[08:26] <moshe> bug confirmed by another friend
[14:31] <alkisg> It's possible that lightdm requires one of the missing stanzas, while other DMs do not require it. 
[14:31] <alkisg> You could check which line makes the difference (starting from mate.desktop, changing Exec=i3), or you could directly file a bug against lightdm
[14:35] <moshe> I've looked at that already
[14:36] <alkisg> And you found the line?
[14:36] <moshe> didn't find anything obviously missing eyeballing i3.desktop against mate.desktop and jw.desktop
[14:37] <alkisg> Does it work if you start with mate.desktop and change just the Exec line to i3?
[14:37] <moshe> also, it's exactly the same file I had in 20.04 and lightdm has only received 2 minor updates since then
[14:38] <alkisg> I just tried apt install i3 in jammy-mate and it worked fine for me
[14:38] <alkisg> I selected it from the login screen and I'm now seeing the first configuration dialog
[14:40] <moshe> was the background of t he lightdm entries garbled ?
[14:41] <alkisg> no
[14:42] <moshe> not even sure if  that's related tbh, I haven't messed about with that yet
[14:42] <moshe> https://paste.debian.net/plainh/c6aa72d6
[14:42] <moshe> is your i3.desktop file the same ?
[14:43] <moshe> this is what 22.04 dropped in/usr/shar/xsessions after nuking and reinstalling i3
[14:43] <moshe> oh wait I might have done a forced reinstall
[14:43] <moshe> but I do remember my friend's file being the same 
[14:48] <moshe> purged, removed the files myself, reinstalled i3, nothing was put back into /usr/share/xsessions now lightdm can only find mate
[15:01] <alkisg> i3 installs i3-wm which has the session file
[15:01] <alkisg> If i3-wm is missing for you, something is wrong
[15:02] <moshe> the packages are installed
[15:02] <alkisg> My i3.desktop is termbin.com/2wyi
[15:02] <moshe> it's i3.desktop that didn't get put back in
[15:02] <alkisg> Use `sudo dpkg -V` to discover if you manually deleted files that you shouldn't have
[15:03] <alkisg> For example if you rm /usr/share/xsessions/i3.desktop, and then you apt install --reinstall i3, you're causing issues
[15:03] <alkisg> As that file is shipped by i3-wm, not by i3, so reinstalling i3 won't put it back
[15:03] <moshe> not what I did
[15:03] <moshe> uninstalled, purged, nuked the files, reinstalled
[15:04] <alkisg> What's the output of sudo dpkg -V
[15:04] <moshe> still running but so far nothing except ??5?????? c /etc/gnome/defaults.list
[15:07] <alkisg> Let it run. And you're saying you have no files in /usr/share/xsessions now?
[15:07] <moshe> a handful of files, most I don't recognize, and it's complaining about those 2 .desktop files
[15:07] <moshe> yes
[15:07] <moshe> reinstalling i3 didn't put them back in
[15:07] <alkisg> Run this: dpkg -S /usr/share/xsessions
[15:08] <alkisg> i3-wm, mate-session-manager
[15:08] <alkisg> These are the packages that you need to reinstall to get the desktop files back
[15:08] <alkisg> Not i3, not mate
[15:08] <alkisg> sudo apt install --reinstall i3-wm
[15:08] <alkisg> Also put the output of dpkg -V to pastebin
[15:08] <alkisg> Since the files that you don't recongnize might be importatnt
[15:09] <alkisg> s/importatnt/important/
[15:10] <moshe> well I killed it to run the other command
[15:11] <moshe> and I fail to see how uninstalling i3 an following that up with an autoremove, to then install i3 and i3status, wouldn't put the files back in
[15:11] <moshe> and yet forcing a reinstall of i3-wm did put them back in
[15:12] <moshe> same content as what I pasted earlier
[15:12] <alkisg> It's what I'm trying to explain about package management
[15:12] <alkisg> When you uninstall or reinstall a metapackage, it doesn't automatically reinstall all its dependencies
[15:13] <moshe> autoremove
[15:13] <alkisg> So for example if you ever apt purge --auto-remove mate-desktop and then reinstall it, you completely break your installation
[15:14] <alkisg> As all the programs that depend on mate-desktop get removed by they don't automatically get back
[15:14] <alkisg> For me to help more, I'll need the output of `sudo dpkg -V` and `sudo dpkg -l`
[15:14] <moshe> anyway I'm going to log out and back in, see if that changed anything. If that did, then we still have a problem because the same thing happened on a clean install a few months ago, and inside a vm last night.
[15:14] <alkisg> In any case this isn't a development channel
[15:15] <alkisg> So you can't report bugs here, you can only get volunteer help
[15:15] <alkisg> So even if you are able to reproduce the issue in a clean installation (I wasn't, it worked fine for me), the next step is to report the bug
[15:15] <moshe> nope, fails and falls back to i3
[15:15] <moshe> I have already
[15:16] <moshe> *falls back to mate
[15:16] <alkisg> > For me to help more, I'll need the output of sudo dpkg -V and sudo dpkg -l
[15:16] <moshe> I'm running them
[15:16] <alkisg> You may even test with a live cd if you wish
[15:16] <alkisg> apt install i3 in the live session
[15:18] <alkisg> Btw if you reported the bug, you may mention it here so that it helps with the discussion
[15:20] <moshe> I did it just as you started asking questions
[15:20] <moshe> I assumed it was why you were asking
[15:21] <moshe> https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu-mate/+bug/1990771
[15:22] <moshe> as for the output you asked for https://paste.debian.net/plainh/ab2de206
[16:06] <alkisg> No dpkg -l output there
[16:06] <alkisg> You may run `dpkg -S filename` for the affected files
[16:07] <alkisg> It will show the affected package. By reinstalling it, you'll fix the dpkg -V issues
[16:07] <moshe> half of the dpkg -V output is on purpose
[16:08] <moshe> the other half I have absolutely no clue, I don't go around and nuke files willy-nilly so I can only assume they're leftovers from the previous install
[16:10] <alkisg> Installations and upgrades can't cause that dpkg -V output; in any case I've mentioned how to fix it
[16:11] <moshe> I'll look into it