gdm does not start after bootup

[Anand Kumria]

Binary package hint: gdm

Hi,

This is not the same bug as #430494.

What happens is that the system boots and when gdm is started my screen goes blank.

The keyboard does not respond to input, it is not possible for me to switch to any other virtual terminal.

I can successfully boot into 'single' user mode and after (many) reboots have discovered that if I include the word 'text' on the command line, this prevents the gdm service from being started by upstart.

I believe there are a number of problems.
1. gdm hitting an assertion and dying
2. upstart noticing that gdm has died and respawning it (or not respawning it -- hard to tell as the system is unresponsive in a normal bootup)

When I have the 'text' keyword on the kernel command line, I can boot to normal multiuser mode. From there I can see try to run gdm, which upstart runs. It logs the fact that "gdm main process ended, respawning" and eventually "gdm respawning too fast, stopped". I am, however, able to successfully launch gdm (and then login and work normally) by running 'gdm' as root. Which places the problem squarely in between the interaction upstart and gdm.

ProblemType: Bug
Architecture: i386
Date: Fri Oct 9 14:40:52 2009
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 9.10
Package: gdm 2.28.0-0ubuntu14
ProcEnviron:
 LANGUAGE=en_AU:en_US:en_GB:en
 PATH=(custom, no user)
 SHELL=/bin/bash
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.31-12.41-generic
SourcePackage: gdm
Uname: Linux 2.6.31-12-generic i686

[Anand Kumria (wildfire)]

There is output from gdm when running on the command line:

gdm-binary[pid]: Warning: GdmDisplay display lasted 1.235117 seconds
gdm-binary[pid]: Warning: GdmDisplay display lasted 0.208322 seconds
gdm-binary[pid]: Warning: GdmDisplay display lasted 0.069438 seconds
gdm-binary[pid]: Warning: GdmDisplay display lasted 0.055104 seconds
gdm-binary[pid]: Warning: unable to parse history: (null) 93
gdm-binary[pid]: Warning: unable to parse history: (null) 6
gdm-binary[pid]: Warning: unable to parse history: (null) 5
gdm-binary[pid]: Warning: unable to parse history: (null) 4

[Anand Kumria (wildfire)]

After (many) reboots and some further investigation I believe the bug is actually in Upstart.

I edited the gdm.conf script to be:

eve[/etc/init]% diff -u gdm.conf-old gdm.conf
--- gdm.conf-old 2009-10-13 03:20:17.000000000 +0100
+++ gdm.conf 2009-10-13 03:44:25.000000000 +0100
@@ -37,5 +37,5 @@

     initctl emit starting-dm DM=gdm

- exec gdm-binary $CONFIG_FILE
+ exec /usr/local/sbin/gdmtest $CONFIG_FILE
 end script

With the /usr/local/sbin/gdmtest script being:

eve[/etc/init]% cat /usr/local/sbin/gdmtest
#!/bin/sh

FILE=/var/tmp/gdmtest

echo "start" > $FILE
date >> $FILE
echo "0" >> $FILE
strace -ttt -f -ff -s2000 -o /var/tmp/gdmtesttrace gdm &
echo "1" >> $FILE
date >> $FILE

I am able to consistently boot into a (very slow) graphical environment which leads me to believe that this is a timing / dependancy bug of some description.

I have the ~500 files available, for analysis, but am kind of at a loss as to where to begin.

Assistance appreciated.

Thanks,
Anand

[Anand Kumria (wildfire)]

I believe that this is actually a timing problem in upstart. straceing seems to slow everything down enough that booting to graphics works always.

[Scott James Remnant (Canonical) (canonical-scott)]

Could you try changing the "start on" stanza in /etc/init/gdm.conf to:

start on (filesystem
  and started hal
  and ((graphics-device-added and tty-device-added)
    or (stopped udevtrigger)))

And see if that helps?

[Scott James Remnant (Canonical) (canonical-scott)]

(obviously removing any other timing hacks you might have)

[Anand Kumria (wildfire)]

Hi Scott,

Tried this suggested change to the dependency list, and it did not change how things behaved. i.e. I still got a black screen into normal multi-user graphical boot..

I do not think it is a dependency issue, as I can startup to multi-user (in text mode) and manually start 'gdm'.

Which works fine. I then manually edited /etc/init/gdm.conf and removed the exit 0 when 'text' is in /proc/cmdline.

And then: 'start gdm' also works fine.

So:
 - when the system is booted into multi user (or single user) mode, I can manually get the gdm service to start
 - when run under strace, the gdm service starts all the time (albeit slowly)

Hmm, actually, it might be a dependency issue -- perhaps X (and/or gdm) is depending upon something else working? Is there a way to see in what order services were kicked off by Upstart? Then I can have gdm depend on the very last service and then bisect the list to see if adding anothing dependency helps.

Regards,
Anand

[Scott James Remnant (Canonical) (canonical-scott)]

Could you run "cat /proc/cmdline" for me?

[Anand Kumria (wildfire)]

On Tue, Oct 13, 2009 at 11:06 PM, Scott James Remnant
<email address hidden>wrote:

> Could you run "cat /proc/cmdline" for me?
>
>

Sure - obviously, though, it has 'text' in it so I could boot to a
multi-user state and *then* run 'gdm' from the command line.

eve[~]% cat /proc/cmdline
root=/dev/sda1 ro text

If I leave it as the default, it would have 'root=/dev/sda1 ro quiet
splash', and the system will boot but to a black screen (where I can do
nothing):

eve[~]% grep -E '(kopt|defopt)' /boot/grub/menu.lst
## If you want special options for specific kernels use kopt_x_y_z
## e.g. kopt=root=/dev/hda1 ro
## kopt_2_6_8=root=/dev/hdc1 ro
## kopt_2_6_8_2_686=root=/dev/hdc2 ro
# kopt=root=/dev/sda1 ro
## e.g. defoptions=vga=791 resume=/dev/hda5
# defoptions=quiet splash
# xenkopt=console=tty0

Anand

[Anand Kumria (wildfire)]

Both upstart and gdm have been upgraded in the last 24 hours:

2009-10-16 14:39:59 status installed upstart 0.6.3-10
2009-10-16 14:48:36 status installed gdm 2.28.0-0ubuntu19

and I am no longer able to reproduce this problem.

[Jason Roelofs (ubuntu-jameskilton)]

Not sure if this is the best place for this, but this is not fixed for kdm on released kubuntu 9.10. I've seen everything from just a straight blank screen to spew of:

localhost init: kdm main process ended, respawning
localhost init: kdm respawning too fast, stopped

to the system booting up as expected, aka exactly what this user has seen with gdm, I'm seeing with kdm now.

The only reliable way to get kdm up is to boot into console mode and run kdm from there.

[beggi dot com (beggijons)]

I have this problem or at least something similar. To put it blunt; gdm does not start.

When I start up the computer I get lock-up, blank screen and no response from the keyboard. After few reboots I usually get the multi-user login, that is. After few seconds of the white logo splash-screen the computer switches to text mode and I get:
   *Stopping the Firestarter firewall.
   *Stopping NTP sever ntp
   *Starting the NTP server ntp

and after that the normal CL login. I have tried to start the gdm from the command line, but it does not work. If I try to start it as a normal user I get:

   ** (gdm-binary:2896): WARNING **: Failed to acquire org.gnome.DisplayManager: Connection ":1.100" is not allowed to own the service "org.gnome.DisplayManager" due to security policies in the configuration file

   ** (gdm-binary:2896): WARNING **: Could not acquire name; bailing out

If I tried to start it as root (sudo gdm) I got:
   gdm-binary[2798]: WARNING: Unable to find users: no seat-id found
   gdm-binary[2798]: WARNING: GdmDisplay: display lasted 0.038765 seconds
   gdm-binary[2798]: WARNING: GdmDisplay: display lasted 0.037873 seconds
   gdm-binary[2798]: WARNING: GdmDisplay: display lasted 0.040206 seconds
   gdm-binary[2798]: WARNING: GdmDisplay: display lasted 0.037905 seconds
   gdm-binary[2798]: WARNING: GdmDisplay: display lasted 0.038138 seconds
   gdm-binary[2798]: WARNING: GdmDisplay: display lasted 0.038734 seconds
   gdm-binary[2798]: WARNING: GdmLocalDisplayFactory: maximum number of X display failures reached: check X server log for errors
But I found that this is due to the /tmp/.X0-lock if I delete it I can run the gdm, buts it behave exactly like it does when I start the machine in a normal way.

I have learned, by change, that the only way to get the gdm to start is to login to the multi-user login, delete the /tmp/.X0-lock file, run startx as myself, stop the GUI by login me out using the System -> Log out *user* menu function and then run sudo gdm.

I tried to change the "start on" stanza in /etc/init/gdm.conf, Scott mentions above, but it did not help. The output from "cat /proc/cmdline" is: root=UUID=2e38cdfc-ed51-4217-b6bf-968eaeb364af ro quiet splash

Any ideas

[Anand Kumria (wildfire)]

It sounds like your /tmp is not being cleared. It is on a tmpfs, on a
real disk? Is it mounted with relatime?

Also - why did you decide to use this bug when it is clearly different?

Your system boots -- to text mode. Totally different bug that I
reported a number of weeks ago (and which was subsequently fixed).

Anand

On Fri, Nov 13, 2009 at 11:23 PM, beggi dot com <email address hidden> wrote:
> I have this problem or at least something similar. To put it blunt; gdm
> does not start.
>
> When I start up the computer I get lock-up, blank screen and no response from the keyboard. After few reboots I usually get the multi-user login, that is. After few seconds of the white logo splash-screen the computer switches to text mode and I get:
>   *Stopping the Firestarter firewall.
>   *Stopping NTP sever ntp
>   *Starting the NTP server ntp
>
> and after that the normal CL login. I have tried to start the gdm from
> the command line, but it does not work. If I try to start it as a normal
> user I get:
>
>   ** (gdm-binary:2896): WARNING **: Failed to acquire
> org.gnome.DisplayManager: Connection ":1.100" is not allowed to own the
> service "org.gnome.DisplayManager" due to security policies in the
> configuration file
>
>   ** (gdm-binary:2896): WARNING **: Could not acquire name; bailing out
>
> If I tried to start it as root (sudo gdm) I got:
>   gdm-binary[2798]: WARNING: Unable to find users: no seat-id found
>   gdm-binary[2798]: WARNING: GdmDisplay: display lasted 0.038765 seconds
>   gdm-binary[2798]: WARNING: GdmDisplay: display lasted 0.037873 seconds
>   gdm-binary[2798]: WARNING: GdmDisplay: display lasted 0.040206 seconds
>   gdm-binary[2798]: WARNING: GdmDisplay: display lasted 0.037905 seconds
>   gdm-binary[2798]: WARNING: GdmDisplay: display lasted 0.038138 seconds
>   gdm-binary[2798]: WARNING: GdmDisplay: display lasted 0.038734 seconds
>   gdm-binary[2798]: WARNING: GdmLocalDisplayFactory: maximum number of X display failures reached: check X server log for errors
> But I found that this is due to the /tmp/.X0-lock if I delete it I can run the gdm, buts it behave exactly like it does when I start the machine in a normal way.
>
> I have learned, by change, that the only way to get the gdm to start is
> to login to the multi-user login, delete the /tmp/.X0-lock file, run
> startx as myself, stop the GUI by login me out using the System -> Log
> out *user* menu function and then run sudo gdm.
>
>
> I tried to change the "start on" stanza in /etc/init/gdm.conf, Scott mentions above, but it did not help. The output from "cat /proc/cmdline" is: root=UUID=2e38cdfc-ed51-4217-b6bf-968eaeb364af ro quiet splash
>
>
> Any ideas
>
> --
> gdm does not start after bootup
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/447226
> You received this bug notification because you are a direct subscriber
> of the bug.
>
>

[Matthew Rice (m-rice2)]

I might be having the same problem, but I am new to linux so I'm not really sure. My computer shows the white logo, but after that the screen goes blank and nothing can get it off of that. This happened occasionally on 9.04 and every time on 9.10. If I hit Escape right before the white logo comes up, after GRUB when a white line is in the top left corner, it writes something like ->] in the top left corner, then boots normally. Is this the same bug?

[beggi dot com (beggijons)]

I'm sorry I felt this was similar, I will create a new bug report. Can you delete my posting here?

Best Regards
beggi

[Nathan Murray (yotux)]

I just did a fresh install of Ubuntu 9.10 64 bit. My gdm is not starting at boot. I took my nVidia graphics card out 8800 GTS and this became a problem in i386 install. I did a fresh install today and now I in the new install gdm is still not launching. I am using Nvidia chipset MCP51. Graphics card is GeForce 6150.

[Halvor Lyche Strandvoll (halvors)]

This happend with me too when i installed ATI driver on my laptop, gdm/x did not remember, does not startup.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

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

[Aymeric (mulx)]

I have the same problems with Ubuntu 10.04.2.

syslog show this one:
Mar 6 11:48:35 pc-titi gdm-binary[1024]: WARNING: Unable to find users: no seat-id found
Mar 6 11:48:35 pc-titi gdm-binary[1024]: WARNING: GdmDisplay: display lasted 0,412115 seconds

and no graphic is available, I was unable to switch to console only (CTRL-ALT-Fx).
The magic key ALT-SysRq-K do nothing except killing console-kit-dae, only a reboot from ssh or with the sysrq key do something.
This is a random problem, sometime it's work, but not always.

The graphic card is: 01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: ATI Technologies Inc RV350 AP [Radeon 9600]
And I use this kernel: Linux pc-titi 2.6.32-29-generic #58-Ubuntu SMP Fri Feb 11 19:00:09 UTC 2011 i686 GNU/Linux

[Aymeric (mulx)]

I can also add that the X server is running, ps auxf |grep gdm output:
root 1024 0.0 0.3 18640 3212 ? Ssl 11:48 0:00 gdm-binary
root 1156 0.0 0.2 20092 2844 ? Sl 11:48 0:00 \_ /usr/lib/gdm/gdm-simple-slave --display-id /org/gnome/DisplayManager/Display2
root 1190 0.0 0.1 5788 1780 tty1 Ss+ 11:48 0:00 \_ /usr/bin/X :1 -br -verbose -auth /var/run/gdm/auth-for-gdm-Zkpm60/database -nolisten tcp

This is the output of Xorg.1.log (latest X created logfile)
___
X.Org X Server 1.7.6
Release Date: 2010-03-17
X Protocol Version 11, Revision 0
Build Operating System: Linux 2.6.24-25-server i686 Ubuntu
Current Operating System: Linux pc-titi 2.6.32-29-generic #58-Ubuntu SMP Fri Feb 11 19:00:09 UTC 2011 i686
Kernel command line: BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.32-29-generic root=UUID=298a5af4-293e-4547-9bf2-0554c6167a34 ro quiet splash
Build Date: 10 December 2010 05:53:04PM
xorg-server 2:1.7.6-2ubuntu7.5 (For technical support please see http://www.ubuntu.com/support)
Current version of pixman: 0.16.4
        Before reporting problems, check http://wiki.x.org
        to make sure that you have the latest version.
Markers: (--) probed, (**) from config file, (==) default setting,
        (++) from command line, (!!) notice, (II) informational,
        (WW) warning, (EE) error, (NI) not implemented, (??) unknown.
(==) Log file: "/var/log/Xorg.1.log", Time: Sun Mar 6 11:48:35 2011
(==) Using config directory: "/usr/lib/X11/xorg.conf.d"
(==) No Layout section. Using the first Screen section.
(==) No screen section available. Using defaults.
(**) |-->Screen "Default Screen Section" (0)
(**) | |-->Monitor "<default monitor>"
(==) No monitor specified for screen "Default Screen Section".
        Using a default monitor configuration.
(==) Automatically adding devices
(==) Automatically enabling devices
(WW) The directory "/usr/share/fonts/X11/cyrillic" does not exist.
        Entry deleted from font path.
(==) FontPath set to:
        /usr/share/fonts/X11/misc,
        /usr/share/fonts/X11/100dpi/:unscaled,
        /usr/share/fonts/X11/75dpi/:unscaled,
        /usr/share/fonts/X11/Type1,
        /usr/share/fonts/X11/100dpi,
        /usr/share/fonts/X11/75dpi,
        /var/lib/defoma/x-ttcidfont-conf.d/dirs/TrueType,
        built-ins
(==) ModulePath set to "/usr/lib/xorg/extra-modules,/usr/lib/xorg/modules"
(II) The server relies on udev to provide the list of input devices.
        If no devices become available, reconfigure udev or disable AutoAddDevices.
(II) Loader magic: 0x81f0e80
(II) Module ABI versions:
        X.Org ANSI C Emulation: 0.4
        X.Org Video Driver: 6.0
        X.Org XInput driver : 7.0
        X.Org Server Extension : 2.0
(--) using VT number 1

Fatal server error:
xf86OpenConsole: VT_WAITACTIVE failed: Interrupted system call

Please consult the The X.Org Foundation support
         at http://wiki.x.org
 for help.
Please also check the log file at "/var/log/Xorg.1.log" for additional information.

 ddxSigGiveUp: Closing log
____

If I stop gdm, start plymouth, stop plymouth, start gdm I get the graphical session working.