[gutsy] gdm (including gdmsetup) ignores or cannot access gdm.conf-custom

[Motin]

Binary package hint: gdm

Symptoms:
1. After running "sudo gdmsetup" any changed settings are instantly forgotten on gdmsetup exit. This is the same after restoring gdm.conf with factory-gdm.conf and rebooting.

2. When having added additional servers in gdm.conf-custom and rebooted, these are not listed when issuing:
gdmflexiserver -c "GET_SERVER_LIST"
(With the extended issue of not being able to choose between custom servers when running gdmflexiserver)

3. Custom theme settings and settings like "Exclude=nobody,media" in gdm.conf-custom are not active not even after reboot.

Btw, gdmsetup complains about the following when running and changing settings:
motin@laptop:~$ sudo gdmsetup
gdmsetup[8672]: GLib-CRITICAL: g_key_file_set_string: assertion `key_file != NULL' failed
gdmsetup[8672]: GLib-CRITICAL: g_key_file_to_data: assertion `key_file != NULL' failed
gdmsetup[8672]: GLib-CRITICAL: g_file_set_contents: assertion `contents != NULL || length == 0' failed
gdmsetup[8672]: GLib-CRITICAL: g_key_file_free: assertion `key_file != NULL' failed
gdmsetup[8672]: GLib-CRITICAL: g_key_file_set_string: assertion `key_file != NULL' failed
gdmsetup[8672]: GLib-CRITICAL: g_key_file_to_data: assertion `key_file != NULL' failed
gdmsetup[8672]: GLib-CRITICAL: g_file_set_contents: assertion `contents != NULL || length == 0' failed
gdmsetup[8672]: GLib-CRITICAL: g_key_file_free: assertion `key_file != NULL' failed
gdmsetup[8672]: GLib-CRITICAL: g_key_file_set_string: assertion `key_file != NULL' failed
gdmsetup[8672]: GLib-CRITICAL: g_key_file_to_data: assertion `key_file != NULL' failed
gdmsetup[8672]: GLib-CRITICAL: g_file_set_contents: assertion `contents != NULL || length == 0' failed
gdmsetup[8672]: GLib-CRITICAL: g_key_file_free: assertion `key_file != NULL' failed
gdmsetup[8672]: GLib-CRITICAL: g_key_file_set_string: assertion `key_file != NULL' failed
gdmsetup[8672]: GLib-CRITICAL: g_key_file_to_data: assertion `key_file != NULL' failed
gdmsetup[8672]: GLib-CRITICAL: g_file_set_contents: assertion `contents != NULL || length == 0' failed
gdmsetup[8672]: GLib-CRITICAL: g_key_file_free: assertion `key_file != NULL' failed
gdmsetup[8672]: GLib-CRITICAL: g_key_file_set_string: assertion `key_file != NULL' failed
gdmsetup[8672]: GLib-CRITICAL: g_key_file_to_data: assertion `key_file != NULL' failed
gdmsetup[8672]: GLib-CRITICAL: g_file_set_contents: assertion `contents != NULL || length == 0' failed
gdmsetup[8672]: GLib-CRITICAL: g_key_file_free: assertion `key_file != NULL' failed
gdmsetup[8672]: GLib-CRITICAL: g_key_file_set_string: assertion `key_file != NULL' failed
gdmsetup[8672]: GLib-CRITICAL: g_key_file_to_data: assertion `key_file != NULL' failed
gdmsetup[8672]: GLib-CRITICAL: g_file_set_contents: assertion `contents != NULL || length == 0' failed
gdmsetup[8672]: GLib-CRITICAL: g_key_file_free: assertion `key_file != NULL' failed

I have two versions of glib installed: 1.2.10-17build1 and 2.14.1-1ubuntu1

[Romano Giannetti (romano-giannetti)]

Stumbled in it, trying to follow

https://wiki.ubuntu.com/HowtoSetupExternalMonitorForIntel915

it works with a startx -- -layout Separate from console, but no way with gdm

Anyone here? Thanks!

[CyySky (yoeyat)]

Seem that you have extra useless key in the /etc/gdm/default.conf.

[Martin Holmes (mholmes)]

Hi there,

Could you explain how you know that, and what the extra key is?

Cheers,
Martin

CyySky wrote:
> Seem that you have extra useless key in the /etc/gdm/default.conf.
>
> --
> [gutsy] gdm (including gdmsetup) ignores or cannot access gdm.conf-custom
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/195296
> You received this bug notification because you are a direct subscriber
> of a duplicate bug.

[vl4dt (ricr-sb-gmail)]

I have the same problem, first I run gdmsetup and have a lot of assertion errors:

ricardo@vl4dtlx:~$ sudo gdmsetup
gdmsetup[17783]: GLib-CRITICAL: g_key_file_set_string: assertion `key_file != NULL' failed
gdmsetup[17783]: GLib-CRITICAL: g_key_file_to_data: assertion `key_file != NULL' failed
gdmsetup[17783]: GLib-CRITICAL: g_file_set_contents: assertion `contents != NULL || length == 0' failed
gdmsetup[17783]: GLib-CRITICAL: g_key_file_free: assertion `key_file != NULL' failed
gdmsetup[17783]: GLib-CRITICAL: g_key_file_set_string: assertion `key_file != NULL' failed
gdmsetup[17783]: GLib-CRITICAL: g_key_file_to_data: assertion `key_file != NULL' failed
gdmsetup[17783]: GLib-CRITICAL: g_file_set_contents: assertion `contents != NULL || length == 0' failed
gdmsetup[17783]: GLib-CRITICAL: g_key_file_free: assertion `key_file != NULL' failed
gdmsetup[17783]: GLib-CRITICAL: g_key_file_set_string: assertion `key_file != NULL' failed
gdmsetup[17783]: GLib-CRITICAL: g_key_file_to_data: assertion `key_file != NULL' failed
gdmsetup[17783]: GLib-CRITICAL: g_file_set_contents: assertion `contents != NULL || length == 0' failed
gdmsetup[17783]: GLib-CRITICAL: g_key_file_free: assertion `key_file != NULL' failed
gdmsetup[17783]: GLib-CRITICAL: g_key_file_set_string: assertion `key_file != NULL' failed
gdmsetup[17783]: GLib-CRITICAL: g_key_file_to_data: assertion `key_file != NULL' failed
gdmsetup[17783]: GLib-CRITICAL: g_file_set_contents: assertion `contents != NULL || length == 0' failed
gdmsetup[17783]: GLib-CRITICAL: g_key_file_free: assertion `key_file != NULL' failed
gdmsetup[17783]: GLib-CRITICAL: g_key_file_set_string: assertion `key_file != NULL' failed
gdmsetup[17783]: GLib-CRITICAL: g_key_file_to_data: assertion `key_file != NULL' failed
gdmsetup[17783]: GLib-CRITICAL: g_file_set_contents: assertion `contents != NULL || length == 0' failed
gdmsetup[17783]: GLib-CRITICAL: g_key_file_free: assertion `key_file != NULL' failed
gdmsetup[17783]: GLib-CRITICAL: g_key_file_set_string: assertion `key_file != NULL' failed
gdmsetup[17783]: GLib-CRITICAL: g_key_file_to_data: assertion `key_file != NULL' failed
gdmsetup[17783]: GLib-CRITICAL: g_file_set_contents: assertion `contents != NULL || length == 0' failed
gdmsetup[17783]: GLib-CRITICAL: g_key_file_free: assertion `key_file != NULL' failed

then I select any of the themes installed and a lot of assertion errors again:

ricardo@vl4dtlx:~$ sudo gdmsetup
gdmsetup[17783]: GLib-CRITICAL: g_key_file_set_string: assertion `key_file != NULL' failed
gdmsetup[17783]: GLib-CRITICAL: g_key_file_to_data: assertion `key_file != NULL' failed
gdmsetup[17783]: GLib-CRITICAL: g_file_set_contents: assertion `contents != NULL || length == 0' failed
gdmsetup[17783]: GLib-CRITICAL: g_key_file_free: assertion `key_file != NULL' failed
gdmsetup[17783]: GLib-CRITICAL: g_key_file_set_string: assertion `key_file != NULL' failed
gdmsetup[17783]: GLib-CRITICAL: g_key_file_to_data: assertion `key_file != NULL' failed
gdmsetup[17783]: GLib-CRITICAL: g_file_set_contents: assertion `contents != NULL || length == 0' failed
gdmsetup[17783]: GLib-CRITICAL: g_key_file_free: assertion `key_file != NULL' failed
gdmsetup[17783]: GLib-CRIT...

[vl4dt (ricr-sb-gmail)]

It worked again, don't know exactly why but this is what I did:

I removed all the themes that gdmsetup let me remove, i think the only ones left was Circles and the Happy GNOME themes, then reinstalled the gdm, gdm-themes, ubuntu-desktop, ubuntu-themes and things like that, at this point i have not fixed anything, it was worse because the Human theme never appeared again so I got an error reporting that cannot open or read /usr/share/gdm/themes/Human/Human.xml file, of course there was no Human directory in /usr/share/gdm/themes, then I made a copy of a theme directory, Crystal in this case, and renamed the directory to Human, and it loads as the default theme, don't know why because I removed any reference to the Human theme in the .conf files, by the way, the gdm.conf-custom was empty, 0 bytes and I replaced it with the gdm.conf file and nothing different happened, but that was before I replaced the Human theme directory, after that I'd go to the gdm screen using the Switch-User option, and loaded Crystal, I logged again and deleted the Human directory, again, somehow when I enter the gdmsetup it was working again as it should, selecting and saving the theme as usual, I believe I did extra work because probably all the problem was that the gdm.conf-custom file was truncated to zero, maybe just replacing that with the gdm.conf file or factory-gdm.conf would have been enough to solve the problem.

If anybody can check and see if just replacing the truncated gdm.conf-custom file fix the problem, I would like to know, now everything works fine, maybe the error is where the file was truncated to zero.

[satkata (satkata-deactivatedaccount-deactivatedaccount-deactivatedaccount)]

I am using Hardy Beta after upgrade from Gutsy and recently had problems with gdm loading & not showing anything (e.g. login window), so I removed my gdm.conf-custom file and the "gdm loading" problem disappered.

But now, I can not make any changes to the preferences with gdmsetup, because either the gdm.conf-custom file is empty or it never gets created.

I copied the gdm.conf to gdm.conf-custom, which made gdm restart itself during a running session and no changes were applied.

Btw, I don't have a file default.conf under /etc/gdm, Should I?

I reinstalled and reconfigured gdm and the theme packages, also removed any old themes, but nothing.

I also get those errors, as above described, when running from the cli:

satkata@satmobile:~$ sudo gdmsetup
gdmsetup[8810]: GLib-CRITICAL: g_key_file_set_string: assertion `key_file != NULL' failed
gdmsetup[8810]: GLib-CRITICAL: g_key_file_to_data: assertion `key_file != NULL' failed
gdmsetup[8810]: GLib-CRITICAL: g_file_set_contents: assertion `contents != NULL || length == 0' failed
gdmsetup[8810]: GLib-CRITICAL: g_key_file_free: assertion `key_file != NULL' failed
gdmsetup[8810]: GLib-CRITICAL: g_key_file_set_string: assertion `key_file != NULL' failed
gdmsetup[8810]: GLib-CRITICAL: g_key_file_to_data: assertion `key_file != NULL' failed
... and etc.

[vl4dt (ricr-sb-gmail)]

Try this:

Just check that gdm.conf-custom is not empty, if it is just copy the contents of gdm.conf to it and save it. It worked for me and those errors disappear, looks like somehow gdmsetup truncates to zero the file gdm.conf-custom and then fails to load it and does't save it correctly again.

It worked for me.

[satkata (satkata-deactivatedaccount-deactivatedaccount-deactivatedaccount)]

Well, I already tried this, but after I login and try to change something with gdmsetup, the whole X-Server gets crashed upon executing gdmsetup.

So I have no idea, what else to try.

[Motin (motin)]

Does anyone have the pristine copies (ie from a fresh Hardy install) of all gdm-related conf-files together with ls -l outputs of them?

Then we could try to restore the files to it's original states.

Here is a tip from http://www.nabble.com/GDM-Question-td14094069.html :
>
> > While running gdmsetup from the cl I received lots of these in the background:
> >
> > gdmsetup[27347]: GLib-CRITICAL: g_key_file_set_string: assertion
> > `key_file != NULL' failed
> > gdmsetup[27347]: GLib-CRITICAL: g_key_file_to_data: assertion
> > `key_file != NULL' failed
> > gdmsetup[27347]: GLib-CRITICAL: g_file_set_contents: assertion
> > `contents != NULL || length == 0' failed
> > gdmsetup[27347]: GLib-CRITICAL: g_key_file_free: assertion `key_file
> > != NULL' failed
> >
> > I have no clue what is wrong.
>
> You might try deleting the custom configuration file that is
> reported when you run gdmflexiserver --command="GET_CUSTOM_CONFIG_FILE",
> create an empty file with this name, and rerun gdmsetup and recreate
> your configuration customizations. This should fix the problem if
> there is any corruption in your configuration file that might be
> causing this sort of issue.
>
> Brian

Unfortunately it didn't solve anything for me at least...

[Motin (motin)]

I should have listened to vl4dt (https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/gdm/+bug/195296/comments/7) above:

> Try this:
>
> Just check that gdm.conf-custom is not empty, if it is just copy the contents of gdm.conf to it and save it.
> It worked for me and those errors disappear, looks like somehow gdmsetup truncates to zero the file
> gdm.conf-custom and then fails to load it and does't save it correctly again.
>
> It worked for me.

Worked perfectly! Finally back with time-based login, the nice Avio theme and black background color when logging in!

I guess the morale here is: Don't ever manually make changes in neither gdm.conf nor gdm-custom.conf

[satkata (satkata-deactivatedaccount-deactivatedaccount-deactivatedaccount)]

While this was still there on my Gutsy -> Hardy upgraded laptop, I noticed another strange thing:
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/gdm/+bug/221321

I am using Hardy with the german language, and after I have edited gdm.conf-custom, I noticed, that the gui has put as values not the english, but the german translated ones.
Then gdm always showed a gnome fallback theme. I then edited the custom file manually and have since then no problems, I curious how long will this last. :(

I am seriously thinking of doing a fresh install, if that happens again.

[Daniel O'Donnell (daniel-odonnell)]

I'm having what looks like the same problem noted at the top, though not getting the error lists. This is in a Hardy machine. Changes made in gmsetup do not look like they are "taking" when you click on apply changes (in fact they seem to vanish immediately).

In fact, if you manually open /etc/gdm.conf-custom, you'll find that they changes have been made. But the machine needs to be rebooted before they will take effect. This suggests to me that the problem is that gdmsetup is either not running something like gdmflexiserver --command="UPDATE_CONFIG <section/parameter" or that there is a problem with whatever it is running to update the config during the session.

This is a very annoying thing. If it can't be fixed then perhaps text should be added to the interface to indicate that changes won't take effect to reboot.

[Sebastien Bacher (seb128)]

Thank you for taking the time to report this bug and helping to make Ubuntu better. Please answer these questions:

 * Is this reproducible?
 * If so, what specific steps should we take to recreate this bug?

 This will help us to find and resolve the problem.

[phil (k-launchpad-vwmadmax-com)]

I recently updated hardy to intrepid and had the gdmsetup not save any settings. After reading here, the first thing I did was copy everything in /etc/gdm/gdm.conf into /etc/gdm/gdm.conf-custom and it worked. Not sure what is going on, but I thought I would let everyone know what worked for me.

[Pedro Villavicencio (pedro)]

Closing this bug report as no further information has been provided. Please feel free to reopen this bug if you can provide the information asked for. Thanks!.