[SOLVED] Screen lock is broken

Crb999 · 05-02-2017, 08:29 AM

Screen lock is broken

is the message on the screen with a little more information as to what to do about it.

It suggest that I CTRL ALT F2 then

loginctl -unlock-session

and then CTRL ALT F7 to switch back.

I've never come across this before but the guide doesn't work either.

Within a few seconds of CTRL ALT F2, and before I get a chance to login, I get an on screen log of events but it seems to repeat fairly often.

Has anybody else seen this?

Where do I go from here?

I can't go to any Alternate screen and log in as root, within seconds of changing to the new screen the scrolling screen log starts.

Crb999 · 05-02-2017, 08:30 AM

Forgot all the basics, sorry

Suse Linux Leap 42.2 running on Dell Optiplex 780

BW-userx · 05-02-2017, 10:21 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Crb999

Screen lock is broken

this screen lock is new to me - upon googling it
https://www.freedesktop.org/software.../loginctl.html

Oh systemD -- O'tay that may explain something.

from its docs looks like you have have a need for a ID of some sorts.

Got a read a little more myself - two I do not have a SystemD to experiment with.

The Docs should be helpful.

Code:

lock-session [ID…], unlock-session [ID…]

Activates/deactivates the screen lock on one
or more sessions, if the session supports it. 

Takes one or more session identifiers as arguments. 
If no argument is specified, the session of the caller is locked/unlocked.

Quote:

Within a few seconds of CTRL ALT F2, and before I get a chance to login, I get an on screen log of events but it seems to repeat fairly often.

could this be what you are talking about?

Code:

user-status [USER…]

 Show terse runtime status information about one or more
 logged in users, followed by the most recent log data from
 the journal. Takes one or more user names or numeric user IDs
 as parameters. If no parameters are passed, the status of the
 caller's user is shown. This function is intended to generate
 human-readable output. If you are looking for computer-
parsable output, use show-user instead. Users may be specified
 by their usernames or numeric user IDs.

so any other tty you get this?

Quote:

I can't go to any Alternate screen and log in as root, within seconds of changing to the new screen the scrolling screen log starts.

I'd take a look over the docs as you are seeing what it is actually doing, and when someone else that actually has a systemD (why I do not know, is it really there fault?) system Hopefully they can help you better.

Or maybe just maybe you can get by not using that for your screen lock and install a different one. there are many out there to pick from.

ondoho · 05-03-2017, 02:19 AM

what desktop environment?

it would seem to be some sort of permission issue.

are you running your gui session as a normal user, or root? did you ever run gui apps as root?

Crb999 · 05-03-2017, 08:00 AM

It's been emotional!

The screens full of info have been the output from 'journalctl -xb'

I've used the DVD to get something running and from a primitive root I was able to start yast.

It told me nothing useful but I may not have asked the right questions!

However, from yast I was able to look at the 'SystemD Journal' and recognised what I was seeing but for a few seconds before the log report started I got a little message at the bottom of the screen, outside yast which said, in a deep and meaningful way,
"Failure (dbus fatal exception)."

Just like that

Right out loud.

Bloody rude!

To be honest, I have no idea how serious that might be so any comment will enlighten me.

So BW-userx, it was not the 'User Status' you suggested.

ondoho I regularly use KDE but I never get that far now. I would normally use linux as a user, saving su and sudo for those matters that require them.

I left the machine with no applications running as I've been doing some CAD work on the windoze machine. Switching back to the lonux box I found that nasty little message.

So, how does one deal with a dbus fatal exception?

Regards

Chris

Crb999 · 05-03-2017, 08:24 AM

I hope this helps!

ondoho · 05-03-2017, 12:37 PM

very confusing.

something is seriously amiss here, but i do not follow your ramblings.

i hope you have saved all important data from that machine.

Crb999 · 05-03-2017, 02:01 PM

Ondoho, agreed, very confusing.

I can't understand why you can't understand my ramblings.

I have nothing saved from that machine.

I have no idea what is wrong.

I am prepared to reinstall 42.2 but I can't even find out if the HD is faulty or not. If it is not, what is recoverable? How may it be recovered.

What is a dbus fatal exception? Is this a hardware or a software fault.

Can you see how much further my confusion goes than yours?

Is a dbus fatal exception, confusing in and of itself?

BW-userx · 05-03-2017, 03:21 PM

Yeah that is not really a lock screen problem. it is a xfs file system issue.

Probably the lock screen sets the hdd into some kind of sleep mode then when it gets unlocked it cannot remount or activate that hdd due to block errors to the file system.

Checking XFS File System Consistency with xfs_check and xfs_repair

xfs_repair(8) - Linux man page

Links due to "unmount and run xfs_repair" message in that image.

ondoho · 05-04-2017, 01:08 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Crb999

What is a dbus fatal exception? Is this a hardware or a software fault.
Can you see how much further my confusion goes than yours?

yes i can.
given what i see, i'd say it's a PEBKAC resulting in a software fault.

anyhow, hardware fault is easily checked:
create a live usb, boot into it, see if you can reproduce the problem.

PS:
dbus is software, not hardware.

Crb999 · 05-04-2017, 07:01 AM

Thanks guys, gals.

In the emergency boot situation where I have a terminal access to the machine, I am able to run various commands.

However neither xfs_check nor xfs_repair are available to me.

ondoho, thanks for your useful information but the chair and house was empty. I have just learnt that there may have been a brownout. I have no proof.

The problem is that I cannot boot into linux and use KDE. Why would I want to create a live usb to prove I can't boot into linux and use KDE? This has ruined my week and I really dont want to recreate it not even for you.

I am in linux, I have a command line but my knowledge is limited so " hardware fault is easily checked:" is not necessarily easy.

Trawling I found smartctl and in a word it tells me that the hd is the problem.

Ah well, it's only time and money eh?

I'll be back when it's sorted.

Thanks.

ondoho, you remind me a little of Eeyore :-)

Crb999 · 08-19-2017, 09:37 AM

Ondoho looked up PEBKAC. Thanks for that!

Well it was a catastrophic failure of the HD. Could be PEBKAC of course, but unlikely imho.

New drives installed, raid 1 implemented, fresh install of 42.2 and the repeat of the struggles to get everything up and running again.

Update to 42.3 with problems which deleting 'drm-kmp-default' cured. (see bug 1051867)

That wasn't PEBKAC either FYI.

Closing this thread.

Thanks all