Other LightDM has no session files

[Foxtaur]

Hey BSD'ers -

I'm an old BSD hack from way back, but normally used it as a server. I decided to try it out as a desktop environment, so I'm trying my best to follow the handbook.

I've gotten as far as:

• Installed FreeBSD 14.3, amd64
• Installing using pkgs. I'm avoiding ports for now. Shouldn't be needed, right?
• Installed and configured Xorg.
  • I can start an X server and run an xterm on it, with a twm window manager. It's a start.
• I thought I would try the Cinnamon desktop, so I'm following Chapter 8.2.5 in the handbook.
  • I've installed packages:
    • cinnamon-desktop
    • cinnamon-menus
    • cinnamon-session
  • I've got /proc filesystem mounted.
  • I've got dbus enabled and running.
  • I've installed packages:
    • lightdm
    • lightdm-gtk-greeter

That seems to be all the handbook thinks I need to do. So...

When I boot up, LightDM starts and presents a login box. I give my password, but then I just get a "Failed to start session" message.

If I reach up to the wrench icon in the upper-right corner, I feel like I should be able to see a menu of different Session Types that I could start, but instead the menu is simply empty. Are there some session definitions that are missing? If so, what package should be used to install them?

I also tried the handbook's advice on how to start a Cinnamon session manually:

echo "exec dbus-launch --exit-with-x11 ck-launch-session startlxqt" > ~/.xinitrc

When I run startx, the X server starts up but then quickly shuts down, and there are a few GLib-GObject-CRITICAL messages that I will have to find a way to transcribe over to this post.

I feel like I am pretty close to having this working, so I am wondering what I am missing. Is there any advice?
Thanks for listening.

 

[T-Daemon]

I am wondering what I am missing.

You've installed Cinnamon but configured .xinitrc to start LXQT.

echo "exec dbus-launch --exit-with-x11 ck-launch-session startlxqt" > ~/.xinitrc

Replace "startlxqt" with "cinnamon-session".

I will have to find a way to transcribe over to this post.

Redirect the screen output into a file, example: startx >& xorg.log.

This log file can then be sent to a text storage site. I.e.: cat xorg.log | nc termbin.com 9999

 

[Foxtaur]

Hmm, it seems I mistakenly cut-and-paste the wrong line into my post above. However, I did manage to put the correct text into my .xinitrc.

This is the current contents of my .xinitrc:

#!/bin/sh
exec dbus-launch --exit-with-x11 ck-launch-session cinnamon-session

And this is the error result I get from startx:

xauth:  file /home/fox/.serverauth.24330 does not exist

X.Org X Server 1.21.1.18
X Protocol Version 11, Revision 0
Current Operating System: FreeBSD guzila 14.3-RELEASE-p5 FreeBSD 14.3-RELEASE-p5 GENERIC amd64

Current version of pixman: 0.46.2
    Before reporting problems, check http://wiki.x.org
    to make sure that you have the latest version.

Markers: (--) probed, (**) from config file, (==) default setting,
    (++) from command line, (!!) notice, (II) informational,
    (WW) warning, (EE) error, (NI) not implemented, (??) unknown.
(==) Log file: "/var/log/Xorg.1.log", Time: Sun Oct 26 19:12:16 2025
(==) Using system config directory "/usr/local/share/X11/xorg.conf.d"

scfb trace: probe start
scfb trace: probe done
cinnamon-session-binary 24358 - - GLib-GObject-CRITICAL: t+0.00504s: g_object_class_override_property: Can't find property to override for 'CsmConsolekit::active'
cinnamon-session-binary 24358 - - GLib-GIO-ERROR: t+0.01998s: Settings schema 'org.cinnamon.settings-daemon.plugins.power' is not installed
aborting...
xinit: connection to X server lost

waiting for X server to shut down (II) Server terminated successfully (0). Closing log file.

I also have a new core file:

cinnamon-session-bi.core: ELF 64-bit LSB core file, x86-64, version 1 (FreeBSD), FreeBSD-style, from '/usr/local/libexec/cinnamon-session-binary', pid=24403

It just doesn't seem like this should be the experience of a user trying to follow the handbook and install Cinnamon and LightDM. Why aren't things just proceeding as expected?

 

[Foxtaur]

Since this problem seems like a "missing dependencies" type of problem, I thought I would try some searching:

$ pkg search cinnamon
cinnamon-6.4.10_5              Fork of GNOME Shell with layout similar to GNOME 2
cinnamon-control-center-6.4.1  Control center for Cinnamon
cinnamon-desktop-6.4.1         Additional UI API for cinnamon
cinnamon-menus-6.4.0           Additional UI API for cinnamon
cinnamon-screensaver-6.4.0_1   Cinnamon screen saver and locker
cinnamon-session-6.4.0         Session component for the cinnamon desktop
cinnamon-settings-daemon-6.4.3_1 Cinnamon desktop settings daemon
cinnamon-translations-6.4.2    Translations for the cinnamon desktop

$ pkg info | grep cinnamon
cinnamon-desktop-6.4.1         Additional UI API for cinnamon
cinnamon-menus-6.4.0           Additional UI API for cinnamon
cinnamon-session-6.4.0         Session component for the cinnamon desktop

At a guess, it seems like I ought to have more of these packages installed, and I'd further guess that the original command I used, pkg install cinnamon, ought to have installed all of these.

I think I will try to install the meta-package again.