downgrade to gdm-2.20 leaves stale /etc/init/gdm.conf

[Cris]

Binary package hint: gdm

Downgrading gdm to gdm-2.20 leaves /etc/init/gdm.conf which results, at the next reboot, in the system attempting to start gdm twice.

[Cris (cristiano.p)]

Please note that this might not happen at the first reboot/restart (due to upstart asynchronism? profiling?).

[Sebastien Bacher (seb128)]

thank you for your bug report, not sure if that a gdm issue or an issue with the old version but that's a corner case issue since it's not recommended to install the old version

[eval- (eval-)]

This is pretty serious. The gdm.conf is broken in two major ways after installing gdm-2.20. It depends on:

a) /etc/X11/default-display-manager
and
b) 'gdm-binary'

... neither of which existed.

Since I have an intel chipset (and the "bulletproof" /etc/init/failsafe-x.conf which launches /etc/gdm/failsafeXServer which launches X with /etc/X11/xorg.conf.failsafe that defaults to "vesa,") I get a blank screen and no VT tty1-tty6s. I wasted a day rebooting into single-user mode, futzing with init/rc?.d scripts, and finally logging in blindly to a blank terminal in order to set up networking so I could discover/regret this upstart nonsense. All just to get X to work again because of this broken gdm-2.20 package's gdm.conf (also, /etc/X11/gdm.conf was broken, with refs to /usr/bin/X11R6).

The old gdm is the only one we can reasonably configure/theme (some 6,000 users have checked out: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1333683) without gnome-appearance-properties from gnome-control-center which requires 120mb if one only has XFCE, or this kind hack: https://launchpad.net/gdm2setup which failed to work for me. Downgrading gdm was an obvious choice and nowhere did I read it was "not recommended." Obviously if I'd known how broken this package was I would have simply given up on themes altogether, and accepted the newer, uglier, gdm.

[bornagainpenguin (bornagainpenguin)]

Indeed! A package this broken should not even be in the system! I just lost about five hours of setup time to this piece of &^%$ because I foolishly assumed there had been SOME testing to packages in th Ubuntu repositories! How many others have gotten bitten by this bug and simply walked away from Ubuntu and Linux altogether? Washing your hands and saying "Oh well, this isn't recommended any way." is a farce. This needs to be fixed or the package pulled from the repos!

--bornagainpenguin

[Sebastien Bacher (seb128)]

right, the old gdm should be cleaned

[Pedro Villavicencio (pedro)]

Thanks for the report, it has been some time without any response or feedback in this bug report and we are wondering if this is still an issue for you with the latest release of Ubuntu the Natty Narwhal, May you please test with that version and comment back if you're still having or not the issue? Please have a look at http://www.ubuntu.com/download to know how to install that version.Thanks in advance.

[Pedro Villavicencio (pedro)]

We're closing this bug since it is has been some time with no response from the original reporter. However, if the issue still exists please feel free to reopen with the requested information. Also, if you could, please test against the latest development version of Ubuntu, since this confirms the bug is one we may be able to pass upstream for help.