[oneiric] cannot login, failed to load session

[LGB [Gábor Lénárt]]

I've upgraded to oneiric to test the new not-yet-ready version of ubuntu. However since then I cannot log in at the lightdm (btw I tried to use gdm too, the result is the same) screen. A window (without borders) appear that failed to load session "ubuntu". The result is the same, if I try to use alternative options like Ubuntu 2D, Gnome, Gnome classic, Gnome without ubuntu specific, etc etc etc. Just the message is different (the session name in the message). Now I am writing from fluxbox WM, since it was able to load at least. If I try to launch eg gnome-terminal from a terminal in fluxbox, I get:

lgb@orion:~$ gnome-terminal
Failed to summon the GConf demon; exiting. Failed to activate configuration server: The name org.gnome.GConf was not provided by any .service files

.xsession-errors file is attached.

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 11.10
Package: gnome-session 3.1.91-0ubuntu2
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.0.0-11.18-generic-pae 3.0.4
Uname: Linux 3.0.0-11-generic-pae i686
ApportVersion: 1.23-0ubuntu1
Architecture: i386
Date: Sat Sep 17 12:09:17 2011
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 10.10 "Maverick Meerkat" - Release i386 (20101007)
PackageArchitecture: all
ProcEnviron:
 PATH=(custom, user)
 LANG=en_US.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
SourcePackage: gnome-session
UpgradeStatus: Upgraded to oneiric on 2011-09-06 (10 days ago)

[LGB [Gábor Lénárt] (lgb)]

Btw, I also created a new user, and tested with that, to be sure that no user config files etc can cause problems, but the result was the same.

[LGB [Gábor Lénárt] (lgb)]

Interesting: running X (with another DE/WM) I got this:

lgb@orion:~$ gconftool --dump /
<gconfentryfile>
  <entrylist base="/">
Failure listing entries in `/': Failed to activate configuration server: The name org.gnome.GConf was not provided by any .service files

  </entrylist>
</gconfentryfile>

The odd thing: if I type this very same command into a shell running on console (so without X) it gives "normal" result - as far as I see that a big XML structure is good :)

[LGB [Gábor Lénárt] (lgb)]

Btw, "Failed to summon the GConf demon". Is word "demon" is "demon" by will? Or should I interpret is as "daemon"?

[LGB [Gábor Lénárt] (lgb)]

If I try to run gnome-session by hand:

lgb@orion:~$ gnome-session
gnome-session[6343]: GLib-GIO-CRITICAL: Settings schema 'org.gnome.SessionManager' is not installed

gnome-session[6343]: GLib-GIO-CRITICAL: Settings schema 'org.gnome.desktop.session' is not installed

gnome-session[6343]: GLib-GIO-CRITICAL: Settings schema 'org.gnome.desktop.screensaver' is not installed

gnome-session[6343]: GLib-GIO-CRITICAL: Settings schema 'org.gnome.desktop.lockdown' is not installed

gnome-session[6343]: GLib-GIO-CRITICAL: g_settings_get_key_info: assertion `settings->priv->schema != NULL' failed
gnome-session[6343]: GLib-GIO-CRITICAL: g_settings_get_key_info: assertion `settings->priv->schema != NULL' failed
gnome-session[6343]: GLib-CRITICAL: g_variant_get_string: assertion `value != NULL' failed
Segmentation fault (core dumped)

[LGB [Gábor Lénárt] (lgb)]

lgb@orion:~$ gnome-session --version
gnome-session 3.2.0
lgb@orion:~$ dpkg -S `which gnome-session`
gnome-session-bin: /usr/bin/gnome-session
lgb@orion:~$ dpkg -s gnome-session-bin
Package: gnome-session-bin
Status: install ok installed
Priority: optional
Section: gnome
Installed-Size: 576
Maintainer: Ubuntu Developers <email address hidden>
Architecture: i386
Source: gnome-session
Version: 3.2.0-0ubuntu1
[...]

[LGB [Gábor Lénárt] (lgb)]

Sorry for the huge amount of comments from me, but I think this bug is simply a show-stopper, since system can't be used at all (well of course, if someone can run another kind of session than gnome ...). I try almost every day to upgrade the system and check the situation with oneiric, but still, the result is the same :( If there is some problem with my bug report (so you can't work with it too much) please note, and I try to help more to identify the problem. Thanks!

[Sebastien Bacher (seb128)]

the issue seems a local install one, 'org.gnome.SessionManager' is shipped in gnome-session-bin, what version of libglib2, gconf2, gnome-session-bin are installed?

[LGB [Gábor Lénárt] (lgb)]

@Sebastien: thanks for your answer!

gnome-session-bin: 3.2.0-0ubuntu2
gconf2: 3.2.0-0ubuntu1

libglib2 is not installed, not even an installable package exists with that name (according to apt-get install)

Similar package name seems to be libglib2.0-0 , it's installed, and version is: 2.30.0-0ubuntu3

[LGB [Gábor Lénárt] (lgb)]

I've reinstall the mentioned packages (apt-get --reinstall install ...) but still no success.

[Anakin Starkiller (sunrider)]

I've got the same issue on ArchLinux with Gnome 3.2 so I guess it's not related to Ubuntu at all. You should report this issue upstream on bugzilla.gnome.org.

[LGB [Gábor Lénárt] (lgb)]

@Anakin: hmm, but does it mean that oneiric will be released as stable that I can't even log in to the system? It sounds quite painfull ....

[Sebastien Bacher (seb128)]

Oneiric is fine, your installation is corrupted somewhat, either by a local installation or a disk or memory issue, did you try to check your computer ram with memcheck for example?

[LGB [Gábor Lénárt] (lgb)]

I would be surprised, if a specific bug like this is caused by a hardware failure, especially because I am using that notebook since months without a single problem (with previous versions of Ubuntu, too). Also, other DEs, like KDE seems to work nicely, with many resource hungry tasks (which usually triggers bugs like ones with disk I/O, memory or CPU). I've also tried to re-install packages you've mentioned but it did not help. Anyway, just to be sure, I will check it with memcheck at this evening. Also I am thinking to try to reinstall the system (it was an upgrade from natty) to see if it helps, if there is no further ideas to cure the problem; just I thought it can be useful to track this bug if others may have it too ...

[Sebastien Bacher (seb128)]

hum, reading again your logs I'm wondering how much sabayon is breaking things for you, does uninstalling it makes a difference?

[LGB [Gábor Lénárt] (lgb)]

I've removed sabayon (dpkg --purge sabayon). I have even done a reboot then. However the problem remains. I've attached the whole .xsession-errors file (I've tested with a totally new and "clean" user). I've tested memory with memtest for a while at least, as I thought; no problem has been found. However there is one thing, I don't know if related or note, but here it is:

I often see during package install/upgrade/etc:

Processing triggers for man-db ...
Processing triggers for hicolor-icon-theme ...
Processing triggers for libglib2.0-0 ...
Processing triggers for gconf2 ...
Processing triggers for gnome-menus ...
Processing triggers for bamfdaemon ...
Rebuilding /usr/share/applications/bamf.index...
Processing triggers for desktop-file-utils ...
Processing triggers for shared-mime-info ...
Unknown media type in type 'all/all'
Unknown media type in type 'all/allfiles'
Unknown media type in type 'uri/mms'
Unknown media type in type 'uri/mmst'
Unknown media type in type 'uri/mmsu'
Unknown media type in type 'uri/pnm'
Unknown media type in type 'uri/rtspt'
Unknown media type in type 'uri/rtspu'
Unknown media type in type 'interface/x-winamp-skin'

Note that '/usr/share' is not in the search path
set by the XDG_DATA_HOME and XDG_DATA_DIRS
environment variables, so applications may not
be able to find it until you set them. The
directories currently searched are:

- /root/.local/share
- /usr/share/kde-plasma
-
-

[LGB [Gábor Lénárt] (lgb)]

By the way, by google'ing a bit, I found something which seems to be a bit similar to my problem at least: http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=633851

Also there was an article mentioning that "all your gconf schemas have been unregistered for some reason" and suggesting this:

cd /usr/share/gconf/schemas/
sudo /usr/sbin/gconf-schemas --register *.schemas

However this was a quite old post so I doubt it's my case (and btw, it hasn't worked anyway ...)

[LGB [Gábor Lénárt] (lgb)]

Just one thing (I don't know if it's a problem or not): on a natty system there is file:
/usr/share/gconf/schemas/gnome-session.schemas
However on my promlematic oneiric notebook is does not exist. However since they are different ubuntu&gnme releases, maybe it's not even a problem.

[Sebastien Bacher (seb128)]

"/etc/X11/Xsession.d/90qt-a11y: 12: : Permission denied" seems weird

[Sebastien Bacher (seb128)]

the issue is like "Note that '/usr/share' is not in the search path
set by the XDG_DATA_HOME and XDG_DATA_DIRS"

can you grep -r XDG in etc?

does running gsettings get org.gnome.desktop.session session works? does it work if you set XDG_DATA_DIRS=/usr/share?

[LGB [Gábor Lénárt] (lgb)]

Command "gsettings get org.gnome.desktop.session session" says: "No such schema 'org.gnome.desktop.session'". Setting envvar XDG_DATA_DIRS to /usr/share does not seem to help. The output of grep (with also the -n option) is attached.

[Sebastien Bacher (seb128)]

does removing /etc/X11/Xsession.d/20desktop-profiles_activateDesktopProfiles makes any difference?

[LGB [Gábor Lénárt] (lgb)]

Wow! Yes. With removing (well, moving away to have a backup) I could log in.

[LGB [Gábor Lénárt] (lgb)]

Still some minor issues left, like missing icons (firefox etc), maybe that's the problem of bad XDG_DATA_DIRS. I wonder if I made misstake to always install meta packages for kubuntu, edubuntu, xubuntu, etc too, since as far as I can recall, that file you suggested to remove is part of edubuntu package, or something like that ...

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

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

[LGB [Gábor Lénárt] (lgb)]

Is it possible that it's not the bug of gnome-session (I was reported as)? Maybe it should be moved to the right package, at least deletion of /etc/X11/Xsession.d/20desktop-profiles_activateDesktopProfiles helped, and that file is part of pacakge desktop-profiles and "rdepends" on edubuntu-menueditor according to apt-cache. But that package exited in natty too before I upgraded (and I still has it on other natty systems without problem), so it should be some kind of regression.

[AdlerHorst (adlerhorst)]

I had installed kubuntu 11.04 upgradet it to oneric and wished now to install Unity
I get the same Message if i try to login with unity.

/etc/X11/Xsession.d/20desktop-profiles_activateDesktopProfiles
not exist

[dino99 (9d9)]

That version is no more supported