Black screen instead of (gdm) login screen after dist-upgrade.

[marbud]

Binary package hint: xorg

Got this problem on my ASrock ION 330HT system.
First after a custom kernel build (to get support for my ASrock remote) I got this problem and thought it was related in some way. But the error persists even with the ubuntu kernel. I found that the GDM log files complains about something missing in DBUS, but i'm clueless about DBUS, so that does not help me. Tried to reinstall a lot of packages. (gconf2*, network-manager, lirc, dbus.) but it did not help. (Was thinking I might have some bit rot on my hard disk.)
Had to give up.. Reinstalled the whole box... Everything worked fine. Got XBMC and my remote working again. Then the last thing to do: dist-upgrade... Did that, and rebooted the machine. Back to same black screen instead of the gdm greeter...

So a suppose the last dist-upgrade is to blame.

I know, I have one PPA archives enabled, but I see no packages from that archive among the updated packages.
"
Switching to console (ctrl-alt-f1) works, and starting x (startx -- :1) works.. (Needs to use :1 as :0 is occupied by GDM)

I put this bug on xorg, but that's because the guide tells you to do that. But as there is no errors in the X server log files, I suspect the error is in either dbus/gconf/apparmor

Any clues?

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 10.10
Package: xorg 1:7.5+6ubuntu3
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.35-22.35-generic 2.6.35.4
Uname: Linux 2.6.35.4nuvoton-cir i686
NonfreeKernelModules: nvidia
.proc.driver.nvidia.version:
 NVRM version: NVIDIA UNIX x86 Kernel Module 260.19.06 Mon Sep 13 06:35:06 PDT 2010
 GCC version: gcc version 4.4.5 (Ubuntu/Linaro 4.4.4-14ubuntu5)
Architecture: i386
Date: Sun Nov 14 23:30:08 2010
DkmsStatus:
 nvidia-current, 260.19.06, 2.6.35-22-generic, i686: installed
 nvidia-current, 260.19.06, 2.6.35.4nuvoton-cir, i686: installed
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 10.10 "Maverick Meerkat" - Release i386 (20101007)
Lsusb:
 Bus 002 Device 002: ID 1241:f768 Belkin
 Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
 Bus 001 Device 006: ID 0502:3222 Acer, Inc.
 Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
MachineType: To Be Filled By O.E.M. To Be Filled By O.E.M.
ProcCmdLine: BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.35.4nuvoton-cir root=UUID=eab30302-e478-447a-a72d-03824b0384bc ro quiet splash
ProcEnviron:
 LANG=en_US.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
SourcePackage: xorg
dmi.bios.date: 11/24/2009
dmi.bios.vendor: American Megatrends Inc.
dmi.bios.version: P1.10
dmi.board.name: AMCP7AION-HT
dmi.board.vendor: ASRock
dmi.chassis.asset.tag: To Be Filled By O.E.M.
dmi.chassis.type: 3
dmi.chassis.vendor: To Be Filled By O.E.M.
dmi.chassis.version: To Be Filled By O.E.M.
dmi.modalias: dmi:bvnAmericanMegatrendsInc.:bvrP1.10:bd11/24/2009:svnToBeFilledByO.E.M.:pnToBeFilledByO.E.M.:pvrToBeFilledByO.E.M.:rvnASRock:rnAMCP7AION-HT:rvr:cvnToBeFilledByO.E.M.:ct3:cvrToBeFilledByO.E.M.:
dmi.product.name: To Be Filled By O.E.M.
dmi.product.version: To Be Filled By O.E.M.
dmi.sys.vendor: To Be Filled By O.E.M.
system:
 distro: Ubuntu
 codename: maverick
 architecture: i686
 kernel: 2.6.35.4nuvoton-cir
xkbcomp:
 Error: command ['xkbcomp', ':0', '-w0', '-'] failed with exit code 1: No protocol specified
 Error: Cannot open display ":0"
                   Exiting

[dazza5000 (darran-kelinske)]

to get you up and working - have you tried logging into recovery and running

dpkg-reconfigure xserver-xorg

and then possibly running

dpkg-reconfigure gdm

after that

I had this same issue and am trying to remember how I resolved it. you can also try removing your xorg.conf file out of /etc/X11/ and see if the new one that is created works

[marbud (marbud)]

Hi drizzle,

I tried the dpkg-reconfigure xserver-xorg and gdm. No change.

If I rename the xorg.conf file it looks a bit different (some garbage on the top of the screen flashes momentarily). The :0.log file in /var/log/gdm shows X is now using the nv driver instead of nvidia... But still same black screen. But, this time the :0-greeter.log file is empty and the :0-slave.log file contains:

gdm-simple-slave[2058]: WARNING: Unable to open session: The name org.freedesktop.ConsoleKit was not provided by any .service files

gdm-simple-slave[2058]: WARNING: Could not spawn command: Failed to execute child process "/usr/bin/dbus-launch" (Permission denied)
gdm-simple-slave[2058]: WARNING: Unable to launch D-Bus daemon: Failed to execute child process "/usr/bin/dbus-launch" (Permission denied)
gdm-simple-slave[2058]: WARNING: Could not spawn command: Failed to execute child process "/usr/bin/gnome-session" (Permission denied)
gdm-simple-slave[2058]: WARNING: Could not start command '/usr/bin/gnome-session --autostart=/usr/share/gdm/autostart/LoginWindow/': Failed to execute child process "/usr/bin/gnome-session" (Permission denied)

Permission denied?

[marbud (marbud)]

Spent some more hours on this problem. Found that some part of the gdm login process is using the /usr/bin/dbus-launch command, and when i use that command it works, but if I become the gdm user (using sudo -u gdm) I get permission denied.. The same error that I get in the log files. I can't reproduce this on my laptop using the same version of Ubuntu.

[bugbot (bugbot)]

Hey marbud,

Hi, have you had a chance to test if this bug is still present in natty?

If it does (and if you're the original reporter), please boot into natty
and run the command:

  apport-collect <bug-number>

which will update the bug with fresh logs and tag the bug as affecting
natty. (It is best to run this right after reproducing the problem.)

[bugbot (bugbot)]

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.