If started from the advanced boot menu Ubuntu GNOME Utopic live session boots to TTY prompt

[Erick Brunzell]

I'm testing Ubuntu GNOME Utopic 20140826 i386 and just as the title says, if I choose Try without installing from the advanced boot menu I end up at a TTY prompt. Typing startx does take me to a partially functional DE, but not functional enough to copy the attached photo or file the bug report so none of the logs will be of any particular use other than verifying the live media being used.

The live session starts and runs normally if started from the normal Try or Install screen so this is not a big deal for a Beta 1. Probably worth mentioning in the release notes though.

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 14.10
Package: casper 1.343
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.16.0-10.15-generic 3.16.1
Uname: Linux 3.16.0-10-generic i686
ApportVersion: 2.14.6-0ubuntu2
Architecture: i386
CasperVersion: 1.343
CurrentDesktop: GNOME
Date: Wed Aug 27 04:29:53 2014
LiveMediaBuild: Ubuntu-GNOME 14.10 "Utopic Unicorn" - Alpha i386 (20140826)
ProcEnviron:
 TERM=xterm
 PATH=(custom, no user)
 XDG_RUNTIME_DIR=<set>
 LANG=en_US.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
SourcePackage: casper
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)
mtime.conffile..etc.casper.conf: 2014-08-27T04:21:23.658389

[Ubuntu QA Website (ubuntuqa)]

This bug has been reported on the Ubuntu ISO testing tracker.

A list of all reports related to this bug can be found here:
http://iso.qa.ubuntu.com/qatracker/reports/bugs/1361962

[Tim Lunn (darkxst)]

What gpu do you have?

Can you get logs Xorg etc, from the failed boot?

[Erick Brunzell (lbsolost)]

Looking now ........... some notes (mostly to self) in case things crash before I find what I'm looking for;

sudo service gdm start shows gdm is already running

Ctrl+Alt+F7 takes me to the screen displayed in the attached screenshot

Ctrl+Alt+F1 takes me back to a TTY and then sudo service gdm restart gets me to what seems to be a working DE

I'll try to follow up with some logs if I can find anything that appears pertinent.

[Erick Brunzell (lbsolost)]

Something that may be an indicator of what's logged and what was not yet logged before executing sudo service gdm restart is the presence of both a dmesg and a dmesg.0 log. The dmesg.0 log just says, "(Nothing has been logged yet.)". Probably indicating that the process did not complete????

I'm attaching /var/log/dmesg

ubuntu-gnome@ubuntu-gnome:~$ ls -a
. .bashrc Desktop .gconf .local Pictures .ssh
.. .cache Documents .gnupg .mozilla .profile Templates
.bash_logout .config Downloads .ICEauthority Music Public Videos
ubuntu-gnome@ubuntu-gnome:~$ ls -a /var/log
. casper.log fsck syslog
.. cups gdm udev
alternatives.log dist-upgrade gpu-manager.log unattended-upgrades
apt dmesg hp upstart
auth.log dmesg.0 kern.log wtmp
boot.log dpkg.log lastlog Xorg.0.log
bootstrap.log faillog samba
btmp fontconfig.log speech-dispatcher

[Erick Brunzell (lbsolost)]

And Xorg.0.log

[Erick Brunzell (lbsolost)]

The auth.log shows some things I don't understand

[Erick Brunzell (lbsolost)]

I'm guessing that syslog may be needed

[Erick Brunzell (lbsolost)]

Testing on bare metal:

Intel Atom CPU 230 @ 1.60GHz
Intel 82945G/GZ Integrated Graphics Controller (rev 02)
Intel N10/ICH 7 Family High Definition Audio Controller (rev 01)
Realtek RTL8101E/RTL8102E PCI Express Fast Ethernet controller (rev 02)
2GB DDR2 RAM

[Tim Lunn (darkxst)]

Lance, from the logs it looks like gdm constantly respawning the X server, but it keeps failing and it eventually gives up.

Can you also grab /var/log/gdm/:0*.log

[Erick Brunzell (lbsolost)]

Having trouble with permissions:

ubuntu-gnome@ubuntu-gnome:~$ ls -a /var/log/gdm
ls: cannot open directory /var/log/gdm: Permission denied
ubuntu-gnome@ubuntu-gnome:~$ sudo ls -a /var/log/gdm
. :0.log.1 :0-slave.log.1 :1-slave.log :3.log :4-slave.log
.. :0.log.2 :0-slave.log.2 :2.log :3-slave.log :5.log
:0.log :0-slave.log :1.log :2-slave.log :4.log :5-slave.log

So I can't attach in full, but both /var/log/gdm/:0.log.1 and :0.log.2 show, "Failed to write configuration file: No such file or directory".

I made a copy of :0.log and will attach

[Erick Brunzell (lbsolost)]

This has not effected the 20140922, 20140923, or 20140926 builds of Ubuntu GNOME Utopic so I'm marking it invalid. If it crops up again in the future I'll change the status accordingly.