Recently my machine started to boot using a login screen featuring a laser-eyed bobcat (possibly a panther.)and the laser-puma doesn't accept my login (
failed to start session , not a wrong password msg). I do crtl-alt-F3 then login from cli, then run startx which gets me to a kde desktop that's pretty nice (the previous default was gnome). I'd like to 1. be able to login from the getgo, and 2. have kde as the default desktop (tho I care less about this). I've checked all the answers for a similar question (which occurred in previous versions of ubuntu) none of which seem to solve the issue. Some system info (obtained in a terminal window after the sequence described above) :
jeremy@jeremy-Blade:~$ uname -a
Linux jeremy-Blade 5.4.0-70-generic #78-Ubuntu SMP Fri Mar 19 13:29:52 UTC 2021 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux
jeremy@jeremy-Blade:~$ lsb_release -a
No LSB modules are available.
Distributor ID: Ubuntu
Description: Ubuntu 20.04.2 LTS
Release: 20.04
Codename: focal
jeremy@jeremy-Blade:~$ echo $XDG_CURRENT_DESKTOP
KDE
jeremy@jeremy-Blade:~$ ls -l .X*
-rw------- 1 jeremy jeremy 163 бер 23 17:37 .Xauthority1 Answer
Dropping into non-gui mode (alt-ctrl-F3) then running sudo apt-get install --reinstall ubuntu-desktop , then choosing a default graphics manager of lightdm took care of it.
sudo dpkg-reconfigure sddm and rebooting gets me into kde without problems and actually doesnt need to be run from non-gui mode.
Actually kde/sddm isn't problem-free, videos in firefox and elsewhere don't run (if playback doesnt begin shortly try restarting your device ) so I'm back to lightdm.
