sddm and KDE fail to start on Dell laptop

Paul Floyd · 2026-07-18T14:17:50+0100

A few days ago I ran pkg update && pkg upgrade on my Dell laptop running FreeBSD 15.0-RELEASE-p11, X11/sddm/KDE. On reboot sddm failed to start and I was left with a console login.

The laptop is a Dell Precision 7550. I was using the nvidia modesetting drives. dmesg contains
nvidia0: <Quadro T1000> on vgapci0
vgapci0: child nvidia0 requested pci_enable_io
vgapci0: child nvidia0 requested pci_enable_io
nvidia-modeset: Loading NVIDIA Kernel Mode Setting Driver for UNIX platforms 595.84 Wed Jun 10 20:27:42 UTC 2026

/etc/rc.conf contains
kld_list="nvidia-modeset"
sddm_enable="YES"

kldstat output includes
4 1 0xffffffff837f9000 14d2f8 nvidia-modeset.ko
5 1 0xffffffff83a00000 5b7e838 nvidia.ko

/var/log/Xorg.0.conf doesn't seem to mention nvidia, contents at the end.

Any suggestions how to fix this?

[ 40.493] (==) Log file: "/var/log/Xorg.0.log", Time: Sat Jul 18 14:51:01 2026
[ 40.494] (==) Using system config directory "/usr/local/share/X11/xorg.conf.d"
[ 40.494] (==) No Layout section. Using the first Screen section.
[ 40.494] (==) No screen section available. Using defaults.
[ 40.494] (**) |-->Screen "Default Screen Section" (0)
[ 40.494] (**) | |-->Monitor "<default monitor>"
[ 40.495] (==) No monitor specified for screen "Default Screen Section".
Using a default monitor configuration.
[ 40.495] (**) Allowing byte-swapped clients
[ 40.495] (==) Automatically adding devices
[ 40.495] (==) Automatically enabling devices
[ 40.495] (==) Automatically adding GPU devices
[ 40.495] (==) Automatically binding GPU devices
[ 40.495] (==) Max clients allowed: 256, resource mask: 0x1fffff
[ 40.497] (==) FontPath set to:
/usr/local/share/fonts/misc/,
/usr/local/share/fonts/TTF/,
/usr/local/share/fonts/OTF/,
/usr/local/share/fonts/Type1/,
/usr/local/share/fonts/100dpi/,
/usr/local/share/fonts/75dpi/,
catalogue:/usr/local/etc/X11/fontpath.d
[ 40.497] (==) ModulePath set to "/usr/local/lib/xorg/modules"
[ 40.497] (II) The server relies on udev to provide the list of input devices.
If no devices become available, reconfigure udev or disable AutoAddDevices.
[ 40.498] (II) Module ABI versions:
[ 40.498] X.Org ANSI C Emulation: 0.4
[ 40.498] X.Org Video Driver: 25.2
[ 40.498] X.Org XInput driver : 24.4
[ 40.498] X.Org Server Extension : 10.0
[ 40.501] (!!) More than one possible primary device found
[ 40.501] (--) PCI: (0@0:2:0) 8086:9bf6:1028:09c3 rev 5, Mem @ 0x604a000000/16777216, 0x4000000000/268435456, I/O @ 0x00004000/64, BIOS @ 0x????????/65536
[ 40.501] (--) PCI: (1@0:0:0) 10de:1fb9:1028:09c3 rev 161, Mem @ 0xb3000000/16777216, 0x70000000/268435456, 0x80000000/33554432, I/O @ 0x00003000/128, BIOS @ 0x????????/65536
[ 40.501] (II) LoadModule: "glx"
[ 40.502] (II) Loading /usr/local/lib/xorg/modules/extensions/libglx.so
[ 40.509] (II) Module glx: vendor="X.Org Foundation"
[ 40.509] compiled for 1.21.1.24, module version = 1.0.0
[ 40.509] ABI class: X.Org Server Extension, version 10.0
[ 40.509] (==) Matched modesetting as autoconfigured driver 0
[ 40.509] (==) Matched scfb as autoconfigured driver 1
[ 40.509] (==) Matched vesa as autoconfigured driver 2
[ 40.509] (==) Assigned the driver to the xf86ConfigLayout
[ 40.509] (II) LoadModule: "modesetting"
[ 40.509] (II) Loading /usr/local/lib/xorg/modules/drivers/modesetting_drv.so
[ 40.510] (II) Module modesetting: vendor="X.Org Foundation"
[ 40.509] compiled for 1.21.1.24, module version = 1.0.0
[ 40.509] ABI class: X.Org Server Extension, version 10.0
[ 40.509] (==) Matched modesetting as autoconfigured driver 0
[ 40.509] (==) Matched scfb as autoconfigured driver 1
[ 40.509] (==) Matched vesa as autoconfigured driver 2
[ 40.509] (==) Assigned the driver to the xf86ConfigLayout
[ 40.509] (II) LoadModule: "modesetting"
[ 40.509] (II) Loading /usr/local/lib/xorg/modules/drivers/modesetting_drv.so
[ 40.510] (II) Module modesetting: vendor="X.Org Foundation"
[ 40.510] compiled for 1.21.1.24, module version = 1.21.1
[ 40.510] Module class: X.Org Video Driver
[ 40.510] ABI class: X.Org Video Driver, version 25.2
[ 40.510] (II) LoadModule: "scfb"
[ 40.510] (II) Loading /usr/local/lib/xorg/modules/drivers/scfb_drv.so
[ 40.510] (II) Module scfb: vendor="X.Org Foundation"
[ 40.510] compiled for 1.21.1.18, module version = 0.0.5
[ 40.510] ABI class: X.Org Video Driver, version 25.2
[ 40.510] (II) LoadModule: "vesa"
[ 40.510] (II) Loading /usr/local/lib/xorg/modules/drivers/vesa_drv.so
[ 40.511] (II) Module vesa: vendor="X.Org Foundation"
[ 40.511] compiled for 1.21.1.24, module version = 2.6.0
[ 40.511] Module class: X.Org Video Driver
[ 40.511] ABI class: X.Org Video Driver, version 25.2
[ 40.511] (II) modesetting: Driver for Modesetting Kernel Drivers: kms
[ 40.511] (II) scfb: driver for wsdisplay framebuffer: scfb
[ 40.511] (II) VESA: driver for VESA chipsets: vesa
[ 40.511] (--) Using syscons driver with X support (version 2.0)
[ 40.511] (++) using VT number 9

[ 40.511] (WW) Falling back to old probe method for modesetting
[ 40.512] (EE) open /dev/dri/card0: No such file or directory
[ 40.512] (WW) Falling back to old probe method for scfb
[ 40.512] scfb trace: probe start
[ 40.512] (II) scfb(0): using default device
[ 40.512] scfb trace: probe done
[ 40.512] (WW) VGA arbiter: cannot open kernel arbiter, no multi-card support
[ 40.512] scfb: PreInit 0
[ 40.512] (II) scfb(0): Using: depth (32), width (1920), height (1080)
[ 40.512] (II) scfb(0): Creating default Display subsection in Screen section
"Default Screen Section" for depth/fbbpp 24/32
[ 40.512] (==) scfb(0): Depth 24, (==) framebuffer bpp 32
[ 40.512] (==) scfb(0): RGB weight 888
[ 40.512] (==) scfb(0): Default visual is TrueColor
[ 40.512] (==) scfb(0): Using gamma correction (1.0, 1.0, 1.0)
[ 40.512] (II) scfb(0): Vidmem: 8100k
[ 40.512] (DB) xf86MergeOutputClassOptions unsupported bus type 0
[ 40.512] (==) scfb(0): DPI set to (96, 96)
[ 40.512] (**) scfb(0): Using "Shadow Framebuffer"
[ 40.512] (II) Loading sub module "shadow"
[ 40.512] (II) LoadModule: "shadow"
[ 40.512] (II) Loading /usr/local/lib/xorg/modules/libshadow.so
[ 40.512] (II) Module shadow: vendor="X.Org Foundation"
[ 40.512] compiled for 1.21.1.24, module version = 1.1.0
[ 40.512] ABI class: X.Org ANSI C Emulation, version 0.4
[ 40.512] (II) Loading sub module "fb"
[ 40.512] (II) LoadModule: "fb"
[ 40.512] (II) Module "fb" already built-in
[ 40.512] scfb: PreInit done
[ 40.512] (II) UnloadModule: "modesetting"
[ 40.512] (II) Unloading modesetting
[ 40.512] (II) UnloadModule: "vesa"
[ 40.512] (II) Unloading vesa
[ 40.512] scfb: ScfbScreenInit 0
[ 40.512] bitsPerPixel=32, depth=24, defaultVisual=TrueColor
mask: ff0000,ff00,ff, offset: 16,8,0
[ 40.512] mmap returns: addr 0x837800000 len 0x7e9000, fd 11, off 0
[ 40.512] scfb: ScfbSave 0
[ 40.512] scfb: ScfbSave done
[ 40.513] (==) scfb(0): Backing store enabled
[ 40.513] scfb: ScfbScreenInit done
[ 40.513] (II) Initializing extension Generic Event Extension
[ 40.513] (II) Initializing extension SHAPE
[ 40.513] (II) Initializing extension MIT-SHM
[ 40.513] (II) Initializing extension XInputExtension
[ 40.514] (II) Initializing extension XTEST
[ 40.514] (II) Initializing extension BIG-REQUESTS
[ 40.514] (II) Initializing extension SYNC
[ 40.514] (II) Initializing extension XKEYBOARD
[ 40.514] (II) Initializing extension XC-MISC
[ 40.515] (II) Initializing extension SECURITY
[ 40.515] (II) Initializing extension XFIXES
[ 40.515] (II) Initializing extension RENDER
[ 40.515] (II) Initializing extension RANDR
[ 40.515] (II) Initializing extension COMPOSITE
[ 40.516] (II) Initializing extension DAMAGE
[ 40.516] (II) Initializing extension MIT-SCREEN-SAVER
[ 40.516] (II) Initializing extension DOUBLE-BUFFER
[ 40.516] (II) Initializing extension RECORD
[ 40.516] (II) Initializing extension DPMS
[ 40.516] (II) Initializing extension Present
[ 40.516] (II) Initializing extension DRI3
[ 40.516] (II) Initializing extension X-Resource
[ 40.516] (II) Initializing extension XVideo
[ 40.517] (II) Initializing extension XVideo-MotionCompensation
[ 40.517] (II) Initializing extension GLX
[ 40.517] (II) AIGLX: Screen 0 is not DRI2 capable
[ 40.830] (EE) Bus error at address 0x84b6516f9

tuxador · 2026-07-18T15:10:35+0100

the default session in SSDm is plasma6-wayland, switch to plasma-x11 and it should work

T-Aoki · 2026-07-18T15:32:58+0100

Assuming your computer was working with your T1000 sanely, is your /etc/X11/xorg.conf (or splitted out ones in your /usr/local/etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/ kept sane before and after upgrade?

It shouldn't be touched automatically on usual upgrades, but your /var/log/Xorg.0.log suggests there is no NVIDIA specific configurations you should've done before.

Note that the error

Code:

[ 40.512] (EE) open /dev/dri/card0: No such file or directory

is unrelated here, as this error is emitted by genuine modesetting driver from xorg and in case of NVIDIA GPUs, this entry isn't generated at all unless you have graphics/nvidia-drm-*-kmod* (in case 15.0-RELEASE-p* and Quadro T1000, which is at Turing generation of architecture, graphics/nvidia-drm-66-kmod by default if installed via graphics/nvidia-drm-kmod port/pkg). This shouldn't be your case.

Paul Floyd · 2026-07-18T15:47:25+0100

tuxador said:
the default session in SSDm is plasma6-wayland, switch to plasma-x11 and it should work

I don't even get to the SDDM login screen so I can't choose.

Paul Floyd · 2026-07-18T16:41:08+0100

T-Aoki said:
Assuming your computer was working with your T1000 sanely, is your /etc/X11/xorg.conf (or splitted out ones in your /usr/local/etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/ kept sane before and after upgrade?

Yes it was working fine before pkg upgrade.

T-Aoki said:
It shouldn't be touched automatically on usual upgrades, but your /var/log/Xorg.0.log suggests there is no NVIDIA specific configurations you should've done before.

Both were empty.

T-Aoki said:
Note that the error

Code:

[ 40.512] (EE) open /dev/dri/card0: No such file or directory

is unrelated here, as this error is emitted by genuine modesetting driver from xorg and in case of NVIDIA GPUs, this entry isn't generated at all unless you have graphics/nvidia-drm-*-kmod* (in case 15.0-RELEASE-p* and Quadro T1000, which is at Turing generation of architecture, graphics/nvidia-drm-66-kmod by default if installed via graphics/nvidia-drm-kmod port/pkg). This shouldn't be your case.

The only drm that I have installed ins

paulf> pkg info | grep drm
drm-66-kmod-6.6.25.1500068_8 Direct Rendering Manager GPU drivers
libdrm-2.4.133,1 Direct Rendering Manager library and headers

sddm and KDE fail to start on Dell laptop

Paul Floyd

tuxador

T-Aoki

Paul Floyd

Paul Floyd