On first boot, clicking 'Login' causes sway to restart

[winteriscariot]

okay so I'm running into a bit of a weird issue

basically when my computer boots for the first time (or reboots) and greetd starts and launches sway to display regreet, everything looks correct

however when I click the 'login' button the first time, it causes the entire login manager to appear to restart

the logs seem to reflect this:

-- Boot b2c3f5255f0a4b03a98346f39db0df29 --
Feb 16 11:46:55 solstice.echo.null systemd[1]: Started Greeter daemon.
Feb 16 11:46:55 solstice.echo.null greetd[740]: config: Config { file: ConfigFile { terminal: ConfigTerminal { vt: Specific(1), switch: true }, general: ConfigGeneral { source_profile: true, runfile: "/run/greetd.run" }, default_session: ConfigSession { >
Feb 16 11:46:55 solstice.echo.null greetd[748]: config: Config { file: ConfigFile { terminal: ConfigTerminal { vt: None, switch: false }, general: ConfigGeneral { source_profile: true, runfile: "/run/greetd.run" }, default_session: ConfigSession { comman>
Feb 16 11:46:55 solstice.echo.null greetd[748]: pam_unix(greetd:session): session opened for user greeter(uid=949) by greeter(uid=0)
Feb 16 11:47:04 solstice.echo.null greetd[1070]: config: Config { file: ConfigFile { terminal: ConfigTerminal { vt: None, switch: false }, general: ConfigGeneral { source_profile: true, runfile: "/run/greetd.run" }, default_session: ConfigSession { comma>
Feb 16 11:47:05 solstice.echo.null greetd[740]: error: check_children: greeter exited without creating a session
Feb 16 11:47:05 solstice.echo.null systemd[1]: greetd.service: Deactivated successfully.
Feb 16 11:47:06 solstice.echo.null systemd[1]: greetd.service: Scheduled restart job, restart counter is at 1.
Feb 16 11:47:06 solstice.echo.null systemd[1]: Started Greeter daemon.
Feb 16 11:47:06 solstice.echo.null greetd[1107]: config: Config { file: ConfigFile { terminal: ConfigTerminal { vt: Specific(1), switch: true }, general: ConfigGeneral { source_profile: true, runfile: "/run/greetd.run" }, default_session: ConfigSession {>
Feb 16 11:47:06 solstice.echo.null greetd[1108]: config: Config { file: ConfigFile { terminal: ConfigTerminal { vt: None, switch: false }, general: ConfigGeneral { source_profile: true, runfile: "/run/greetd.run" }, default_session: ConfigSession { comma>
Feb 16 11:47:06 solstice.echo.null greetd[1108]: pam_unix(greetd:session): session opened for user greeter(uid=949) by greeter(uid=0)
Feb 16 11:47:08 solstice.echo.null greetd[1199]: config: Config { file: ConfigFile { terminal: ConfigTerminal { vt: None, switch: false }, general: ConfigGeneral { source_profile: true, runfile: "/run/greetd.run" }, default_session: ConfigSession { comma>
Feb 16 11:47:10 solstice.echo.null greetd[1199]: pam_unix(greetd:session): session opened for user xxxx(uid=1001) by xxxx(uid=0)

what's extra strange is that it's only when i click the 'login' button: I can click the dropdown for my session, or edit the session, or edit the username, it all works fine.

i've tried with gtkgreet and it does not exhibit the same behavior

might anyone know what I should look at?