Login fails, returns to login and flickering prevents password typing

[Tobias Schönberg]

I was testing Ubuntu Gnome 15.04 in VirtualBox. I was able to login into the machine a few times and run updates and install a few programs. I also installed the VirtualBox guest additions. Since today this happens:

I log into the machine. The login is accepted and the machine does something for a few seconds. Then the machine jumps back to login, but with a random flickering. The flickering also resets the password field, which prevents it from being typed.

So I can't login into the machine anymore.

I am using a HP Probook 6570 b which I upgraded to 16 GB of RAM. The iso was from the 20th of January, but I did a daily sudo apt-get upgrade on it.

Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Xpt39AKVuE&feature=youtu.be
---
ApportVersion: 2.15.1-0ubuntu2
Architecture: amd64
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 15.04
InstallationDate: Installed on 2015-01-22 (5 days ago)
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu-GNOME 15.04 "Vivid Vervet" - Alpha amd64 (20141218)
Package: gdm 3.14.1-0ubuntu1
PackageArchitecture: amd64
ProcEnviron:
 LANGUAGE=de_AT:de
 TERM=xterm
 PATH=(custom, no user)
 LANG=de_AT.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.18.0-9.10-generic 3.18.2
Tags: vivid
Uname: Linux 3.18.0-9-generic x86_64
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)
UserGroups:

_MarkForUpload: True

[Tim (darkxst)]

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 1414707

When reporting bugs in the future please use apport by using 'ubuntu-bug' and the name of the package affected. You can learn more about this functionality at https://wiki.ubuntu.com/ReportingBugs.

[Tobias Schönberg (tobias47n9e)]

apport information

[Tobias Schönberg (tobias47n9e)]

Oddly enough this worked. I went into GRUB and tried the systemd-option and this made the login screen work again.

[Thomas Beckett (thomas-beckett)]

Confirming that booting with a systemd init resolves the GDM issue.

[Thomas Beckett (thomas-beckett)]

Also when booting without systemd active and the GDM is refreshing (flickering), GDM gives an error of "Authentication errror" so the problem may be with polkit?

[Jiri Grönroos (jiri-gronroos)]

I too have this issue with a fresh vivid installation. In my case this isn't a virtual machine. Booting with the default options, logging into Gnome Shell from gdm, and bam, the screen is locked instantly. Lock screen flickers and gives authentication error.

I bypassed this problem by going into tty and restarting gdm (sudo service gdm restart). Second login attempt doesn't lock the session instantly. I can also confirm that by selecting the systemd boot option the issue doesn't persist.

There's something in dmesg when booting without systemd, but with systemd the following dmesg output doesn't exist:

dmesg |grep logind

[ 6.988059] systemd-logind[1754]: Watching system buttons on /dev/input/event1 (Power Button)
[ 6.988085] systemd-logind[1754]: Watching system buttons on /dev/input/event0 (Power Button)
[ 6.988095] systemd-logind[1754]: New seat seat0.
[ 6.990545] systemd-logind[1754]: Failed to start user service: Unknown unit: [e-mail]
[ 6.992441] systemd-logind[1754]: New session c1 of user gdm.
[ 21.103729] systemd-logind[1754]: Failed to start user service: Unknown unit: [e-mail]
[ 21.105989] systemd-logind[1754]: New session c2 of user myusername.
[ 56.858239] systemd-logind[1754]: Removed session c1.
[ 63.669131] systemd-logind[1754]: New session c3 of user gdm.
[ 70.428732] systemd-logind[1754]: New session c4 of user myusername.

[ 56.858239] systemd-logind[1754]: Removed session c1. <- this is the output when restarting gdm from tty.

Hopefully this helps a little bit.

[Tim (darkxst)]

Looks like logind is not getting started in time.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

This bug was fixed in the package gdm - 3.14.1-0ubuntu2

---------------
gdm (3.14.1-0ubuntu2) vivid; urgency=medium

  * gdm.upstart: Try to activate logind before starting gdm to avoid a
    race condition when systemd is not used as PID1
    (Closes: #747210 LP: #1414707)
 -- Tim Lunn <email address hidden> Sat, 28 Feb 2015 10:53:20 +1100

[Fran Diéguez (frandieguez)]

Will this patch be applied to Git 3.15.90 in gnome3-staging ppa?
Same issue happens in that version.

[Tim (darkxst)]

Fran, I uploaded it to gnome3-staging a couple of hours ago

[Joel (joel-kuntz-92)]

This issue still persists in Ubuntu Gnome 14.04.2

I could consistently reproduce by installing fresh and then installing steam (and its dependencies). I was not able to restart gdm and login as it just froze in tty7 (the other terminals worked). When doing a hard reset of my computer it would then hang at the grey screen with the gnome logo and the three loading dots .

Installing Ubuntu Gnome 15.04 to hopefully resolve this issue