gnome-session not shutting down cleanly

[Tim Lunn]

[Impact]
We have had reports going back to 13.10 that gnome-shell extensions are disabled after restart (LP: #1236749), this has probably been our #1 unresolved bug for the last few cycles. While this is the main user visible bug probably other bugs caused by this for example (BGO: #745707)

The cause was tracked down to gnome-session not shutting down cleanly under upstart. Although the underlying issue seems to be the order in which upstart takes down the various components in a user session, the side-effects themselves appear to be caused by gnome-session continuing to run when it should in fact be shutdown

The fix updates the 103_kill_the_fail_whale.patch to force shutdown of gnome-session. This is inline with the fix upstream for (BGO: #745707) also.

[ Test Case ]
Note: This is only reproducible under upstart init.
1. Load gdm
2. Login to gnome-shell using GNOME from the session list
3. enable some extensions
4. reboot system from user menu.
5. login again to find extensions disabled.

[ Regression Potential ]
Very low, the fail whale is meant to be fatal. The upstream dialog that is disabled in ubuntu does in fact cause gnome-session to get shutdown.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

Status changed to 'Confirmed' because the bug affects multiple users.

[Pietro Gagliardi (andlabs/pietro10) (andlabs)]

I don't know how much this comment would contribute to this bug but I can at least confirm that the behavior described here is a possible reason why this is going on, as judged by my comment to bug 1236749 here: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/gnome-shell/+bug/1236749/comments/77 Specifically, for me the bug only occurred if I rebooted cleanly, but not if I forced the machine off.

[Tim Lunn (darkxst)]

we disable the fail whale dialog on ubuntu, but then just return back into the code, without telling gnome-session to die which is causing some problems. the fail whale should be fatal and the disabled dialog, would normally tell gnome-session to quit.

[Tim Lunn (darkxst)]

reassigning to gnome-session, although the issue seems to be triggered by upstart pulling down things in the wrong order, most of the damage seems to come from a buggy ubuntu patch in gnome-session.

[Tim Lunn (darkxst)]

marking importance as High, since I have a strong suspicion this is also causing many reported black screen deadlocks, and quite possibly failed software rendering fallback under gdm.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

This bug was fixed in the package gnome-session - 3.14.0-2ubuntu4

---------------
gnome-session (3.14.0-2ubuntu4) vivid; urgency=medium

  [ Tim Lunn ]
  * debian/patches/103_kill_the_fail_whale.patch: fix logic gnome-session
    should die at this point. This will fix LP: #1236749,
    LP: #1385572 and possibly various other strange bugs

  [ Ryan Tandy ]
  * debian/patches/git_add_disable_acceleration_option.patch: Import upstream
    patch to add a --disable_acceleration_check command-line option.
    (LP: #1251281)
  * debian/gnome-session-bin.user-session.upstart: Disable acceleration check
    when launching a GNOME Flashback (Metacity) session.
 -- Dmitry Shachnev <email address hidden> Fri, 20 Mar 2015 09:35:59 +0300

[Brian Murray (brian-murray)]

Hello Tim, or anyone else affected,

Accepted gnome-session into utopic-proposed. The package will build now and be available at https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/gnome-session/3.9.90-0ubuntu16.1 in a few hours, and then in the -proposed repository.

Please help us by testing this new package. See https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Testing/EnableProposed for documentation how to enable and use -proposed. Your feedback will aid us getting this update out to other Ubuntu users.

If this package fixes the bug for you, please add a comment to this bug, mentioning the version of the package you tested, and change the tag from verification-needed to verification-done. If it does not fix the bug for you, please add a comment stating that, and change the tag to verification-failed. In either case, details of your testing will help us make a better decision.

Further information regarding the verification process can be found at https://wiki.ubuntu.com/QATeam/PerformingSRUVerification . Thank you in advance!

[Brian Murray (brian-murray)]

Hello Tim, or anyone else affected,

Accepted gnome-session into trusty-proposed. The package will build now and be available at https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/gnome-session/3.9.90-0ubuntu12.1 in a few hours, and then in the -proposed repository.

Please help us by testing this new package. See https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Testing/EnableProposed for documentation how to enable and use -proposed. Your feedback will aid us getting this update out to other Ubuntu users.

If this package fixes the bug for you, please add a comment to this bug, mentioning the version of the package you tested, and change the tag from verification-needed to verification-done. If it does not fix the bug for you, please add a comment stating that, and change the tag to verification-failed. In either case, details of your testing will help us make a better decision.

Further information regarding the verification process can be found at https://wiki.ubuntu.com/QATeam/PerformingSRUVerification . Thank you in advance!

[Tim Lunn (darkxst)]

tested on trusty and utopic, both are working as expected and enabled extensions, stay enabled after restart.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

This bug was fixed in the package gnome-session - 3.9.90-0ubuntu12.1

---------------
gnome-session (3.9.90-0ubuntu12.1) trusty; urgency=medium

  [ Tim Lunn ]
  * debian/patches/103_kill_the_fail_whale.patch: fix logic gnome-session
    should die at this point. This will fix LP: #1236749,
    LP: #1385572 and possibly various other strange bugs

  [ Ryan Tandy ]
  * debian/patches/git_add_disable_acceleration_option.patch: Backport
    upstream patch to add a --disable-acceleration-check command-line option.
    (LP: #1251281)
  * debian/gnome-session-bin.user-session.upstart: Disable acceleration check
    when launching a GNOME Flashback (Metacity) session.
 -- Dmitry Shachnev <email address hidden> Sat, 21 Mar 2015 15:49:36 +0300

[Chris J Arges (arges)]

The verification of the Stable Release Update for gnome-session has completed successfully and the package has now been released to -updates. Subsequently, the Ubuntu Stable Release Updates Team is being unsubscribed and will not receive messages about this bug report. In the event that you encounter a regression using the package from -updates please report a new bug using ubuntu-bug and tag the bug report regression-update so we can easily find any regressions.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

This bug was fixed in the package gnome-session - 3.9.90-0ubuntu16.1

---------------
gnome-session (3.9.90-0ubuntu16.1) utopic; urgency=medium

  [ Tim Lunn ]
  * debian/patches/103_kill_the_fail_whale.patch: fix logic gnome-session
    should die at this point. This will fix LP: #1236749,
    LP: #1385572 and possibly various other strange bugs

  [ Ryan Tandy ]
  * debian/patches/git_add_disable_acceleration_option.patch: Backport
    upstream patch to add a --disable-acceleration-check command-line option.
    (LP: #1251281)
  * debian/gnome-session-bin.user-session.upstart: Disable acceleration check
    when launching a GNOME Flashback (Metacity) session.
 -- Dmitry Shachnev <email address hidden> Sat, 21 Mar 2015 15:49:36 +0300

[Andreas Ritter (eddie8)]

Dear all, are you sure the bug is fixed? Or are there any other bugs wich lead to this behavior (extensions disabled after login)? I switched back to KDE because of this bug, but with ubuntu 15.10 I began using gnome, again. The last month, the extensions were only about once a week disabled, for now since a few days on every startup.

Ubuntu 15.10, default gnome.

[kylea (kylea)]

Still present in 15.10. This is definitely not fixed

[Miner (assassinking)]

Affects Ubuntu 16.04 setup with Dell Inspiron 3537 laptop and external HDMI monitor. Tends to happen when closing a lid and then unplugging HDMI cord.

THIS IS NOT FIXED AND IT MAKES ME PULL OUT MY HAIRS.

[Miner (assassinking)]

Also happens when resetting the session with "pkill -u <username>", for example when system froze, and you need to Ctrl+Alt+FX to unfreeze it.

[Jerther (jerther)]

Kind of late, and lost some hair too, but I found that if the extentions are enabled via "Gnome Tweak Tool", they stay on.

[Justo (jtorres1825)]

Hi, I run gnome 16.04 on a lenovo yoga 910 and I still get the disabled extensions after reboot and after wake from suspend. I employed this workaround "https://scognito.wordpress.com/2014/11/30/fix-gnome-shell-3-12-extensions-being-disabled-at-every-startup/", but the bug is not fixed. So far, the workaround works. Will try to disable and re-enable via gnome-tweak-tool in comment #20 and see if it solves it (without the workaround).

Thanks!

[Jeremy Bicha (jbicha)]

Justo, this bug is closed. You'll need to open a new bug for whatever issue you are experiencing.

[Francewhoa (francewhoa)]

Done. I opened a new bug. Find new ticket at https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/gnome-session/+bug/1697229

As you know this bug #1385572 was fixed in the package gnome-session - 3.9.90-0ubuntu16.1 per comment #15 above at https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/gnome-session/+bug/1385572/comments/15

So this ticket #1385572 is closed. But somehow this bug is back. Maybe a regression? Maybe a zombie-bug, LOL ;)

Steps to reproduce in that new ticket at https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/gnome-session/+bug/1697229