Troubleshooting

Troubleshooting¶

Common issues and solutions for sysc-greet.

Greeter Won't Start¶

Check greetd Service Status¶

sudo systemctl status greetd

Expected output: Active: active (running)

If inactive, start the service:

sudo systemctl start greetd

View greetd Logs¶

journalctl -u greetd -n 50

Look for: - IPC socket creation errors - Permission denied errors - Compositor startup failures

Verify Configuration¶

Check that greetd config exists at /etc/greetd/config.toml:

cat /etc/greetd/config.toml

Expected content:

[terminal]
vt = 1

[default_session]
command = "niri -c /etc/greetd/niri-greeter-config.kdl"
user = "greeter"

IPC Client Errors¶

"FATAL: Failed to create IPC client"¶

This error means sysc-greet cannot communicate with greetd.

Causes: 1. Running sysc-greet directly without greetd (not in production mode) 2. GREETD_SOCK environment variable not set 3. greetd socket doesn't exist

Solutions:

Verify greetd is running:
```
sudo systemctl status greetd
```
Check if socket exists:
```
ls -la /run/greetd/
```
Test with greetd directly:
```
sudo -u greeter sysc-greet
```

Wallpaper Issues¶

gSlapper Not Working¶

Check gSlapper status:

ps aux | grep gslapper

View gSlapper debug log:

cat /tmp/sysc-greet-wallpaper.log

Verify compositor config starts gSlapper:

# For niri
cat /etc/greetd/niri-greeter-config.kdl

# For hyprland
cat /etc/greetd/hyprland-greeter-config.conf

# For sway
cat /etc/greetd/sway-greeter-config

Look for gSlapper startup command.

Install gSlapper if missing:

# Arch Linux
sudo pacman -S gslapper

# Build from source
git clone https://github.com/Nomadcxx/gSlapper
cd gSlapper
make
sudo make install

Wallpapers Not Appearing¶

Check for themed wallpapers:

ls -la /usr/share/sysc-greet/wallpapers/

Ensure sysc-greet-{theme}.png files exist for your selected theme.

Check permissions:

ls -la /var/lib/greeter/Pictures/wallpapers/
sudo chown -R greeter:greeter /var/lib/greeter/Pictures/wallpapers/

Compositor Issues¶

Screen Remains Black¶

Check compositor logs:

Compositors run as user processes, not systemd services. Check greetd logs which include compositor output:

journalctl -u greetd -n 50

For compositor-specific debugging, check their log files or stderr output in greetd logs.

Verify compositor config syntax:

# Test niri config
niri -c /etc/greetd/niri-greeter-config.kdl --check

# Test hyprland config (syntax check)
Hyprland --check-config -c /etc/greetd/hyprland-greeter-config.conf

Kitty Terminal Issues¶

If kitty doesn't start:

# Check kitty config exists
cat /etc/greetd/kitty.conf

# Test kitty independently
kitty --config /etc/greetd/kitty.conf

Debug Mode¶

Enable debug logging to diagnose issues:

sysc-greet --test --debug

View debug log:

cat /tmp/sysc-greet-debug.log

Debug logs include: - Key press events - Mode transitions - Animation state changes - IPC communication - Wallpaper commands

Cache Issues¶

If preferences aren't being saved:

# Check cache directory exists and has correct permissions
ls -la /var/cache/sysc-greet/
sudo chown -R greeter:greeter /var/cache/sysc-greet/
sudo chmod 755 /var/cache/sysc-greet/

Clear cache if needed:

sudo rm -rf /var/cache/sysc-greet/*

Getting Help¶

For unresolved issues: 1. Check existing GitHub Issues 2. Enable debug mode and collect logs 3. Review Architecture Documentation 4. Check greetd documentation: https://git.sr.ht/~kennylevinsen/greetd/