GDM wont load login

[DebianSidUser]

Binary package hint: gdm

I'm using Ubuntu 10.04 and for the past couple of days I'm been trying to get GDM to load the login window with no luck, right know it just loads the background and mouse then the sound comes on that its.

Things I've tried.
- Reinstall Nvidia drivers
- Reinstall GDM
both multiple times.

I know for a fact that nvidia drivers is working know because it didn't give me an error when I booted up.

GDM login screen.
http://img717.imageshack.us/img717/1707/dsc00303w.jpg

Another prob I'm having is that I can't use the the terminal.
http://img714.imageshack.us/img714/1415/dsc00307c.jpg

[DebianSidUser (raza)]

BTW I'm using the drivers from Nvidia's site and not from the repo because the repo ones wouldn't work.

[DebianSidUser (raza)]

I'm using Ubuntu 10.04 and for the past couple of days I've been trying to get GDM to load the login window with no luck, right know it just loads the background and mouse then the sound comes on that its.*
-------------
I just booted into ubuntu again and the terminal prob seems to have fixed itself but I'm still having the GDM login not loading prob.

[DebianSidUser (raza)]

When I killed GDM and restarted it. I got this message.

Warning: Unable to find users :no seat-id found

[DebianSidUser (raza)]

Ubuntu 10.04 64bit*

[Sebastien Bacher (seb128)]

Thanks for the bug report. This particular bug has already been reported, but feel free to report any other bugs you find.

[Steve Langasek (vorlon)]

Sebastien, what do you see here that makes you think this is a duplicate of bug #532047? No one else has reported failures loading the gdm greeter, and I don't see how this symptom could be caused by plymouth.

[DebianSidUser (raza)]

I tried the workaround on the Plymount didn't change anything. This has got to be a X prob.

I killed GDM and ran startx and it wouldn't start and here is the log for it.

[DebianSidUser (raza)]

The odd part about this is that I can run individual programs through x just fine. I just can't startx.

[Sebastien Bacher (seb128)]

I did read too quickly it seemed similar to all the "get a text vt on boot" issues

[DebianSidUser (raza)]

Well a combination of X and GDM.

[DebianSidUser (raza)]

Wait I thought more about it, it can't be a X issue is X is working. I'll upload some screens in a sec.

[DebianSidUser (raza)]

if X is working.*

http://img268.imageshack.us/img268/829/dsc00313st.jpg

http://img69.imageshack.us/img69/1841/dsc00310z.jpg

http://img692.imageshack.us/img692/4301/dsc00316qh.jpg

[Sebastien Bacher (seb128)]

could be gnome-session or whatever not loading

[DebianSidUser (raza)]

Is there a way to check?

[Sebastien Bacher (seb128)]

you can try to start an another session than the GNOME one

[DebianSidUser (raza)]

It looks like it is a gnome session problem. I installed KDM and tried logging in but nothing other then Gpodder loads (No ktorrent, no gnome-panel etc.).

[DebianSidUser (raza)]

Is there a way to fix gnome session?

[DebianSidUser (raza)]

I think I found the prob. Where is the Metacity config file located?

bash@bash-desktop:~$ metacity --replace
Window manager warning: "(null)" found in configuration database is not a valid value for mouse button modifier
**
metacity:ERROR:core/prefs.c:2495:meta_prefs_get_workspace_name: assertion failed: (workspace_names[i] != NULL)
Aborted (core dumped)

[DebianSidUser (raza)]

GDM still doesn't work but I messed around with the appearance manager when I was in X and I got gnome-session working and I'm using emerald and compiz appose to metacity and I logged in using KDM.

[DebianSidUser (raza)]

Just for the sake of test I tried metecity and it seems to be working now too.

[PEIGNOT Kévin (kpeignot)]

I had the same term bug ( corrected now), and I've the same problem with GDM:
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/xserver-xorg-video-ati/+bug/535027

[DebianSidUser (raza)]

It can't be the same as yours if the GDM prob is fixed because GDM is still broken for me (just retested it).

[PEIGNOT Kévin (kpeignot)]

GDM is still a problem, but it seems that the bug comes from plymouth. but it should be corrected today or in the week

[DebianSidUser (raza)]

Still broken even after updates.

[dtaylor84 (davidt-launchpad)]

I too was seeing this problem with both gdm and my normal gnome session (i could, sometimes, log in blind).

As above metacity ends up constantly respawning and dying due to an assertion failure.

I don't quite understand what's going on, but somehow there are no metacity settings in gconf, and metacity can't handle this.

I managed to log in by creating /var/lib/gdm/.gconf/apps/metacity/workspace_names/ with four string settings workspace_name1 workspace_name2 workspace_name3 and workspace_name4.

Other things still seem to be broken by the lack of settings, though.

[dtaylor84 (davidt-launchpad)]

A more complete (and far simpler) fix:

$ sudo gconf-schemas --register metacity.schemas

Without this, for some reason /var/lib/gconf/defaults/%gconf-tree.xml contained only these values for metacity:

<dir name="metacity">
<dir name="window_keybindings">
</dir>
<dir name="keybinding_commands">
</dir>
<dir name="global_keybindings">
</dir>
<dir name="workspace_names">
</dir>
</dir>

[dtaylor84 (davidt-launchpad)]

I now have no idea what was causing this problem. Both gnome-terminal-data and metacity-common on my system installed "empty" schemas like the above, but removing and reinstalling them has fixed the problems. I can only assume something was broken at the time I installed these packages, although given that gconf2 hasn't changed in almost two months, and this only broke sometime in the last 5 days, I'm not sure what.

[dtaylor84 (davidt-launchpad)]

Final note - the fastest way I have found to fix this problem globally:

sudo sh -vx ./gconf2.postinst configure 2.28.0-1ubuntu4

[David Baucum (maxolasersquad)]

I am having the same problem. This is a headless box that we use XDMCP to get a graphical login (via Cygwin and other X clients.) Login started giving us a blank screen after an update that came in over the weekend. X is started, but gdm won't start.
$ sudo startx

Fatal server error:
Server is already active for display 0
 If this server is no longer running, remove /tmp/.X0-lock
 and start again.

Please consult the The X.Org Foundation support
  at http://wiki.x.org
 for help.

 ddxSigGiveUp: Closing log
baucumd@suncomdbbackup:~$ sudo start gdm
gdm start/running, process 2077
baucumd@suncomdbbackup:~$ sudo restart gdm
restart: Unknown instance:
baucumd@suncomdbbackup:~$ sudo /etc/init.d/gdm restart
Rather than invoking init scripts through /etc/init.d, use the service(8)
utility, e.g. service gdm restart

Since the script you are attempting to invoke has been converted to an
Upstart job, you may also use the restart(8) utility, e.g. restart gdm
gdm start/running, process 2128
$ sudo gdm start
gdm-binary[2548]: WARNING: Unable to find users: no seat-id found
gdm-binary[2548]: WARNING: GdmDisplay: display lasted 0.056723 seconds
gdm-binary[2548]: WARNING: GdmDisplay: display lasted 1.094790 seconds
gdm-binary[2548]: WARNING: GdmDisplay: display lasted 1.591579 seconds
gdm-binary[2548]: WARNING: GdmDisplay: display lasted 2.993212 seconds
gdm-binary[2548]: WARNING: GdmDisplay: display lasted 1.554155 seconds
gdm-binary[2548]: WARNING: GdmDisplay: display lasted 1.586478 seconds
gdm-binary[2548]: WARNING: GdmLocalDisplayFactory: maximum number of X display failures reached: check X server log for errors

[David Baucum (maxolasersquad)]

I know longer have this problem. This can probably be closed now, unless others are still seeing the issue.

[PEIGNOT Kévin (kpeignot)]

I close this bug. If anyone still have this problem, please re-open it.