XORG crashes with segfault on Ubuntu 1804 during login

[Gareth Cross]

This is maybe a long shot, but I have a Dell XPS 13 2020 running Ubuntu 18.04. It was running fine for a while, but for some reason it recently developed an issue where xorg crashes on login. I get as far as the desktop, but then it locks up and mouse/keyboard stop responding.

I have verified this happens if I select the following login shells: Ubuntu, Gnome Classic, xfce4. It does not happen under wayland, so I have switched to that for now.

The segfault is as follows:

Sep 05 21:32:18 <removed>-xps /usr/lib/gdm3/gdm-x-session[1902]: (EE)
Sep 05 21:32:18 <removed>-xps /usr/lib/gdm3/gdm-x-session[1902]: (EE) Backtrace:
Sep 05 21:32:18 <removed>-xps /usr/lib/gdm3/gdm-x-session[1902]: (EE) 0: /usr/lib/xorg/Xorg (xorg_backtrace+0x4d) [0x55e34e1bba9d]
Sep 05 21:32:18 <removed>-xps /usr/lib/gdm3/gdm-x-session[1902]: (EE) 1: /usr/lib/xorg/Xorg (0x55e34e003000+0x1bc839) [0x55e34e1bf839]
Sep 05 21:32:18 <removed>-xps /usr/lib/gdm3/gdm-x-session[1902]: (EE) 2: /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libpthread.so.0 (0x7f3e4ca86000+0x128a0) [0x7f3e4ca988a0]
Sep 05 21:32:18 <removed>-xps /usr/lib/gdm3/gdm-x-session[1902]: (EE) 3: /usr/lib/xorg/Xorg (DRI2CloseScreen+0x33) [0x55e34e18fc43]
Sep 05 21:32:18 <removed>-xps /usr/lib/gdm3/gdm-x-session[1902]: (EE) 4: /usr/lib/xorg/modules/drivers/modesetting_drv.so (0x7f3e49b5d000+0x7d48) [0x7f3e49b64d48]
Sep 05 21:32:18 <removed>-xps /usr/lib/gdm3/gdm-x-session[1902]: (EE) 5: /usr/lib/xorg/Xorg (0x55e34e003000+0xc6407) [0x55e34e0c9407]
Sep 05 21:32:18 <removed>-xps /usr/lib/gdm3/gdm-x-session[1902]: (EE) 6: /usr/lib/xorg/Xorg (0x55e34e003000+0x137762) [0x55e34e13a762]
Sep 05 21:32:18 <removed>-xps /usr/lib/gdm3/gdm-x-session[1902]: (EE) 7: /usr/lib/xorg/Xorg (0x55e34e003000+0xe4bf0) [0x55e34e0e7bf0]
Sep 05 21:32:18 <removed>-xps /usr/lib/gdm3/gdm-x-session[1902]: (EE) 8: /usr/lib/xorg/Xorg (0x55e34e003000+0x57000) [0x55e34e05a000]
Sep 05 21:32:18 <removed>-xps /usr/lib/gdm3/gdm-x-session[1902]: (EE) 9: /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libc.so.6 (__libc_start_main+0xe7) [0x7f3e4c6b6b97]
Sep 05 21:32:18 <removed>-xps /usr/lib/gdm3/gdm-x-session[1902]: (EE) 10: /usr/lib/xorg/Xorg (_start+0x2a) [0x55e34e043b8a]
Sep 05 21:32:18 <removed>-xps /usr/lib/gdm3/gdm-x-session[1902]: (EE)
Sep 05 21:32:18 <removed>-xps /usr/lib/gdm3/gdm-x-session[1902]: (EE) Segmentation fault at address 0x90
Sep 05 21:32:18 <removed>-xps /usr/lib/gdm3/gdm-x-session[1902]: (EE)
Sep 05 21:32:18 <removed>-xps /usr/lib/gdm3/gdm-x-session[1902]: Fatal server error:
Sep 05 21:32:18 <removed>-xps /usr/lib/gdm3/gdm-x-session[1902]: (EE) Caught signal 11 (Segmentation fault). Server aborting
Sep 05 21:32:18 <removed>-xps /usr/lib/gdm3/gdm-x-session[1902]: (EE)
Sep 05 21:32:18 <removed>-xps /usr/lib/gdm3/gdm-x-session[1902]: Please consult the The X.Org Foundation support
Sep 05 21:32:18 <removed>-xps /usr/lib/gdm3/gdm-x-session[1902]: at http://wiki.x.org
Sep 05 21:32:18 <removed>-xps /usr/lib/gdm3/gdm-x-session[1902]: for help.
Sep 05 21:32:18 <removed>-xps /usr/lib/gdm3/gdm-x-session[1902]: (EE) Please also check the log file at "/home/<removed>/.local/share/xorg/Xorg.0.log" for additional information.
Sep 05 21:32:18 <removed>-xps /usr/lib/gdm3/gdm-x-session[1902]: (EE)
Sep 05 21:32:18 <removed>-xps /usr/lib/gdm3/gdm-x-session[1902]: (WW) xf86CloseConsole: KDSETMODE failed: Input/output error
Sep 05 21:32:18 <removed>-xps /usr/lib/gdm3/gdm-x-session[1902]: (WW) xf86CloseConsole: VT_GETMODE failed: Input/output error
Sep 05 21:32:18 <removed>-xps /usr/lib/gdm3/gdm-x-session[1902]: (WW) xf86CloseConsole: VT_ACTIVATE failed: Input/output error

I have attached the Xorg log file, if that is helpful. Are there any steps I can take to debug?

Thanks.

[Daniel van Vugt (vanvugt)]

Firstly, I think the version of Ubuntu you have installed is too old for that hardware. Please use either:

  20.04.1: https://releases.ubuntu.com/20.04/
  18.04.5: https://releases.ubuntu.com/18.04/

If the problem still happens in either of those then please follow these steps to report the crash:

 https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Bugs/Responses#Missing_a_crash_report_or_having_a_.crash_attachment

[Gareth Cross (inverserange)]

I'm a little confused, I am on 18.04.5 (this is what dell ships with the unit). Was there something in the log that suggested otherwise? AFAIK I have the latest packages (ie. ran apt update/upgrade).

Thank you for your help. I will follow those steps.

[Daniel van Vugt (vanvugt)]

Ah sorry, I confused these two versions:

[ 60.063] Build Operating System: Linux 4.15.0-112-generic x86_64 Ubuntu
[ 60.063] Current Operating System: Linux <removed>-xps 5.0.0-1067-oem-osp1 #72-Ubuntu SMP Fri Jul 31 06:28:02 UTC 2020 x86_64

Yes, next please follow these steps:

 https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Bugs/Responses#Missing_a_crash_report_or_having_a_.crash_attachment

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

[Expired for xorg-server (Ubuntu) because there has been no activity for 60 days.]