virtual keyboard over XDM since recent update

[graemev]

Sorry, I've not done the full research one this, just posting on the assumption this is "common"

I have a tower PC, with 4K screen and USB keyboard and mouse (i.e. not a laptop and no touchscreen)

Until recently after boot or logoff I got offered an XDM (alike) login screen, with images of the users, my image and userid preselected and all I had to do was type in a password.

Recently (following some big GUI updates) instead I see a (just) large virtual keyboard. It looks real enough and I guess I could type on it using the mouse.
If I ignore it and simply type my password , the virtual keyboard disappears and what looks like a partly rendered version** of the old XDM(alike) briefly appears before logging me on as normal.

There are white rectangles with each of the users names, spaced out as though they are about to have images loaded.

Initially I though it might be that I'd forgotten to switch the KVM , it was an attempt to work without a keyboard , but I checked to ensure it was all plugged in a working before I started.

[claydoh]

XDM?
Or do you mean the default SDDM login manager?

There was a general KDE bug in the Breeze theme for this, the on-screen keyboard makes me think this is the case, plus the generic fallback theme. You should be able to close out the keyboard via one of the keys/buttons on the lower right, iirc.

Check System Settings' login screen area, and see what theme options are present there. You might see an oddity like two themes of the same name, or something other than 'breeze' selected.

Check that the package sddm-theme-breeze is installed if you don't see it as a choice in System Settings

[graemev]

Looks like the *DM is indeed SDDM (at least that is what's on the System Settings Login Screen ( I tend to think in terms of getty(1) - CLI login vs XDM - GUI Login ... both have been replaced by various alternates)

The systems settings --> login screen is a blank white page, with 4 buttons at the bottom [Behaviour] [Apply Plasma Settings][Install from File][Get New SDDM Themes]

Do I take this to mean I have "no themes" ? Maybe I need to install one?

[claydoh]

Maybe I need to install one?

Umm

Check that the package sddm-theme-breeze is installed if you don't see it as a choice in System Settings

On my VM for 22.04, I did see this at some point, but not currently. I seem to have the opposite issue -- two Breeze entries, which followed the bug reports I'd seen mentioned in various places.

make sure you have the package installed, and it would not hurt to install another one just for fun. Either from the Get New button, or there are a couple available in the repos, like sddm-theme-breeze and sddm-theme-maui

[graemev]

Well apt tells me "sddm-theme-breeze" exists and I don't have it.


This is a pretty clean kubuntu install, I wonder if there is some diagnostics
worth collecting before I install something ... feels like there was a missing dependency during the last big upgrade.

[claydoh]

What are the contents of /usr/share/sddm/themes/?

If you have not, it probably is worth adding the backports PPA to get some useful Plasma fixes that may include some related to this




Note that here, on my setup, the ubuntu-theme is just a symlink to the breeze one, and explains why I see two entries.
I don't think you are necessarily missing anything in terms of dependencies.

My main neon system is a little different, and I use a custom theme, even though I use auto-login on this desktop PC.
The symlink is to the ugly fallback maui theme





Installing a new theme might provide a workaround for the moment, and there are quite a few nice ones available.

[graemev]

graeme@NUC:~$ ls -l /usr/share/sddm/themes
ls: cannot access '/usr/share/sddm/themes': No such file or directory
graeme@NUC:~$ ls -l /usr/share/sddm
total 16
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 Oct 12 2021 faces
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 Oct 12 2021 flags
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 Oct 12 2021 scripts
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 Oct 12 2021 translations
graeme@NUC:~$

[claydoh]

Apt's database says you have the theme installed, but the actual files are missing.
Try reinstalling the package sudo apt reinstall sddm-theme-breeze, and check that the directory and files reappear, or if there are any errors.

[oshunluvr]

@here, these are installed;

breeze
breeze-cursor-theme
breeze-gtk-theme
breeze-icon-theme
grub-theme-breeze
kde-style-breeze
kwin-style-breeze
plymouth-theme-breeze
qml-module-org-kde-breeze
sddm-theme-breeze

[graemev]

graeme@NUC:~$ sudo apt reinstall sddm-theme-breeze
[sudo] password for graeme:
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree... Done
Reading state information... Done
The following package was automatically installed and is no longer required:
systemd-hwe-hwdb
Use 'sudo apt autoremove' to remove it.
The following NEW packages will be installed
sddm-theme-breeze
0 to upgrade, 1 to newly install, 0 to remove and 12 not to upgrade.
Need to get 612 kB of archives.
After this operation, 902 kB of additional disk space will be used.
Get:1 http://gb.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu jammy-updates/universe amd64 sddm-theme-breeze amd64 4:5.24.6-0ubuntu0.1 [612 kB]
Fetched 612 kB in 0s (3,134 kB/s)
Selecting previously unselected package sddm-theme-breeze.
(Reading database ... 334823 files and directories currently installed.)
Preparing to unpack .../sddm-theme-breeze_4%3a5.24.6-0ubuntu0.1_amd64.deb ...
Unpacking sddm-theme-breeze (4:5.24.6-0ubuntu0.1) ...
Setting up sddm-theme-breeze (4:5.24.6-0ubuntu0.1) ...
update-alternatives: using /usr/share/sddm/themes/breeze to provide /usr/share/sddm/themes/ubuntu-theme (sddm-ubuntu-theme) in auto mo
de
graeme@NUC:~$ pwd
/home/graeme
graeme@NUC:~$ ls -l /usr/share/sddm
total 20
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 Oct 12 2021 faces
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 Oct 12 2021 flags
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 Oct 12 2021 scripts
drwxr-xr-x 3 root root 4096 Sep 26 21:22 themes
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 Oct 12 2021 translations


Looks like it was a "new" install. Which echoes what I said on Sep 23, 2022, 08:09 PM, it exists and I don't have it (apt-cache found it , apt-get said it wasn't installed)
so I guess that's just hidden an evidence of what was wrong initially?

raeme@NUC:~$ ls -l /usr/share/sddm/themes/
total 4
drwxr-xr-x 4 root root 4096 Sep 26 21:22 breeze
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 35 Sep 26 21:22 ubuntu-theme -> /etc/alternatives/sddm-ubuntu-theme

[Snowhog]

apt-cache found it , apt-get said it wasn't installed

That apt-cache 'found' it but apt-get didn't isn't surprising (to me). The cache was likely not updated, so it 'saw' it. Just my opinion.

[graemev]

So, sadly looks like we'll never discover why this this seemly necessary dependency was lost during the upgrade. :-(

Thanks for your help.

For anybody else following this. After the apt (re)install sddm-theme-breeze the XDM style login started working again. A few other things changed:


1: The share via Bluetooth (from my phone the desktop) again started working (previously never got the desktop event to accept the xfer)
2: A number of icons on the bottom panel have now STOPPED working (they were working while the XDM login was not working, but have not stopped.
So on my bottom panel I have:


i: Thunderbird - Fails to launch
ii: Synaptic - Fails to launch
iii X2go - Fails to launch
iv: Document scanner - Fails to launch
v: gimp - Fails to launch
vi: quick settings - Launches OK
vii: dolphin - Launches OK
viii: Firefox - Launches OK
ix: konsole - Launches OK
x: emacs - Lanuches OK
xi: Telegram - Lanuches OK
xii: Libreoffc calc - Launches OK



The same applications are fine from the menu, so I'm guessing this is some link/path which got hard coded during the add to panel and now needs replacing ....

Try it for the Gimp ...

Huum 2 choices .... add to panel (Widget) which adds an ICON but it does not launch, and pin to task manager , which adds a working Icon .

[ So I guess some of my existing bottom panel icons are added and some pinned ...]

So some subtle changes here in GUI behaviour ...I was happy with the Athena widget set and a right click menu on root :-)



BTW Snowhog it's not a "fault" that's the expected behaviour of apt-cache. e.g. I don't have the game "0ad"

$ sudo apt-cache show 0ad

Package: 0ad
Architecture: amd64
Version: 0.0.25b-2
Priority: optional
Section: universe/games
Origin: Ubuntu
Maintainer: Ubuntu Developers <ubuntu-devel-discuss@lists.ubuntu.com>
Original-Maintainer: Debian Games Team <pkg-games-devel@lists.alioth.debian.org>​
...elided....

$ dpkg -l 0ad
dpkg-query: no packages found matching 0ad​

It exists, I don't have it installed. Same as sddm-theme-breeze (at that time)


(I was simply making it clear that I have the correct repos to get that package, but it does not seem to be "required" by anything I have installed ...but it certainly look it should be required)

[claydoh]

So, sadly looks like we'll never discover why this this seemly necessary dependency was lost during the upgrade. :-(

I have some suspicions.
Check and make sure you have the meta-package kubuntu-desktop installed, unless you did a minimal installation. In that case, look for plasma-desktop. These packages are just lists of dependencies grouped together, no actual software.
I am thinking the Kubuntu devs had a snafu when they added some packages to the 'Phased Updates' list, and seemed to maybe have missed including one of these top level meta-packages, and there was a partial upgrade for some people, some things got partially messed up.

https://www.kubuntuforums.net/forum/...-after-upgrade
https://www.reddit.com/r/Kubuntu/com...ubuntudesktop/
and a couple of other similar posts on reddit iirc

it's not a "fault" that's the expected behaviour of apt-cache. e.g. I don't have the game "0ad"

apt-cache policy shows what is actually installed, as will apt search