lightdm not showing gnome desktop option

[bgblanch]

I installed ubuntu-gnome-desktop and selected lightdm as the display manager (tried gdm and received only a purple screen). When I click on the ubuntu logo to the right of my login (where I believe I should be able to select the desktop I would like to use) the login name(s) disappear and nothing happens until I hit enter at which point the login names reappear

I have tried logging out and back in again as well as rebooting with the same results. I am currently on a Dell XPS 13 Developer Edition (Ubuntu laptop). I am able to log into Unity with no problem but I would like to use Gnome.
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ApportVersion: 2.20.1-0ubuntu2.1
Architecture: amd64
CurrentDesktop: Unity
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 16.04
InstallationDate: Installed on 2016-07-26 (19 days ago)
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 16.04.1 LTS "Xenial Xerus" - Release amd64 (20160719)
JournalErrors:
 Error: command ['journalctl', '-b', '--priority=warning', '--lines=1000'] failed with exit code 1: Hint: You are currently not seeing messages from other users and the system.
       Users in the 'systemd-journal' group can see all messages. Pass -q to
       turn off this notice.
 No journal files were opened due to insufficient permissions.
Package: lightdm 1.18.2-0ubuntu2
PackageArchitecture: amd64
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 4.4.0-34.53-generic 4.4.15
Tags: xenial third-party-packages
Uname: Linux 4.4.0-34-generic x86_64
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)
UserGroups:

_MarkForUpload: True

[Paul White (paulw2u)]

Thank you for taking the time to report this bug and helping to make Ubuntu better. Please execute the following command only once, as it will automatically gather debugging information, in a terminal:

apport-collect 1613430

When reporting bugs in the future please use apport by using 'ubuntu-bug' and the name of the package affected. You can learn more about this functionality at https://wiki.ubuntu.com/ReportingBugs.

[bgblanch (bgblanch)]

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[bgblanch (bgblanch)]

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[bgblanch (bgblanch)]

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[bgblanch (bgblanch)]

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[bgblanch (bgblanch)]

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[bgblanch (bgblanch)]

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[Gunnar Hjalmarsson (gunnarhj)]

Paul's recommendation is a good one.

On 2016-08-15 22:23, Launchpad Bug Tracker wrote:
> When I click on the ubuntu logo to the right of my login ...

That sounds like unity-greeter. You may want to also install lightdm-gtk-greeter (and reboot) to see if that greeter let's you select the desired desktop.

[bgblanch (bgblanch)]

That gets me a little closer... I am able to select Gnome but when logging in it dumps me right back out to the login screen. I am able to log into the Ubuntu/Unity desktop.

[Gunnar Hjalmarsson (gunnarhj)]

Can you show us the contents of ~/.xsession-errors (and, to be sure, ~/.xsession-errors.old) after a failed attempt to log in to GNOME.

[bgblanch (bgblanch)]

.xsession-errors.old

upstart: gnome-session (GNOME) main process (5188) terminated with status 1
upstart: gnome-settings-daemon main process (5184) killed by TERM signal
upstart: logrotate main process (4968) killed by TERM signal
upstart: update-notifier-crash (/var/crash/_sbin_plymouthd.0.crash) main process (5055) killed by TERM signal
upstart: bamfdaemon main process (5067) killed by TERM signal
upstart: Disconnected from notified D-Bus bus

[Gunnar Hjalmarsson (gunnarhj)]

Thanks! The latter seems to be useful info for some experienced developer (i.e. not me). I have one more suggestion, though, before someone else looks at it:

When having selected GNOME on the login screen, try to enter a guest session instead of your regular account, and let us know if that succeeds.

[bgblanch (bgblanch)]

I tried logging in with the guest account and got dumped back out to the login screen again.

[Gunnar Hjalmarsson (gunnarhj)]

Ok, then we know that the issue is not a result of your $HOME having been messed up due to multiple desktops. (A guest session is started with a fresh $HOME.)

Thanks for your helpful responsiveness! Now let's wait for someone else to attend to this bug report.