[SOLVED] SDDM Theme not applying

[heady pike]

I recently found a cool SDDM theme pixie-sddm, installed it, tested if it works with sddm-greeter-qt6 --test-mode, and then went on. After rebooting I noticed that SDDM in fact did not change its theme and was still using Breeze. I changed every config file connected to SDDM I could find to use the pixie theme with no success. Then I thought that maybe SDDM can't load the theme for some reason, but no logs returned me any errors about theme, so I tried checking which config file is actually used by the SDDM and started changing in every file the theme to maya and after logging out the theme did not change. So now I'm stuck because from my testing it seems like SDDM doesn't use any config files at all or uses some config that I cannot find. So if someone could help me solve this problem I would really appreciate it.
I use CachyOS with Plasma 6 and Hyprland. Changing the SDDM theme through KDE Settings doesn't work either, and to add the tab for changing the SDDM theme in settings disappeared and my only access to it is through /usr/share/applications/kcm_sddm.desktop

[worn stream]

Check which config SDDM actually loads

sudo sddm --example-config
sudo sddm --test-mode

[heady pike]

in test mode everything works fine, outside the test mode it uses Breeze for unknown reason

[worn stream]

Output of grep -r Theme /etc/sddm.conf /etc/sddm.conf.d/?

[heady pike]

everything is set to pixie

[worn stream]

How about

sudo ls -ld /usr/share/sddm/themes/pixie
sudo ls -l /usr/share/sddm/themes/pixie
```?

[heady pike]

drwxr-xr-x 1 root root 114 03-19 15:56 /usr/share/sddm/themes/pixie

drwxr-xr-x 1 root root    58 03-19 15:08 assets
drwxr-xr-x 1 root root    42 03-19 15:03 components
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root  1067 03-19 15:03 LICENSE
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 32349 03-19 15:03 Main.qml
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root   311 03-19 15:56 metadata.desktop
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root   323 03-19 15:03 theme.conf```

[worn stream]

Output of cat /etc/sddm.conf.d/pixie.conf?

[heady pike]

no such file
in /etc/sddm.conf.d/ I only have theme.conf which only contains

[Theme]
Current=pixie

and kde_settings.conf which contains

[Autologin]
Relogin=false
Session=
User=

[General]
HaltCommand=/usr/bin/systemctl poweroff
RebootCommand=/usr/bin/systemctl reboot

[Theme]
Current=pixie

[Users]
MaximumUid=60000
MinimumUid=1000

[worn stream]

Run sudo mv /etc/sddm.conf.d/kde_settings.conf /etc/sddm.conf.d/kde_settings.conf.bak and after that edit /etc/sddm.conf.d/pixie.conf and put in it this

[Theme]
Current=pixie
CursorTheme=breeze_cursors

make sure the file ends with an new line, after save it and test.

[heady pike]

Still uses Breeze theme, even recorded it if you want to see how it looks

[worn stream]

Yeah.

[worn stream]

Also output of journalctl -u sddm -b | grep -i theme?

[heady pike]

No output from that

[worn stream]

What's in cat /etc/sddm.conf?

[heady pike]

Modified sudo sddm --example-config to use the pixie theme

[worn stream]

What's in the *.conf file for sddm?

[heady pike]

you mean the /etc/sddm.conf? Or other .conf file for sddm?

[worn stream]

Yeah, what's in the /etc/sddm.conf?

[heady pike]

[Autologin]
Relogin=false

Session=

User=


[General]
DisplayServer=wayland

GreeterEnvironment=

HaltCommand=/usr/bin/systemctl poweroff

InputMethod=

Namespaces=

Numlock=none

RebootCommand=/usr/bin/systemctl reboot


[Theme]
Current=pixie

CursorSize=

CursorTheme=

DisableAvatarsThreshold=7

EnableAvatars=true

FacesDir=/usr/share/sddm/faces

Font=

ThemeDir=/usr/share/sddm/themes


[Users]
DefaultPath=/usr/local/bin:/usr/bin:/bin

HideShells=

HideUsers=

MaximumUid=60513

MinimumUid=1000

RememberLastSession=true

RememberLastUser=true

ReuseSession=true


[Wayland]
CompositorCommand=weston --shell=kiosk

EnableHiDPI=true

SessionCommand=/usr/share/sddm/scripts/wayland-session

SessionDir=/usr/local/share/wayland-sessions,/usr/share/wayland-sessions

SessionLogFile=.local/share/sddm/wayland-session.log


[X11]
DisplayCommand=/usr/share/sddm/scripts/Xsetup

DisplayStopCommand=/usr/share/sddm/scripts/Xstop

EnableHiDPI=true

ServerArguments=-nolisten tcp

ServerPath=/usr/bin/X

SessionCommand=/usr/share/sddm/scripts/Xsession

SessionDir=/usr/local/share/xsessions,/usr/share/xsessions

SessionLogFile=.local/share/sddm/xorg-session.log

XephyrPath=/usr/bin/Xephyr

plus comments, but had to remove them to fit in the character limit

[worn stream]

The issue is this line

Remove it or replace it with

[Wayland]
CompositorCommand=sddm-helper --wayland

[heady pike]

replaced it, it didn't do anything
then removed it and still nothing new

[worn stream]

Run sddm-greeter-qt6 --test-mode?

Also output of journalctl -u sddm -b | grep -i greeter?

[heady pike]

it didn't show the pixie theme and the output was:

[19:13:10.960] (II) GREETER: High-DPI autoscaling Enabled
[19:13:11.064] (II) GREETER: Reading from "/usr/local/share/wayland-sessions/hyprland-uwsm.desktop"
[19:13:11.064] (II) GREETER: Reading from "/usr/share/wayland-sessions/hyprland-uwsm.desktop"
[19:13:11.064] (II) GREETER: Reading from "/usr/local/share/wayland-sessions/hyprland.desktop"
[19:13:11.064] (II) GREETER: Reading from "/usr/share/wayland-sessions/hyprland.desktop"
[19:13:11.064] (II) GREETER: Reading from "/usr/local/share/wayland-sessions/plasma.desktop"
[19:13:11.064] (II) GREETER: Reading from "/usr/share/wayland-sessions/plasma.desktop"
[19:13:11.065] (II) GREETER: Loading theme configuration from "qrc:/theme/theme.conf"
[19:13:11.067] (EE) GREETER: Socket error:  "QLocalSocket::connectToServer: Invalid name"
[19:13:11.069] (II) GREETER: Loading qrc:/theme/Main.qml...
[19:13:11.147] (II) GREETER: Adding view for "eDP-1" QRect(0,0 1920x1080)

also journalctl -u sddm -b | grep -i greeter didn't output anything

[worn stream]

Output of cat /usr/share/sddm/themes/pixie/metadata.desktop?

[heady pike]

[SddmGreeterTheme]
Name=Pixie
Description=A clean, modern, and minimal SDDM theme inspired by Google Pixel UI and Material Design 3.
Author=xCaptaiN09
Copyright=(c) 2026 xCaptaiN09
License=MIT
Type=sddm-theme
Version=3.0
MainScript=Main.qml
Screenshot=screenshot.png
QtVersion=6
X-SDDM-Theme-InterfaceVersion=2

[worn stream]

Edit that file and change this [SddmGreeterTheme] to [Desktop Entry] save the file and test

[heady pike]

Okay, now sudo sddm --test-mode says it couldn't load the theme because it needs versions in imports

[heady pike]

Alright I fixed it!
Turned out that my install was using plasma-login instead of sddm and that's why I couldn't apply any theme

Thanks for help man

[worn stream]

... solved

[iron basin]

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