GNU bug report logs - #65769
greetd-wlgreet-sway-session result is blinking cursor

Previous Next

To add a comment to this bug, you must first unarchive it, by sending
a message to control AT debbugs.gnu.org, with unarchive 65769 in the body.
You can then email your comments to 65769 AT debbugs.gnu.org in the normal way.

Toggle the display of automated, internal messages from the tracker.

Message #5 received at submit <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: chris <chris <at> bumblehead.com>
To: bug-guix <at> gnu.org
Cc: chris <at> bumblehead.com
Subject: greetd-wlgreet-sway-session result is blinking cursor
Date: Tue, 5 Sep 2023 20:04:10 -0700

Hello and thank you in advance for reading me. When defining wlgreet-sway-session in my system config, the result is a blinking cursor. There is no login screen. To login or issue any command, it is necessary to switch to a different tty with something like Alt+fn+F2.

In irc, I messaged the user who created greetd-wlgreet-sway-session and it seems other users have encountered the blinking cursor and no one knows of a solution. If possible, I would like help troubleshoot and resolve the issue.

My config file is here,
https://raw.githubusercontent.com/iambumblehead/guix-home/main/guix.system.scm

```bash
$ sudo tail -5 /var/log/greetd-1.log
2023-09-05 18:59:22 error: check_children: greeter exited without creating a session
2023-09-05 18:59:23 error: check_children: greeter exited without creating a session
2023-09-05 18:59:24 error: check_children: greeter exited without creating a session
2023-09-05 18:59:25 error: check_children: greeter exited without creating a session
2023-09-05 18:59:27 error: check_children: greeter exited without creating a session
```

I've tried defining some XDG vars in /home/greeter/.profile and sometimes this causes error messages to appear above the blinking cursor, but no positive result.

Please anyone feel free to give advice or suggest any things that I might try.

Message #8 received at 65769 <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: chris <chris <at> bumblehead.com>
To: 65769 <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Cc: chris <at> bumblehead.com
Subject: wlgreet-sway-session
Date: Tue, 5 Sep 2023 22:00:40 -0700

[Message part 1 (text/plain, inline)]

Attached to this message is the content of /tmp/sway-greeter.388.log

[tmp_sway-greeter.388.log (text/plain, attachment)]

Message #11 received at 65769 <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: chris <chris <at> bumblehead.com>
To: 65769 <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Cc: chris <at> bumblehead.com
Subject: wlgreet-sway-session
Date: Tue, 5 Sep 2023 22:10:54 -0700

In case the attachment is not-accessible, important last lines of sway-greeter.388.log are pasted here.
```
00:00:00.066 [INFO] [wlr] [wayland] unable to open lockfile /run/user/986/wayland-1.lock check permissions
00:00:00.066 [INFO] [wlr] [wayland] unable to open lockfile /run/user/986/wayland-2.lock check permissions
00:00:00.066 [INFO] [wlr] [wayland] unable to open lockfile /run/user/986/wayland-3.lock check permissions
00:00:00.066 [INFO] [wlr] [wayland] unable to open lockfile /run/user/986/wayland-4.lock check permissions
00:00:00.066 [INFO] [wlr] [wayland] unable to open lockfile /run/user/986/wayland-5.lock check permissions
00:00:00.066 [INFO] [wlr] [wayland] unable to open lockfile /run/user/986/wayland-6.lock check permissions
00:00:00.066 [INFO] [wlr] [wayland] unable to open lockfile /run/user/986/wayland-7.lock check permissions
00:00:00.066 [INFO] [wlr] [wayland] unable to open lockfile /run/user/986/wayland-8.lock check permissions
00:00:00.067 [INFO] [wlr] [wayland] unable to open lockfile /run/user/986/wayland-9.lock check permissions
00:00:00.067 [INFO] [wlr] [wayland] unable to open lockfile /run/user/986/wayland-10.lock check permissions
00:00:00.067 [INFO] [wlr] [wayland] unable to open lockfile /run/user/986/wayland-11.lock check permissions
00:00:00.067 [INFO] [wlr] [wayland] unable to open lockfile /run/user/986/wayland-12.lock check permissions
00:00:00.067 [INFO] [wlr] [wayland] unable to open lockfile /run/user/986/wayland-13.lock check permissions
00:00:00.067 [INFO] [wlr] [wayland] unable to open lockfile /run/user/986/wayland-14.lock check permissions
00:00:00.067 [INFO] [wlr] [wayland] unable to open lockfile /run/user/986/wayland-15.lock check permissions
00:00:00.067 [INFO] [wlr] [wayland] unable to open lockfile /run/user/986/wayland-16.lock check permissions
00:00:00.067 [INFO] [wlr] [wayland] unable to open lockfile /run/user/986/wayland-17.lock check permissions
00:00:00.067 [INFO] [wlr] [wayland] unable to open lockfile /run/user/986/wayland-18.lock check permissions
00:00:00.067 [INFO] [wlr] [wayland] unable to open lockfile /run/user/986/wayland-19.lock check permissions
00:00:00.067 [INFO] [wlr] [wayland] unable to open lockfile /run/user/986/wayland-20.lock check permissions
00:00:00.067 [INFO] [wlr] [wayland] unable to open lockfile /run/user/986/wayland-21.lock check permissions
00:00:00.067 [INFO] [wlr] [wayland] unable to open lockfile /run/user/986/wayland-22.lock check permissions
00:00:00.067 [INFO] [wlr] [wayland] unable to open lockfile /run/user/986/wayland-23.lock check permissions
00:00:00.067 [INFO] [wlr] [wayland] unable to open lockfile /run/user/986/wayland-24.lock check permissions
00:00:00.067 [INFO] [wlr] [wayland] unable to open lockfile /run/user/986/wayland-25.lock check permissions
00:00:00.067 [INFO] [wlr] [wayland] unable to open lockfile /run/user/986/wayland-26.lock check permissions
00:00:00.067 [INFO] [wlr] [wayland] unable to open lockfile /run/user/986/wayland-27.lock check permissions
00:00:00.067 [INFO] [wlr] [wayland] unable to open lockfile /run/user/986/wayland-28.lock check permissions
00:00:00.067 [INFO] [wlr] [wayland] unable to open lockfile /run/user/986/wayland-29.lock check permissions
00:00:00.067 [INFO] [wlr] [wayland] unable to open lockfile /run/user/986/wayland-30.lock check permissions
00:00:00.067 [INFO] [wlr] [wayland] unable to open lockfile /run/user/986/wayland-31.lock check permissions
00:00:00.067 [INFO] [wlr] [wayland] unable to open lockfile /run/user/986/wayland-32.lock check permissions
00:00:00.067 [ERROR] [sway/server.c:231] Unable to open wayland socket
00:00:00.067 [DEBUG] [wlr] [types/wlr_drm_lease_v1.c:103] Destroying wlr_drm_lease_device_v1 for /dev/dri/card0
```

Message #14 received at 65769 <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: chris <chris <at> bumblehead.com>
To: 65769 <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: Re: wlgreet-sway-session
Date: Tue, 5 Sep 2023 22:22:16 -0700

This directory for the greeter user does not exist in the system /run/user/986

Message #17 received at 65769 <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: chris <chris <at> bumblehead.com>
To: 65769 <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: Re: wlgreet-sway-session
Date: Tue, 5 Sep 2023 22:32:41 -0700

The greeter works after creating /run/user/986/wayland-1.lock and changing the owner of /run/user/986 and /run/user/986/wayland-1.lock to "greeter". This seems to be a bug.

Message #20 received at 65769 <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Josselin Poiret <dev <at> jpoiret.xyz>
To: chris <chris <at> bumblehead.com>, 65769 <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: Re: bug#65769: wlgreet-sway-session
Date: Wed, 06 Sep 2023 14:34:46 +0200

[Message part 1 (text/plain, inline)]

Hi chris,

chris <chris <at> bumblehead.com> writes:

> This directory for the greeter user does not exist in the system /run/user/986

Do you use elogind?

Best,
-- 
Josselin Poiret

[signature.asc (application/pgp-signature, inline)]

Message #23 received at 65769 <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: chris <chris <at> bumblehead.com>
To: 65769 <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Cc: chris <at> bumblehead.com
Subject: no elogind
Date: Wed, 6 Sep 2023 08:57:54 -0700

Josselin,

> Do you use elogind?

No. elogind is not used.

Message #26 received at submit <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: "(" <paren <at> disroot.org>
To: chris <chris <at> bumblehead.com>
Cc: bug-guix <at> gnu.org, 65769 <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: Re: bug#65769: greetd-wlgreet-sway-session result is blinking cursor
Date: Fri, 08 Sep 2023 15:46:37 +0100

chris <chris <at> bumblehead.com> writes:
> In irc, I messaged the user who created greetd-wlgreet-sway-session and it seems
> other users have encountered the blinking cursor and no one knows of a
> solution. If possible, I would like help troubleshoot and resolve the issue.

I believe that may have been moi :)  This is really odd.  I seem to be
the only person who has ever managed to make it work (though there's a
bit of a reporting bias there in that people who do manage probably
won't bring it up...)

It would be great if anyone trying to use it could possibly reply here
with a link, attachment, or copy of the config.scm they use (whether
it's working for them or not; both are useful.)

I'll start:

  https://git.sr.ht/~unmatched-paren/conf/tree/root/item/system.scm

  -- (

Message #32 received at 65769 <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: chris <chris <at> bumblehead.com>
To: "(" <paren <at> disroot.org>
Cc: 65769 <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: Re: bug#65769: greetd-wlgreet-sway-session result is blinking cursor
Date: Fri, 8 Sep 2023 08:31:44 -0700

On  9月08日 金, ( wrote:
> I believe that may have been moi :)  This is really odd.  I seem to be
> the only person who has ever managed to make it work (though there's a
> bit of a reporting bias there in that people who do manage probably
> won't bring it up...)
> 
> It would be great if anyone trying to use it could possibly reply here
> with a link, attachment, or copy of the config.scm they use (whether
> it's working for them or not; both are useful.)
> 
> I'll start:
> 
>   https://git.sr.ht/~unmatched-paren/conf/tree/root/item/system.scm
> 
>   -- (

Thanks for replying to my issue :)

A "solution" is discussed earlier in the thread https://issues.guix.gnu.org/65769#4

> The greeter works after creating /run/user/986/wayland-1.lock and changing the owner of /run/user/986 and /run/user/986/wayland-1.lock to "greeter".

My system config is here

  https://raw.githubusercontent.com/iambumblehead/guix-home/main/guix.system.scm

Message #35 received at 65769 <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: "(" <paren <at> disroot.org>
To: chris <chris <at> bumblehead.com>
Cc: 65769 <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: Re: bug#65769: greetd-wlgreet-sway-session result is blinking cursor
Date: Fri, 08 Sep 2023 16:37:49 +0100

chris <chris <at> bumblehead.com> writes:
>> The greeter works after creating /run/user/986/wayland-1.lock and changing the
>> owner of /run/user/986 and /run/user/986/wayland-1.lock to "greeter".

wut.  I don't remember ever having to do anything like that...

> My system config is here
>
>   https://raw.githubusercontent.com/iambumblehead/guix-home/main/guix.system.scm

Thanks!  Now I know it's not malconfiguration; your config is
essentially the same as mine.

Message #38 received at 65769 <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: chris <chris <at> bumblehead.com>
To: "(" <paren <at> disroot.org>
Cc: 65769 <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: Re: bug#65769: greetd-wlgreet-sway-session result is blinking cursor
Date: Fri, 8 Sep 2023 09:01:41 -0700

Josselin sent this message intended for the thread and I think they are okay with re-pasting here,

> Usually elogind is responsible (through a PAM module) for creating this runtime directory.  If you're not using elogind, you'll need to create this directory yourself somehow.  I don't really think this is a bug per-se, as running without elogind is advanced stuff and its consequences should be understood by the user.

I support any conclusion from Josselin and unmatched-paren and want to add these observations,
 * wlgreet *does require* the greeter lock file
 * wlgreet *does not require* elogind/logind 
 * not-advanced users like me may want to use wlgreet without elogind

Message #41 received at 65769 <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: "(" <paren <at> disroot.org>
To: chris <chris <at> bumblehead.com>
Cc: 65769 <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: Re: bug#65769: greetd-wlgreet-sway-session result is blinking cursor
Date: Fri, 08 Sep 2023 17:08:31 +0100

chris <chris <at> bumblehead.com> writes:
> I support any conclusion from Josselin and unmatched-paren and want to add these observations,
>  * wlgreet *does require* the greeter lock file
>  * wlgreet *does not require* elogind/logind 
>  * not-advanced users like me may want to use wlgreet without elogind

I'm not using elogind, either; just seatd.  And yet it works still...

  -- (

Message #44 received at 65769 <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Josselin Poiret <dev <at> jpoiret.xyz>
To: chris <chris <at> bumblehead.com>, "(" <paren <at> disroot.org>
Cc: 65769 <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: Re: bug#65769: greetd-wlgreet-sway-session result is blinking cursor
Date: Sat, 09 Sep 2023 13:11:35 +0200

[Message part 1 (text/plain, inline)]

Hi chris,

chris <chris <at> bumblehead.com> writes:

> Josselin sent this message intended for the thread and I think they are okay with re-pasting here,
>
>> Usually elogind is responsible (through a PAM module) for creating this runtime directory.  If you're not using elogind, you'll need to create this directory yourself somehow.  I don't really think this is a bug per-se, as running without elogind is advanced stuff and its consequences should be understood by the user.

oops, sorry for not replying to all (the cardinal sin of email conversation).

> I support any conclusion from Josselin and unmatched-paren and want to add these observations,
>  * wlgreet *does require* the greeter lock file
>  * wlgreet *does not require* elogind/logind 
>  * not-advanced users like me may want to use wlgreet without elogind

I'd still like feedback from actual users of wlgreet, as I have not used
it myself.  I do believe the only way it could work is because something
takes care of creating the runtime directory.

Best,
-- 
Josselin Poiret

[signature.asc (application/pgp-signature, inline)]

Message #47 received at 65769 <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Hugo Buddelmeijer <hugo <at> buddelmeijer.nl>
To: 65769 <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Date: Fri, 20 Oct 2023 09:01:30 +0000

Hi chirs, Josselin, unmatchedparenthesis,

Thank you for your example configs! It allowed me to get sway up and
running under Guix. For those interested, here is my configuration:
https://gist.github.com/hugobuddel/cd08fc2980c6901ff4a2df5c57531e46

However, I might switch to something else for now, as I'm having too
much trouble with running Sway. My main goal is to move to a window
manager that makes it easy to store my home configuration, for example
with guix home; I found dconf too convoluted. Using wayland or a
tiling WM is only a secondary goal for me. Maybe i3 or XFCE would
suite me just fine.

The main problems I faced, in detail below:
1) I cannot get Sway/wayland to work with the libre kernel; this is
probably due to my hardware, but X works fine.
2) I have to create the /run/user/936 directory manually. The 936 is
the `greeter` user, which occassionally changes.
3) Power management does not work. That might not be related to Sway
at all, but is an important showstopper for me right now.

It would be greatly appreciated if someone could post an example Guix
config for Sway that should run out of the box with the libre kernel
without any extra channels. For example on a virtual machine. Then we
have a shared starting point that we can all confirm to work, so we
can detangle issues specific to our own hardware and software
configuration, and issues related to Sway+Guix in general.

Cheers,
Hugo


1) Sway on libre kernel.

Having a libre system is one of my reasons for using Guix, so I'd
prefer a libre kernel. However, for me the libre kernel does not work
with sway. I expect this is a problem with my hardware, but I mention
it anyway, since I haven't seen a Sway configuration that uses the
libre kernel. My machine is a System 76 Lemure Pro with an "Intel
Corporation Alder Lake-UP3 GT2 [Iris Xe Graphics]".

Relevant logs (not necessarily all from the same session...):
- dmesg: https://gist.github.com/hugobuddel/5a593d91e93bb106056c05f8d2db4a96
- /var/log/greetd-1.log:
https://gist.github.com/hugobuddel/6ba7a3fb5b15d20851ade6fdf9c4ee87
- /tmp/sway-greeter.448.log:
https://gist.github.com/hugobuddel/f447d69a8502b02d103163fd0b2cfc86

I don't particularly care about hardware acceleration for now, so if
it is possible to run Sway in just software, then that would be fine
with me as well.


2) /run/user/936

Running the attached config as-is will result in the subject of this
tread: the blank screen with cursor at the top left. I have to figure
out what the id is of the greeter user, and then create the
appropriate directory. Something like:

GREETERID=$(id -u greeter)
mkdir "/run/user/${GREETERID}"
chmod greeter:users "/run/user/${GREETERID}"

I don't know how the id of the greeter user is determined. It has
changed after doing a `guix system reconfigure`, but only
occasionally. I create these directories manually at the moment.



3) Power management: this might not be related to Sway, but maybe I'm
solving too many problems at the same time, and power management is
the showstopper for using this laptop. So I'll ensure that power
manament works properly before experimenting with Sway.

Message #50 received at 65769 <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: "bdju" <bdju <at> tilde.team>
To: "Hugo Buddelmeijer" <hugo <at> buddelmeijer.nl>, <65769 <at> debbugs.gnu.org>
Subject: Re: bug#65769:
Date: Fri, 20 Oct 2023 05:02:02 -0500

[Message part 1 (text/plain, inline)]

On Fri Oct 20, 2023 at 4:01 AM CDT, Hugo Buddelmeijer wrote:
> It would be greatly appreciated if someone could post an example Guix
> config for Sway that should run out of the box with the libre kernel
> without any extra channels. For example on a virtual machine. Then we
> have a shared starting point that we can all confirm to work, so we
> can detangle issues specific to our own hardware and software
> configuration, and issues related to Sway+Guix in general.
>
> Cheers,
> Hugo
>

I am running Sway on Guix System with the libre kernel. My hardware is a
ThinkPad T440p, intel graphics. I do not use any channels.

I've attached my config.scm, manifest, and sway config files in case
it's useful to you.

[anpan-guix-config.scm (text/x-scheme, attachment)]

[anpan-guix-manifest.scm (text/x-scheme, attachment)]

[anpan-guix-sway-config (text/plain, attachment)]

Message #53 received at 65769 <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Hugo Buddelmeijer <hugo <at> buddelmeijer.nl>
To: bdju <bdju <at> tilde.team>
Cc: 65769 <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: Re: bug#65769:
Date: Fri, 20 Oct 2023 14:14:20 +0200

Thank you bdju!

Your config also does not work for me, so my specific problem is
probably hardware related. Thanks for helping me isolate the problem.
Apparently I was naive in assuming that i915 would mean things would
just work. (Well, X works.)

I also get a blank screen with the cursor at the top of the screen
(sometimes), but my problem seems unrelated to this issue, because
greetd/wlgreet is now not involved. I will therefore not discuss my
problem here further.

Hugo

On Fri, 20 Oct 2023 at 12:02, bdju <bdju <at> tilde.team> wrote:
>
> On Fri Oct 20, 2023 at 4:01 AM CDT, Hugo Buddelmeijer wrote:
> > It would be greatly appreciated if someone could post an example Guix
> > config for Sway that should run out of the box with the libre kernel
> > without any extra channels. For example on a virtual machine. Then we
> > have a shared starting point that we can all confirm to work, so we
> > can detangle issues specific to our own hardware and software
> > configuration, and issues related to Sway+Guix in general.
> >
> > Cheers,
> > Hugo
> >
>
> I am running Sway on Guix System with the libre kernel. My hardware is a
> ThinkPad T440p, intel graphics. I do not use any channels.
>
> I've attached my config.scm, manifest, and sway config files in case
> it's useful to you.

Message #56 received at 65769 <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Hugo Buddelmeijer <hugo <at> buddelmeijer.nl>
Cc: 65769 <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: Re: bug#65769:
Date: Fri, 20 Oct 2023 13:49:23 +0000

Ok, just one more update on the hardware issue: I 'resolved' it, and
maybe I can help others by commenting here.

Specifying i915.enable_guc=0 as a kernel parameter at boot will ensure
the kernel doesn't get 'wedged' and now sway works on the libre kernel
too. I get the blinking cursor again if I forget.

I tried adding the kernel parameter to the config like this:

            (sysctl-service-type config =>
                     (sysctl-configuration
                      (settings (append '(("i915.enable_guc" . "0"))
                                        %default-sysctl-settings))))

But that does not work, so I have to add the parameter at boot time.
Maybe I'll create a new issue for that.

So now I can go back to actually using sway, and fixing my power
management! And perhaps, if it becomes annoying enough, the creation
of the /run/user/<greeter id> directory...

Hugo


On Fri, 20 Oct 2023 at 12:14, Hugo Buddelmeijer <hugo <at> buddelmeijer.nl> wrote:
>
> Thank you bdju!
>
> Your config also does not work for me, so my specific problem is
> probably hardware related. Thanks for helping me isolate the problem.
> Apparently I was naive in assuming that i915 would mean things would
> just work. (Well, X works.)
>
> I also get a blank screen with the cursor at the top of the screen
> (sometimes), but my problem seems unrelated to this issue, because
> greetd/wlgreet is now not involved. I will therefore not discuss my
> problem here further.
>
> Hugo
>
> On Fri, 20 Oct 2023 at 12:02, bdju <bdju <at> tilde.team> wrote:
> >
> > On Fri Oct 20, 2023 at 4:01 AM CDT, Hugo Buddelmeijer wrote:
> > > It would be greatly appreciated if someone could post an example Guix
> > > config for Sway that should run out of the box with the libre kernel
> > > without any extra channels. For example on a virtual machine. Then we
> > > have a shared starting point that we can all confirm to work, so we
> > > can detangle issues specific to our own hardware and software
> > > configuration, and issues related to Sway+Guix in general.
> > >
> > > Cheers,
> > > Hugo
> > >
> >
> > I am running Sway on Guix System with the libre kernel. My hardware is a
> > ThinkPad T440p, intel graphics. I do not use any channels.
> >
> > I've attached my config.scm, manifest, and sway config files in case
> > it's useful to you.

Message #59 received at 65769 <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: "David Arroyo" <david <at> aqwari.net>
To: "Josselin Poiret" <dev <at> jpoiret.xyz>, chris <chris <at> bumblehead.com>,
 "(" <paren <at> disroot.org>
Cc: 65769 <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: Re: bug#65769: greetd-wlgreet-sway-session result is blinking cursor
Date: Thu, 31 Oct 2024 21:56:19 +0100

On Sat, Sep 9, 2023, at 11:11, Josselin Poiret via Bug reports for GNU Guix wrote:
> I'd still like feedback from actual users of wlgreet, as I have not used
> it myself.  I do believe the only way it could work is because something
> takes care of creating the runtime directory.

This is my conclusion as well. I ran into this issue today when trying to
setup a minimal install with sway. I had to switch from seatd to elogind.
Here's my working config:

https://paste.sr.ht/~droyo/6cd5f6c1cb12220d10dbcbe0f92f317dfdc88aee

Here's my understanding of the issue;

* greetd runs as root, but when the user switches to a vt, it forks a
  child process to run the default_session command (agreety, wlgreet,
  etc).  This process runs as the `(default-session-user config)`
  (default "greeter".

* sway requires XDG_RUNTIME_DIR to exist, but there is nothing creating
   XDG_RUNTIME_DIR on behalf of "greeter", so it repeatedly crashes
   until herd disables the `term-ttyX` service corresponding to the
   wlgreet terminal.

* When using elogind, this is taken care of for "greeter" by the
   pam_elogind pam module, which is added to all pam configs, including
   greetd's, by the `elogin-service-type` service. On other distros,
   pam_systemd performs the same task.

This issue is summarized by the author of seatd here:

https://git.sr.ht/~kennylevinsen/seatd-docs/tree/master/item/index.md#xdg_runtime_dir-not-set

The solution prescribed is to create the rundir from a script on startup
or with a pam module. I was curious why the existing `pam_mount(5)`
module in greetd's existing PAM configuration did not handle creation
for the "greeter" user as well. The pam_mount configuration linked to
/etc/security/greetd_pam_mount.conf.xml does not discriminate against
this user.

I set `debug=1` in /etc/security/greetd_pam_mount.conf.xml and restarted
the system. Here's the `pam_mount` logs for the "greeter" user's session:

	greetd: (pam_mount.c:568): pam_mount 2.18: entering session stage
	greetd: (pam_mount.c:629): no volumes to mount
	greetd: command: '/gnu/store/18wjrghh95hy8l4nmr22lpsjgjpdqbax-greetd-pam-mount-2.18/sbin/pmvarrun' '-u' 'greeter' '-o' '1'
	greetd: (pam_mount.c:441): pmvarrun says login count is 2
	greetd: (pam_mount.c:660): done opening session (ret=0)
	greetd: (pam_mount.c:706): received order to close things
	greetd: (pam_mount.c:709): No volumes to umount

And for my session (after logging into a separate vt running agreety):

	greetd: (pam_mount.c:568): pam_mount 2.18: entering session stage
	greetd: (mount.c:781): Could not get realpath of /run/user/1000: No such file or directory
	greetd: (mount.c:251): Mount info: globalconf, user=droyo <volume fstype="tmpfs" server="(null)" path="none" mountpoint="/run/user/1000" cipher="(null)" fskeypath="(null)" fskeycipher="(null)" fskeyhash="(null)" options="noexec,nosuid,nodev,size=1g,mode=0700,uid=1000,gid=998" /> fstab=0 ssh=0
	greetd: (mount.c:305): mkmountpoint: checking /run
	greetd: (mount.c:305): mkmountpoint: checking /run/user
	greetd: (mount.c:345): mkdir[0] /run/user
	greetd: (mount.c:351): chown /run/user -> 1000:998
	greetd: (mount.c:305): mkmountpoint: checking /run/user/1000
	greetd: (mount.c:329): mkdir[1000] /run/user/1000
	greetd: (mount.c:660): Password will be sent to helper as-is.
	greetd: command: '/gnu/store/w62dxljn51hcrszyxjb1dffhbvrl8iqm-util-linux-2.37.4/bin/mount' '-onoexec,nosuid,nodev,size=1g,mode=0700,uid=1000,gid=998' '-ttmpfs' 'none' '/run/user/1000'

I could not find any obvious problem reading pam_mount.c, so I read the
pam_mount.conf file a little closer and found the issue:

	<volume sgrp="users" fstype="tmpfs" ...

Per pam_mount.conf(5), sgrp restricts pam_mount's activity to users in
the "users" group. So adding "users" to `greeter-supplementary-groups`
resolves the issue.

Sorry for being long-winded. I thought maybe including the steps I took
would help others stuck in similar issues troubleshoot. As far as fixing
this one, should we update the example in

https://guix.gnu.org/manual/en/html_node/Base-Services.html#index-greetd_002dwlgreet_002dsway_002dsession

or is it better to force a fix and modify pam_mount or make the
greetd-wlgreet-* sessions enforce some check on group membership?

Another thing, the /run/user created by pam_mount is owned by the
first session's user (greeter:greeter), while with pam_elogind it's owned
by root:root. It doesn't seem to cause a problem, but I just thought I'd
call that out.

David

Message #62 received at 65769 <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: chris <chris <at> bumblehead.com>
To: David Arroyo <david <at> aqwari.net>
Cc: "\(" <paren <at> disroot.org>, Josselin Poiret <dev <at> jpoiret.xyz>,
 65769 <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: Re: bug#65769: greetd-wlgreet-sway-session result is blinking cursor
Date: Fri, 1 Nov 2024 03:03:41 -0700

David,

What a beautiful investigation and summary!

Adding "greeter-supplementary-groups" to my users supplementary-groups list now. Thank you!

Chris

-- 
好きなものを、好きなもので、好きなように作る。

Message #65 received at 65769 <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: chris <chris <at> bumblehead.com>
To: David Arroyo <david <at> aqwari.net>
Cc: "\(" <paren <at> disroot.org>, Josselin Poiret <dev <at> jpoiret.xyz>,
 65769 <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: Re: bug#65769: greetd-wlgreet-sway-session result is blinking cursor
Date: Fri, 1 Nov 2024 03:25:50 -0700

A week or two ago, wlgreet-sway-session started booting a blinking cursor again. I used ssh to get in, disable it and reconfigure and never took another look. Just now, per your advice, added "users" to `greeter-supplementary-groups`, reconfigured and rebooted and it works again!

-- 
好きなものを、好きなもので、好きなように作る。

Previous Next

GNU bug tracking system
Copyright (C) 1999 Darren O. Benham, 1997,2003 nCipher Corporation Ltd, 1994-97 Ian Jackson.