gnome-session not starting after jaunty upgrrade

[ZioNemo]

Binary package hint: gnome-session

Hi,
my problems started when upgrading to 9.04 my acer Aspire 8930.

I strongly suspect something is wrong with:
mauro@wiki3A:~$ apt-cache policy gnome-session
gnome-session:
  Installed: 2.26.0svn20090408-0ubuntu2
  Candidate: 2.26.0svn20090408-0ubuntu2
  Version table:
 *** 2.26.0svn20090408-0ubuntu2 0
        500 http://it.archive.ubuntu.com jaunty/main Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status
... but my analysis could be wrong.

I simply seem unable to login with any kind of gnome session: i get a box stating "Your session lasted less than 10 seconds...".
The content of .xession-errors actually vary, but one of the constant parts is:

Window manager warning: Failed to read saved session file /home/mauro/.config/metacity/sessions/1023f0b90bdd217b65124141694094479900000042060025.ms: Failed to open file '/home/mauro/.config/metacity/sessions/1023f0b90bdd217b65124141694094479900000042060025.ms': No such file or directory
Failure: Module initalization failed
gnome-session[4206]: WARNING: Unable to parse command '(null)': Key file contains key 'Terminal' which has value that cannot be interpreted.
*** glibc detected *** /usr/bin/gnome-session: free(): invalid pointer: 0x08a00558 ***

another constant warning i get and which could be significant is:

** Message: Another GPG agent already running

what should I check?

I include a couple of (successive) error logs.
As You can see they are different.

A few other points that may or may not be relevant:

If I do not acknowledge the error (leave the "your session..." box open) I can work almost normally, but some programs will refuse to start; most notably gnome-terminal (konsole works).

I tried to get help on answers and in ubuntu forums; i tried all suggestions, but no joy: the two threads are: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?p=7158159 and https://answers.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+question/69339; as said I tried all things that were suggested and some more, results are in the threads and I will not repeat them here.

The error box itself has a funny bug: if I move it from the initial position (center of screen) and then click the [OK] button it does *not* disappear, but it will move to initial position, if I click another time *without moving the window* then it closes (and the session terminates). If I keep moving the messagebox before clicking [OK] I will never be able to close it.

This behavior is not constant: sometime, usually right after reboot, I can login normally and all is well.

I also tried to make a brand new user: it logged ok the first time, then the problem reappeared.

I am prepared to give full support to whoever can help me.
I really do not know what to do.

Thanks in Advance
ZioNemo

[ZioNemo (zionemo)]

This is the .xsession-errors log for a "good" login I had right after boot.

Apparently to get a good login I have to reboot, *wait* for some time (this time I went for a coffee) and *then* login.
I am not sure this is a pattern, but it happened before.

[Sebastien Bacher (seb128)]

Thank you for taking the time to report this bug and helping to make Ubuntu better. Please try to obtain a valgrind log following the instructions at https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Valgrind and attach the file to the bug report. This will greatly help us in tracking down your problem.

[ZioNemo (zionemo)]

Sorry,
I DO want to help, but I do ot understand.
The instructions seems to be about how to debug a program I can launch.
The error comes *before* I can launch any program, as part of the normal gdm-handled login process.
What should I do.
I can try starting X and gnome-session by hand at the console, but I strongly suspect this would change things a bit.

Please Advise.
ZioNemo

[Sebastien Bacher (seb128)]

start a non GNOME session and run valgrind gnome-session there

[ZioNemo (zionemo)]

I started a terminal session and than launched the start script (included) from there.
The message-box did *not* appear (why I am not surprised?); I am working in this session now.
I deleted ~/.xsession-errors before logging in the terminal session ant it was *not* recreated.
Here is the result anyway.

Anything else I could try?

[ZioNemo (zionemo)]

I did another session of tries.
Starting in terminal mode and then starting gnome-session manually works.
I attach a log of terminal output and valgrind log.
in gnome-session.log I added a few comments bracketed in:
===============
comment
===============

terminal session + manual gnome-session does not produce any output in ~/.xsession-errors.

the attached .xsession-errors is produced when starting a normal gnome session.

Using this workaround I can use this laptop (I see some error in the terminal log, but they seem harmless), but it is a bit inconvenient :)

Please advise.
Regards
ZioNemo

[ZioNemo (zionemo)]

another bunch of tests.

Right after boot I tried a normal gnome session login.
The session did not start at all (screen went blank and the gdm login screen reappeared).
psax_after-gnome-session-autologout is the "ps -ax" after this.
.xsession-errors_gnome-session-autologout is taken at this point.
I started a gnome session in the same way and this time I got an apparently good screen (panels with applets, icons, ...) but absolutely non-functional (not even refresh after vt switch); only the mouse pointer was working.
I killed the session with "sudo /etc/init.d/gdm stop".
psax_after-gdm_stop is the "ps -ax" at this point.
notice a lot of zombies and some strangely duplicated tasks.
I tried to start a gnome session once more (after a "sudo /etc/init.d/gdm start", obviously) and this time I got the "Your session..." error message.
psax_after-gdm_start_and_login_with_error is the "ps -ax" at this point.
.xsession-errors is taken at this point.
I then rebooted and used the terminal-login+manual-gnome-session to get to a somewhat working status and write this.
This status is *not* fully functional and I see in the terminal whwe I started gnome-session things like:

(firefox:3902): GnomeUI-WARNING **: While connecting to session manager: Could not open network socket.
** (update-notifier:3837): DEBUG: /usr/lib/update-notifier/apt-check returned 0 (security: 0)
** (update-notifier:3837): DEBUG: crashreport_check

** (gnome-terminal:4011): WARNING **: Failed to connect to the session manager: Could not open network socket

Completely reinstalling this Laptop is (unfortunately) not an option.
I will try to install KDE and see if that works better (I do not like KDE, but...).

All this started when I upgraded to Jaunty.
I might have done a ad error doing so.

[Sebastien Bacher (seb128)]

the issue seems to be due to HuaweiAutoStart.desktop, where did you get that one?

[Sebastien Bacher (seb128)]

could you add the desktop there?

[ZioNemo (zionemo)]

The HuaweiAutoStart.desktop is part of drivers for a GSM-3G USB "key" to connect to Internet.
The "key" is:
HUAWEI Mobile Connect
Mudel E-169 HSDPA USB Stick
FCC ID: QISE 169

The content of HuaweiAutoStart.desktop are:

==================
[Desktop Entry]
Name=Huawei Ivman AutoRun
Encoding=UTF-8
Version=1.0
Name[en_US]=Huawei Ivman AutoRun
Exec=/usr/local/AliceMOBILE_E169/autorun/huawei_autostart start
Icon=/usr/local/AliceMOBILE_E169/autorun/mobile.gif
Path=/usr/local/AliceMOBILE_E169/autorun
SwallowExec=
SwallowTitle=
Terminal=
TerminalOptions=
Type=Application
URL=
X-KDE-SubstituteUID=false
X-KDE-Username=root
X-GNOME-Autostart-enabled=true
==================

I already disabled this because KDE startup complained about not being able to overwrite some file in /usr/local/...
I originally installed the Linux drivers from the connection provider (TIM == Telecom Italia Mobile), I had no problems until I upgraded to jaunty.
I currently do not use the driver at all; I do use NetworkManager to connect.

I am now in a KDE session.
Soon I will close it and try again a Gnome session.
I will let You know if disabling HuaweiAutoStart.desktop does actually cure the problem.

[ZioNemo (zionemo)]

I can confirm that disabling (just renaming away /etc/xdg/autostart/HuaweiAutoStart.desktop) does indeed "cure" the problem.

The error I got from the KDE session was:
============================
rm: cannot remove `/dev/null': Permission denied
Starting ivman -e done
manager.c:1383 (do_startup_configure) Directory /usr/local/AliceMOBILE_E169/autorun/ivman/etc/ivman/ will be used for configuration files.
mv: try to overwrite `/usr/local/AliceMOBILE_E169/autorun/start.log', overriding mode 0644 (rw-r--r--)?
============================

If You are interested in understanding just why the upgrade made the error happen I will support You.
Otherwise I will simply try removing the "culprit"

Thanks a lot!

[Sebastien Bacher (seb128)]

the issue is similar to bug #257250 then and a duplicate