Random log outs, amd_pstate failed to load, keyring mismatch, and more!

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I installed Kicksecure on my desktop yesterday, and since then I have spent several hours attempting to debug it, with limited success.

I am at my wits end.

After my initial install, I was experiencing many of these problems (random logouts, amd_pstate failed to load, kanshi config not applied automatically) and then the terminal suddenly stopped working. When I tried to open Qterminal or use anything in the System Maintenance Panel that would normally launch the Qterminal, nothing happened.

I could not find any way to fix this or install another terminal emulator, so I reinstalled the system from scratch. My terminal is back, but there are several other problems.

I considered creating a separate post for each of these, but it seems likely that at least some of these issues are connected. I’m using the latest version of Kicksecure, based on Debian 13.6.

Overview of Problems:

  1. Logged out of computer at random intervals
  2. Kanshi config is not automatically applied upon startup
  3. amd_pstate failed to load
  4. sudo apt update: Error due to keyring mismatch
  5. systemd critical journal messages - nouveau, channel 16 killed

1. Logged out of computer at random intervals

At seemingly random intervals, I am logged out of the computer and end up on the black log in screen where it asks me to enter my username. When I log back in, all of my applications are closed and anything I didn’t save is gone. This has happened while I am actively using my computer, and it has happened twice while writing this post. This could be coincidental, but it only seems to happen when I have adjusted the scale of my display.

2. Kanshi config is not automatically applied upon startup

When I restart Kanshi the settings in my config file are applied, but I have to do that manually every single time I boot my computer. I tried to get around this by creating the file /etc/rc.local with the following contents and giving it execute permissions. This script is supposed to run on start up, but my display config settings are only applied if I execute the script manually.

#!/bin/sh

systemctl --user restart kanshi

exit 0

3. amd_pstate failed to load

Every time I boot my computer, before I enter the passphrase to decrypt my drive, it outputs:

[    5.447055] amd_pstate: failed to enable driver mode(3)

When I run lsmod it does not list amd_pstate. When I run modprobe, it outputs:

[user ~]% sudo modprobe amd_pstate
modprobe: FATAL: Module amd_pstate not found in directory /lib/modules/6.12.111+deb13-amd64
zsh: exit 1     sudo modprobe amd_pstate

I have already tried updating my BIOS, enabling CPPC in my BIOS settings, and adding the amd_pstate=active rameter to /etc/default/grub with the following line before running ‘sudo update-grub’ and rebooting my device.

GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet amd_pstate=active"

Do I even need amd_pstate, or can I just ignore this error for the rest of time?

4. sudo apt update: Error due to keyring mismatch

This is the newest error, and it prevents me from using sudo apt update. It started after I tried to install Mullvad VPN, following the instructions on their website. Here are the commands I entered:

sudo apt install curl
sudo curl -fsSLo /usr/share/keyrings/mullvad-keyring.asc https://repository.mullvad.net/deb/mullvad-keyring.asc
echo "deb [signed-by=/usr/share/keyrings/mullvad-keyring.asc arch=$( dpkg --print-architecture )] https://repository.mullvad.net/deb/stable stable main" | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/mullvad.list
sudo apt update

When I run ‘sudo apt update’, it outputs

[user ~]% sudo apt update
Error: Conflicting values set for option Signed-By regarding source https://repository.mullvad.net/deb/stable/ stable: /usr/share/keyrings/mullvad-keyring.asc != /etc/apt/keyrings/mullvad-keyring.asc
Error: The list of sources could not be read.
zsh: exit 100   sudo apt update

I tried deleting /usr/share/keyrings/mullvad-keyring.asc and /etc/apt/keyrings/mullvad-keyring.asc and rerunning the above commands, but it did not solve the problem.

5. systemd critical journal messages - nouveau, channel 16 killed

When I run System Check, I get the following output

ERROR: systemd critical journal messages check result (current boot): Possible system issue detected. Some unusual entries were found in the kernel log. 

There is no need to panic. This is not a serious security issue. However, it may affect other system checks. These messages might indicate hardware or software problems. 

Detected messages: 
Sep 30 14:14:34 localhost kernel: nouveau 0000:2b:00.0: labwc[2314]: channel 16 killed!
Sep 30 15:12:18 localhost kernel: nouveau 0000:2b:00.0: labwc[9098]: channel 16 killed!
Sep 30 16:00:58 localhost kernel: nouveau 0000:2b:00.0: labwc[16315]: channel 16 killed!

If you know what you are doing, feel free to disable this check. Create a file /etc/systemcheck.d/50_user.conf and add: 
systemcheck_skip_functions+=" check_journal " 
INFO: Kicksecure is a research project. 
INFO: user-sysmaint-split: Absent 
INFO: user-sysmaint-split session detection result: USER Session. 
INFO: Full Disk Encryption (FDE): Enabled 
INFO: GRUB Bootloader Password: Absent 
INFO: Kicksecure Login Security Check (Colors) :
+----------+--------------------------------------+
| Users    | Password               GUI Autologin |
+----------+--------------------------------------+
| root     | Locked (Present)       Disabled      |
| user     | Absent                 Enabled       |
| sysmaint | Absent                 Disabled      |
+----------+--------------------------------------+
You can adjust these settings using "Manage Passwords" and "Manage GUI Autologin" in the System Maintenance Panel. 
INFO: Secure Boot: Enabled 
INFO: tirdad - TCP ISN CPU Information Leak Protection: Enabled 
INFO: Kicksecure APT Repository: Enabled. When the Kicksecure team releases TRIXIE updates, they will be AUTOMATICALLY installed (when you run apt-get dist-upgrade) along with updated packages from the Debian team. Please read Trust to understand the risk. If you want to change this, use: 
Start Menu -> System -> Derivative Repository 
WARNING: Debian Package Update Check Result: Could not check for software updates! (apt-get code: 100) 
Please manually check: 
(Open a terminal, Start Menu -> System -> Terminal.) 
upgrade-nonroot

Should I be concerned?

2

These are almost certainly related. Some solutions are documented here:

Did you place your configuration file at ~/.config/kanshi/config? That file must exist and not be empty for Kanshi to turn on at login. It might be turning on too early though, at least in theory. You can place the systemctl --user restart kanshi command in ~/.config/labwc/autostart to get it to run when the graphical session starts.

If the system is otherwise functional, you can probably ignore this. The missing module is to be expected, because amd_pstate is built into the core kernel binary in Debian (and by extension in Kicksecure, since we use Debian’s kernel).

Did you install Mullvad Browser using browser-choice, and then try to follow the instructions to install Mullvad VPN? That could cause a conflict, since browser-choice enables Mullvad’s repository, and following the VPN instructions thereafter will attempt to add the repository a second time. Since you’ve deleted both files that might hold the Mullvad repo keys, the easiest solution is probably to:

  1. Delete /etc/apt/sources.list.d/mullvad.list and /etc/apt/sources.list.d/mullvad.sources
  2. Uninstall Mullvad Browser: sudo apt purge mullvad-browser
  3. Open browser-choice and reinstall Mullvad Browser
  4. Run sudo apt install mullvad-vpn to install the VPN from the same repo the browser came from
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3

Thank you so much for the help!! It is greatly appreciated. With the exception of the random crashes, I was able to solve all of the problems I mentioned (or at least continue to ignore them with peace of mind).

I tried following the instructions to force software rendering (Pixman) on this page NVIDIA

It said to ensure that there are no nvidia drivers installed. When I checked for nvidia packages, I found that firmware-nvidia-graphics was installed.

[user ~]% apt list --installed | grep nvidia                

WARNING: apt does not have a stable CLI interface. Use with caution in scripts.

firmware-nvidia-graphics/stable,now 20250410-2 all [installed]

When I run ‘sudo apt-get purge firmware-nvidia-graphics’ and reboot the machine, it just takes me to a plain black screen. I had to use a TTY session to reinstall it. I confirmed that nouveau is in fact installed on my device with ‘lsmod | grep nouveau’. Is something misconfigured, or is my hardware not compatible with nouveau?

4

Slight misunderstanding: the page says to ensure the proprietary NVIDIA driver is not installed. There are two NVIDIA drivers: Nouveau, an open-source driver that comes with Kicksecure, and the otherwise-unnamed proprietary NVIDIA driver. You want to keep Nouveau present, and ensure that no proprietary NVIDIA driver package (like nvidia-driver or cuda-driver) is installed.

firmware-nvidia-graphics is not actually a driver. Drivers consist of code that runs as part of the OS itself, while firmware typically runs on a processor built into the hardware it makes work. In this case, firmware-nvidia-graphics contains code that runs on the NVIDIA GPU itself, outside of the operating system. Both Nouveau and the proprietary NVIDIA driver require firmware, so it makes sense that removing it caused a black screen. It should remain installed.

If you haven’t installed the proprietary NVIDIA driver, you can ignore step 1 of the software rendering steps and just do the remaining steps.

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