> That’s from 1.2.0rc1?

Yes, and also 'master'.  The initial i3 install with 1.2.0rc1 went fine,
it was when I switched to SDDM + autologin (+ sway) that it failed.

Now I no longer use SDDM (or any DM), but I was able to work around it
by adding #:pid-file: