ubuntu-desktop package depends on lightdm but no greeter

[Michael Moroni]

The ubuntu-desktop does not depend on unity-greeter. The lightdm package recommends unity-greeter, but it is possible to upgrade and have lightdm installed (which ubuntu-desktop does depend on) but no greeter installed. Unity greeter is a part of unity and should be a dependency on ubuntu-desktop.

[Brendan Donegan (brendan-donegan)]

To be honest I'm not entirely certain this would be an issue in lightdm, but neither could it be X if it hasn't got as far as lightdm (since lightdm starts X).

[Robert Ancell (robert-ancell)]

Could you please attach the files in /var/log/lightdm? Thanks.

[Robert Ancell (robert-ancell)]

If the cause is lightdm, install gdm and run dpkg-reconfigure lightdm to set GDM as the default display manager.

[Michael Moroni (airon90)]

Oops, I didn't see those two comments, so I downgrade lightdm 0.4.1-0ubuntu1 to the 0.4.0-0ubuntu7 version. After a reboot I can now use my system, even if there is a strange bug (if I log in to Ubuntu version (I cannot use Unity 3D, I come back to the login screen instead of loading fallback version).

There are no files in that directory (maybe because now I'm using downgraded version). Now I upgrade the system again and I
see if there is some log again.

gdm is already installed installed and it is the default desktop manager. However, from latest upgrades the login screen compares again (if I well remeber, login screen is managed by lightdm in oneiric)

[Richard Garvin (garvinrick4)]

[+0.00s] DEBUG: Logging to /var/log/lightdm/lightdm.log
[+0.00s] DEBUG: Starting Light Display Manager 0.4.1, UID=0 PID=1917
[+0.00s] DEBUG: Loaded configuration from /etc/lightdm/lightdm.conf
[+0.01s] DEBUG: Loading display seat-0
[+0.01s] DEBUG: Logging to /var/log/lightdm/:0.log
[+0.01s] DEBUG: Starting on /dev/tty1
[+0.01s] DEBUG: Writing X server authorization to /var/run/lightdm/authority/0
[+0.01s] DEBUG: Launching X Server
[+0.01s] DEBUG: Launching process 1921: /usr/bin/X :0 -auth /var/run/lightdm/authority/0 -nolisten tcp vt1
[+0.01s] DEBUG: Waiting for ready signal from X server :0
[+0.23s] DEBUG: Got signal 10 from process 1921
[+0.23s] DEBUG: Got signal from X server :0
[+0.23s] DEBUG: Connecting to XServer :0
[+0.24s] DEBUG: Looking for example-gtk-gnome theme in /usr/share/lightdm/themes/example-gtk-gnome/index.theme
[+0.24s] WARNING: Failed to find theme example-gtk-gnome: No such file or directory
[+57.13s] DEBUG: Got signal 15 from process 1
[+57.13s] DEBUG: Caught Terminated signal, shutting down
[+57.13s] DEBUG: Stopping display manager
[+57.13s] DEBUG: Stopping display
[+57.13s] DEBUG: Sending signal 15 to process 1921
[+57.16s] DEBUG: Process 1921 exited with return value 0
[+57.16s] DEBUG: Display stopped
[+57.16s] DEBUG: Display manager stopped
[+57.16s] DEBUG: All processes complete, exiting

[Richard Garvin (garvinrick4)]

Had to install a theme in lightdm as per previous post: "works fine with proper packages installed.

Provided by: lightdm-greeter-example-gtk, lightdm-greeter-example-python-gtk,
lightdm-greeter-example-qt, lightdm-greeter-example-vala-gtk

[Michael Moroni (airon90)]

I confirm that /var/lib/lightdm is empty and I already have installed all themes but -qt one for lightdm greeter.
Tomorrow I will make a video in order to better explain what it happens

[Joseph Salisbury (jsalisbury)]

I ran into this bug today after updating. After a reboot, the boot messages would hang at: "Checking battery state". I was able to login from another tty.

I saw a message in the lightdm.log file that there was No such file or directory for lightdm-gtk-greeter.

Installing the lightdm-gtk-greeter package resolved issue.

[Conor Anderson (conor.anderson)]

Having the same problem as described. Above pacakge already installed an latest version.
Attaching all the logs that looked useful (not that I really know much about what a useful log is).

[Sebastien Bacher (seb128)]

is that still an issue with 0.9.2?

[Michael Moroni (airon90)]

Yes, it is already an issue with 0.9.2 (more rarely). 0.9.3 breaks with some packages:

airon@airon-Ei-105:~$ sudo aptitude install lightdm
The following packages will be upgraded:
  lightdm{b}
1 packages upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 7 not upgraded.
Need to get 76,9 kB of archives. After unpacking 8192 B will be used.
The following packages have unmet dependencies:
  lightdm: Conflicts: liblightdm-gobject-0-0 but 0.4.3-0ubuntu1 is installed.
           Conflicts: liblightdm-qt-0-0 but 0.4.3-0ubuntu1 is installed.
The following actions will resolve these dependencies:

     Remove the following packages:
1) gir1.2-lightdm-0
2) liblightdm-gobject-0-0
3) liblightdm-gobject-0-dev
4) liblightdm-qt-0-0
5) liblightdm-qt-0-dev
6) lightdm-greeter-example-gtk
7) lightdm-greeter-example-python-gtk
8) lightdm-greeter-example-qt
9) lightdm-greeter-example-vala-gtk

Accept this solution? [Y/n/q/?]

[Addamaccada (adematthews)]

I too am experiencing this issue, my machine stops booting at Checking battery state regardless of whether I have lightdm or gdm configured as desktop manager & the only way I can get to Unity or Gnome-Shell to start is to boot into recovery mode & do either

"sudo lightdm start" or "sudo gdm start" both of which take me to a login screen where I can login to Unity or Gnome-Shell normally

I find it puzzling why my machine is even checking battery state when it is a desktop machine, so the only battery involved is the cmos/bios battery & if there was an issue with that surely it would notify me during the POST process before the OS has started to load

[Serg (funkypotatoe)]

[+0.00s] DEBUG: Logging to /var/log/lightdm/lightdm.log
[+0.00s] DEBUG: Starting Light Display Manager 0.9.7, UID=0 PID=947
[+0.00s] DEBUG: Loaded configuration from /etc/lightdm/lightdm.conf
[+0.00s] DEBUG: Using D-Bus name org.freedesktop.DisplayManager
[+0.00s] DEBUG: Registered seat module xlocal
[+0.00s] DEBUG: Registered seat module xremote
[+0.00s] DEBUG: Adding default seat
[+0.00s] DEBUG: Starting seat
[+0.00s] DEBUG: Starting new display for greeter
[+0.00s] DEBUG: Starting local X display
[+0.10s] DEBUG: X server :0 will replace Plymouth
[+0.18s] DEBUG: Using VT 7
[+0.18s] DEBUG: Activating VT 7
[+0.21s] DEBUG: Logging to /var/log/lightdm/:0.log
[+0.21s] DEBUG: Writing X server authority to /var/run/lightdm/root/:0
[+0.22s] DEBUG: Launching X Server
[+0.39s] DEBUG: Launching process 969: /usr/bin/X :0 -auth /var/run/lightdm/root/:0 -nolisten tcp vt7 -novtswitch -background none
[+0.39s] DEBUG: Waiting for ready signal from X server :0
[+0.39s] DEBUG: Acquired bus name
[+0.39s] DEBUG: Registering seat with bus path /org/freedesktop/DisplayManager/Seat0
[+1.24s] DEBUG: Got signal 10 from process 969
[+1.24s] DEBUG: Got signal from X server :0
[+1.24s] DEBUG: Stopping Plymouth, X server is ready
[+1.28s] DEBUG: Connecting to XServer :0
[+1.28s] DEBUG: Starting greeter session
[+1.31s] DEBUG: pam_start("lightdm", "lightdm") -> (0x901360, 0)
[+1.31s] DEBUG: Starting session lightdm-gtk-greeter as user lightdm logging to /var/log/lightdm/:0-greeter.log
[+1.32s] DEBUG: Failed to load session file /usr/share/xgreeters/lightdm-gtk-greeter.desktop: No such file or directory:
[+1.32s] DEBUG: Failed to start greeter
[+1.32s] DEBUG: Stopping display
[+1.32s] DEBUG: Sending signal 15 to process 969
[+1.88s] DEBUG: Process 969 exited with return value 0
[+1.88s] DEBUG: X server stopped
[+1.88s] DEBUG: Removing X server authority /var/run/lightdm/root/:0
[+1.88s] DEBUG: Releasing VT 7
[+1.88s] DEBUG: Display server stopped
[+1.88s] DEBUG: Display stopped
[+1.88s] DEBUG: Stopping X local seat, failed to start a display
[+1.88s] DEBUG: Stopping seat
[+1.88s] DEBUG: Seat stopped
[+1.88s] DEBUG: Stopping lightdm, required seat has stopped
[+1.88s] DEBUG: Stopping display manager
[+1.88s] DEBUG: Display manager stopped
[+1.88s] DEBUG: Stopping Light Display Manager

[Serg (funkypotatoe)]

after installing lightdm-gtk-greeter, everything works fine.

[Robert Ancell (robert-ancell)]

Is this still occuring for anyone with recent updates?

[Breeze (ya-breeze)]

Hi

I'm not sure this is correct place for my bug, but I have problems with lightdm

Yesterday I update my box from 11.04 to 11.10 and can't login normally - there is no any GUI

According to logs, lightdm don't start with message:
** (lightdm:4143): WARNING **: Could not get accounts proxy: Error connecting: Connection refused

"startx" working fine,

I'm unable to find anything describing this "accounts proxy" error. Any ideas?

Thanks

[Richard Garvin (garvinrick4)]

Ctrl/alt/t
log in
password
sudo stop gdm
sudo dpkg-reconfigure lightdm
Now choose lightdm
Use tab key and arrows and enter key.
sudo /etc/init.d/lightdm restart
Should bring you to login screen and all should work.

On upgrade you still have gdm installed which is what lightdm does in oneiric.
In fresh install no gdm is installed.
You are just configuring to lightdm and the restarting it.

[Richard Garvin (garvinrick4)]

If any problems then install unity-greeter also
sudo apt-get install lightdm unity-greeter
then
sudo dpkg-reconfigure lightdm
#go to previous post for rest.

[Breeze (ya-breeze)]

Thanks for your help

It looks like problem was with dbus - there were some messages like "could not connect to system bus". I manually remove files in /var/run/dbus and restart dbus as "dbus-daemon --system" and lightdm started after it.

[jpfle (jpfle)]

I still have this bug with LightDM 1.0.1-0ubuntu6.

Boot stops to checking battery state (I have a netbook). As a workaround, I can use either GDM or KDM.

I attach "/var/log/lightdm/lightdm.log".

[Lee Verberne (verb)]

I was affected by this issue as well. That is, I upgraded from natty to oneiric release and upon reboot no X server started. The last message on the console was "Checking battery state", but I expect that's just the last init script that ran and unrelated to this issue. The problem was that no DM was starting even though I could start both lightdm & gdm manually.

After reading the comments in this bug, I ran "dpkg-reconfigure lightdm" and chose lightdm as my DM. This resolved my issue with no other steps required. Fwiw, I was not prompted to choose a DM by the release upgrade process.

[gangelis (gangel)]

Same problem here.
Upgrade to Xubuntu 11.10 hangs on checking battery, (Virtual Box machine).

In native, clean install Xubuntu 11.10, no problem with this bug.

Any recommended solution above, didn't work.

[Axel Pospischil (apos)]

On the way with oneiric after update from natty.
Was not able to solve the issue from since the beginning.

Lightdm does not start the xserver.

I already purged all lightdm related files - including unity-greeter and lightdm-gtk-greeter, ~/.Xauthority,~/.ICEauthority, removed /var/lib/lightd - but not effort.

Gdm still works fine, but lightdm would not start (see attached logs).

To mention: probably duplicate of bug #828576

[Axel Pospischil (apos)]

And see bug #864174

[Sebastien Bacher (seb128)]

Axel since you point that one bug what is the value of /etc/X11/default-display-manager for you?

[Axel Pospischil (apos)]

@Sebastian:

/usr/sbin/lightdm

[Sebastien Bacher (seb128)]

Your issue seems different from the other bug then?

[Axel Pospischil (apos)]

If I knew where the problem lies ... sorry you might be right ... probably. This all is very confusing:

As far as I see the problem with lightdm starting correctly might be:

1. /var/run/dbus
2. wrong /etc/init/lightdm.conf
3. wrong ~/.dmrc entries
4. package lightdm-gtk-greeter not installed (probably more?)
5. somewhere I read something about plymounth involved !?

A newly installed system workes out of the box, so this only affects updated systems.
I will test this within the next days considering all aspects and comparing the test system with my actual installed system.

This should be able to be resolved when updating an existing system ;)

[Sebastien Bacher (seb128)]

Thanks Axel, it seems that bug is collecting different problems and you would probably be better off opening a new ticket where we can discuss the issue you are getting, what do you have in your /etc/lightdm/lightdm.conf? Your log seems a bit weird, did you have unity-greeter installed when you got the lightdm.log log?

[Axel Pospischil (apos)]

Hi Sebastien,

[1]
cat /etc/lightdm/lightdm.conf
[SeatDefaults]
greeter-session=unity-greeter

[2]
sudo dpkg -l unity-greeter
ii unity-greeter 0.1.1-0ubuntu1

If I remember right, unity-greeter was installed as a dempendency via aptitude ?!

What I found weird in /var/log/lightdm/lightdm.log was this line:
WARNING: Failed to open log file /var/log/lightdm/x-0-greeter.log: Permission denied

What else do you think might be not OK?

I have to mention that I started everything in a console (TTY1) via Strg+Alt+F1 this way:

[logout of gdm session]
sudo service gdm stop
sudo dpkg-reconfigure lightdm -> lightdm
sudo service lightdm start

[Axel Pospischil (apos)]

Might be also interesting ...

[Sebastien Bacher (seb128)]

Ok, your config doesn't show anything weird

"WARNING: Failed to open log file /var/log/lightdm/x-0-greeter.log: Permission denied" is an issue happening for everybody it seems and likely has to do with some of the privilege drops fixes from before Oneiric, it's worth a new bug if nobody opened one yet but it's not what is breaking your system

your lightdm.log has

"[+2.52s] DEBUG: Launching process 13148: /usr/lib/lightdm/lightdm-greeter-session 'unity-greeter'
[+2.52s] WARNING: Failed to open log file /var/log/lightdm/x-0-greeter.log: Permission denied
[+2.52s] DEBUG: pam_setcred(0x230e7e0, PAM_ESTABLISH_CRED) -> 0 (Success)
[+2.52s] DEBUG: PAM returns environment 'TH=/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/sbin:/bin:/usr/games LANGUAGE=de_DE:en LC_MESSAGES=de_DE.UTF-8 LANG=de_DE.UTF-8'
[+2.54s] DEBUG: Process 13148 exited with return value 0"

Which is weird, notices that it starts at "TH=..."

on my log I get "DEBUG: PAM returns environment 'PATH=/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/sbin:/bin:/usr/games LANG=fr_FR.UTF-8'"

so it seems somewhat you pam environment get mangled, that might be a different issues from the ones on this bug, could you restart your box in its current state and open a new bug using "ubuntu-bug lightdm", it should attach your log infos etc

what do you have in /etc/environment?

The "TH=" is weird, it should b "PATH="...

[jpfle (jpfle)]

In the file "/var/log/lightdm/lightdm.log" I attached on #22, I also get "Permission denied" warnings:

> DEBUG: Adding session authority to /var/lib/lightdm/.Xauthority
> WARNING: Error reading existing Xauthority: Error opening file: Permission denied
> DEBUG: Restoring privileges
> WARNING: Failed to write authority: Error opening file '/var/lib/lightdm/.Xauthority': Permission denied
> DEBUG: Failed to start greeter session
> DEBUG: Stopping display

Is it a different bug from the current one?

[Axel Pospischil (apos)]

> /etc/environment
> The "TH=" is weird, it should be "PATH="...

You do not believe how often I read this log, but never saw this ...

You are right, my /etc/environment indeed began with "TH=...".
I do not remember, that I ever edited that file (I am using ~/.bashrc for PATH instead).
I really won't hope I caused the trouble opening this file with vi - probably sometimes - thereby killing the first two chars? I am really not shure.

After changing it to

    PATH="/usr/local/sbin: [...]"

logging out an in again (in the console) I could "sudo dpkg-reconfigure lightdm" and START IT.
Problem solved - as far a I am concerned. Thank you very much Sebastien.

As far, as this bug is concerned, the original issue of this bug - according to the initial log - should be fixed by installing the lightdm-gtk-greeter package.

[Axel Pospischil (apos)]

@ Jean-Philippe
>> WARNING: Failed to write authority: Error opening file '/var/lib/lightdm/.Xauthority': Permission denied
> Is it a different bug from the current one?

I am sure it is.

I managed to get rid of this purging lightdm AND removing /var/lib/lightdm.
Then Reinstalled lightdm.

[Sebastien Bacher (seb128)]

> DEBUG: Adding session authority to /var/lib/lightdm/.Xauthority
> WARNING: Error reading existing Xauthority: Error opening file: Permission denied
> DEBUG: Restoring privileges

This issue seems a different one, could you open a new bug?

> Problem solved - as far a I am concerned. Thank you very much Sebastien.

great to read! you're welcome, so that one was an user config error

> the original issue of this bug - according to the initial log - should be fixed by installing the lightdm-gtk-greeter package.

you mean from other users? yeah, the bug is a bit confusing because different users joined to raise bugs which were different from the original ones, we apparently get cases where the config list a greeter not installed, it's not clear if those are from users who edited their configuration and then uninstalled the greeter they choosed to use, there is a bug open about having a failsafe mode for those though

[jpfle (jpfle)]

> This issue seems a different one, could you open a new bug?

Done: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/lightdm/+bug/877066

[Dirk Eddelbuettel (edd)]

Just wanted to confirm that I was bitten by this too running 'do-release-upgrade' from a pretty recent natty install --- and that it was fixed by installing 'unity-greeter'. Should the Recommends: be a Depends?

[CaptSaltyJack (csjubuntu)]

My fix was to insert the line "sleep 2" before "exec lightdm" in /etc/init/lightdm.conf

[CaptSaltyJack (csjubuntu)]

LightDM was trying to load too quickly, before the nvidia kernel had loaded, apparently. The lightdm logs complained about a nonexistent nvidia kernel, which is obviously not true in my case.

[Philipp Schmidt (philsbln)]

Same workaround works for me - seems to be a hard to debug timing issue shortly after loading the nvidia kernel module

[Sebastien Bacher (seb128)]

the nvidia issue seems like to be bug #873495

[rb.eng (rb-engch)]

Very frustrated I couldn't find this bug report.

After upgrading to 11.10 I could not get the display to work. After a day of this I finally discovered that by changing the default-display-manager in /etc/X11 to usr/sbin/gdm instead of lightdm I could log in. I'm just delighted the system works now. I'll leave lightdm troubleshooting to another day if at all. Aaaarrrrrggggg.

 I suggest the title be changed to reflect a lowercase "el" for lightdm instead of uppercase "L". Perhaps it could then be located in the searches.

[rb.eng (rb-engch)]

Perhaps a solution is to require one "unity-greeter" in the dependencies. for lightdm 1.0.6-0ubuntu1.1 it is listed as a recommend.

[Alemann Massho (armistice-con-deactivatedaccount)]

I can confirm that installing unity-greeter. I think it should be a requirement, can anybody provide a case where it should not be? Also, can someone please mark this as "invalid" in lightdm (ubuntu)?

[Sebastien Bacher (seb128)]

> can anybody provide a case where it should not be?

- systems using another greeter (xubuntu use the gtk greeter for example)
- systems used to do remote login and not running a local greeter
- other customs installations need

[CaptSaltyJack (csjubuntu)]

So uh.. just curious, how does a bug this big get launched without someone noticing it?

[Alemann Massho (armistice-con-deactivatedaccount)]

> - systems using another greeter (xubuntu use the gtk greeter for example)
> - systems used to do remote login and not running a local greeter
> - other customs installations need

wow, that was obvious... I forgot that lightdm wasn't a part of unity.

[Robert Ancell (robert-ancell)]

Ugh. Found the cause. The ubuntu-desktop package depends on lightdm but it doesn't depend on any greeter. So upgrading will pull in lightdm, replace GDM but have no greeter installed. What is supposed to happen then is failsafe X starts and prompts you to fix the error, but that doesn't work either.

Solution is to make ubuntu-desktop depend on unity-greeter.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

This bug was fixed in the package ubuntu-meta - 1.248

---------------
ubuntu-meta (1.248) precise; urgency=low

  * Refreshed dependencies
  * Added unity-greeter to desktop (LP: #804171)
 -- Robert Ancell <email address hidden> Fri, 18 Nov 2011 16:25:45 +1100

[Martin Pitt (pitti)]

Hello Michael, or anyone else affected,

Accepted ubuntu-meta into oneiric-proposed, the package will build now and be available in a few hours. Please test and give feedback here. See https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Testing/EnableProposed for documentation how to enable and use -proposed. Thank you in advance!

[z06gal (z06gal)]

I am effected by this issue as well. It occurred on a brand new laptop this morning and nearly drove me crazy trying to figure it out. I ended up installing gdm and can now get to the log in screen. I'll leave it like this for the time being since it is working...lol

[Colin Watson (cjwatson)]

We clearly ought to release this. I've verified that the dependency has been added and that ubuntu-desktop is still installable, which I think is sufficient verification here given that unity-greeter was already in the ubuntu-desktop task. Marking verification-done.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

This bug was fixed in the package ubuntu-meta - 1.245.1

---------------
ubuntu-meta (1.245.1) oneiric-proposed; urgency=low

  * Refreshed dependencies
  * Added unity-greeter to desktop (LP: #804171)
 -- Robert Ancell <email address hidden> Fri, 18 Nov 2011 16:46:14 +1100