Okay turns out the [drm:intel_dp_start_link_train] *ERROR* too many voltage retries, give up
from the kernel is a known bug but was a red herring and had nothing to do with my problems and from what I've seen people say it's not a problem. I think it has something to do with ASUS. I am using ASUS TaiChi 21.
Also running systemctl enable
for several login managers wasn't too much of a problem as it just creates symbolic links in /etc/systemd/system
I fixed the splash screen not progressing to the login manager by changing the login manager to sddm
, it was set to xdm
. I did this by using a "Try ubuntu live" usb stick and modifying the file /etc/X11/default-display-manager
from /usr/bin/xdm
to /usr/bin/sddm
.
In the process I learnt a little about how X11 and display managers work:
- X11 is a network protocol. It encodes things such as graphic primitives, images, pointer motion, and key presses.
- Xorg is an X server. It implements X11 and provides an interface to keyboards, mice, and video cards.
- gdm, xdm, kdm sddm are all login managers (synonym display managers) They are the first X program run by the system.
- When the computer boots, the shell scripts in
/etc/rc2.d
are run. There is a script for each login manager such as S03lightdm
. This login manager script reads from /etc/X11/default-display-manager
and decides whether to init the display manager based on this value.
- Upon authentication the login manager calls
/etc/Xsession
which calls the scripts in /etc/Xsession.d/
and ~/xinitrc
which then sets up your desktop environment and window manager.
So presumably there was something wrong with either the installation/config/compatibility of xdm on my computer.
Following this change I was able to see the login manager screen and was able to login but upon login it redirected me back to the login screen. This occurred due to running sudo startx
which created the file ~/.Xauthority
but owned by root. I finally fixed this by deleting .Xauthority
and everything is back to normal!