spontaneous reboot on logging in xubuntu maverick

[impert]

Binary package hint: gdm

I think this is a gdm bug but xfwm or xfce4 may be to blame. (Or user idiocy - please excuse if so)
Release: Xubuntu maverick (development branch) 10.10
Packages: gdm 2.30.5-0ubuntu4; xfce4 4.6.2; xfwm4 4.6.2-1
Reproducible: Yes
Steps to reproduce: Boot into Xubuntu maverick, and enter user name and password.
Expected result: A usable GUI
Actual result: Spontaneous reboot as desktop comes up. (In xfce the tip of the day appears momentarily).
Further details: Maverick was installed using debootstrap and worked correctly fo a few weeks. The bug appeared after running apt-get upgrade. At first the system rebooted at the gdm splash screen, before the greeter screen came up.
I mounted maverick from another system, chrooted into it, and ran apt-get remove --purge on gdm and xubuntu-desktop. I have also removed --purge xserver-xorg and xfce* and re-installed them. More than once!
I have tried removing the .cache, .config, .gconf, .gconfd files from my home directory. I have even tried using an xorg.conf file (this gave a crash and "no screens found" error, but it shows that the problem is not X).
I can get a desktop as root by going to tty2, killing all gdm processes, and using startx. If I try to change user, I get an "unable to start new display" message. If I log out and try to log in as the normal user, it reboots.
I have been through all the log files, but couldn't find much that seemed relevant.

[impert (cwallace-free)]

This _may_ be the same as bug 501136
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/gdm/+bug/501136
but that bug fixed itself. Mine hasn't.

[dazza5000 (darran-kelinske)]

Dear impert,

Thank you for taking the time to report this bug and helping to make Ubuntu better. Please execute the following command, as it will automatically gather debugging information, in a terminal:
apport-collect BUGNUMBER
When reporting bugs in the future please use apport, using 'ubuntu-bug' and the name of the package affected. You can learn more about this functionality at https://wiki.ubuntu.com/ReportingBugs.

Sincerely,

Darran

[impert (cwallace-free)]

output of apport -cli -f -p gdm

[impert (cwallace-free)]

Two dist-upgrades later, and I have added a new user, and userdel-ed and useradd-ed my (normal) user. Still getting the spontaneous reboots - so I think that eliminates the config files in user space, doesn't it?

No doubt it's my stupidity, but for the life of me I can't get that apport-collect interface to work, so I'm attaching the output of apport-cli -f -p gdm after the dist-upgrades.

[impert (cwallace-free)]

This is still marked incomplete, though the apport file is there since the 25th.
What else is necessary?

[impert (cwallace-free)]

Thinking that the problem might still be due to something I had done, I did a fresh installation of Xubuntu to a different partition, again using debootstrap. The spontaneous rebooting occurs with the new installation.
I attach the apport file for this installation (apport.gdm.PML4zv.apport)

[impert (cwallace-free)]

And thinking that maybe something was missing from the debootstrap installations, (in spite of the first one's having worked well for two or three weeks), I downloaded a live CD and installed that to a different partition. The spontaneous rebooting occurs with the new installation.
I attach the apport file for this installation (sdb18_apport). This is again the output of apport-cli -f -p gdm.
I shall try booting with a few kernel boot options. Other than that, I don't see what else I can do at the moment.

[impert (cwallace-free)]

To get an idea of whether this is a problem in gdm or xfce I thought I'd try a vanilla Ubuntu (ie Gnome) live cd installation. Alas, after a couple of splash screens, the computer reboots before getting to the installation screen. Looks like I'll be stuck in Lucid for a while.
Funnily enough , Hardy, Jaunty, Karmic, Lucid, Debian Lenny, Aptosid, Trisquel, and a bunch of other distros, both Debian based and non-Debian, all boot perfectly on this machine. And xfce works perfectly with a number of them.

[Sebastien Bacher (seb128)]

the issue seems rather one in the xfce session than gdm

[impert (cwallace-free)]

After an upgrade last night this problem seems to have disappeared, so the bug report can be closed, as far as I'm concerned.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

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