens. When I tried to log in on my primary screen, after pressing ENTER nothing happened and the password field just froze. I still was able to login on the other screen, though.

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Glad to hear it helped out!

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I have the same issue with a double screen setup, being able to log in only on the second screen.
Unfortunately the issue hasn’t still been fixed in Plasma 6.2.2.

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Just wanted to reply saying that I have the same/similar issue. I don’t have the “Maldives” theme by default but I tried the “maya” theme and it works!
The problem still persists when changing back for me though, and it may be worth noting that a virtual keyboard automatically pops up when using maya but once I close out of that I can log in using my primary screen.

SDDM Help
SDDM Help1920×578 136 KB

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Is there a bug report tracking this issue?

Adding my own testing in hopes it helps: I tried downgrading to various versions if sddm-theme-breeze and found none seemed to work anymore, so maybe it’s a QT or sddm error? Also downgrading plasma desktop didn’t do anything. The issue appeared after running updates on a nearly clean install of neon (I installed nvidia drivers and mounted /home)

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494804 – With Qt 6.8, can't log in using external screen when using the Breeze SDDM theme is tracking this.