No GUI with Gnome Flashback or Classic after apt dist-upgrade; Ubuntu on Wayland OK

[David A. Kra]

Did apt dist-upgrade .
I usually use Gnome Flashback.
Now rebooting with 5.0.0.27 or 5.0.25 and logging in at GUI screen only works for "Ubuntu on Wayland".
Other attempts:
 (1) Flashback: login transitions to purple background screen and no mouse. hitting alt-ctrl-F1 leads to an unlock screen with a next button. entering pw and clicking NEXT leads to animated circle wait icon. alt-ctrl-f2 leads to a TTY2 text mode console login screen. Login and sudo shutdown now -r

 (2) Gnome Classic: login transitions to a blank screen with the LCD displaying a "No video" message. alt-ctrl-f1 and unlocking there also transitions to a blank screen with the LCD displaying a "No video" message. alt-ctrl-f3 then Login and sudo shutdown now -r.

 (3) Ubuntu: same as with Gnome Classic.

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 18.04
Package: gnome-flashback 3.28.0-1ubuntu1.4
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 5.0.0-25.26~18.04.1-generic 5.0.18
Uname: Linux 5.0.0-25-generic x86_64
ApportVersion: 2.20.9-0ubuntu7.7
Architecture: amd64
CurrentDesktop: ubuntu:GNOME
Date: Tue Sep 3 15:17:32 2019
InstallationDate: Installed on 2018-07-27 (403 days ago)
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 18.04.1 LTS "Bionic Beaver" - Release amd64 (20180725)
SourcePackage: gnome-flashback
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)

[Dmitry Shachnev (mitya57)]

Can you please attach your /var/log/syslog after this bug happens? Ideally, please remember time when this bug happens so that it's easier to decode it.

Are you using LightDM or GDM?

You say that after logging in you have purple background screen and no mouse. Can you check if Ctrl+Alt+T works there (to open the terminal)?

You mention that it happens with 5.0.0.27 or 5.0.25. Does it work fine with older kernel versions?

[David A. Kra (dakra137)]

>Can you please attach your /var/log/syslog after this bug happens?

see var~log~syslog inside the attached varlogsyslog.7z
The Machine name and userid have been redacted to COMPUTERNAME and myuserid.

>Ideally, please remember time when this bug happens so that it's easier
to decode it.

The last flashback attempt was booted at 18:15:50 with the login attempt at 18:16:24.
Previous boot and logins in the log:
14:16 -27 Flashback
14:23 -27 Gnome Classic
14:28 -27 Ubuntu
14:33 -27 Ubuntu on Wayland
14:50 -25 Flashback
14:52 -25 Gnome Classic
14:57 -27 USB KB not connected
14:59 -25 Ubuntu
15:03 -25 Ubuntu on Wayland
The cycle definitely was Flashback, Gnome Classic, Ubuntu, Ubuntu on Wayland, but I may have been off by one as to which was when.

>Are you using LightDM or GDM?

GDM

apt -a list gdm3

Listing... Done
gdm3/bionic-updates,bionic-security,now 3.28.3-0ubuntu18.04.4 amd64 [installed]
gdm3/bionic 3.28.0-0ubuntu1 amd64

apt -a list LightDM
Listing... Done
lightdm/bionic 1.26.0-0ubuntu1 amd64

> You say that after logging in you have purple background screen and no
mouse. Can you check if Ctrl+Alt+T works there (to open the terminal)?

Ctrl+Alt+T does nothing

>You mention that it happens with 5.0.0.27 or 5.0.25. Does it work fine
with older kernel versions?

I have been using fallback / flashback for years on all my machines, at least since 14.04. This machine has been using it with 18.04 for a year.

Thank you.
David

[Dmitry Shachnev (mitya57)]

Thanks a lot for the details.

I see several problems here:

1) At 15:00:15, there is a kernel error (RPM wakelock ref not held during HW access). So this may be related to the kernel upgrade. Adding a linux task.

Can you check if it happens with stock kernel, not from HWE (linux-image-generic which is 4.15.0)?

2) At 18:16:33, gnome-flashback segfaults. Most probably the error was submitted to errors.ubuntu.com. However, to find it, it would be nice to know your whoopsie id.

Can you please paste the output of this command: sudo cat /var/lib/whoopsie/whoopsie-id?
Using this ID other people may see the crashes reported from your system (anyone will see the summary, developers will be able to see the details). If you worry about privacy, send me the output to <email address hidden>.

3) In several places, there is also this error:

/usr/lib/gdm3/gdm-x-session[1894]: Fatal server error:
/usr/lib/gdm3/gdm-x-session[1894]: (EE) EnterVT failed for screen 0
...
/usr/lib/gdm3/gdm-x-session[1894]: (EE) Please also check the log file at "/home/myuserid/.local/share/xorg/Xorg.0.log" for additional information.

Can you please attach that file too? And I am also adding an xorg-server task.

Note that I am the maintainer of gnome-flashback, so I will only be able to look at issue 2. I hope the maintainers of linux and xorg will be able to look at the other two issues.

[David A. Kra (dakra137)]

2) whoppsie-id
acbcb5d1b079d5218876ea773fccafd16cc97435e89ea003436c0b92356075d5609cbab296303cff9589b9e2b61f5acb73b83dfbddd2113b419db8f0aeb29b94

3) /home/myuserid/.local/share/xorg/Xorg.0.log file attached.

1) boot with 4.15.0 - to do later today.

[Dmitry Shachnev (mitya57)]

Thanks again. On errors.ubuntu.com I see one gnome-flashback crash from September 2nd but unfortunately the retrace failed so there is no useful stacktrace: https://errors.ubuntu.com/oops/352bf78e-ceb9-11e9-ae81-fa163e983629

I see also two vino crashes in September. Maybe vino is the culprit? Have you tried disabling or uninstalling it?

There is also an older gnome-flashback crash from August 27th and it also seems related to X11 — the error is BadMatch (invalid parameter attributes), happened when gnome-flashback tried to set mouse speed.

I think the real problem is below the stack — in X11 server or in kernel. When that is fixed, gnome-flashback should stop crashing.

[Paul White (paulw2u)]

Thank you for taking the time to report this bug and helping to make Ubuntu better. We are sorry that we do not always have the capacity to review all reported bugs in a timely manner.

Ubuntu 18.04 (bionic) reached end-of-standard-support on May 31, 2023.

I'm setting the status of this bug to 'Incomplete' as it's not seen any activity for some time. If this is still an issue when using a currently maintained release of Ubuntu then please let us know which one(s) otherwise this bug report can be left to expire in approximately 60 days time.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

[Expired for linux-signed-hwe (Ubuntu) because there has been no activity for 60 days.]

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

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

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

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