x11/sddm hangs with black screen

[Graham Perrin]

On 14/12/2020 14:01, Mike Clarke wrote:

> On Sunday, 13 December 2020 12:07:37 GMT Michael Schuster wrote:
 >
>> On Sun, Dec 13, 2020, 11:40 Mike Clarke <jmc-freebsd2 at milibyte.co.uk> wrote:
 >>
>>> I've just upgraded a couple of hundred packages today and
>>> sddm-0.19.0 goes no further than a black screen with just a
>>> mouse pointer.
 >>
>> I'm by no means an expert where sddm is concerned, but from those who are,
>> you might get a quicker and better informed response if you provide such
>> information like:
>>
>> - Version of FreeBSD you're running
>> - details on your graphics adapter
>> - When you did the last upgrade before that
>> - Relevant content of. xsession-errors
>> - Ditto /var/log/Xorg.log
 >
> Well the problem now seems to have been cleared although I'm not entirely sure what was
> causing it.
>
> I'm running 12.1-RELEASE-p12 and the problem started after sddm was upgraded from
> 0.18.1_4 to sddm-0.19.0 and plasma5-sddm-kcm was upgraded from 5.20.3
> to 5.20.4 along with many other packages including lots of kf5* and plasma5* packages
>
> On first inspection there were no obvious clues in the log files so I temporarily rolled back
> to an earlier boot environment to see if a comparison of log files produced any useful
> information. I didn't find anything useful in Xorg.log or .xsession-errors but there was a
> significant difference in /var/log/sddm.log which showed that the sddm session was closed
> immediately after opening it
>
> …

Thanks. Still, I'll be glad to know the graphics adapter details, and

cat /etc/rc.conf | grep -v \#

I have encountered blackouts of the type that you describe on numerous 
occasions, and I can suggest some tips on future avoidance, but it'll be 
smart to know about your hardware etc. before doing so.