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Topic: [SOLVED] I think an update borked my s6 setup (Read 687 times) previous topic - next topic
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[SOLVED] I think an update borked my s6 setup

So I'm running s6 on artix linux. Haven't really tweaked anything regarding that. Start up the system one day and now it doesn't load sddm like it's been doing since install. Think it's been close to a week now.

I know there was a recent update it said it was a system upgrade or something, but didn't see anything noteworthy after the upgrade in the console output. Now when I login, the screen blanks before it goes straight to a terminal where I can login.

I can restart sddm after logging in with 's6-rc-bundle add default sddm'. This immediately starts sddm as expected. When I am logged in to kde (X version), however, the network manager applet has disappeared (I think all of the others are present). Unsure if this is related to starting sddm in this fashion or what, but this only happened after this issue appeared.

When I look in /etc/s6/adminsv/default/contents.d it only shows boot. Is this normal?

Before I figured I could restart sddm, I tried startx. It complained about xterm and twm not being installed. I reinstalled xorg and kde bundles as explained in the artix wiki, but all that did was make startx load a glitchy screen of multiple xterms with no visible reaction to input (hard reset is required afterwards).

I just want my system to boot as it was before, but rifling through the s6 documentation is taking time and I have little time to spend on this compared with work and everything else in my life. I'd rather not go through the hassle of a reinstall just to fix what should be a simple solution (even if I don't know it myself).

Any help is greatly appreciated. I've been loving artix for probably about a year now and this is the first major issue I've had with it. Really want to continue trusting it with my primary desktop.

Re: I think an update borked my s6 setup

Reply #1
Before I figured I could restart sddm, I tried startx. It complained about xterm and twm not being installed. I reinstalled xorg and kde bundles as explained in the artix wiki, but all that did was make startx load a glitchy screen of multiple xterms with no visible reaction to input (hard reset is required afterwards).
https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Xinit#xinitrc
Quote
This default xinitrc will start a basic environment with Twm, xorg-xclock and Xterm (assuming that the necessary packages are installed). Therefore, to start a different window manager or desktop environment, first create a copy of the default xinitrc in your home directory:

 

Re: I think an update borked my s6 setup

Reply #2

Thanks for the reply. My concern is less with actually using startx on my machine, but providing the info as a point of reference for diagnostic purposes.

Despite myself, I found the solution and I hope it will help others. Here are the steps that I used to seemingly resolve it.

Code: [Select]
pacman -S s6-scripts
s6-service add default sddm
s6-service add default NetworkManager
s6-db-reload

If I'm understanding correctly, s6 "compiles" the currently active bundles into something like a runlevel. When something changed (I assume the update), it dropped sddm and NetworkManager from the compiled list of bundles. In order to get it back, it seems that you must use the commands like I did to ensure you have appropriate files, re-add the bundles that dropped, and then recompile while they're active. I did the above with the reinstall *after* the s6-service commands and it seemed to not take. I assume this is in part related to how the reinstall handles compilation.

It's a simple fix, but I will have to look later to see what specifically dropped so I'm not compromised on security or functionality going forward. As far as the issue I initially brought up, this can be safely called SOLVED.