gdm-binary[????]: WARNING: GdmDisplay: display lasted 0.?????? seconds

[Johan Ryberg]

Binary package hint: gdm

I upgraded a machine from 9.04 to 9.10.

It seems like the upgrade went fine but the machine become very slow so I looked at top and the load looked like this:
top - 14:26:17 up 2:22, 2 users, load average: 10.45, 7.70, 7.01

events/0 was the process that where using all CPU:
    6 root 15 -5 0 0 0 S 8.4 0.0 13:27.61 events/0

There are billions of entries like this in /var/log/daemon.log:
Oct 25 08:01:22 rancor-server gdm-binary[18043]: WARNING: GdmDisplay: display lasted 0.188203 seconds
Oct 25 08:01:22 rancor-server gdm-binary[18043]: WARNING: GdmLocalDisplayFactory: maximum number of X display failures reached: check X server log for errors
Oct 25 08:01:22 rancor-server init: gdm main process (18043) terminated with status 1
Oct 25 08:01:22 rancor-server init: gdm main process ended, respawning
Oct 25 08:01:23 rancor-server gdm-binary[18078]: WARNING: Unable to find users: no seat-id found
Oct 25 08:01:23 rancor-server acpid: client 18074[0:0] has disconnected
Oct 25 08:01:23 rancor-server acpid: client connected from 18083[0:0]
Oct 25 08:01:23 rancor-server gdm-binary[18078]: WARNING: GdmDisplay: display lasted 0.194542 seconds
Oct 25 08:01:23 rancor-server acpid: client 18083[0:0] has disconnected
Oct 25 08:01:23 rancor-server acpid: client connected from 18088[0:0]
Oct 25 08:01:23 rancor-server gdm-binary[18078]: WARNING: GdmDisplay: display lasted 0.187878 seconds
Oct 25 08:01:23 rancor-server acpid: client 18088[0:0] has disconnected
Oct 25 08:01:23 rancor-server acpid: client connected from 18093[0:0]
Oct 25 08:01:23 rancor-server gdm-binary[18078]: WARNING: GdmDisplay: display lasted 0.178990 seconds
Oct 25 08:01:23 rancor-server acpid: client 18093[0:0] has disconnected
Oct 25 08:01:23 rancor-server acpid: client connected from 18098[0:0]
Oct 25 08:01:23 rancor-server gdm-binary[18078]: WARNING: GdmDisplay: display lasted 0.191647 seconds
Oct 25 08:01:23 rancor-server acpid: client 18098[0:0] has disconnected
Oct 25 08:01:23 rancor-server acpid: client connected from 18103[0:0]
Oct 25 08:01:23 rancor-server gdm-binary[18078]: WARNING: GdmDisplay: display lasted 0.179332 seconds
Oct 25 08:01:24 rancor-server acpid: client 18103[0:0] has disconnected
Oct 25 08:01:24 rancor-server acpid: client connected from 18108[0:0]
Oct 25 08:01:24 rancor-server gdm-binary[18078]: WARNING: GdmDisplay: display lasted 0.187424 seconds
Oct 25 08:01:24 rancor-server gdm-binary[18078]: WARNING: GdmLocalDisplayFactory: maximum number of X display failures reached: check X server log for errors
Oct 25 08:01:24 rancor-server init: gdm main process (18078) terminated with status 1
Oct 25 08:01:24 rancor-server init: gdm main process ended, respawning
Oct 25 08:01:24 rancor-server gdm-binary[18111]: WARNING: Unable to find users: no seat-id found
Oct 25 08:01:24 rancor-server acpid: client 18108[0:0] has disconnected
Oct 25 08:01:24 rancor-server acpid: client connected from 18117[0:0]
Oct 25 08:01:24 rancor-server gdm-binary[18111]: WARNING: GdmDisplay: display lasted 0.185207 seconds
Oct 25 08:01:24 rancor-server acpid: client 18117[0:0] has disconnected

I got no clue what to do

ProblemType: Bug
Architecture: i386
Date: Sun Oct 25 14:20:40 2009
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 9.10
Package: gdm 2.28.1-0ubuntu1
ProcEnviron:
 LANG=en_US.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.31-14.48-generic
SourcePackage: gdm
Uname: Linux 2.6.31-14-generic i686
XsessionErrors:
 (polkit-gnome-authentication-agent-1:14783): GLib-CRITICAL **: g_once_init_leave: assertion `initialization_value != 0' failed
 (nautilus:14764): Eel-CRITICAL **: eel_preferences_get_boolean: assertion `preferences_is_initialized ()' failed

[aeriph (aeriph-gmail)]

i am also having this problem after a 9.04 -> 9.10 upgrade. can only get to command line after grub, and running

gdm start/running

gives a series of "WARNING: GdmDisplay: display lasted 0.???? seconds" messages then "GdmLocalDisplayFactory: maximum number of X display failures reached"

[Antonio Sánchez (antoniosanchez)]

Architecture: amd64
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 9.10
Package: gdm 2.28.1-0ubuntu1
PackageArchitecture: amd64
ProcEnviron:
 SHELL=/bin/bash
 LANG=es_ES.UTF-8
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.31-15.50-generic
Uname: Linux 2.6.31-15-generic x86_64
UserGroups:

[Antonio Sánchez (antoniosanchez)]

I've just installed xdm as default and now syslog messages dissapear, but I'm still unable to access graphical environment.

[Antonio Sánchez (antoniosanchez)]

Architecture: amd64
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 9.10
Package: gdm 2.28.1-0ubuntu1
PackageArchitecture: amd64
ProcEnviron:
 SHELL=/bin/bash
 LANG=es_ES.UTF-8
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.31-15.50-generic
Uname: Linux 2.6.31-15-generic x86_64
UserGroups: adm admin cdrom dialout lpadmin plugdev sambashare