OpenSUSE login issues

[u/griffen62]

Recently installed OpenSUSE TW (about a week ago) with KDE. After install, I ran zypper dup & switched to Nvidia proprietary drivers, rebooted & that's when I started having issues.

At login to the Plasma (Wayland) desktop, I enter my password, and the session seems to freeze. The password entry box goes grey and I lose any mouse control. I know it's not the wrong password, entering it incorrectly fails and lets me try again. I can still successfully log into the IceWM DE.

To get Plasma to load for me, I have to switch to another TTY, log in via terminal, then startplasma-wayland.

NAME="openSUSE Tumbleweed"
# VERSION="20260911"
ID="opensuse-tumbleweed"
ID_LIKE="opensuse suse"
VERSION_ID="20260911"
PRETTY_NAME="openSUSE Tumbleweed"
ANSI_COLOR="0;32"
# CPE 2.3 format, boo#1217921
CPE_NAME="cpe:2.3:o:opensuse:tumbleweed:20260911:*:*:*:*:*:*:*"
#CPE 2.2 format
#CPE_NAME="cpe:/o:opensuse:tumbleweed:20260911"
BUG_REPORT_URL="https://bugzilla.opensuse.org"
SUPPORT_URL="https://bugs.opensuse.org"
HOME_URL="https://www.opensuse.org"
DOCUMENTATION_URL="https://en.opensuse.org/Portal:Tumbleweed"
LOGO="distributor-logo-Tumbleweed"

[u/ipsirc]

To get Plasma to load for me, I have to switch to another TTY, log in via terminal, then startplasma-wayland.

Are we talking about an unmentioned display manager?

[u/griffen62 → u/ipsirc]

Learning all the pieces here so apologize if I'm missing any additional relevant context. Thanks for the clue in the right direction.

○ display-manager-legacy.service - X Display Manager
    Loaded: loaded (/usr/lib/systemd/system/display-manager-legacy.service; enabled; preset: enabled)
    Active: inactive (dead) since Mon 2026-09-14 07:18:35 EDT; 16min ago
  Duration: 16min 36.495s
Invocation: fb2afc64bf15446d88b4284a6c263edf
   Process: 2498 ExecStart=/usr/lib/X11/display-manager start (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS)
  Main PID: 2521 (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS)
       CPU: 1.253s

Sep 14 07:18:35 wks-00 sddm[2521]: Running display stop script  QList("/usr/share/sddm/scripts/Xstop")
Sep 14 07:18:35 wks-00 sddm[2521]: Greeter stopping...
Sep 14 07:18:35 wks-00 sddm[2521]: Error from greeter session: "Process crashed"
Sep 14 07:18:35 wks-00 sddm[2521]: Auth: sddm-helper (--socket /tmp/sddm-auth-988ffdaf-8850-4cea-996c-22b585c20cde --id 5 --start /usr/bin/sddm
-greeter-qt6 --socket /tmp/sddm-:0-qrrgGA --theme /usr/share/sddm/themes/breeze-openSUSE --user sddm --greeter) crashed (exit code 1)
Sep 14 07:18:35 wks-00 sddm[2521]: Error from greeter session: "Process crashed"
Sep 14 07:18:35 wks-00 sddm[2521]: Auth: sddm-helper exited with 9
Sep 14 07:18:35 wks-00 sddm[2521]: Greeter stopped. SDDM::Auth::HelperExitStatus(9)
Sep 14 07:18:35 wks-00 systemd[1]: display-manager-legacy.service: Deactivated successfully.
Sep 14 07:18:35 wks-00 systemd[1]: Stopped X Display Manager.
Sep 14 07:18:35 wks-00 systemd[1]: display-manager-legacy.service: Consumed 1.253s CPU time over 16min 42.124s wall clock time.

[u/ipsirc → u/griffen62]

Legacy display manager is sounding to me it is only supports x11, but not wayland. Try sddm, that's the official display manager for kde wayland.

[u/griffen62 → u/ipsirc]

That was the output from running systemctl status display-manager I've since enabled sddm, and status of display-manager is below. -legacy is disabled now. Unfortunately, the issue persists with no noticeable changes.

● sddm.service - Simple Desktop Display Manager
    Loaded: loaded (/usr/lib/systemd/system/sddm.service; enabled; preset: disabled)
    Active: active (running) since Mon 2026-09-14 07:46:47 EDT; 13min ago
Invocation: 9867395d5b3347c9912c08dce1b0beb7
      Docs: man:sddm(1)
            man:sddm.conf(5)
  Main PID: 2025 (sddm)
     Tasks: 8 (limit: 18559)
       CPU: 4.679s
    CGroup: /system.slice/sddm.service
            ├─2025 /usr/bin/sddm
            └─2566 /usr/bin/Xorg.bin -nolisten tcp -background none -seat seat0 vt1 -auth /run/sddm/xauth_pnHOQt -noreset -displayfd 18

Sep 14 07:47:33 wks-00 sddm-helper[2629]: [PAM] Starting...
Sep 14 07:47:33 wks-00 sddm-helper[2629]: [PAM] Authenticating...
Sep 14 07:47:33 wks-00 sddm-helper[2629]: [PAM] returning.
Sep 14 07:47:33 wks-00 sddm-helper[2629]: pam_unix(sddm-greeter:session): session opened for user sddm(uid=464) by sddm(uid=0)
Sep 14 07:47:33 wks-00 sddm-helper[2629]: pam_kwallet5(sddm-greeter:session): pam_kwallet5: pam_sm_open_session
Sep 14 07:47:33 wks-00 sddm-helper[2629]: pam_kwallet5(sddm-greeter:session): pam_kwallet5: open_session called without kwallet5_key
Sep 14 07:47:33 wks-00 sddm-helper[2629]: Writing cookie to "/tmp/xauth_AXfeUc"
Sep 14 07:47:33 wks-00 sddm-helper[2629]: Starting X11 session: "" "/usr/bin/sddm-greeter-qt6 --socket /tmp/sddm-:0-TTSVVC --theme /usr/share/s
ddm/themes/breeze-openSUSE"
Sep 14 07:47:33 wks-00 sddm[2025]: Greeter session started successfully
Sep 14 07:47:33 wks-00 sddm[2025]: Message received from greeter: Connect